life style
Giddings On... Pink Bits
“There have been so many highlights for me over the past 10 years. “I thought Jay-Z was incredible last year. I was convinced there was no way the audience could get any higher then Kanye West came on and the place just went wild. “And the performance by Pink was one of the best things Seaclose Park has ever seen. “I paid a fortune to have a crane brought in so she could be taken up in a box and dropped from a wire to kick off her show.
“The whole thing was over in seconds, but Pink’s entrance was worth all those thou- sands of pounds.”
One of these faxes found its way to Solo and John was hooked. He remembered be- ing 17 and partying with 600,000 hippies who swamped the Island for Britain’s answer to the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival. Te site at Afton Down famously hosted Jimi Hendrix’s penultimate performance and had previously featured sets by Bob Dylan, Te Who, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, Free, Leonard Cohen and Joan Baez. John recalls: “Going to the Isle of Wight
Giddings On... Eco Buzz
“I only realised from promoting this Festival how important bees are. “Apparently if we had no bees the earth would die within three years.
“So we spend a lot of money, time and energy greening the site and giving bees a chance. “You can’t be perfect but you have a respon- sibility to the environ- ment.”
Festival in 1970 was a fundamental moment in my life. “I used to sit in my bedroom listening to
Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix albums. “Ten to come here as a teenager and see 600,000 other people getting off on the same thing was extraordinary. It was a magical moment. “It’s hard to believe they only planned it for 150,000 - that’s the size of Glastonbury now. “Tey announced the thing like a month
before and people just turned up. Tese days we try and sell tickets a year in advance - and there was no internet to help promote it back then. “When you go to a music festival you can talk to anyone, even if you don’t know them, because you are sharing an experience. “It’s not like going to a football match where you might wind up getting your head kicked in because you support the other team. “At a festival you are part of something much bigger. Music moves people emotion-
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www.styleofwight.co.uk
ally so being there in 1970 was incredible. It was definitely a life changing moment. “I was really just a kid but we hitch-hiked to the festival from London. “When we finally got there I remember
everybody sitting down which people don’t do now. When the headliners come on these days everyone stands up. “I walked all the way down to the front of the crowd when Jimi Hendrix came on. “I can still recall the smell of the campfires,
the feeling of being part of something. I re- member being cold and hot and silly things like people hiding their dope in bottles of to- mato sauce in a bid to sneak it past the police sniffer dogs. “I can remember Joni Mitchell trying to clear the field on the Sunday be- cause people were trying to kick the fences down demanding it be free. “I remember Tiny Tim with a megaphone, Te Doors not being very good, Te Who being incredible. “Tose sights, smells, sounds and experi- ences still remain with me now.” John goes on: “I just felt the Isle of Wight
Festival name was so iconic, almost mythical. “Alongside Woodstock it was the biggest
festival ever and had attracted the biggest name acts you could put on. “It was a piece of history and to be asked to become involved with that I thought why not, it sounds like a great idea. “When you go to that original site and hear
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