{"id":281,"date":"2020-07-09T19:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T18:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/?p=281"},"modified":"2020-12-06T19:26:59","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T19:26:59","slug":"your-memoirs-1971-reading-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/flash-memoir-project\/your-memoirs-1971-reading-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Memoirs \u2013 \u201c1971: Reading Festival\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Just after O levels, a week before turning sixteen, school friends Jo (me), Pep and Clob joined the 30,000 crowd at the first Reading Festival.\u00a0 The weekend ticket cost \u00a31.50. My diary recorded our first sight of drugs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 26th June\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site was a quagmire. Tons of hippies & heavies.  We read in the paper of 50 busts last night. Tins for a Bust Fund were circulating, to raise enough bread to pay the fines, so the busts would be a waste of the pigs\u2019 time & taxpayers\u2019 money. Everyone made V-signs at the reconnaissance helicopter & planes making a helluva row.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Ralph McTell it started raining & 2 Welsh blokes \u2013 Barry & Idris \u2013 invited us into their tent with another girl, Glenys & boyfriend Mike.  Squashed inside a 2-man tent, we three nudged hard when Barry rolled a joint; they didn\u2019t mind us not smoking it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile Renaissance and Lindisfarne were quite good & Genesis were cancelled.  We all lay down crossways with my cloak trying to cover us, listening to Pete York Percussion Band (good), Terry Reid (too long) & Hardin & York (mighty fine). Fantastic evening atmosphere for East of Eden, Jig-a-Jig, and Sha Na Na. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back at Mr Smith\u2019s house, Martin gave us a fag. I had a few puffs, unsure if it tasted funny because of the cardboard filter.  I stubbed it out & kept it for tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday 27th June\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We gave the blokes \u2018our\u2019 joint & Mike said \u201cThis is good shit\u201d. They bought 4 tabs of Blue Cheer from a pusher for 75p each. It was Id\u2019s first trip. Glen saw colours & giggled, while Barry only got a buzz like shit.  When it rained again I invited another bloke, Brian – wearing a fur coat, tie-dye shirt, blue cords & boots – & his friend to squash inside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collosseum were the best, followed by Van der Graaf Generator and Rory Gallagher. The Bust Fund had collected \u00a3400 towards \u00a3800 of fines. I went outside to watch Osibisa & it was fucking cold & they were fucking brilliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Submitted by Jo Somerset, 64, Manchester<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just after O levels, a week before turning sixteen, school friends Jo (me), Pep and Clob joined the 30,000 crowd at the first Reading Festival.\u00a0 The weekend ticket cost \u00a31.50. My diary recorded our first sight of drugs.\u00a0\u00a0 Saturday 26th June\u00a0 The site was a quagmire. Tons of hippies & heavies.  We read in the … Continue reading Your Memoirs \u2013 \u201c1971: Reading Festival\u201d<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73,74],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}