DUTCH WOODSTOCK REVIEW

In August 1970, a three-day pop festival was held in the Netherlands with about 100,000 showing up to hear Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and other acts that had played at Woodstock a year earlier, as well as some acts that hadn’t. Now a DVD and a 2-CD set of the event is available, and for anyone born before 1955 or so who was into the culture of peace, love and dope, The Dutch Woodstock deserves a look and a listen.

The 97-minute DVD is a badly-filmed (though probably well-edited considering the circumstances) mishmosh of bands playing in the dark with bad lighting, unnecessary band member close-ups, and naked people swimming and smoking herb (it is a combination of Woodstock and Netherlands permissiveness, after all). In that way, it resembles the Woodstock movie, only it’s worse. But what’s great about it is being able to see acts like Pink Floyd and Dr. John when they were basically kids, doing material they could never get away with now. And, for me, the coolest thing is watching the late guitar master Clarence White perform “Old Blue” with the Byrds on his Tele. The footage isn’t very good but it’s rare, and Roger McGuinn could sing rings around many of that time period’s performers in a live setting.

Acts like Family, It’s a Beautiful Day, and a young Al Stewart are also on the DVD, and the CDs feature mostly music from the DVD with a few additions. T-Rex, Soft Machine and Canned Heat (with the late Harvey Mandel) are also part of the fun at a party that quite a few people in the Rotterdam area have never forgotten. If they remembered it to begin with. Anyway, if you want to really educate your grandchildren about the music of the flower power generation, this is a recording you need to check out.

AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

The Dutch Woodstock 1970 2CD1DVD - £11.99