The Reading Festival 24th – 26th August 1973
August 1973 and I was back at the Reading Festival. This year I hooked up with a large group of mates from town who had traveled down in a Transit van. I discovered Reading town centre, and the local pubs for the first time this year, and as a result missed some of the bands. The line-up was pretty mixed, with a clear attempt to become international; featuring bands from France, Italy and the USA, and also retaining jazz elements with appearances by Chris Barber and George Melly (who was great and a surprise success).
Friday line-up: Embryo (Germany), Alquin (Holland), Stray Dog (USA), Greenslade, Capability Brown, Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen (USA), Jo’Burg Hawk (South Africa), Rory Gallagher. The successes of the day were Commander Cody and of course Rory, who was just amazing. This was classic Rory at his best: Messin’ With the Kid; Laundromat; Walk on Hot Coals; Pistol Slapper Blues; Going to My Home Town; and Bullfrog Blues. The crowd loved him. Capability Brown grew out of the ’60s band Harmony Grass; prog rock with great harmonies. 
The other thing I discovered was the bridge over the Thames, and we spent many an hour watching people dive off and down into the river (which seemed crazy and dangerous to me).
Saturday line-up: Dave Ellis, Clare Hamill, Tasavallan Presidentti (Finland), Riff Raff, Fumble, Magma (France), Lindisfarne (Mk II), Chris Barber band, Status Quo, Sensation Alex Harvey Band, Strider, Andy Bown, The Faces.
My memories of the Saturday are of Status Quo going down a storm, and the Faces being OK, but the real success of the day being the Sensation Alex Harvey Band. SAHB were just about to release “Next”; I think they started the set with “Faith Healer” which sounded incredible, the intro throbbing across the field. Alex was electric and made a lot of new friends that day. 
The Faces set was nowhere near as strong as the previous year. This was one of their first gigs after Ronnie Lane had been replaced by Tetsu (who was great by the way); you could sense that the band were losing their enthusiasm and a Rod would soon be on his way. Lots of footballs into the crowd again. Oh and Jesus dancing naked during the afternoon. I don’t recall Andy Bown’s set and didn’t know much about him at the time, other than he was in The Herd with Peter Frampton. I do remember being surprised as how high up on the bill he was. I think this was where he made friends with Quo; he joined them shortly afterwards on keyboards. Fumble were a rock’n’roll revival band who played a lot of gigs at the time; I recall seeing them several times at local student union dances.
Sunday line-up: Aj Webber, John Martyn and Danny Thompson, Ange (France), Tim Hardin and Lesley Duncan with the Tim Horovitz Orchestra, PFM (Italy), Jack the Lad, Medicine Head, Stackridge, George Melly and the Feetwarmers, Jon Hiseman’s Tempest, Mahatma, Jimmy Witherspoon (USA), Spencer Davis, Genesis. I think Roy Buchanan may have played also; he was advertised in early flyers, but doesn’t feature in the programme; I think I recall watching him. The stand-outs on Sunday were (surprisingly) George Melly who wore an incredibly sharp suit and totally engaged the crowd with his crazy jazz campness, and of course Genesis, with Peter Gabriel appearing with a strange pyramid arrangement on his head. Stackridge were good as always (Slark still a favourite of mine); Spencer Davis played all the hits, and had a great band featuring Charlie McCracken, Pete York, Ray Fenwick and Eddie Hardin. Tim Hardin sang his beautiful moving songs (If I was a Carpenter, Reason to Believe) and John Martyn went down well in his early slot, accompanied by the excellent Danny Thompson on double bass. The weather was pretty good as I recall, I don’t think we got much, if any, rain. Not one of the strongest Reading line-ups, but still a good weekend of music and fun, with excellent performances by Rory, George Melly, Alex Harvey, Quo and Genesis. Thanks to Ben Sutherland for making his photograph of the Reading Bridge available through WikiMedia Commons. The programme was once again produced by the local newspaper and cost all of 10p đŸ™‚ . The poster of the Faces comes from the centrepages of the programme.
19 Jan
The Reading Festival 24th – 26th August 1973
Posted January 19, 2014 by vintagerock in Alex Harvey, Capability Brown, Chris Barber, Clare Hamill, Commander Cody, Faces, Genesis, George Melly, Greenslade, Jack The Lad, John Martyn, Lindisfarne, Reading festival, Rod Stewart, Rory Gallagher, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Spencer Davis, Status Quo, Tim Hardin. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, festival, gig, gigs, music, rock, rock n roll. 5 Comments
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Posted by dougy761 on January 16, 2015 at 12:12 am
Saw her as Support to Jon Anderson at Newcastle City Hall on his Song of Seven tour.
Posted by vintagerock on January 16, 2015 at 6:59 am
Who are you referring to Doug? I saw the Song of Seven tour but couldn’t remember who the support was. Are you referring to Clare Hamill? Cheers Peter
Posted by dougy761 on January 16, 2015 at 7:20 am
Yes, Clare Hamill. I went and bought two albums by her the next weekend.
Posted by vintagerock on January 16, 2015 at 7:41 am
Many thanks Doug I’ll add that to my entry for the Jon Anderson concert Peter
Posted by Steve Merchant on February 2, 2018 at 8:16 pm
Funny how we all remember different little things. The Genesis ‘head pyramid’ was Peter Gabriel inside a one man tent affair lit blue from within mounted on a pneumatic pole intended to extend smoothly upwards during the opener Watcher Of The Skies. It began to rise but far from smoothly, quite stuttering in fact though it did however reach full extent and came back down again pretty much on cue to relief and applause. The Faces performance I can’t verify, though I can verify that their large spent rocket cases were thudding around me way over the back as I was crouched in the middle of an empty field having a crap. Jon Hiseman, the amazing drummer of Tempest rotating at least 4 sticks via teeth clenching is another one. Happy days.That’s me story Guv…an’ I’m sticking to it.