1. Start [6:31] 2. Terry Reid (Feat. David Lindley) [20:24] 3. Fairport Convention [4:18] 4. Family [7:13] 5. Melanie [6:58] 6. Arthur Brown [11:55] 7. Quintessence [19:32] 8. Traffic [10:15]
Filmed at one of the many rock festivals that sprang up in the wake of Woodstock, this documentary covers one of the lesser-known such events, Glastonbury Fayre, which took place in rural England in 1971. The footage is based around performances by several artists -- most, though not all, of them British -- who appeared at the festival, including Traffic, Melanie, Arthur Brown, Family, Fairport Convention, Terry Reid, and Gong. Inserted among those clips are scenes of and interviews with concertgoers, as well as some religious figures who were also in attendance. The movie was not released until 1973, by which time most of the featured musicians had declined in popularity, and is one of the more obscure such concert films from the era. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Movie Guide
Editorial Reviews:
It's understandable why the Glastonbury Fayre concert film didn't make much of an impact upon its initial release, and is now one of the less-remembered and infrequently screened such endeavors. In contrast to movies such as Woodstock and Monterey Pop (or even released-long-after-the-event rockumentaries like Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival and Festival Express), the performer lineup is a little second-division -- quite interesting, mind you, but not exactly filled with the likes of the Who, Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. Too, the delay of its release until 1973 -- two years after the Glastonbury Fayre festival took place -- helped bury the film commercially, as not only had the featured artists become less hip and popular, but the whole hippie movement and the music associated with it were fading from cultural prominence. Still, viewed out of the context of its original milieu today, it's of archival interest, if only because you don't often get to see footage of many of the artists. There isn't much else circulating of Family, early-'70s Fairport Convention, Arthur Brown, and Terry Reid, for instance, and while Melanie and Traffic are somewhat better represented on vintage film stock, they're not exactly overexposed. Unfortunately, both the performances and the filmmaking tend toward the ragged side, capturing a time at which much psychedelic/progressive rock was drifting toward a particularly shapeless and aimless direction. Melanie and Traffic come off better than the others, in part because they're playing much more structured songs, though it's a shame the sound quality isn't better on Traffic's "Gimme Some Lovin'." It's also a shame that Pete Townshend, David Bowie, and Marc Bolan -- all of whom performed here, and were filmed -- did not make it into the final cut, as their presence would have benefited the movie enormously. Interspersed with the music are kind of vague, uninformative interviews with festivalgoers that, like some of the other extramusical footage (including a lecture by Guru Maharaj J.), record the countercultural ambience of the event. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Movie Guide
Format: DVD Release Date: 9/18/2007 UPC: 8026575367128 Item ID: 842648 Studio: AKARMA ITALY ProductID: AKRM367DVD Region: Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo Language: English