We naturally fell for this romantic vision - but once again the reality didn’t quite live up to the dream. All we had was a car packed full of overgrown teenagers, who were slightly drunk and after half an hour were all trying to sleep. Traveling in such cramped conditions was difficult, trying to get to sleep in them was nigh-on impossible.
For several hours we drove on with various groans of discontent, punctuated with snoring and frequent oaths being uttered coming from the disgruntled passengers. Not even my wonderful 8-track cassette player could lift the occasion.
8-Track Heaven!
That 8-track cassette player was one of the best things I ever bought, together with the tapes to go with it. One day, shortly after buying the Mini, I wandered down to an infamous second-hand shop in Oxford, and there in the window was an 8-track tape player. An 8-track was a type of cassette, but it was much larger than a normal cassette, and instead of having the normal two sides on it, it had eight, which were selected by an array of buttons on the player.
I bought the 8-track for about £10 and was also offered some tapes to go with it. As it was an 8-track, none of us had any tapes that would fit it (we all used standard cassette tapes or vinyl) and so a good music selection was essential. By extreme good fortune, the person who had sold the 8-track to the shop was clearly an old ‘head’ and had recorded some of the best music ever onto the cassettes.
I bought three tapes for £1 each (I wish I’d bought more) and as well as having some music on that we already knew and loved, there was also a lot of great music on them that we’d never come across before, and those tapes helped introduce us to some great new bands. Without them, the holiday wouldn’t have been half so good.
There were artists and tracks on the tapes that we knew and loved: Bowie classics including tracks from Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and The Man who Sold the World, Free tracks including Wishing Well, My brother Jake and Soon I Will be Gone, Wishbone Ash tracks such as Blowin’ Free, Time Was and The King will come, Stevie Wonder tracks including Superstition,You are the Sunshine of my Life and I Believe. Not only were those great songs on the tapes, but we were also introduced to new music by such as King Crimson, especially tracks such as Epitaph and Moonchild, as well as songs by the legendary Jimi Hendrix, and in particular the wonderful track that remains my favourite Hendrix song to this day, May this be Love.
But above all, we were introduced to the music of Nick Drake. What revelation! The tapes included the stunning tracks Time has told me and River Man, but we quickly learned that by then he was already dead, having committed suicide due to poor record sales and a lack of recognition for his work. Sales during his lifetime totalled only about 4,000 for all three of his albums combined, due mainly to poor marketing - compare this with Tubular Bells that was released on the new Virgin label, headed by Richard Branson at around the same time. Once you hear his songs you’re hooked forever. A true genius who is only now achieving the recognition he deserves.
Meet the relatives - early!
As the UK is slightly smaller than the US, we arrived at our destination well before we had imagined, at around 5.00 am and before anyone was awake. The main problem was that our destination was my uncle’s house in Leigh-on-Sea and I hadn’t told him that we were coming. I had somehow forgotten to mention to him that he was about to be invaded by 5 sweaty teenagers in an old Mini.
This was a minor oversight brought about by Geoff and I having stayed there two years before when on holiday on our mopeds, and I think that I had perhaps taken their open invitation to return a little too literally.
So, there we were outside my uncle’s house at 5.00 in the morning: what were we to do? We decided that it was far too early to ring the doorbell and wake them up, so we rummaged through the car, found our sleeping bags and stretched out in the front garden. What we didn’t realise was that having five awkward teenagers rummage through their luggage in a Mini on a quiet side street at five in the morning without disturbing anyone was being rather optimistic.
After we had apparently awoken half the street, my aunt forced herself out of bed, and appeared at the front door to rescue us and invite us in. Heaven! Despite the manner of our arrival, we were welcomed with open arms and invited to use the bathroom, whilst a wonderful breakfast was prepared. We spent a great couple of days there being spoilt by my aunt and uncle and entertained by my cousins. I can also report that almost incredibly no major gaffs were committed! We were now officially persona grata! And that was about as good as it got.
Reading festival! (That’s a place, not a book!)
From Leigh-on-Sea we went on to our last port of call – Reading Festival. As we lived in Oxford, Reading was easy to get to, and I’d been there the previous year on my own. That year (1975) I didn’t take a tent and so slept in the communal marquees which was quite an experience! I also didn’t have a ticket, so I completely missed the Friday performances, but my luck changed and I met some friends from Oxford on the Saturday morning, and they knew someone who was leaving, saying that the festival that year was sh*t, and that he was going home forthwith. He then somehow managed to prise open the metal clasp on his wrist band and gave it to me! I had a brilliant time, with highlights including watching Wishbone Ash, Yes, Supertramp, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and The Heavy Metal Kids, although it was bit weird being by myself, especially as I’d only just turned 17. A big disappointment though, was that Lou Reed had been booked to play, but he refused to turn up, allegedly because he was only second on the bill on the Sunday night, below Wishbone Ash. I would have loved to have seen him and heard him play White light, White Heat live, but it was not to be. To be quite honest I have to agree with him about his poor place on the bill – he wasn’t even second billing on the Saturday! – who can blame such a massive music star as that for not bothering to fly over from the USA with all his band and equipment, for a lowly Sunday night second slot billing?
Anyway, this was now Reading 1976 and a truly great line-up, and I could enjoy it with all my friends. The only thing was that although this was still part of the ‘long hot summer of 76’ it rained a lot! - it was Reading festival, after all! Highlights that year included AC/DC who were just stunning, Eddie and the Hot Rods, and a great headlining set by Rory Gallagher. However, head and shoulders above them all were Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music) with his band 801, who were just fantastic. However, for very different reasons, the performance of the festival for us, was by the legendary American rocker, Ted Nugent. It was a pinnacle for us, not so much because of the music, but because of the great time we were having in the audience with some dope (which was ironic as Ted Nugent was heavily anti-drug), a lot of red wine in plastic bottles, and above all with a group of girls we knew from Oxford.
We were in the crowd, drinking and smoking, when we were suddenly and miraculously joined by Gary’s girlfriend, Steph, and a few of her friends from school. We knew that Steph was coming that night, but not with a group of her friends, and how they found us in the middle of several thousand people was incredible (no mobile phones etc. of course in those days).
We all had a great time, and as it decided to rain heavily at that point, we all dived under some plastic sheeting we got from somewhere, and somehow, probably due to the alcohol and the drugs, we all automatically paired up with the girls in the group – occasionally leaping out from the plastic