Lanchester PolyTech Festival - February 1973

 

Lanchester Polytech Festival - February 1973

by Pete Clemons

Lanchester Polytechnic festivals of the past have been celebrated affairs. Here is an account of one that maybe has kind of flown under the radar as time has advanced over the years.

Friday: Charisma at Lanch

Friday night at the Lanchester Arts Festival was Charisma night, featuring Howard Werth (will he join The Doors? Even he doesn't know). Peter Hammill and Genesis.

Genesis were experimenting with a new stage set up, due to be completed before their new tour officially starts, and when it works it should be dramatic.

The set was good, if unspectacular - a standard performance of recorded works, but nonetheless popular and well received. So many of the audience knew and sang the words that it was hard to tell, in the quiet sections, if the echo effect was their singing or the terrible acoustics. 'Suppers Ready' was the longest and possibly the best piece they played, with more depth and content than their lighter fairytale songs, but all went down equally well.

Saturday: Jazz at the Lanch

The following night was billed as a jazz night - a title that may have put off many rock fans from an excellent new band that calls itself Q, it should really be called X, with a complete set of musicians previously in more famous bands.

There's Paul Jones vocals, ex Manfred Mann, Mike Giles drums and Graham Preskitt on violin and piano, both ex King Crimson, and Dave Wintour bass, Terry Smith guitar and Dave Quincey saxophones, all ex - If.

The first piece was an If song, 'The Light Still Shines', and it looks as if that's the way they are going to go - a full band sound, and Terry Smith sending out surging waves of guitar notes. But there's too much diversity in the band for that, and they go through such a range of styles from free-form improvisation to vaudeville and poetry reading - not a collection easily labelled.

Paul, Mr. TV, Jones, appears for one song 'Wrestling Man', dressed or rather under dressed for the part, in wrestling boots and trunks only - but the musical quality is not compromised - a superb solo piece with just a harmonica. That's really the essence of this band. All superb musicians taking turns to express their own musical ideas. What direction they may move in its impossible to predict.

Sunday: Coventry Theatre

The finale of the festival turned out to be a fiasco. Sunday night at the Coventry Theatre with a host of stars billed to play together. The list was extensive and grew during the whole week as further names were tentatively added. Carl Palmer, Albert Lee, Chris Farlowe, Poli Palmer and Keith Tippett were to have been the central core with Keith Moon, Rick Wakeman, Ric Lee, Tony Iommi and so on as possibles.

However something went wrong, and after the two support bands, Necromandus and the really excellent Average White Band had suitably whetted our appetites, we were greeted with sad news. Viv Stanshall and sundry limbs belonging to Keith Moon appeared through the curtain, expressed considerable dissatisfaction that they and Gaspar Lawal were the only ones there and would perform, and assisted by various members of Necromandus, they played a wholly chaotic couple of pieces interrupted loudly by an angry audience.

People who left in disgust before an announcement was finally made, are recommended to write to the organisers who have promised to do their best concerning refunds. It was a sad end to a festival which makes commendable efforts to put on a wide range of activities, and it is, unfortunately, their reputation which will suffer most.