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Hendrix's guitar ended up at the tip after 'first rock festival'

The 1967 Monterey Pop Festival in the US is often cited as having been the first rock festival. But weeks earlier, thousands of fans crowded round a shed in Lincolnshire to watch some of music's biggest names perform.

BBC/Karl Bird Colin Ward was a drummer for Sounds Force Five, who played at Barbeque 67

BBC/Karl Bird Colin Ward was a drummer for Sounds Force Five, who played at Barbeque 67

What you've got to remember is this was a shed," says record shop owner Alan Barnsdale, recalling the Tulip Bulb Auction Hall in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

"It was an auction house for selling off [flower] bulbs and commodities like that. No windows. There was nothing there."

And yet, on Monday 29 May 1967, history was made when the likes of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Move performed there to eager fans.

By luck or foresight, Barbeque 67 set the tone for what was to come.

"[It] was the first British rock festival, really, although nobody knew it was at the time," says Bev Bevan, the drummer from Electric Light Orchestra and The Move.

"It was groundbreaking."

 

Svenska Dagbladet AFP via Getty Images A montage of the Barbeque 67 Poster and a black and white photo of Jimi Hendrix from 1967.
Svenska Dagbladet AFP via Getty Images Jimi Hendrix was among the headliners at "Britain's first rock festival"

Author: Harry Parkhill & Karl Bird BBC News

Source: BBC News:

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