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Prince at the Electric Ballroom, London, 2014
GAI TERRELL/REDFERNS; THE PRINCE ESTATE, PHOTOGRAPHER CREDIT: TREVOR GUY
FESTIVAL OF DREAMS
I was at the Newport festival that Michaelangelo Matos mentions in his fine article about Sly & the Family Stone [August issue]. Promoter George Wein had previously ran both folk and jazz festivals at the site, but with the growing popularity of rock music he decided to feature both jazz and rock acts in this first – and last – experimental Newport Jazz and Rock festival.
The memories are hazy, but Miles Davis was definitely there, and possibly Herbie Hancock, Ten Years After and the Jeff Beck Group. As Matos relates, fans tore down the perimeter fence during Sly & The Family Stone’s lively set and stormed the site. Fearing more trouble, Wein announced that he was cancelling the next act – Led Zeppelin. That’s when the seats started flying, and Wein quickly relented, allowing Zep to go on.