The Isle of Wight Festival, created in 1968, reached its peak in 1970, when nearly 600,000 spectators gathered on this piece of land in the south of the United Kingdom. Fifty years later, Europe 1 looks back on the various concerts given for what was, one year after Woodstock, one of the last great hippie meetings. This Tuesday, Mighty Baby, an unknown group which, despite the talent and a rebirth in 1969, never had the success it would have deserved.
From the neighborhoods of North London to the opening acts of the Rolling Stones
It is a cult group of English song that has fallen into the oblivion of history. Wrong, because his music is great and his career atypical. On Wednesday August 26, 1970, the five members of Mighty Baby closed an opening day of the Isle of Wight festival, with no real headliners on stage. They scoured all the hippie events of the summer and provided prestigious opening acts, like the Rolling Stones or Deep Purple, to defend their first album, which was a hit with their peers but not on the charts.
Surprise when they settle on the big stage of the festival: the drums are not behind the other instruments, as usual in rock, but in the middle. With them, we do not joke with egalitarian ethics.
Before Mighty Baby, there was The Action ...
Mighty Baby was one of the very first collectives invited to the Isle of Wight. But nothing is due to chance: their manager, Rikki Farr, was none other than one of the organizers of the festival. Figure of Swinging London of the 60s, Rikki Farr makes the link with the first life of the group. Because before Mighty Baby, there was The Action, a soul drugged north London band that never blew up. Yet they had it all: talent, class and above all, an exceptional singer: Reg King.
Their reputation in North London black American music circles was immense and their stage presence phenomenal. The fairies had even leaned over their cradle in the person of George Martin, the legendary producer of The Beatles, who saw in them future very great. There was plenty, when you listen to this sublime cover of "I'll Keep On Holding On" , a modest hit from the Marvelettes, a female vocal group.
It's hard not to fall under the spell of this melody. Yet she won't even make the Top 40 in England. No more than the four other yet delectable 45s of The Action.
... which was despised by the record companies
The times change and the style evolves. More and more bands are composing their own songs. After having undergone the "British Invasion", Beatles in the lead, the United States took again the hand… At the end of the years 1960, it is the English who copy the music coming from the West coast. Less direct and more experimental music. No doubt, hallucinogenic drugs have been there ...
The Action is therefore deadlocked. With two new members, Ian Whiteman and Martin Stone, supposed to project them into the era of psychedelia, the artists record an album of very high level composition. But the record companies of the time inexplicably despise him. The musicians do not have a penny any more… Half tramps, they are obliged to play for the others. Food and drink are sometimes provided by more famous comrades… Reg King, the singer prodigy, decides to go to the conquest of a solitary glory which he will never reach.
A last album, A Jug of Love , went unnoticed
In 1969, the five remaining members founded a musical democracy and a new group: Mighty Baby. Soul and fitted costumes give way to long jazzy improvisations and various musical influences, such as country, folk or even Indian music… Without forgetting an attraction for the philosophies and spiritualities in vogue at the time.
Just before the Isle of Wight festival, Martin Stone, the band's guitarist, converted to Sufism, a mystical view of Islam. The others imitate him: goodbye alcohol, drugs and other rock stereotypes. Mighty Baby will record a final album, A Jug of Love . The cover shows them at peace, sitting on Persian rugs… But again, neither the public, the press, nor the record companies will give them enough credit. A Jug of Love will go unnoticed, as will the final separation of the group at the end of 1971 ...
"Of course we would have liked to have been successful, but ..."
With Mighty Baby there remains therefore an immense feeling of waste. "Of course we would have liked to be successful, but it was not that important to us", summarizes the pianist Ian Whiteman, one of the last two survivors of the group. "The most important thing was to be credible and sincere about ourselves and our commitments… I have no regrets!"
Alas, no more bands remain of their performance of August 26, 1970 at the festival of the Isle of Wight. Fifty years later, although little known, Mighty Baby still attracts the curiosity of new generations. Two must-have sets were released in 2019, embracing the entire career of The Action and Mighty Baby. A human and musical adventure, very representative of the ideals of the turn of the 1960s and 1970s.
Find all the other episodes of our series "The Isle of Wight Festival, 50 years later":
> Episode 1: the last notes of Morrison's Doors