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600,000 people, an island and The Moody Blues

Woodstock is the name that most people fondly remember as a fun, three-day festival of peace, love & music the summer of ‘69. Of course, most of those who remember Woodstock… weren’t there as the old saying goes.

But Woodstock’s attendance of 400,000 was blown out of the water a year later by 50% when the 3rd Isle of Wight Festival brought in a record 600,000 + people listening to the likes of Hendrix (his last UK performance before his death), The Doors, The Who, ELP, Procul Harum, Supertramp, Miles Davis, Chicago, and many other bands over a weeklong concert event.

One of the big bands with a hit album under their belt was Birmingham, England’s The Moody Blues. The quintet is heard here on Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 performing 14 songs, some which weren’t even well known at the time except die-hards. Why? Because The Moody Blues were more experimental and artsy at the time. Like Led Zeppelin, the band was more focused on their music as a whole and not in cutting a single. So most of their set included songs that weren’t on the Top 40 radio, but their 4 album releases [at that time], in just as many years, were turning the band into superstars.

The band was currently touring for A Question of Balance when they played on the small island off the coast of England. The line-up consisted of John Lodge (bass), Justin Hayward (lead vocals/guitar), Michael Pinder (keyboards/ Mellotron), Graeme Edge (drums) and Ray Thomas (vocals/flute).  The CD comes with a nice booklet, dressed in flower décor, giving a nice little history of the band and some insight into their participation in the festival.

They begin the set with “Gypsy” before riding off into “The Sunset,” followed by the widely popular “Tuesday Afternoon,” which gets a great round of applause. (Oddly enough, this recording makes it sound like the band is playing before an audience of 6,000 instead of 600,000.) A few songs later, the romping “Tortoise and the Hare” comes galloping off the stage. The song has a few shortcomings with the vocal harmonies. Maybe it’s due to the difficulty of the song, itself. Possibly it could be due to the fact that most sound equipment of the era wasn’t as high of quality as it is today. If a band’s stage monitors aren’t up to snuff, it’s easy to get off key or off beat.

“Question” comes speeding in next. It becomes apparent that the band had begun variating from the studio versions of their songs and adding little changes here and there, which is fine by me. If I wanted to hear a concert with every song exactly the way it is on a studio album, I would save my money and just stay home with the album.

“The Dream” follows a couple of songs later, then floats into the 8 minute long, two-part “Have You Heard” before the now-legendary “Nights in White Satin” makes its appearance, powerful and majestic.

Track 13 is “Legend of a Mind,” the strange and slightly psychedelic ode to Timothy Leary. I’m sure the crowd from 1970 was really tripping on the tune.

Finally, “Ride My See Saw” – a song that I have always enjoyed listening to on the studio version and have yet to hear a decent version of it live. This includes the couple of times I have actually seen the band live and in person. For whatever reason, the background vocals are once again lacking. Throughout parts of the bridge that leads to the guitar solo, the vocals almost disappear, as if the microphones failed the singers or the band just couldn’t hit the notes at the tempo that they were playing and just muddled their way through it. Musically it sounds great. Vocally, it just falls short.

Still, the overall disc is a nice collective look back into history. I recommend it to fans, and if you’re a lover of live concert music and wanting to familiarize yourself with The Moody Blues, Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 isn’t a bad choice to turn on and tune out with.

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