As promised, Rory Gallagher with Taste from Jazz Bilzen 69 (of course!)...
The Boston Globe's The Big Picture has another excellent set of pictures from aerial photographer Jason Hawkes. This times he ventures away from London and the set incudes this shot of one of the Thames Estuary Maunsell Towers (Redsands I think)
The Dutch coast had several offshore broadcasting concerns in the 1960s and 70s but none was more ambitious than TV-Noordzee. Starting in August 1964 it broadcast television and radio from a platform specially built in Co Cork which was anchored by concrete to the seabed off the coast at Noordwijk. Dutch TV at the time was said to be quite staid being controlled by political or religious groups who had sufficient subscribers to gain airtime. TV-Noordzee however specialised in light entertainment and imported American shows like Mr Ed which proved to be popular with Dutch viewers despite having to purchase a new aerial to watch their transmissions. Unfortunately for the station the Dutch government acted quickly passing an act which declared the seabed to which the platform was attached part of Dutch territory. Marines boarded the station and closed it down in December 1964 after just four months on air. But that wasn't the end of the story, Dutch viewers had seen entertaining TV so when the station's owners set up a potential broadcasting organisation, TROS, it gained sufficient subscribers for it to be given terrestrial airtime. TROS still broadcasts today.
This is said on YouTube to be from Bilzen in 1968, but I'm pretty certain that it is from 1969 too; the stage and backdrop look identical to the previous offerings and in any case they are not listed as performers in '68 but are for '69 (this is not conclusive - Taste is not listed for either year but there is a video to come!) Whatever the year, nice Mellotron...
I had a happy day on Saturday - even Dawn's drink sniled...
Also appearing at Jazz Bilzen '69 was Deep Purple...
I found these pictures I took at last summer's Stockton Festival lurking half-forgotten on an SD card in my camera bag. They are of the ex-Las, ex-Cast member John Power and his band.
I just rediscovered this accidentally when I Googled for a heart animation! Not what I was looking for at all but it's a wonderful animated version from UPA of Edgar Allan Poe's story narrated by James Mason.
