Hart Rock 71

First there was Monterey, Woodstock and the Isle of Wight, all iconic Rock Festivals. Then in the small town of Hartlepool there was Hart Rock ’71. Organised as a fundraiser for the local football club (it actually lost money) it was beset by negative pre publicity from local press with rumours of hordes of Hell Angels and Skinheads converging on the town to err do whatever such tribal groups do. The concert itself (nine hours for 50p) went off without a hitch and to coincide with it a special limited edition (500 copies only) Extended Play vinyl record was released containing the hottest acts of the North East at the time. After extensive research and arm-twisting we are delighted to present two of the original songs from the e.p. (re mastered by original producer Ken McKenzie) plus some tremendous bonus tracks for your pleasure. Yellow included ace guitarist Vic Malcolm who would go on to form Geordie (here’s a link to their 5 CD boxed set), whilst Trilogy would soon change their name to Prelude and have a monster hit with their acapella version of Neil Young’s ‘After the Goldrush’ (here is a link to their boxed set).

At first we thought it would be easy to contact relevant participants and get permission, but unfortunately two of the songs from the original e.p. have since been made available on compilation CD’s. So we have gone to Plan B to include a splendid live version of Brass Alley doing ‘Pink Pills’ (and some other live stuff). The original version of Pink Pills can be found on the Warfaring Strangers; Acid Nightmares compilation. The original version of ‘Daylight Child’ by Lucas Tyson can be found on the We Can Fly Volume 4 – Psych Rarities from the 60’s & 70’s – Remastered compilation.