31 August 1969: Lennon, Harrison and Starr watch Bob Dylan perform at the Isle of Wight - videos

By editorial board on August 30, 2022

31 August 1969 John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr watched Bob Dylan and The Band perform at the Isle of Wight Festival on this evening.

The three were accompanied by their respective wives, Yoko Ono, Pattie Harrison and Maureen Starkey. Paul McCartney was not present, as his wife Linda had given birth to their daughter Mary on 28 August. (Beatlesbible)

Harrison and Mal Evans had met Dylan in Portsmouth on 26 August, to greet the American on his arrival to the UK. Dylan took the ferry to the Isle of Wight later that day, and began rehearsals at Forelands Farm in Bembridge.

The Harrisons arrived on the island two days later, and the Lennons and Starkeys travelled there on 30 August. The festival took place on 30 and 31 August at Wootton; Dylan’s appearance was particularly notable as it was his first major public performance in three years.

Around 150,000 people saw Dylan’s performance. As well as three of The Beatles, the audience included Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Syd Barrett, Eric Clapton, Elton John and Jane Fonda.

Dylan took to the stage at around 11pm and played for just under an hour.

We went to the Dylan show, and if there had been a jam, we would have got up. It was killed before it happened. It was so late by the time he got on. We would have jammed if it had been earlier. The crowd was dying on their feet by the time he got on.

Following the concert, the three Beatles returned to Dylan’s rented farmhouse where they gave him a pre-release copy of Abbey Road. They also invited him to return to the mainland the following day in Apple’s rented helicopter.

I went with him and The Beatles to the farmhouse where he was clearly in a merry mood because he had felt it had gone so well… The Beatles had brought a test pressing of Abbey Road and we listened to it and had quite a party.

DISCLAIMER: the images used by Videomuzic are for the purpose of criticism and exercise of the right to report news, in low quality, in compliance with the provisions of the law on copyright, used exclusively for the information content.
DISCLAIMER: Videomuzic usa le immagini per finalità di critica ed esercizio del diritto di cronaca in modalità degradata conforme alle prescrizioni della legge sul diritto d'autore utilizzate ad esclusivo corredo dei contenuti informativi.
Copyright © 2022 Videomuzic | Rome. ITA | Pictures, videos remain the property of the copyright owner, Any copyright owner who wants removed should contact us..
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram