Expecting Rain

Nice article in this months 'Uncut' magazine on Dylan's outdoor gig in Surrey in July 1978. It says in the magazine it was and still is the biggest single audience Dylan has ever played to ( 200,000 +). The bill also included Eric Clapton who joined Dylan on stage for a couple of numbers and includes lots of nice photos in the article too. The article finishes by asking if any of it's readers were there with presumably a follow up article to happen next year. So two questions for the board was anyone there and secondly is it on the board ?

Nice!
Thanks for the info. I will have to buy it!

I couldn't get to it, as I was working. I know a lot of people that were there. I'd seen him for the first time a couple of weeks earlier, at Earl's Court. The interest in those concerts was so huge- they were his first appearances in the UK since the Isle of Wight, in 1969- that I had to queue through the night to get my tickets. The tickets went on sale at a Manchester record shop on a Sunday morning, at 7am. The first people in the queue got there at 6pm on the Friday night. I joined the queue at closing time on the Saturday night, and just stood there for 8 hours, through the night, until the queue started to move at around 7.30 in the morning. Think I got my tickets at about 11.

I saw him in the U.S. several times in '78, I think that was a good year
to see him. I sure wish I'd seen that show in Blackbushe - anyone
who doesn't have a recording of that one, find it, it's definitely worth
having a copy! I was thrilled when I got that one.

My uncle saw him at Earl's Court and Blackbushe that year. Said they were both excelent!

Yeah i was there, i was only eight, i can remember a chopper came over and dropped a load of those Street Legal brown badges and i was in the middle of the mass scrumble

that is a good concert !! I like that one alot !! will have a look at the mag !

I did a recording of Blackbushe, holding a little microphone up in the air, for a mate who couldn't make it. I did almost the whole Clapton set + some Dylan. Crap quality. Still got the cassette somewhere....

Now that i'd like to hear.

As I say, it's crap quality - and I mean crap!
I'll try and dig it out and keep you informed if you're really interested....

What about Woodstock 94?

Hi.
I was there. I was 17 at the time. I used to live in England.
Now I live in NZ and saw Bob again this year, 29 years later!
He's still the man.
It was a hot day in July, I remember he played a lot of songs from Street Legal - an album I still love. I have photos of Bob on stage but so far distant.
Most of the pics are of myself and friends. One of me rolling a ciggie and I stopped smoking a long time ago.
The Bootleg I heard was not very good sound quality - does anyone know of a good one?
Joan Armatrading was on the Blackbushe bill too and I just saw her gig this week in Auckland, she doubled with Brian Ferry and she was miles better than him too.
Cheers
Amanda (Auckland)

The best recording I've heard of the gig is a decent but not great audience tape, with clear vocals and guitars and drums, not a lot of low end. It's one of the better shows of the era, but it is not great music. Clapton was not in a strong musical place at the time and his contributions are pretty ordinary. Bob shows a certain enthusiasm but it tends to ring a bit false like much of what he did around 1978. The band sounds just a bit overblown, too much fuss, too many people on stage. It's only a little better than the German and Australian shows I once had from this tour. The Rundown Rehearsals are still the best music this group made, at least that I've heard.

My mum went, drove back overnight, got home, changed and then came to meet me and my brother and sister at our school sports day!

Just a quick note to everyone who read last years article on Dylan at Blackbushe. Uncut have followed up that article with another one recalling peoples memories of the gig including some nice photos. Theres also a great piece on the Faces. I'd still love to know if any members have a copy of this or if its out there on the WWW ?

Blackbushe back in the news today, but for sad reason:

Blackbushe Airport: Four dead in car auction site plane crash

Bin Laden family 'on Blackbushe crash plane'

Gosh!

I remember Blackbushe very well - but for a strange reasoning of my own. In the first place I was given two free tickets (although in the end so many people got in free you didn't really need a ticket) but my attitude then, as it had been for ages, was that I didn't want to see Bob in the flesh as no matter what he did it would be a let-down from my expectations (probably inflated by the 66 tour and the Rolling Thunder Revue) so I decided not to go. In the end a band I was fairly close to decided to go down and play for free outside the gates, a tradition dating back to the 2nd Isle Of White festival, and I went with them - so it was a case of "so close yet so far", as I stuck resolutely to the outside and with the band I'd gone down with. I never see mention of this 'outside the perimeter' gig but thousands of people must have trooped past during the day. I wonder if anyone except us lot remember it now?

I've since listened to the gig (Dylan's) and although he was on good form I am not sad about my decision. I still felt the same way years later when he did his Hammersmith and Brixton residencies - I do regret not going to those and I finally succumbed when he played the Roundhouse - and yes, he DID disappoint.

I was there.Partial, dream like memories after all this time .Very difficult to get to and away from, inadequate facilities, hard to get anywhere near the stage, and no tv screens as far as i can remember. Maybe large screens weren't in use in those bygone days anyway ! I think the weather was warm and dry, but maybe a little windy and the wind seemed to blow the sound away at times - not terribly good sound where i sat.
i remember the support acts - it was a long day and probably one of the longest Dylan sets - if not THE longest . i have mixed feelings about the 1978 approach but loved it when bob ditched the large band for a few songs.
It was my second Dylan gig - the first being at Earl's court a few weeks earlier .There was a lot of excitement in the uk that Dylan was returning to tour for the first time since 1966 - not counting the one off IOW concert .in 1966 i was a small child but if i could go back in time to attend a concert those are the days i would choose

it's great to be able to say you were at Blackbushe , so no regrets.

I was there, yes. It was marvellous but due to the size and a nearby vicious fight during Gates of Eden, it doesn't sit as well in my memory as all the nights at Earl's Court. It was still magnificent, though! A long, long journey there and back with inevitable and near indescribable traffic jams added tension and nerves on the way there and to the post experience exhaustion. I also remember the difficulties of going to the loo and returning to what had been one's space and was now a near unfindable locale amidst tens of thousand only a few of whom would remember you had been there previously.

Biggest Dylan headlining gig outside of Festivals. The crowd at Woodstock II was bigger, but Dylan wasn't headlining. They also had two stages, so in the end less people might have seen him than in Blackbushe.

Just found out there is a soundboard recording. Not circulating though... Next next bootleg series?? Come on!

I was there in 1978 so if there was to be a soundboard released I'd certainly be interested. I do have a recording of the show but the quality is pretty naff in places.

I was there i cant say it was the best experience it was just too big to see anything.As for the show itself I dont think its up there with the best of 78 particularly the Earls court shows where Dylan was in better voice

Pretty crap gig