Rory Gallagher - Great Western Express Festival - Bardney Nr Lincoln UK Friday 26th May 1972

Rory Gallagher Vocals, Guitar
Wilgar Campbell Drums
Gerry McAvoy Bass Guitar


01 - Bob Harris intros etc
02 - Toredown
03 - Used to be
04 - Hoodoo woman
05 - Messing with the kid
06 - The Cuckoo
07 - Pistol Slapper Blues
08 - Going to my hometown
09 - In Your Town
10 - Could've had religion
11 - Bullfrog blues
12 - Laundromat (Encore)
13 - After show chatter

Audience master cassettes > HD > Audacity track splits > Flac frontend (level 6).

I feel that a bit of information is needed about this one.
It is just now 40 years ago that this festival took place.
The Great Western Express Festival was billed as the 'festival they could not stop' and was held at Bardney near Lincoln UK over the period Friday 26th May 1972 to Monday 29th May 1972. The advance ticket price of �4.50 got you four days worth of music including, Genesis, Rory Gallagher, Don McLean. the Beach Boys, the Faces, Joe Cocker, Monty Pythons Flying Circus etc.
Rory and band headlined the first night and also were on again on the Saturday (I also taped that performance) - in place of Helen Reddy who apparently was pregnant and unable to attend.
I travelled down late on the Thursday with a friend from Bristol and followed the long procession of like-minded folk in a convoy from the railway station to the site.
It was a spur of the moment decision and we arrived ill equipped - like many others - and spent most of the time sheltering under plastic sheets to keep dry/warm.
A friend who was unable to attend had asked me to tape some bands and bought me a tenners worth of Emitapes - quite low quality but all that could be afforded at that time.
I took my Phillips mono cassette recorder and taped a number of the bands for my friend including, Don McLean, The Beach Boys, Vinegar Joe etc.
The quality of these varies depending on how heavy the rain was falling, how drunk we were at that time, how many tinnies were being thrown at the can dump beside us etc.

This recording is not too bad taking everything into consideration. I digitised all these a few years back to try and combat further deterioration in the master tapes. I really could have down with a player with azimuth adjustment to do the transfer and have not done any processing at all to the sound. This recording was spread across a number of sides of C60's so you will be able to spot the joins.

I have included tracks 01 and 13 mainly for anyone who may have attended this festival as it makes for some interesting listening - Weeley another great festival from the year before gets a mention as does a mystery over a baby that had been 'lost'

I've never seen any other recording of this festival or Weeley recordings (other than T Rex and VDGG) - if anyone has any tucked away please dig them out. One day they could get tossed away as of no interest and lost forever

When I get around to it I will put up some further stuff from this festival - although I understand that the BB set is a NAB

I can recommend a great site for further information on this and many other UK festivals - it is http://www.ukrockfestivals.com