1972: Surviving BICKERSHAW POP FESTIVAL | Bickershaw | Classic BBC Music | BBC Archive
What happens to the 1,500 people who live in a Lancashire mining village when 50,000 pop fans descend on them for the weekend? The underground workers meet the Underground in Bickershaw, a pit stop on the road to Wigan pier.
Austin Mitchell visits, as all manner of hippies, dropouts and assorted music fanatics convene on the normally sedate Lancashire mining village for a pop music extravaganza. Acts booked to play at the Bickershaw Festival include a variety of major US and British acts like Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Captain Beefheart, Hawkwind, Wishbone Ash, and Donovan.
As the festival begins at Naylor’s Farm, Mitchell talks to some of Bickershaw's residents and business owners about what they make of this sudden influx of young revellers, and how they plan to cope with the numbers. He interviews Harry "The Count" Bilkus - one of the brains behind the festival - and beleaguered festival organiser, Jeremy Beadle, whose workload has risen exponentially following the arrest of a fellow organiser just three weeks before the event.
Over the course of the weekend, Mitchell documents the impact this pop behemoth has on the local community, the fans, and the event organisers.
Clip taken from Bickershaw, originally broadcast on BBC One, 15 July, 1972.
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Jeremy had a colourful and varied career and raised over £100m for charities before his sad death aged only 59. He died of chronic lymphoma Leukemia. RIP Jezza
@mattsan70 A correction if I may . it wasn't £100k, it was £100m
@@4th_Lensman_of_the_apocalypse the main young guy with the leather jacket
Like Jimmy Saville and made himself a few million along the way as well
@@adrinathegreat3095 "like Jimmy Saville"? Eh, really?
@@4th_Lensman_of_the_apocalypseDavid Walliams
I grew up in the 70s and old men who were dressed like that were ten a penny. I really miss that. You would have conversations with them that were pure gold.
Most of them were WW1 vets. Golden age of men.
I had a factory job in the early 1970s and knew a man near retirement age (his job was bagging the swarf from the lathes) who had been a shoemaker most of his life. He could have made you a pair of leather shoes, completely by hand.
Legends!! Really was like a different planet back then but simpler compared to now!
Nothing shallow or superficial about them for sure. These days I tend to draw on my memories more and more @@Paul-rt4ix
@@elainekerslake6865Me too, I am 71 now and was one of the leading hippies back in Wantage, Berkshire in the late 1960s and helped put up the Isle of Wight pop concert. I can well recall chatting to old timers who had fought in WW1 and WW2 like my father and not one was rude, critical or just down right nasty to me or my friends. They would just find us amusing and laugh at our antics, as @lan-gw2vx says "pure gold".
Loved the shopkeeper who stated that he "wouldn't give yoghurt two glances". 😆
Harold the Count obviously misheard the locals when they told him what they nicknamed him.
Hahahaha
😂😂😂😂
🏆
He’s a descendent of king cnut the dyslexic.
Yes indeed!!
I was there! Just turned 17 and took my first tab of black dot acid. Mud and madness. I haven't been the same ever since.....thank goodness. Deeply grateful, thank you Bickershaw
If you liked it....well...that's good enough for me mate. I'm glad you had a laugh.
Did you meet Jeremy Beadle?
Me too ! I remember waking up to hear Cpn Beefheart and the Magic band playing 21st century Blues 🤣 great festival
Mud and madness on the same bill in 72! that will do for me..
Blue micro dot acid was good too 😜
3:47 "I've heard of yoghurt ... but there's no demand for it" The north never changes
😂😂😂😂
My friend that was over half a century ago.
It's the same with comprehensible English and washing.
Twerp
he obviously hadnt heard enough about it to know that its supposed to go in the fridge lol...
Bickershaw/Jeremy Beadle/Grateful Dead....parallel universe right there.
No no.😂😂😂 Not Jeremy beadle, not as in you been framed, They were on about the festival manager, who has same name..
That’s the same Jeremy Beadle, later of You’ve Been Framed.
@@longjonwhite it's most definitely not.
@@longjonwhite it bloody well is !!! 🙏😉😂 I thought no way Is that beadle...then I see his spacca hand...by goodness well spotted.. I would not have known even with same name ..mad
@Sol-Cutta You are Correct. Its Beadle.
One can only imagine what the Grateful Dead made of Bickershaw - they must have thought their last trip had marooned them in the 19th century
Sod the festival 😂 Fascinating to see & hear the old chaps gathered at the front gate giving their opinion!
It was hard to understand some of the locals, due to the mumbling.
@@primalconvoy I am from near here. Clear as a bell to me !
@@primalconvoyno mumbling, just an unfamiliar accent
Love listening to them especially the lasses
No speak Lanky?
Love the idea of those long haired hippy festival goers wanting yoghurt which the shopkeeper had heard of but never sold. A complete culture shock for the older locals (one of whom I'm sure was Thora Hird.)
A culture shock all round
live yoghurt
That was my grandma ha ha ha
Your not in London now mate ❤
Thora was the one in the flat cap on the left
The startling moment when the pop-crazed youngster realizes they are witnessing a groovy young Jeremy Beadle. I'm off to enjoy a lovely yoghurt.
Watch out.... Beadles having a wee on your fence.
Yoghurt - there's no demand for it.
@@mogadon7That's still the case in Lancashire to this day
Gosh - didn't realise it was Jeremy beadle till i read the comments - i only knew him from when i was a kid in the 80s - thought he was all cheese then , but this shows what a groovy cat he was back in the day
Me too!
The truth about 'cheese' is that it's just heavily layered goodwill. People mistake it for the kind of cheese you might see in adverts but that's an artificial cheese.
i noticed him straight away anyone who hides one hand like that has to be beadle
I recognised him, although it took a few minutes. Game for a Laugh was only about 9-10 years later, but I guess a suit, perm and a beard made him look quite different 😁
Beefhearts uk tour manager
I was there as a youngster 13 yrs old. Obviously I thought it was bloody amazing. To have a festival so near to our home town (Leyland) was something all music fans didn't want to miss. Me and a buddy still wear our Bickershaw T shirts at events, to generate chat from others that were there.
nice 1. i lived in leyland for about 15 years it was that bad of a place.
Did you pay to get in? Haha
I m from Leyland...School Lane, I live in France now. Do you remember the Pram Race? I used to work at The Gables and The Tiger back in the day. Leyland was lovely when I was a kid but they have made such a mess of Hough Lane. I love visiting Worden Park when I visit, it's rare though. 😊😊😊
I like how the count keep a looking at the camera during the interview, like David Brent.
I felt sorry for the poor little kitten !!
I don't agree with that in the workplace!
WONDERFUL time capsule!
Exactly, it's why I watch these things.
Pure gold. Born in 1966 in North Yorkshire. Be good if we could get back to these people and this time before it all started falling apart
Jeremy Beadle, I recognised him straight away. He looks a bit different there to the sharp suited, flashy gent he became in his later career. What a clash of cultures. Bless the older generation whatever side they were on. RIP all of them.
Watch out,Beadle's about!
I recognised him pretty quick too. I laughed when he effectively criticised the camera crew sneaking up on him! Perhaps he was getting his own back 15+ years later 😄
I was scratching my head for ages wondering where Beadle appeared when it finally clicked he was the Festival manager! Such a change in character and role
13:50 Austin Mitchell Died: 18 August 2021 (age 86 years), Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds
Oh man, this is just so funny. That line, "I've heard of yoghurt" was the best laugh I've had in ages, genius! 😂 Thinking of getting T-shirts made!
Obviously, as we all know, yoghurt doesn’t really exist.
I remember when yoghurt first appeared in our village Culcheth , I was about 15 I think
@@anthonybowers7571 Hey come on, I grew up in Culcheth and we ate SKI yogurt from probably the late 60s onwards. My parents shopped at least once a month in Manchester, Liverpool or Chester so I'm sure we had access to it as soon as it was available. SKI was the first yogurt to contain fruit pieces and only began in 1963.
@@freemenofengland2880 I did say "i think " ..i ate it in a Wimpy bar in Leigh anyway 🤣
@@anthonybowers7571 Those were the days. Lol. 👍
Friday night rainstorm saw Wishbone Ash, Hawkwind, Jonathan Kelly & a stellar performance from Dr John & the Night Tripper aptly named as we had no tent & spent the night tripping & sheltering under plastic underneath the lighting tower. Contrary to many accounts of Bickershaw, the Saturday was blessed with brilliant sunshine & I can remember the ice cream melting before it could be carried a hundred yards back to the tent which we had strategically erected that morning with the opening facing the stage.
I was there, I was 17 and it was my first festival, had a great time despite the rain, the mud and those dreaded toilets, held back from using them until Sunday morning then I had to go, called to my mate to find me some arse wipe material, which didn't turn out too well when he passed me a wet Embassy box and an empty crisp packet. We loved it though, saw some great bands and met a lot of colourful characters, and just being there was an experience in itself and one that I'll never forget.
i like that the older folks were cool about it all.
"I've heard of yoghurt".
I was there, but I don't recall having a great time in spite of seeing the Dead and Beefheart, Donovan and the like. The toilets were non existent. If it had rained it would have been an absolute shocker. Good atmosphere though. I didn't understand why the locals were so pissed off at us, but now I get it. Who would want the great unwashed descending on their little pit village and burning down their fences for fire wood and urinating and crapping in their gardens - not me!
Did you manage to catch one of the Grateful Dead's beer cans?
What was that? Don't remember! @@richardjames3356
FFS it pissed down all day Saturday and Sunday
Spent the whole weekend under polythene , as if the rain wasn't bad enough someone decided to empty the divers tank right into the field. @@philiplancaster9682
A nice old lady let me evacuate in her outside privy as often as I needed.
Yeah so many wonder memories on You tube. I m a survivor of it, twenty two at the time,. Sadly my mate Stu who accompanied me on the three days tripping, curled up his toes just of few months ago. Shine on all you crazy Diamonds!
Fascinating. So glad the BBC Archive exists.
From Wikipedia, the organizers didn't see a profit. Big surprise, hah. Great slice of history, thanks for uploading. Security on the gates was inefficient. Tickets were taken and resold to those who were entering the site or were not checked. Festival goers simply got passouts and sold their ticket at half price to people arriving. As a consequence the organisers lost money. By Sunday, all semblance of organisation had disappeared and locals wandered freely onto the site to watch the Grateful Dead. By this time much of the site was awash with mud.
Sounds like any typical old-skool music festival.
I’m sure the Grateful Dead were on Saturday night before Beefheart did his 5 hour set
Yes and British festival organisation had to learn financially painfull lessons along the way . It was due to all those that went before that had allowed Glastonbury Festival to be highly successful and profitable
yeAAAAH The Grateful Dead played...just listened to their set yesterday ❤⚡💙
15:59 David Walliams! 30 years before little Britain. Spooky
I thought it was him but then thought naaah
For me, he's a cross between Walliams and Ben Elton...
He was born in 1971!
@@TheKevcarp was a joke kev..
@@pcalf101Kevs is being a bit too literal there 😂
If Spinal Tap was a pop festival.
“So it became a comedy number.” I dare say Ian Faith - armed with his trusty piece of wood - would’ve made more of an effort to squeeze a damn profit out of the thing.
I’m not about to do a Freeform jazz exploration in front of a festival audience !
@@tonemc6047 Not even with top billing above the children’s puppet show?
When the generations didn’t all dress the same. Now it’s tracksuits for all ages.
Remember that BBC's" news night" showing this and the Workings men club then switching briefly to film of Family on stage commentating that this is the Sound of the underground . Great lineup of American bands as l recall , The Dead , Beefheart , Captain Beyond and the New Riders Of The Purple Sage .
Memories... of The Kinks, Ray Davies in a white suit sashaying around the stage with a bottle of red wine... of Beefheart's stupendous Booglarise You booming from a darkened stage at silly o'clock... of scintillating guitar rock from the Flaming Groovies... and sadly that's about it, even though I love Family, Hawkwind etc and went mainly for the Grateful Dead. Ingestion of too much of the brown yoghurt sent me to sleep shortly after the Dead started Dark Star... when I woke an hour later I believe they were still playing it... I also swear I saw giant, KKK-style burning crosses at the end of the festival, but that was probably also the yoghurt. (Did anyone else see them?)
I used to love those afghan coats. Oh the good old days. Living through my teens in the 1970's was the best decade of my life. Compared to now, fifty years later, it was bliss.
Back in the early 1970s I wanted one of those Afghan coats. I think they were around £20 & I only had 4 shillings pocket money per week .... 😢
@@Lookup2Wakeup Ha! 4 shillings. But that changed to 20 new pence in the 70's. Then the prices rocketed. Fish & Chips was less than a pound. Now you'd be lucky to find it for less than eight to ten pounds. In fact, ten shillings (remember the 'ten bob note') was a small fortune back then. Now the equivalent is 50p and what can you buy for that these days. A Bounty maybe? How times change eh!
I had one of those afghan coats & loved it. Unfortunately it stunk awful when it got wet lol. Loved those hippie days!
Omg I’am 71 and I could be in this film! Not much actual music, guess it’s the BBC being PC. Amazing to see Jeramy Beagle as a young man, what a talented and unique guy he was, unfortunately died far too young!
Lots of hippies completely monged on red leb and Watney's Party 7. By festival's end they'd be game for a barf.
LOL
In 1972 I was 12 living in Lowton a few miles away, I remember this being talked about at school. I also had an aunty and uncle in Bickershaw. Fascinating stuff.
It was rainy, muddy, freezing cold and awful - like most outdoor events in the UK then and now. A few weeks later I saw the Dead twice in the comfort of the Lyceum.
Great documentary and thanks for all involved . From an East Lancashire man.
I was too young for the pop festival but I went to Bickershaw primary school...how fantastic!!!!
I like the old timer who said, when asked what he thought of the festival coming to Bickershaw “we’ve ‘ad our time when we were young, let ‘em have theirs”
When' Ski" yogurt - we couldn't get enough of it - oh, and nice capri at 14.43
When Ski yogurt came in pots that looked like little milk churns. Funnily enough, my friend's dad (who naturally drove a Ford Capri) worked for Ski. I tried a pot of yogurt about 1971, 1972, and hated it. I love it now.
Ski, the full of fitness food - for all the famileeeeeeeeeee
I love that Lancashire accent.. beautiful! ❤
I love that the miners are “bring it on”. Exactly the opposite of what you’d expect. 3:05 yeah peace and love 😂 9:23 keep your eye on your telly I’ll be about
Jeremy certainly put that interviewer in his place. He was marvellous on LBC though I can’t say the same for Beadle’s about etc.
Interviewer was Austin Mitchell, latterly a long serving Labour MP.
@@Kenny_P_abzquite so, and JB put him in his place.
I loved him on LBC, but sadly, on the telly I found him creepy.
"I've heard of yoghurt, but I've never seen it" Great quote from the corner shop owner 😂
Who knew Jeremy Beadle was the world's most defensive & aggravated festival impressario in a previous life?
I absolutely loved it!
The unmistakable voice of Austin Mitchell confused that this is on BBC as he was YTV calendar anchor about this time.
He was a short time in 1972 at the BBC.
"Austin, Austin, Austin...Don't jump the gun."
@@YeOldeFootballChannel Thanks for that I have an autograph somewhere when he set up Pennine radio in the mid seventies
Austin Mitchell broadcasting legend!
Grimsby
'I've heard of yoghurt...'
14:10 A similar thing used to happen at many British football grounds in the 1960s and 1970s. Some people used to turn up at my local club, Oldham Athletic, at 'threequarter time' and were able to watch the last 20 minutes or so for nothing.
My main memories are of rain, cold, mud, 3-day-old baked potatoes, a drunken and incoherent Ray Davies, a wonderful performance from Beefheart and the Magic Band, a seemingly never-ending Grateful Dead set, and, after it was all over, mud-caked toilets at the nearest motorway services heading North on the M6.
"Count" Dracula was a a Wigan market trader called Harry Cohen, who also owned a pub in Bickershaw. The other investor was Peter Harris, who was arrested for dodgy business dealings three weeks before the event.
I would love to see the entire documentary! C'mon bbc!
As a teenager, I liked the idea of pop festivals. I only ever went to one. That was enough.
Ah the apprenticeship of Watch out Beadles a lout before rebranding. Great clip.
I watched this for ages before I realised it was Jeremy Beadle!
It was like the Somme with music. Maybe it was the black mini microdots or the yoghurt stash, but I seem to recall incessant Pishing rain and a Slag heap nearby with a train running up the side of it. But it was so memorable for all the reasons on this video: flat cap old geezers and Coronation type matrons tutting away at 'bloody 'ippies' ; amazing lineup, most of whom I missed by sleeping in the big tent after the tabs wore off; the high wire guy setting fire to himself and diving into a tank of water, which then flooded the front of the stage even more into a quagmire; Stacia's magnetic..to my loony eyes... gyrations in front of Hawkwind; one of our mad squad..Laurie falling on top of the log fire..smouldering for a bit...then rising up all smoke and scorched sheepskin..announcing that he was 'aff tae the pub'; me finally staggering out of the place as the 'Dead' played what appeared to be on repeat a nine hour set on the Sunday. How I made it back home?....Dunno....Happy daze yes.
I really liked this vid. I'd never even heard of the Bickershaw Pop Festival (and tbh I can see why!)
wow it looks like the 40s. amazing doc
I think Steve Coogan must've based his Ernest Moss character on that shopkeeper 😂.
Hahahaha absolutely priceless fella!!!
Changed times. "I've heard of yoghurt" wouldn't amount to much of a boast these days.
Gotta feel sorry for the poor shopkeeper, first day he's fine, second day (doesn't know WTF is going on)
He sold more that weekend than he had all year. Hid profits were great, and I'm sure he restocked his shelves and had plenty of money left over.
Enough to buy some yoghurt.
Profit margins are about 5%. A small amount of theft will wipe that out@@northernsnow6982
😂😂 he wasn’t used to people “ in capes and what have you “
Great to watch. Would have been even better with a glimpse of the stage acts.
Jeremy Beadle ⬆️
Yes at 4:28 is a young Jeremy beadle - Watch out Beadles about Before he was famous
Jeremy was a lovely man,very kind and down to earth.
Austin Mitchell presenting and that's Jeremy Beadle answering the questions - blimey
Important video in terms of British social history and so good to see this archive footage. The early festivals were relatively sparsely attended by the counter culture with a legacy of the 1969’s hippie ideal . In the days pre internet etc it was the specific music papers such as rather more mainstream New Musical Express, Sounds , Disc & Music Echo, Melody Maker. Others like Frendz, Zigzag etc catered more for the progressive / underground music scene as those publications were not available at the usual high street outlets.
Amazing to see those old men, who were probably early 50s but looking like 80 year olds, saying let they young have the fun, we've had our day. Now the middle aged men go around trying to look like teenagers, blasting music out of car windows, walking around with spiky balding hair, moaning about the youth.. Instead of bowing out gracefully and letting the young be the young instead of trying to be like them.
I agree. I think we live in a day & age where folk over 40 are just scared of getting/looking old. Some can pull the younger look off but some look absolutely ridiculous!
Yes that’s exactly what I thought
It seems like that - I can't recall (or seeing a picture of)my parents ever being young ! ....a problem now is missing out on being middle aged !.. I thought I was 'youngish' & then I suddenly felt old !
It all went wrong when the 'comb over hairstyle' ended . So you can go baldish & hang on to a youthful style .
Have you lot heard yourselves 😂 generalising. Don't tar all of us oldies with such a broad brush please...
Raw stuff, l like the old style tv interviews
Ahhh I had no idea about this! Only heard about the Zoo meets Factory Records Halfway (Fac 15) one in Leigh in 1979 😅
This is the best Bickershaw footage I've ever seen, the DVD available for sale doesn't have any music from the actual festival. I'm impressed the hippies were able to find any firewood, there didn't seem to be a tree in the entire village.
Ther was no live music on this video either
DVD ? tell me more please ?
There's a DVD for sale advertises all the bands who played at Bickershaw. Unfortunately none of the footage on the DVD shows those performances, just still photos and audio which may or may not be from the festival. There are other performances on the DVD which are from TV appearances. The only actual footage of the festival shows a couple of interviews with the organisers, a guy jumping off a tower into a small pool and some stoned hippies sitting around a campfire. Best avoided unless you want to waste your money.
@@OldBigCD ok , thanks !
I was there, the people of bickershaw did not know what hit them !
I was there too. I've only just dried out.
@@peterellison3478😂😂😂😂
I was there, Beefheart and Stackridge were excellent
What a lineup.👍
The old boy at the start with the glasses fair play to him!
wonderful
2:48 all those people have COPD now.
The shopkeeper had never really encountered yoghurt. How times have changed as the biome makes its mighty presence known.
Haha! David Walliams @ 16:02 … looking very mature at only one year old!
Jeremy Beadle the Promoter ?!?
Yea, young Beadle before he was famous. Watch out Beadles about
Beadle the hip young gun slinger, who knew !
Watch out beadles about 😮
And less than a week later the tooth brush was invented...
10:20: fantastic wallpaper. And those collars
I was thinking the exact same thing! ❤
Love these Brits 👍 Good window into history. Could use some subtitles for some of them though 😅
hawkwind and grateful dead amazing
Jeremy beadle deserves a big hand for this 👏🏻
Although not called that then Elvis Costello and Joe Strummer were there in the audience. Joe Strummer later cited the sun coming up at the end of Beefheart's set as one of the all time great festival moments. Plus l got to see the Dead !
It's interesting that there isn't one single fat person in the whole video.
The Summer of Love was long gone by 1972 !
The future was the summer of mud .... 😅😂
Didn't realize it was Beedle. My first thought was, this young fella is a natural in front of the camera. I recall reading interviews in the '90s where he expressed some surprisingly progressive opinions, that were out of kilter with his high profile light entertainment media persona. This early incarnation as a hepcat puts it perspective.
Wish there were more.
Jeremy beadle reminds me of Johnny rotten. When answering some of the questions 😂
I was at my first art college in East London at this time and remember it being talked about. A few intrepid students went along including my friend Roger Hutchinson who became, I learned later involved in the free festival movement. I unfortunately did not go, which I regret I suppose, I was always trying to earn extra money particularly during the summer break to supplement my grant, sad but true. A ‘bread head’ as we used to refer to them!
❤Goooöd Dockument.
That wallpaper gave me a headache, must of been cheap down market, but what a marvellous look at the past
Take me back to the 70s I want to go back loved the old guys and the drop it's ❤🇬🇧❤
I grew up in Leigh, not far from there, bit before my time though, ha.
That reporter is the kind of guy to show up at the very moment you've broken a glass just to ask you if you've just broken a glass.
Jeremy Beadle! 😄 'Watch out, Beadle's about!'
Wow - I was there
A more homogeneous, tolerant time 😊you knew Jeremy Beadle was so cool 😂