This special signed edition of volumes 1 & 2 of When the World Came to the Isle of Wight tells festival organiser Ray Foulk’s story of the 1968, 1969 and 1970 Isle of Wight Festivals.
Volume 1, Stealing Dylan from Woodstock, recalls the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, Bob Dylan’s one and only full concert appearance in seven-and-a-half years and one that played its part in a highly transformative period of the artist’s life. The book tells, from a unique perspective, of an extraordinary event that seismically altered the lives of the author, his family, all those involved with it and many of those who attended. After the festival famously ‘stole Bob Dylan from Woodstock’ in 1969, and was the starting point and benchmark for all rock and pop festivals in the UK.
The following year, documented in Volume 2, The Last Great Event, would also be Jimi Hendrix’s last major performance – 17 days later he was dead. Many remember this festival as a magical, life-changing experience, encapsulating the sixties trip of sex, drugs, rock’n’roll and a political yearning for a better world. But for others, a question looms large over the history: did this final festival help precipitate the end of the dream of an alternative society, or did it reflect the changes already taking place?
James Campbell, Times Literary Supplement –
“If asked before I read The Last Great Event, I would have said – with the same certainity that I would claim to have heard Free at Glastonbury the year before – that Hendrix’s piece de resistance was “The Star-Spangled Banner”. After all, I was there. Ray Foulk was even more there. he says it was “God Save the Queen”
James Campbell, Times Literary Supplement (The Last Great Event)
Ray Connolly, Daily Mail –
“If you were one of the half a million music fans who made their way like raggle-taggle gyspises to the Isle of Wight 1970, you will absolutely love this backstage look at a great moment in rock history”
Ray Connolly, Daily Mail (The Last Great Event)
Sid Griffin, BBC Radio 6 –
“Ray Foulk and his brothers, Ronnie and Bill – it is incredible what they did – it is incredible”
Sid Griffin, BBC Radio 6 (The Last Great Event)
Donal Gallagher –
“A most enjoyable and well crafted book. Having attended and participated in the Isle of Wight Festival, with my brother’s band Taste (as a road-manger), it was so pleasing to read the account of the whole event and wished I had met up with Ray before completing the Taste documentary from the gig.”
Donal Gallagher (The Last Great Event)
Classic Rock Magazine –
Classic Rock Magazine… “like rock n roll meets Ealing comedy, a great tale, lovingly told”. 2nd May 2015 (Stealing Dylan From Woodstock)