Woodstock
A Woodstock Reminiscence
This week marks the 53rd anniversary of Woodstock — the music and art fair of 1969, originally announced as “An Aquarian Exposition,” which took place at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York, after promoters couldn’t find a festival location in the town of Woodstock itself, a well-known haven for musicians at the time. I always think about Woodstock in August, because I was there. In 1969, I was 15 years old and my progressive parents (read: smart, but drug addled) bought me and my twin brother tickets for what would miraculously turn out to be an experience that unfolded in exactly the same way it was promised: 3 Days of Peace & Music. Could there have been other parents like my parents (is it even possible to imagine anybody can be like anybody else’s parents?) who ac...
R.I.P. Michael Lang, Woodstock Festival Co-Founder Dead at 77
Michael Lang, a co-founder of the famed Woodstock Festival, has died at the age of 77. A family spokesperson said Lang passed away Saturday (January 8th) from a rare form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Lang was one of the chief architects of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. Taking place over four days in August at a family farm in Bethel, New York, the festival welcomed nearly half a million attendees to watch performances from Jimi Hendrix, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, The Band, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Who, Santana, and more. With copious amount of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, the festivals became emblematic of late-60s counterculture, while also launching the career of countless future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. Due to the success of Woodstock, The Rolling Stones enlisted Lang a...
Michael Lang, Woodstock Co-Founder, Dies at 77
Michael Lang, the promoter who is best known for creating Woodstock, has died at the age of 77. According to Billboard, Lang died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at New York City’s Sloan-Kettering Hospital. His friend Michael Pagnotta also confirmed the news in a tweet late Saturday evening. Born in Brooklyn on December 11, 1944, Lang’s first event that he produced was the 1968 Miami Pop Festival. That lineup included future legends like Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker and Mothers of Invention. After moving back to New York, Lang, along with John Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and John P. Roberts, conceived what would become Woodstock. The event, which took place in August 1969, came to define a generation and was the iconic cultural moment of the 1960s. Woodstock featured now-legendary sets from Jimi...
Woodstock Co-Creator Michael Lang Dies at 77
Michael Lang, legendary co-creator of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, has died. He was 77. Lang died on Saturday night (Jan. 8) from a rare form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City. His rep and family friend Michael Pagnotta confirmed the news to Billboard. Lang worked alongside partners Joel Rosenman, Capitol Records’ Artie Kornfeld and John P. Roberts for the 1969 festival held at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York. The three-day lineup included icons such as Richie Havens, Santana, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone and The Who, among others. “I booked the three hottest bands at the time — Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat and Credence Clearwater Revival,” Lang told Billboard in 2...
This Random Pennsylvania Warehouse Preserves Electronic Gear Used by Kraftwerk, Jimi Hendrix, More
Located about an hour north of Philadelphia, Harleysville, Pennsylvania is not exactly an EDM destination town. However, a warehouse in the town of 9,500 is reportedly the resting place of a treasure trove of rare electronic music artifacts used by legendary artists from the 1930s through the late 80s. The nearly 3,000-piece collection was started 20 years ago by Vince Pupillo, a longtime fan and player of electronic music. Over time, he became known as “the guy who would buy instruments that otherwise might be thrown away,” according to a report by WHYY. “I did whatever I had to do to get those instruments under one roof and preserved,” Pupillo said. “A lot of musicians and folks in the music industry, they want to preserve their legacy, and they see what we’re doi...
Woodstock 99 Crashes and Burns in First Trailer for Documentary Peace, Love, and Rage: Watch
Chaos reigns in the first trailer for Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage. The documentary will air on HBO July 23rd and stream on HBO Max. Like its original incarnation in 1969, Woodstock 1999 was held in upstate New York as a celebration of music. The event hosted 400,000 miserable attendees, as excessive heat and poor planning combined for one of the worst debacles in modern festival history. The crowd turned violent, at one point tearing plywood off the walls and setting it on fire. The concerts gave way to multiple reports of rape and sexual assault, as well as looting, vandalism, and arson. Directed by Garret Price and executive produced by Bill Simmons, Woodstock 99 tells the grim story of “the day the nineties died.” Organizers Michael Lang and John Scher explai...
Ten Years After on Why We Keep Returning to Woodstock
Kyle Meredith With… 10 Years After Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Ten Years After co-founder Ric Lee talks with Kyle Meredith about his new autobiography, From Headstocks to Woodstock, which recounts his early life up until the moment the band played the legendary festival. Lee discusses the enduring legacy of their song “I’d Love To Change the World” and why we continue to revisit the late ’60s era, as well as a very different atmosphere that they found at The Isle of Wight festival that same year. The legendary drummer also revisits the time he taught Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham drum patterns and how Ten Years After learned to jam after touring with Grateful Dead. Kyle Meredith ...
How a Woodstock on Wheels Fizzled Into a Free-Love Failure
Woodstock wasn’t supposed to be a hit. So when the 1970 concert film-cum-documentary exploded across screens, engrossing everyone who’d either been at Woodstock or just claimed they had, Warner Bros. began a desperate race to make a copycat cash-in. Enter The Medicine Ball Caravan. The Grateful Dead were supposed to topline a massive road trip like the one Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters had embarked on a few years before — this time with a French camera crew along for the ride. The plan was for the hippies to groove across American to Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, and Hot Tuna — and freak out with Alice Cooper. Free drugs would lubricate shocking antics for what the producers hoped would be a Woodstock on Wheels. Academy Award-winning documentarian Francois Reichenbach would capture th...
“United By Dance” Camping Concert to Be Held At Original Woodstock Site
This month, promoter NYCtophiLA is providing a new opportunity for music lovers to get their fix of live performances before the end of the summer. Their United by Dance concert is slated for September 26th at Yasgur Road, the site of the original Woodstock. Featuring a lineup that includes Tara Brooks, DJ Keoki, Mr Koolaid, DANK, Lady Verse, DJ IDeaL, Gavin Stephenson, Iman Rizky, BBT (DubSnacks) and DJ Fetish, United by Dance promises 18 continuous hours of all things house, tech, and techno. Scheduled for 3PM through 9AM, attendees will be treated to “an intense mega-laser show” and live art installations, and will have the option to camp by their cars in order to make it through the entire night of festivities. Yasgur Road In order to keep all ticket-holders...
Disastrous Woodstock ’99 is the Focus of a New Netflix Documentary Series
Woodstock ’99 aftermath, photo by Peter R. Barber/AP Despite being envisioned as an event of “peace and love” like its forefather, Woodstock ’99 was a complete shit show. The three-day music festival featuring Limp Bizkit, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, and Insane Clown Posse devolved into squalid havoc, with arson, injuries, and sexual assaults broadcast live on MTV to horrified audiences around the world. It was the subject of a riveting eight-episode podcast produced by The Ringer, and now, it’s getting the Netflix documentary treatment. You thought Fyre Fest was bad? Hold on to your red baseball caps. Deadline reports that the as-yet-untitled docuseries will be produced by London-based Raw, who brought us the bonkers true story film Don’t F**k With Cats. BB...
