Most of the photos below were supplied by Alan Lodge (‘Tash’), whose support during and after the festival was very welcome. Any other photos are credited on the individual photos.

If you’re a fan of ‘Where’s Wally’, see if you can find the 8000 people that attended the festival, according to police / County Times estimates!

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The Subversives

Restriction

Nik Turner

Ackee

Enid & The Blyters

Rattlesnakes

June de Cruz

The Kix

XLs

Walk A Thin Line

Chosen Time

Dead Wired

Hard Lines

Normil Hawaiians

Kelvin & The Absolute Zeros

Hair of the Dog

The Knaff

XLS

Manyana

Face To Face

Almost Average

Ronnie & Johnny

Rootboot

People’s memories of the festival. Some names have been omitted or initialised at the contributors’ request.

I was not involved in the first Montgomery Festival, but knew those who did make it happen, so when they decided to do a bigger version of it in 1984, I joined them. We used to meet in The Buck in Newtown (the first time I took my now partner of 40 years out was to one of the planning meetings – lucky woman 😉 ) to make plans and update each other on progress (pre-web and email days). We made site plans, and consulted with the local council, fire department and police to make sure we did things properly, and advertised for traders who wanted to be at the festival.

The last few weeks before the festival were hectic – work from 8–5 in Carno, get home for a quick dinner, then up to the festival site until it was too dark to work – stage construction (scaffolding and pallets, mostly done by Eric), digging-in water pipes, marking out pitches and camping areas, etc.

By the week of the festival, we felt things had progressed well, though a few last-minute problems inevitably came to light as crew, traders, security etc. arrived on site. The only serious problem was the water pumps packing in on the first day of the festival; this was eventually resolved with the help of the police (!) after Severn-Trent Water and the Milk Marketing Board refused to help by supplying water bowsers; the local Fire Brigade were concerned about lack of water on site, but would not come on site as the police had told them that it was not safe for them to do so! The temporary lack of water caused our only real unpleasantness from those involved with the festival – one of an early-arriving café crew, who demanded we immediately provided the water supply they had been promised; they had it by when they needed it, but their attitude was very disappointing at the time, particularly as we kept them fully-informed about the problem and the progress in resolving it – I don’t know how they thought we could magic up some water immediately (a rain dance perhaps?).

Things were beginning to happen, though the numbers we had hoped for weren’t turning up; we then found out that the police had put up road-blocks at both the Montgomery and Kerry ends of the lane on which the site was situated, and were telling people the the festival had been cancelled, and making them turn back – even people who lived in Montgomery and just wanted to get home. In the aftermath, the police blamed this on the festival being “sprung on them” and them not knowing what was going on – a lie, as they had been involved in discussions about it for months – and which the County Times was pleased to report as the truth, as with so many other things about the festival). I visited the police at one of the roadblocks on the very edge of the town, with Alan Lodge (Tash) to find out what was going on. We were told by the police that they were looking for stolen cars (they obviously knew that their ‘stop-and-search’ was illegal without reasonable grounds for suspicion); while we were there they stopped and searched several pedestrians, who were not found to be in possession of either drugs or Dinky Toys. In total there were 234 stop-and-searches on the festival approaches, which resulted in 27 charges being made – police ‘intelligence’ giving rise to their ‘reasonable grounds’ for stop and search was obviously rather faulty, as they could probably have got a haul like that stopping-and-searching people at random in one of our local towns. Later in the weekend, after a quick visit home to feed our cats, my partner and I were stopped and searched at the same roadblock by the police – specifically local drug squad officer D.G., who was known for his general unpleasantness, and for mouthing off in Newtown’s pubs when drunk; while searching me he told me that we had brought this on ourselves, because if we hadn’t organised the festival it wouldn’t have happened, and that he would make sure that we never did anything like it again – so much for the police supporting and serving their local community!

I found out after the festival that people in Newtown had been told by the police that it was not safe for their children to go to the festival, partly because there were Hell’s Angels riding round with shotguns! We did have some bikers from the Bishops Castle area working on security, but they were pleasant and reliable, and did what they were there to do without being aggressive or badly behaved; in fact they went out of their way to help with several non-security-related issues over the weekend.

But overnight a large number of people did turn up – the travellers’ ‘Peace Convoy’, guided there by the police, who had prevented them attending another festival in the south-west. This sudden influx was welcome, but we did get a lot of abuse from a small minority of them as, as far as they were concerned, it was a ‘free festival’ and we were money-grabbing capitalists; none of them would pay the admission, but we did get a ‘donation’ of £200 from them over the weekend, which was unexpected, and gratefully received. The convoy took over one of the fields, and, in my opinion, were a welcome addition to the festival. Unfortunately one of them threatened one of the stall-holders with a knife, but as soon as he was identified the convoy crew dealt with him, and there were no more such incidents – this was before the days of the ‘Brew Crew’, who, in my opinion, turned a group of people who were little or no trouble, and contributed a lot to many events, into something quite different, and often unpleasant.

I only saw one band all weekend – Osibisa, as it was one of the two bands I had chosen to put on, and I made myself unavailable for a while. It was disappointing to see none of the other bands, but we were flat-out all weekend trying to keep things running, with no time for entertainment – and not much for sleep! So I can’t share much information or opinions on the music at the festival.

The other band I chose was Restriction, a reggae band from Bristol, featuring the now well-known Rob Smith. They drove up from Bristol in a single-decker bus, and got busted on the way, so not a good start for them – and then it got worse. Our stage manager had, at the last minute, asked Nik Turner, who was recording at Dave Anderson’s nearby Foel Studios, to play at the festival – something we would all normally be very happy about. But the stage manager also decided that, to make room for him, one of the other pre-booked bands would not be able to play (not Nik’s doing, I’m sure he knew nothing about it) – and he decided it would be Restriction (he was not a reggae fan). I was furious about this, but was unable to get the decision changed, and as I had asked the band to play, I felt it should be me that told them the bad news. I unilaterally decided to take £200 from the kitty, the fee we had agreed to pay them; the news, understandably, wasn’t well-received, but at least they got paid. 

There was an unfortunate incident over the weekend, when two local men decided that it would be a good idea to drive a car at speed around the festival site. Well-known local woman Tess was unfortunately knocked over by them, though thankfully was not badly injured. The men then drove into a neighbouring cornfield, causing some damage to the crops. Of course, in the local paper, the festival was blamed for the crop damage, even though the farmer was fine with us about it as he knew how it had happened, and who had done it.

It was with some relief that the festival came to an end, having been mostly successful in giving those that attended a good time. As people left, we (the organisers and crew) had a well-earned rest / small party in the bar tent. There were several opened barrels of beer that would go to waste if they weren’t consumed, so there was a ‘help yourself’ bar (the biker security crew had to be convinced that we weren’t joking, but once they realised that there was as much free beer as they could drink, they enthusiastically helped us prevent it from going to waste). One of the stall-holders had given us a thank-you present of a large cake, which was also enjoyed by most people there – it was only about half-an-hour later that we realised it had some unorthodox ingredients, so in spite of the surfeit of beer, there was a very relaxed atmosphere in the tent 🙂

But that wasn’t the end of it for us – see the ‘Aftermath’ section below.

I know my account above sounds rather negative, but it’s a fair summary of my experience of the festival; I did not enjoy the weekend, as it was an almost sleepless full-on non-stop problem-solving few days, with no time to enjoy what we had helped to create – partly because of our lack of experience, exacerbated by a few unforeseen incidents, and the disappointing actions of the police. But, I am very pleased that we did it!

(Les Wilkins)

I was having a lift there with J.S., and naively carrying a chillum and hash when we got stopped … I noticed straight away that the guy fronting the plain clothes was none other than Sergeant Dick Parry of Operation Julie hit-squad fame, and who interrogated me in Swindon along with many others … I got out of the car with chillum and dope in pockets as he walked towards me and I addressed him by name … much to his surprise … I then played the old soldier once he remembered me, and when asked why I was there … at a music festival??? I said we were here for some fun; he just waved us through … phew!!! All a bit hazy, but lovely event and I recall Man playing and Nik…. bless him….. muscling in on the act as he was often wont to do given a chance, and then there was the lovely Osibisa.

(Someone who was there)

I went to Montgomery as part of the Green Roadshow – 3 of us on a café bus, me, Terry and Marijke and her tipi. Terry was driving the bus, but he’d only driven tanks before, and the bus got rather battered around the edges on the banks of the narrow lanes on the way. Can’t remember much about the actual festival except general good times and cooking many bean burgers!

After Montgomery I drove a left-hand drive transit up the M6 to Silver Moon, with the Green Gathering dragon on the roof.

(Beck Woodrow)

Unfortunately the festival lost just under £4000, which none of us had. We contacted all those we owed money to, explained the situation, and told them that we would pay them in full, but it might take 2 – 3 months to raise the money. All but one accepted this, and they all did get paid by when we said. It took me almost 2 years to pay back the money I had to borrow to pay my share – the most expensive festival I have ever been to!

The one who wouldn’t accept it (G.M. of Imprint in Newtown, who printed the programs), threatened two of us with immediate violence when we visited him to try to sort it out, said that we were “full of shit”, and that it was disgusting that I had a car (a 15-year-old Volvo that had not much life left in it) when I owed him money.  He wouldn’t accept our offer of full payment within 10 weeks, and issued court proceedings, via a solicitor, to recover his money. A few weeks later, I visited him again with a cheque for one-sixth of his invoice (my share, £150 – two others had already paid, and three others had promised it within the stated timespan), but he refused the cheque and said he would rather take me to court. He also accused me of buying a house out of the profits from the festival (the week after the festival we had moved into our first house)! Eventually his solicitor must have made him see sense, he got paid in full by when we said he would be paid and that was the end of that – but for all the many other events I have put on since then, none of the printing for them was done by Imprint. I would like to emphasise that this was 40 years ago, involved one nasty man, and is no reflection on the current staff of Imprint nor the company as it is today.

After the police actions, many of them unjustified – including preventing people from attending the festival – I (Les Wilkins) decided to make an official complaint against Dyfed-Powys Police. After a lot of toing-and-froing, and some help from Lord Peter Melchett (I know, I know …) and Festival Welfare Services, my complaint was found to be unjustified in the eyes of the PCA – as expected! In retrospect, my complaint was short on firm evidence, which in my naivety I had not tried to collect at the time (police names and numbers, and the names of people turned away, for example), some people were understandably reluctant to get involved in a complaint against the police, and no-one else complained about their treatment, so it is not surprising that it was not upheld.

Whether or not my complaint was a waste of time I don’t know, but I felt better for doing it; not only had the police caused a lot of people to miss the festival, they had also caused us to lose a lot of money, which we didn’t have. The Dyfed-Powys police have since maintained their tradition of being against many music and arts events in the mid-Wales area (for a time in the late 80s, seemingly particularly those involving black artists), to the detriment of many of us who live here – a contributing factor to some young people leaving the area. Welcome to the ‘Land of Song’!

Locally, there was a lot of misinformation spread about the festival, including by the local newspaper, The County Times, which still has a reputation for doing that sort of thing; they even printed a suggestion (supplied to them by the police I believe) that a robbery at the post office and neighbouring house in Clun over the festival weekend was probably done by someone going to the festival! Some of the lies they printed, including some which reflected badly on those of us who organised the festival, were supplied to them by the police, and were not retracted even after the newspaper was shown proof that the police had lied to them; it’s unfortunate that they didn’t employ any journalists who felt it was their duty to look into the facts, and then to report truthfully – publishing lies is not journalism.

Below are some of the documents that were part of the complaint procedure.