Bands that just missed being at Woodstock

[Vincent Vega]

Thought this was interesting:

Bob Dylan, in whose backyard the festival was placed (to get the poet laureate of the counterculture to come out and play) was never in serious negotiation. Instead, Dylan signed in mid-July to play the Isle of Wight Festival of Music, on August 31. Dylan set sail for England on the Queen Elizabeth 2 on August 15, the day the Woodstock Festival started. His son was injured by a cabin door and the family disembarked. Dylan, with his wife Sarah, flew to England the following week. Dylan had been unhappy about the number of hippies piling up outside his house in the nearby town of Woodstock.[26]

The Beatles/John Lennon: woodstockstories.com presents two scenarios as to why The Beatles did not perform. The first is that promoters contacted John Lennon to discuss a Beatles performance at Woodstock, and Lennon said that the Beatles would not play unless there was also a spot at the festival for Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band, whereupon he was turned down.[27][unreliable source?] The website claims the more likely explanation is that Lennon wanted to play but his entry into the United States from Canada was blocked by President Richard Nixon.[28][29][unreliable source?] The Beatles were in any case on the verge of breaking up. Also, they had not performed any live concerts since August 1966, three full years before the festival (not including their impromptu rooftop concert given on January 30, 1969 a few months before).

Jeff Beck Group was scheduled to play on Sunday, but a few days before Woodstock, Nicky Hopkins left the band and the rest of the group disbanded.[citation needed] However, Nicky Hopkins did play at Woodstock after all by playing with the Jefferson Airplane.

The Doors were considered as a potential performing band, but canceled at the last moment; according to guitarist Robby Krieger, they turned it down because they thought it would be a "second class repeat of Monterey Pop Festival", and later regretted that decision.[30]

Led Zeppelin was asked to perform, their manager Peter Grant stating: "We were asked to do Woodstock and Atlantic were very keen, and so was our U.S. promoter, Frank Barsalona. I said no because at Woodstock we'd have just been another band on the bill." Instead the group went on with their hugely successful summer tour, playing that weekend south of the festival at the Asbury Park Convention Hall in New Jersey. Their only time out taken was to attend Elvis Presley's show at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, on August 12.[31]

The Byrds were invited, but chose not to participate, figuring Woodstock to be no different from any of the other music festivals that summer. There were also concerns about money. As bassist John York remembers: "We were flying to a gig and Roger [McGuinn] came up to us and said that a guy was putting on a festival in upstate New York. But at that point they weren't paying all of the bands. He asked us if we wanted to do it and we said, 'No'. We had no idea what it was going to be. We were burned out and tired of the festival scene. [...] So all of us said, 'No, we want a rest' and missed the best festival of all.'"[32]

Tommy James and the Shondells declined an invitation. Lead singer Tommy James stated later: "We could have just kicked ourselves. We were in Hawaii, and my secretary called and said, 'Yeah, listen, there's this pig farmer in upstate New York that wants you to play in his field.' That's how it was put to me. So we passed, and we realized what we'd missed a couple of days later."[33]

The Moody Blues were included on the original Wallkill poster as performers, but decided to back out after being booked in Paris the same weekend.[34]

Spirit also declined an invitation to play, as they already had shows planned and wanted to play those instead, not knowing how big Woodstock would be.[35]

Joni Mitchell was originally slated to perform, but canceled at the urging of her manager to avoid missing a scheduled appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.[36]

Roy Rogers was asked by Lang to close the festival with Happy Trails but he declined.[37]

Now imagine if all those extra acts had performed at Woodstock besides the ones that did.

Edited January 11, 2011 by Indigo Child

[duff_rose]

Thank God they didn't play!

If all those bands had actually performed at Woodstock too, I would just feel even more shitty about being young in the '00/'10's.

Edited January 11, 2011 by duff_rose

[JAC185]

Thank God they didn't play!

If all those bands had actually performed at Woodstock too, I would just feel even more shitty about being young in the '00/'10's.

If all those bands had played it would probably still be going on.

Edited January 11, 2011 by JAC185