The Bardney Pop Festival

Fly your freak flag high with this far-out film shot at the Great Western Express Festival in muddy May 1972.

Dive into the world of fuzz, fans, freaks and bands at the Great Western Express Festival, a live rock music extravaganza which caused controversy with the local Leicestershire residents one weather-beaten weekend in May 1972. Witness self-declared ‘square’ coppers cobbling together their old-school policing strategy; look on as the way-out long-hairs dig the groovy sounds - despite the lousy weather.

Atomic Rooster are captured onstage in their heyday in this fabulous compilation of fascinating footage shot for an Anglia Television documentary. Other notable acts at this contentious festival (at which the price of loon pants ranged between £2 and £2.60) included The Faces, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Beach Boys and an early incarnation of Genesis.