Well the only time I ever saw Don was at Knebworth around 1974/5 when they used to have those outdoor festivals in the summer. Remember?
I was watching with some friends, having never previously heard any of his stuff at all. I can plainly remember John Peel coming on and introducing Don this way: ‘here he is: the guvnor!’, clearly remembered even though I was undergoing an artificially-induced religious experience…
I was scared to death. The only way I could survive was to lie down between the legs of a mate’s girlfriend for an hour or so, while the man did his set and I hid. Nice..
At the end of it, I can also recall that half the crowd couldn’t appreciate his performance at all whereas the other half were going ballistic. Which is pretty much how I still feel to this day about the guy: he’s definitely a genius; but a flawed one.
-Chris Hayes
I was at Knebworth and witnessed the. Performance I was a Beefheart fan and still am but it was hard going maybe too much on the blotting paper.