Miles Davis at Afton Festival

Thanks to Florence Rogers, KRPS-FM, Kansas for the following quotes from Page 318 : Miles Davis' Autobiography written with Quincy Troupe. Simon and Shuster, New York 1989.

"In August 1970 I played the Isle of Wight concert in England . . . people came from all over the world to that concert: they said they had over 350,000 people. I had never seen that many people out in front of me before."

"Jimi Hendrix was there, too. He and I were supposed to get together in London after the concert to talk about an album we had finally decided to do together. . . . Now the roads were so crowded coming back into London after that concert that we couldn't get to the meeting on time, and so by the time we got into London, Jimi wasn't there."

and back in New York with Gil Evans:

"Gil Evans called and told me that he and Jimi were going to get together and he wanted me to come down and participate. We were waiting for Jimi to come when we found out he had died in London . . ."


Miles Davis performance at the Isle of Wight came in year when he was working and recording at a tremendous rate. One of many albums he recorded in 1970 was the influential Bitches Brew. My two abiding memories of Miles Davis that day are: First, his stark trumpet carrying across this massive field of people. Secondly, the naked lady just in front of me on the downs whirling and dancing throughout Miles set.

Mike Plumbley


Cas Caswell, who played double bass for Tiny Tim at the Festival, and never got paid!! 'nearly' interviewed Miles Davis at the Festival:

"Another memory was when Joni Mitchell was on before Tiny Tim. She was an absolute knockout to look at and I'm pleased I went just to get a look at Joni Mitchell. I was also interested that I stayed on to hear Miles Davis set. For a while I was a jazz interviewer for Crescendo magazine. I used to write a lot of interviews for Crescendo magazine and I thought I'd do an interview with Miles for Crescendo magazine but I was so hyped up playing for Tiny Tim I hadn't done the professional thing of preparing any questions in my mind."

So I caught Miles just after his set, still holding his trumpet and I said 'Excuse me Mr. Davis can I interview you?' and he said 'Yes'. I just totally tried up and went 'Errh' and he stood there and I went 'Ummmm' and he still stood there and I said 'Ummmmmm' and he still stood there and then he got fed up and went."

Cas Caswell