| Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 | |
|---|---|
Paul Rodgers of the band Free singing "All Right Now" in front of the crowd |
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| Directed by | Murray Lerner |
| Produced by | Murray Lerner |
| Written by | Murray Lerner |
| Editing by | Greg Sheldon (performance sequences) Stanley Warnow (as Stan Warnow) Einar Westerlund |
| Distributed by | Castle Music Pictures Strand Releasing |
| Release date(s) | 21 February 1997 (USA) |
| Running time | 127 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
Message to Love (directed and produced by Murray Lerner) is a feature documentary film of the Isle of Wight Festival 1970.[1] The film unsparingly, often comically depicts the myriad problems associated with the famously chaotic festival—the main program of which was held on August 26–30, 1970—including gate-crashing, numerous crowd incursions onto the stage, Kris Kristofferson being booed offstage, and head promoter Rikki Farr's rants against the audience, which only intensified as the situation deteriorated: "We put this festival on, you bastards, with a lot of love! We worked for one year for you pigs! And you wanna break our walls down and you wanna destroy it? Well you go to hell!"
In addition, several near-riots occurred over the price of tickets, as well as during several of the performances that took place over the weekend, especially Jimi Hendrix's last-ever live appearance in England.
Due to financial difficulties, Message to Love wasn't released until 1997, 27 years after the event, though it premiered at a San Jose film festival in 1995.[2] A CD of the soundtrack was also issued by Castle Communications/Sony Legacy in 1997.
In recent years, Lerner's copious 16mm concert footage has been repurposed to create a wealth of complete-performance DVD releases by Hendrix ("Blue Wild Angel"), Miles Davis ("Miles Electric - A Different Kind of Blue"), The Who (Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970), Jethro Tull (Nothing Is Easy: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970), Emerson, Lake & Palmer (The Birth Of A Band: Isle of Wight 1970), The Moody Blues (Threshold of a Dream: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970), and Leonard Cohen (Leonard Cohen Live at The Isle of Wight 1970).
The film derives its title from a song that Jimi Hendrix performed, and a brief clip is shown during the opening credits.
Contents |
| Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (Explicit) | |
|---|---|
| Live album by Various Artists | |
| Released | 29 October 1996 |
| Recorded | 1970 |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 144 Minutes |
| Label | Sony Records |
| Professional reviews | |
The 2-CD set contains full versions of the songs as featured in the film. The CD release also includes dialogue from the film placed in between some of the tracks.[3]