Chicago – The First And Only Time

• Place – Isle of Wight Festival
• Time – Friday 28th August 1970
• Artist – Chicago

On the Friday about an hour before the band Chicago was to go on stage, the truck was invaded by several members of Chicago’s entourage.

Much to Vic’s delight Columbia records had also sent their own engineer to record the band.

Although he had to hang around to advise the engineer with the desk, this would be the only act, except for Miles Davis that Vic did not record throughout the entire festival.

The Marx Brothers on acid

This team of merry men was like the Marx Brothers on acid. They all had their own ideas as to the best way to record Chicago’s performance or perhaps they were justifying the cost of them being there.

What a shambles! Disagreements, arguments, ego clashes, it was truly wonderful to watch.

Vic and I tried to help in any way possible but it was hard to find out exactly whose instructions we should follow. Vic was trying to set the desk as per their engineer’s instructions and I was relaying the mic requirements to our crew on the stage.

Finally the tape was rolling and Chicago were performing.

All seemed to be going well, when suddenly the 8-track machine stopped recording and the recording truck plunged into total darkness.

Pandemonium Breaks Out

The super tight sound of Chicago thundering through our speakers suddenly died to leave just an ambient echo of them emanating from the stage.

This was the first and only time a power failure occurred in the mobile during the recording of this festival.

With the band still performing and the tape not running, absolute pandemonium broke out in the truck.

It was hard to see which of them was having the bigger heart attack but it certainly wasn’t Vic or me.

We left them all in the truck, screaming and shouting obscenities at each other whilst we got on with trying to trace what had happened to the power.

It took around ten minutes of rummaging around outside, following the route of various leads and cables only to discover that the answer was very simple. Someone had kicked out the mains plug which connected to our truck extension boards to the power socket. The power was soon restored and the recording resumed.

I remember it being a very warm evening outside but the atmosphere in the mobile was pretty damn frosty for the rest of their set.

In this case, all the preparation and knowledge in the world was no match for a fight between a size 13 boot and a 13-amp plug.

I would like to thank Neville Crozier for his help with these IOW posts

Isle of Wight – a Beautiful Dream That Became a Monster

The Doors – In the Dark About the Bass Player

The Who – Hells Angels and a Broken Drum Mic

Jimi Hendrix – Arrogance and a Death Threat

A Look At Vic Maile Recording Engineer/Producer & Close Friend

Eldorado The Album & Meeting Lou Clark For The First Time

Geriatric Dinosaurs Join The Party

Master Plan Part 1: Tricking Your Way To An Amazing Record Deal

Nostromo The Alien Theme – In Space No One Can Make You Dance – Except – Nostromo