NEW YORK, Aug. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- About 100 miles
south of Atlanta, next to a field
just outside the town of Byron,
there stands a plaque erected by the Georgia Historical Society
marking the location of the Second Atlanta International Pop
Festival, where from July 3-5, 1970,
"Over thirty musical acts performed, including rock icon
Jimi Hendrix playing to the largest
American audience of this career." Despite the overwhelming
attendance (estimated to be 300,000-400,000), the festival and
Hendrix's performance in particular, has not received its due in
terms of historic importance and impact until now.
Jimi Hendrix: Electric
Church, a new documentary film about the music legend's Atlanta
Pop set and the circumstances surrounding it, will debut on
SHOWTIME on Sept. 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Experience Hendrix L.L.C. and
Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music
Entertainment, is releasing the DVD and Blu-ray version on
Oct. 30, which will feature bonus
content not included in the broadcast version. The film documents
the massive festival hailed then as the 'Southern Woodstock' and recognized now as the
last great US Rock Festival. The film presents the story of how
rock music's burgeoning festival culture descended en masse to the
tiny rural village of Byron,
Georgia and witnessed Hendrix's unforgettable
performance.
The film details the efforts by Atlanta promoter Alex
Cooley to create the definitive music festival. Cooley
secured such talent as Bob Seger, BB
King and the Allman Brothers, but Hendrix was the critical
component he needed to elevate the three day festival to a major
cultural event. Electric Church features interviews with
Hendrix's Experience band mates Billy
Cox and the late Mitch
Mitchell as well as Paul
McCartney, Steve Winwood,
Rich Robinson, Kirk Hammett, Derek
Trucks, Susan Tedeschi,
festival organizer Alex Cooley and
many others. The film contains breathtaking, color 16mm footage of
Jimi Hendrix's Independence Day appearance, a mere ten weeks
before his untimely passing. Standout performances include
such Hendrix classics as "Hey Joe," "Voodoo Child (Slight Return),"
"Purple Haze," as well as confident, compelling versions of songs
such as "Room Full Of Mirrors," "Freedom," and "Straight Ahead"
that had not yet been issued by Jimi on an Experience album, but
were intended to be part of the album he was working on that
summer. "The Star Spangled Banner," played against a backdrop of
exploding fireworks, is another highlight, which Cooley recalls as
having "knocked peoples' socks off."
Jimi Hendrix: Electric
Church – DVD
http://smarturl.it/jh_ec_amzndvd
Jimi Hendrix: Electric
Church –
Blu-ray
http://smarturl.it/jh_ec_br
The audio release Freedom: Jimi Hendrix Experience Atlanta
Pop Festival, which Experience Hendrix L.L.C. and Legacy
Recordings will put out on Aug. 28,
includes six performances not seen in the Showtime documentary.
This will be available as a 2CD set and also as a 200-gram 2LP
vinyl set. The first 5,000 vinyl units will be individually
numbered.
Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival – 2CD
http://smarturl.it/jh_EFAPFCD_amzn
Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival – 2LP VINYL
http://smarturl.it/jh_EFAPFLP_amzn
By the beginning of the 1970s, Jimi
Hendrix was unquestionably one of the most exciting rock
musicians of his generation, having captivated the world with his
highly stylized approach to blues guitar. In Electric
Church, Paul McCartney freely
admits to worshipping him, adding, "We all played guitar. We all
knew a bit. But he seemed to know more than us."
Jimi Hendrix put the rock
festival concept on the map with his blistering performance at
California's Monterey Pop Festival
in 1967, headlining 1968's inaugural Miami Pop Festival, and
providing the soundtrack for the counterculture with a dazzling set
at Woodstock in 1969.
His performance at the Second Atlanta International Pop Festival
was not only significant on a musical level, but also in terms of
socio-political dynamics. The organizers were keen to push back
against the cultural divide that was very much in evidence in the
Deep South. It was assumed that rural audiences would not take
kindly to "long-hair" bands, and that black and white artists could
not comfortably exist on the same bill; Atlanta Pop set out to
challenge those beliefs. Hendrix's music and message of universal
love made him the ideal artist to represent that pushback, and,
appropriately, was the first act booked for the festival.
In the sweltering Georgia heat,
amongst intimidating bikers who were hired as security, hundreds of
thousands of mostly young music fans descended upon the festival
grounds, eventually knocking over fences and leaving the organizers
with no choice but to declare it a free event. Law enforcement, not
equipped to handle such crowds, adopted a hands-off policy with
regards to crowd control, drug use and nudity. Against incredible
odds, the event proved to be largely peaceful. By the time the Jimi
Hendrix Experience took the stage on the evening of July 4, the audience swelled to more than
300,000.
Massive, anarchic music fests in the U.S., unencumbered by high
ticket prices and corporate sponsors were soon to be extinct, and
the Atlanta Pop Festival was the last of this dying breed.
Glenn Phillips (Hampton Grease Band)
says, "This was, certainly in retrospect, sort of the end of an
era, and a great end to an era. It was a powerful moment."
The Atlanta festival footage in
Electric Church was shot by Steve
Rash, later known for directing such Hollywood films as The Buddy Holly
Story and Can't Buy Me Love. Rash intended for the
footage he and his team were filming to be used for a documentary
in the vein of Woodstock. When a deal couldn't be
secured, virtually all of the film lay undeveloped inside Rash's
barn for over three decades. The full-color film stock held up
remarkably well, and makes for a transcendent viewing
experience.
Bill Mankin, who worked on the
construction and stage crews for the festival, provides liner notes
for the Freedom package, describing his first-hand account.
He explains, "At the center of the vortex was the master magician
on guitar: the personification of a life lived fully and wildly,
with no boundaries, no limitations, and aiming for the stars at
light speed."
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Freedom: Atlanta Pop
Festival 2CD/2LP VINYL (release date: August 28)
Disc 1
1) Fire
2) Lover Man
3) Spanish Castle Magic
4) Red House
5) Room Full Of Mirrors
6) Hear My Train A Comin'
7) Message To Love
Disc 2
1) All Along The Watchtower
2) Freedom
3) Foxey Lady
4) Purple Haze
5) Hey Joe
6) Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
7) Stone Free
8) Star Spangled Banner
9) Straight Ahead
Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church
DVD/Blu-ray (release date: October
30)
Contains performances of three additional songs
not included in the broadcast version of the film, and other never
before released Hendrix bonus content.
About Legacy Recordings:
Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music
Entertainment, is home to the world's foremost library of
historically significant commercial recordings, a peerless
collection of works by the most important musical artists of the
19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Across a variety of platforms,
the label offers contemporary music fans access to thousands of
meticulously restored and remastered archival titles representing
virtually every musical genre including popular, rock, jazz, blues,
R&B, folk, country, gospel, Broadway musicals, movie
soundtracks, rap/hip-hop, world music, classical, comedy and
more.
About Experience Hendrix L.L.C.:
Founded by James 'Al' Hendrix, Jimi's father, in 1995, Experience
Hendrix, has been managed since its inception by the family members
handpicked by Al during his tenure as Chairman. It is the official
family company charged with managing the music, name, image and
likeness of Jimi Hendrix. As a part
of their daily operations, Experience Hendrix and Authentic Hendrix
oversee Jimi's timeless legacy on a worldwide basis.
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