I was disappointed by Dylan and I explained why in my review on Monday. But before we put the Isle of Wight festival behind us here are a few of my feelings about the other acts we saw.

There was so much quality and it seems unfair to them all to leave them out just because Dylan was topping the bill.

So much depends on atmosphere. I was hearing music in a quite different way from the usual concert hall performance. I hadn’t come off a busy London street and been shown to my seat by an impatient usherette.

No, we were just there, lying on the grass, letting music of all kinds unfold before us, seep into us, really into us.

It didn’t matter what else we were doing—if we were drinking in the bar tent there was still music dissolved in the beer; if we were walking through the camp site there was slightly quieter music filtering its way through the still air.

POLITE

And it was all so gentle. People were polite, they didn’t push; no one were out there in the middle and you had run out of cigarettes someone nearby gave you another.

You talked easily to people you had never met before—none of this rubbish about introductions. But back to the music.

For me, the stars of the festival were the Who, Tom Paxton, Richie Havens and The Band.

When the first sound came out of that vast bank of speakers on Thursday evening it was a moving moment. But the festival really took off

Blind Faith in action in Hyde Park—See "Tedious."

when the Who’s helicopter dropped down just behind the stage, scattering grass over everybody, early on Saturday evening.

They were as good in action as I’ve ever seen them. There is so much excitement, such enormous presence, that they do literally affect my mind.

I was only a few yards from the stage and the noise was incredible. But the words were clear and Townshend was just magnificent. I like Tommy more and more every time I hear it.

RAPPORT

On stage the Who are far and away Britain’s best band, and I can’t think of anyone in the world to rival them.

Tom Paxton was a very emotional experience. He is so unostentatious. No fuss whatever, no drawn out guitar tuning, he just gets out there on stage and sings.

Within seconds he had this complete rapport with his audience and they got closer to him with every song. He is the complete pro, yet he is totally straight and this comes over all the time.

When he said, after his third encore, "You’ve made me happier than I’ve ever been before," he meant it. He said backstage afterwards that it was the best audience he had ever sung to.

The Band were very polished. They looked almost square, but musically they were superb. I have loved their first album for a long while and there is a new one on the way, which is something to look forward to.

Richie Haven’s hour on stage was for me the best part of the whole festival. He’s like nobody else in pop and on stage his casual arrogance makes him a fascinating performer. I could listen to his Strawberry Fields again and again.

Rikki Farr’s marathon spell

MY pick of the Isle pops

NIGHT OUT

is in Page 11

of compering was a great feat of endurance and I found him becoming more lovable all the time.

Let’s hope this festival becomes established as Britain’s big one.

TEDIOUS

BLIND Faith’s album is out, bare breasts on the cover and all. I find this argument about sleeves immensely tedious.

My reaction is always why do they bother? The sleeve is not the slightest bit attractive and anyway it’s only a package so why worry?

But inside the sleeve, surprise, surprise, is a record with some music on it. It’s very good and Blind Faith are the best of the so-called supergroups to emerge.

But they suffer in the same way as the others in that we all know the members of the band and we can all remember them in other situations.

So at times, dominated as they are by Stevie Winwood’s unique voice, Blind Faith sound like Traffic.

But always there is Eric Clapton’s guitar, about the finest sound in pop, and at times it fights its way to the front and is beautiful.

Blind Faith aren’t as good as Cream at their best but they are very good just the same.