Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970

The Moody Blues | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Eagle Records
• ASIN: B001BP4UCW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,882 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

In 1970 The Moody Blues were at their creative and commercial peak. After reinventing themselves from their R&B roots to a much more sophisticated sound, between 1967 and 1970 they released five albums, four of which hit the Top 5 in the UK with two of them going to No.1. They enjoyed similar success in the USA where four of the albums hit the Top 20 and the other was just outside. At the end of August 1970, shortly after the release of their album "A Question Of Balance", The Moody Blues took to the stage of the Isle Of Wight Festival in front of an audience estimated at over half a million. This CD makes that performance available for the first time. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars better than +5 overall, August 28, 2008

By 

Mark Mateja (Erie, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (Audio CD)

If you like your classic Moodies in the raw, and are a big fan of the Caught Live + 5 sound, you will love this. If you want the studio sound, best to stick with your Core 7 Cds. Better yet to consider this CD as a unique stand alone piece of art and sonic history, since it is not at all a copy of CL+5.(One is enough).
Its speaks to the strength of the songs themselves and the ability of the Moodies to work out different presentations of the same songs so that they work both in the living room with your headphones as well as to an outdoor venue with 600,000 people, of course not without some rearrangements. Unlike Justin Hayward, I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. As a result of not being able to include the studio crossovers and fadeouts, the Moodies were "forced" to write at least a couple minutes of original never before released intros and endings to songs like MS and Tortise, and for that alone I think its worth getting this CD. If you ever wanted to dance to Minstrels Song but were afraid to try, you can do so easily to this boogie-friendly version.
Regarding the sound, Gypsy and Tuesday Afternoon are delightfully grungy, with some growling guitar down in the TA mix. Generally, it is a kind of boomy and bass heavy sound on the rock passages, and all the guitar parts are up in the mix, and Justin even hits a few good distorted notes in there somewhere. On the other side, there are some really great pin-drop passages, where the sound is really clean and intimate. Quite an achievement I think to effectively present some really crushing hard rock with some quiet songs in that setting.
Pinder fans will like the vocal mixes, he is very prominent, and unlike +5, John's falsetto is not, so the four part harmonies have that nice deep men's chorus roar ala on I'm Just A Singer, and there is nothing like the See Saw vocal imbalance on +5. In fact the harmonies are close considering the conditions, and on songs like Sunset, Melancholy Man, Are You Sitting, and some other spots the lead vocals sound much closer miked and recorded than some +5 songs. The drumming from Graeme Edge, which in the studio was often restrained and low in the mix, is powerful, raw, upfront, and really gave the live songs a consistent backbone here, even when the vocals and mellotron were out and in at times. He really comes up with some great fills live to replace all the overdubbed piano and mellotron parts that they couldn't take with them to the stage.
I've always preferred the live version of The Dream/Have You Heard to the studio, and its really a highlight here. You really get a sense of how big the mellotron sound was on this more than on the +5 HYH, especially on the entended transition from Are You Sitting to the Dream,
and the big tron swoops going into the Voyage. On this version, there is a heart-beat like rhthym in the Voyage, some audience reaction, some mellotron, and it all makes for some great tension and anticipation.
It is an uneven recording and presentation, and even comparing it with Caught Live is an apple/orange thing; For example, on the +5 Sunset the mellotron swells and growls like a living beast, and here it for some reason it is flatter and more subdued, yet the accompanying vocal is stronger and closer than on +5. Anyway, it is great to have two live Moody Blues discs from their classic period to compare; I say get them both and edit the best parts from each in the studio in your mind.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars RARE MOODY's CONCERT FINNALY ARRIVES, September 15, 2008

By 

DICK YORK IS THE BETTER DICK "ZACHARY SMITH" (NEW YORK CITY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (Audio CD)

Someone stated the audio quality is a buit 'muddy". Look, there are very few complete SETS from the 60's released legally on The Moody Blues. I have heard the CD and it is NOT muddy. It is the best sound they could get using the equipment available. NO, it is not 'digital', not DTS, not 5.1 surround. It is bare, analog, and RARE!! Songs with MIKE PINDER! Melancholy MAN, TORTOISE AND THE HARE!!! COme on...this is VINTAGE material. This is the best quality possible. It's GOOD. Not Great. As far as the PERFORMANCE, it's pretty good considering it was at the awful and awfully crowded ISLE OF WIGHT concert that was plagued with drugs, police, people crashing the shows, and just plain hippie psychededlicia gone wrong. So this is a GOOD performance for the circumstances!!

Now--here is even BETTER NEWS__THIS SHOW WILL BE RELEAAED ONTO DVD in 2009!!! I do not know if the ENTIRE SET will be on DVD (due to what film derterioration problems were encountered) but a good portion of this show will be on DVD by FEBRUARY!! Look for it with some bonus features with MIKE PINDER himse3lf!! (I don't excpect him to pull out the old Mellotron and PLAY "Simple Game" -Don't you WISH!!). Too bad the Moody's live shows of the 60's are so limited in release. I will TAKE THIS. It is decent.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice...not Great, September 2, 2008

By 

K. C. Cushing (Saratoga Springs, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (Audio CD)

I wanted very much to like this live offering more than I actually did. The sound quality is fairly muddy, but given the live recording technolgy of the day, the engineers did a credible job. As for the music itself, live renditions of songs composed by Mike Pinder are quite welcome as Pinder has been on the "outs" with the band since the 70's. Long time fans will appreciate a set list that is varied from what we've come to expect from the band.
Justin Hayward, as always, seems both relaxed and focused for his leads on classics like Gypsy, Tuesday Afternoon, Are you Sitting Comfortably and Nights in White Satin. Edge keeps a great beat throughout and his drumming appears to be a bit more upfront in the mix giving the music more of a rock feel.
So 3 stars out of five? The Moody's have set high standards in the past and this offering, some 40 years old, doesn't meet the high expectations I've come to expect from them. Hope the coming DVD compliments the audio and the sum of the two exceeds the results of this CD.