NICK DRAKE & MAY BLITZ

I recently read Dave Lewis’ excellent article on Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left album (RC370) and was especially interested in the details relating to his few known concert appearances. Imagine my surprise then, when leafing through an issue of Melody Maker dated May 9th 1970, I discovered an ad (above) for the Bedford College all-nighter that Lewis made reference to in his piece. I was astonished to see that the line-up consisted not only of Graham Bond, Spencer Davis and John Martyn, but also the Vertigo groups East Of Eden and the hugely underrated May Blitz.

The fact that two cult acts in the form of Nick Drake and May Blitz played on the same bill together is absolutely extraordinary to me, and I was hoping someone could shed some more light on what must have been a remarkably eclectic night of music. I’m also attaching an advertisement from a later MM issue (above, right) relating to the Werewolf Management Agency. Any information on either of these would be of great interest to me.

by Kevin McCaighy
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