Actuel Festival
FZ as MC: Amougies & Turnips
Late in October 1969, after the break-up of the Mothers Of Invention, Zappa agreed to being a Master of Ceremonies - co-hosting with Pierre Lattes - at an open air concert in France. The event was put together by BYG Actuel, a French record label specializing in free-form jazz acts that was attracting artists to Paris in a recording bid for the American market. (The BYG comes from the founder's surnames; Jacques Bisceglia, Jean-Luc Young and Jean Georgakarakos).
Supported by the Ricard Foundation, this event was to be the biggest five-day, 24-hour open-air concert to be held in Europe at the Parc Saint Cloud in Paris. With over 55 acts, it was billed right up to the eleventh-hour as the "First Paris Music Festival". The bands were booked, the posters were printed but, due to environmental concerns just days before the event, lobbyists in the French capital placed a ban on the show.
For Zappa this concert became a makeshift disaster, far removed from the planning and logistical approach of his usual appearances. He arrived to find that the event had been hastily moved, across the French border, to a turnip field in Belgium.
The concert was sited in the remote town of Amougies, (now Amougies, Mont-de-l'Enclus), Belgium - and consisted of a makeshift performance tent held up by steel girders in a turnip field - attended by over 15,000 people who had to sleep and eat rough in a climate of cold, damp and fog. Zappa's role as an MC turned into a failure - he only spoke English and the audience only understood French, or Belgian and German. Festival co-host Pierre Lattes, who was also Music Editor for Actuel Magazine and hosting live portions of the show out onto French LW Radio, suggested Zappa could play along with some of the bands, but this too proved a disappointment. FZ generally described this event as one of the most miserable points in his career.
In hindsight, the Parisian authorities were perhaps foolish. Many of the bands booked for this event were the cream of the rock and jazz scene at the time, and if the event had occurred in the comfort of the Paris stadium it is likely that it would have become a regular European event similar to that of Glastonbury.
Here's one of the posters, some scenes from the 'Turnip' stage and a mouthwatering bandlist:
The First Paris Music Festival: Actuel
Organised by BYG Records, supported by The Ricard Foundation
24th - 28th Oct 1969 - 60 Hours of Music - 60 Francs
Introduced by Frank Zappa & Pierre Lattes
Friday Night: 24th Oct
Pop Music
that ended up in a Belgian turnip field
- Ten Years After
- Colosseum
- Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation
- Alan Jack Civilization
Free Jazz
- Art Ensemble Of Chicago
- Sunny Murray
- Burton Greene
- 360 Degree Music Experience
New Music
- Free Music Group
Saturday Night: 25th Oct
Pop Music
- Pink Floyd
- Freedom
- Keith Relf's Rennaisance
- Alexis Korner & The New Church
- Blues Convention
Free Jazz
- Grachan Moncur lll
- Arthur Jones
- Jochim Kuhn
- Don Cherry
Onstage at Amougies, Tuesday 28th Oct, 1969
Sunday Afternoon: 26th Oct
French Pop Groups
- Martin Circus
- Alan Jack Civilization
- Triangle
- We Free
- Cruciferius
- Indescriptable Chaos Rampant
- (Interim Spectacle:
Max Auer & Claudia Saumade)
Amplification by Standel
Environmental Direction: Jacques Cherix
Coordination: Brigette Guichard
Sunday Night: 26th Oct
Pop Music
- The Nice
- Caravan
- Blossom Toes
- Ame Son
Free Jazz
- Archie Shepp
- Kenneth Terroade
- Anthony Braxton
New Music
- Germ (P Marietan)
Onstage at Amougies, Saturday 25th Oct, 1969
Monday Night: 27th Oct
Pop Music
- Yes
- Pretty Things
- Chicken Shack
- Sam Apple Pie
- Frogeaters
- Daevid Allen Group
- Keith Tippett Group
Free Jazz
- Pharoah Sanders
- Dave Burrell
- John Surman
- Clifford Thornton
- Sonny Sharrock
New Music
- Acting Trio
Photo: Jacques Bisceglia (BYG) for Downbeat
Tuesday Night: 28th Oct
Pop Music
- Soft Machine
- Captain Beefheart
- East Of Eden
- Fat Mattress
- Zoo
Free Jazz
- Alan Silva
- Robin Kenyatta
- Chris MacGregor
- Steve Lacy
- Dave Burrell Big Band
New Music
- Musica Elettronica Viva
Here are two articles upon FZ's comments of this event;
Extract from It's all in self-defence Friends, 1969 November 22, by Jonathan Green (Rolling Stone, Clinic):
"There were this group of people from Paris who put the shit on this festival, mainly because they were scared to death of having large numbers in that city. So these guys who wanted to put the festival on just refused to quit and they finally wound up choosing a cow pasture about two hours out of Brussels.
A lot of fog, and I guess it must have been twenty or thirty degrees out there, it was really miserable, a few tents and the people began to turn up from nowhere and they turned on the PA and that worked, and they turned on the lights and they worked, and the groups actually began to play and by God they had a pop festival.
And then they looked at it and realised that they had to keep on for five days. I was asked to join the festival. They first of all asked for the Mothers to play but there weren't any Mothers at that time, so Pierre Lotez, who I had known for some time, asked me to co-host the festival, but when I arrived there I found that most of the people spoke French and they wouldn't know what the fuck I was talking about so it was useless for me to introduce the groups.
So Pierre suggested that I might play with some of the groups. But I was at a great disadvantage because I didn't have my own guitar and I had to use other people's guitars and the amps that were around for everyone at the festival to use, and they kept blowing up and fucking up, and on top of that some of the groups found it a little difficult to relate to what I was playing. Cause, if you have a group that has certain arrangements and sets that they play every night, it's difficult to stick in an alien element that isn't part of the set up.
The audience and the reviewer forgot about those variables - perhaps seeming a little anxious to prove that I was a crappy guitar player".
Society Pages issue no. 2
They're Doing the Interview of the Century, Part 2, December 22, 1989
FZ interview by Eric Buxton, Rob Samler, Den Simms.
DS: Alright. Here's a controversy you can settle. There are many people who think that you performed, in 1969, at a festival in Belgium called 'Amougies'...
FZ: Yes
DS: ... performed onstage with Pink Floyd. True or false?
FZ: Not with Pink Floyd.
DS: That's what I thought. You introduced Beefheart to the audience...
FZ: Yes, and I introduced a lot of other acts, too. You see, that was a very weird thing. I was hired to be a master of ceremonies...
DS: Gotcha.
FZ: That was after the Mothers had broken up, and y'know, I had time on my hands. These people contacted me. They offered me ten thousand dollars to be an emcee at a festival, all expenses paid, and go over there, and, y'know, whatever I wanted to do, and I said, "Fine." So, I get there, and they neglected to tell me that nobody spoke English. (laughter) I mean, most of the people there spoke French, and all I could do was point and wave, (laughter) and furthermore, the festival was originally supposed to be in France. The French government stopped it, and so, at the last minute, it was moved across the border into Belgium, into the middle of a turnip patch, in the middle of nowhere, in a tent that was held up by steel girders. This tent held fifteen thousand people. Freezing cold, damp weather, constant fog, the most MISERABLE (laughter) circumstances you could find yourself in, for three days, and it was a twenty-four-hour-a-day festival, and the kids would come there, and they had their sleeping bags, and they were sleeping through ... they were just in this tent FREEZING, laying on the ground, sleeping, while music went on around the clock with all these groups...
DS: How bizarre.
FZ: ... and they were filming it.
DS: A true war story.
RS: So, did you perform with anyone?
DS: Yeah. To nail that down once and for all, you did not perform with Pink Floyd, right?
FZ: No. I think I performed with Aynsley Dunbar, and then, there was a jam session that had Archie Shepp, 'Philly Joe' Jones, and some other jazz guys that played.
Despite the downsides of this event for FZ, there were positive outcomes for fans. FZ did get to introduce Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, who played "Mirror Man" and "My Human Gets Me Blues" (The latter as track 1, CD 5 on Grow Fins: Rarities 1965-1982) with FZ intro;
"Listen, be quiet and pay attention to this man's music. Because, if you don't you might miss something important - and we wouldn't want that to happen to you - because you need all the friends you can get..."
Film footage of these two Beefheart numbers is included as an enhanced CD in this 'Grow Fins' set: CD 4 "amoug.mov". FZ's intro is not on this edited film, but he can be seen in the background as the camera moves around Jeff Bruchell, the 'imposter Drumbo' who replaced 'Drumbo' John French in the Magic Band.
During the festival, French film director Jérôme Laperrousaz made a documentary movie, called "Music Power". Those who claim to have seen this film suggest that Zappa can be seen playing with Archie Shepp, Captain Beefheart and Pink Floyd. However, the film has unfortunately never been released due to copyright objections by certain members appearing in it. Another director, Jean-Noel Roy, made a documentary which was also banned. Still photos by fans and bootlegs of the radio broadcast have appeared in circulation.
Zappa stated, in Society Pages Issue 2, that he never jammed with Pink Floyd. However, he may simply have not known who they were. As readers of his articles are aware, perhaps as a result of his studio-bound lifestyle and focused musical taste, he had some amazing blind spots in his 'rock guitar hero list'. On a miserable stage in winter, with language problems and a borrowed guitar, he may have thought the Floyd were a competent jazz quartet. Make up your own mind at these 2 links:
Zappa jammed on some improvised jazz pieces with Archie Shepp, drummer 'Philly Joe' Jones, Earl Freeman, Louis Maholo, John Dyani and Grachan Moncur lll. Recordings have yet to appear for this session, along with a jam with the Pretty Things, which he is reputed to have done.
The extant bootlegs of this concert contain the following FZ jam-sessions;
- Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation: Improvisation (7:08 - Oct 24th)
Victor Brox (vocals, harmonica); John Moorshead (guitar);
Alex Dmochowski (bass); Aynsley Dunbar (drums)
- Pink Floyd: Interstellar Overdrive (20:25 - Oct 25th)
David Gilmour (guitar); Richard Wright (organ);
Roger Waters (bass); Nick Mason (drums)
- Caravan: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (7:55 Oct 26th)
Pye Hastings (guitar & vocals); David Sinclair (keyboards);
Richard Sinclair (bass & vocals); Richard Coughlan (drums)
- Blossom Toes: Improvisation (26:10 Oct 26th)
Brian Godding (guitar, vocals & keyboards); Jim Cregan (guitar & vocals);
Brian Belshaw (bass & vocals); Kevin Westlake (drums)
- Sam Apple Pie: Moonlight Man (6:04 Oct 27th)
Sam Sampson (vocals & harmonica); Danny Barnes (lead guitar);
Andy Johnson (slide guitar); Bob Renny (bass & vocals); Lee Baxter Hayes Jr (drums)
One final benefit from this event was that Zappa remembered Dunbar's skills and, later in the Spring of 1970 at The Speakeasy Club in London, invited him to join the band in America. Chunga's Revenge followed.
