In 1968 Ray Foulk and his brother Ron, had originally planned a concert to raise money for a local swimming pool. The concert brought in 12,000 kids to watch such headlining acts as, Jefferson Airplane and Arthur Brown. The concert didn’t just break even, but in fact made a profit as well!

With the profits from the first concert held in August of 1968, Ray Foulk and Rikki Farr had flown over to New York with a film of the 1968 concert and tried to persuade Bob Dylan to appear at the 1969 festival, the island’s second music festival which was to be held on the last weekend in August. For a sum of 35,000 pounds, Bob Dylan had agreed to headline the 1969 musical festival. Included on the bill were Joe Cocker, The Who, the Moody Blues, the Pretty Things, Family and Fat Mattress who attracted an audience of 200,000 people, even though the Foulk brothers claim only 70,000 tickets had been sold.

By mid-summer of 1970, Ray Foulk’s organisation had grown to a 60 person operation called Fiery Creation who were operating from a 25,000 pound mansion decked out with red velvet drapes and tennis courts. The organisation had its fair share of problems; trying to raise money, crowd control and breaching contracts. Despite the chaotic organisation that occurred, Fiery Creation managed to bring major acts over to the Isle Of Wight, including - Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Leonard Cohen, Richie Havens, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who, Ten Years After, Joni Mitchell, Emerson-Lake & Palmer, Free, Miles Davis, John Sebastian, Mungro Jerry, Cat Mother, the Everly Brothers, Heaven, Pentangle, Donovan, Tiny Tim, Ralph Mc Tell, Good News, Cactus, Family, Taste, Voices of East Harlem, Chicago, Procol Harum, Melanie, Arrival, Lighthouse, Fairfield Parlour, Tony Joe White, Howl, Groundhogs, Everyone with Andy Roberts, Black Widow, Supertramp, Mighty Baby, Kris Krisstofferson, Redbone, Kathy Smith, Judas Jump, Rosalie Sorrels as well as The Doors.

The festival was originally planned to be held on a site on the eastern side of the island, near the grounds which hosted the 1969 festival, but was turned down by local owners on two separate occasions. Eventually, Fiery Creation had found a site on the western side of the island, a 165-acre site known as the "East Afton Farm". Fiery Creation had to pay the owner, David Clarke, a sum of 8,000 pounds to secure the spot. It was estimated that by August 25, the island had approximately 40,000 people from all walks of life who came to see this great feat. The concert lasted for five days and started on Wednesday, August 26 and ran straight through until Sunday, August 30. Master of Ceremonies for the festival was Rikki Farr, whom for most parts of the five day event would verbally abuse, patronise and loose his cool with the audience - particularly with the 10,000 hippies who were camped on "Devastation Hill" ("Desolation Row") that refused to pay the three pound entry fee and who also tried to bring down the corrugated fence. The festival had sold 150,000 tickets and over 600,000 people had visited the island during the five day event.

The major highlights of the festival can be seen on a two hour film, "A Message To Love: The Isle Of Wight Music Festival 1970", which was produced by Murray Lerner and filmed by a seven person camera crew. Recently released on a Japanese label, The Isle Of Wight Music Festival can be seen on laser-disc which has an additional twenty minutes of the two hour film.

Included in this film is two Doors’ epics, a short excerpt of "When The Music’s Over" and "The End", with Jim hanging off the mike stand while smoking a cigar.

The Doors attended this festival more because of their financial situation, as the group never really liked playing at out-door venues in front of thousands of people whom they could not see let alone hear. The Doors had their fair share of bad acoustic experiences playing at out door venues, such as the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Madison Square Garden in New York and Varsity Stadium in Toronto and they knew to well what the outcome of this concert would be like. The Doors came on stage at around midnight, right after Emerson-Lake-Palmer who made their debut performance and played a fairly good set.

"It is officially reported that over a half a million people have come to the Isle Of Wight for this festival. One of the reason ... one of the reasons, ladies and gentlemen is on the stage now. Please welcome, The Doors ! " ; announced M.C, Rikki Farr.

The Doors opened up with a pretty gutsy version of "Back Door Man" and was followed by an energetic sounding version of "Break On Through", which has a similar musical/lyrical arrangement to the version that appears on Elektra’s "Absolutely Live" album.

Morrison gave out his blood curling screams and Krieger played his snake like slithering guitar sound during the group’s next number, "When The Music’s Over".

The Doors had decided to play two songs, "Ship Of Fools" and "Roadhouse Blues" from their latest album at the time, "Morrison Hotel". Ray Manzarek had played an extended improvised organ solo during "Ship Of Fools". Krieger’s guitar playing during his instrumental break on "Ship Of Fools" had veered off from the style and progression that one would hear on the studio version of the same song. Right at the end of this song, Morrison had borrowed a line from "Land Ho !" as he sang;

"Laaaaaaa-nd, Land Ho ! Laaaaaaa-nd, Land Ho !"

Unlike the audience recording, the recently released soundboard recording of this concert also included "Roadhouse Blues".

Following "Roadhouse Blues", "Light My Fire" was played with some rather interesting extended solos by Ray and Robbie.

The group finished their set with their beautifully haunting masterpiece, "The End". This particular version of "The End" also included "Across The Sea", "Away In India", "Cross-roads" and surprisingly "Wake Up". "Wake Up" was not usually inserted within "The End" - but seeing Jim didn’t prelude "Light My Fire" with "Wake Up" as he normally would, on this occasion he took the opportunity and blended it in seamlessly.

Following The Doors set was The Who, who had also played a good set and were well received by the audience.

Those who witnessed this concert, weren’t really impressed with Jim’s performance as for most part of the concert he just stood at the microphone and didn’t move around much.

Some reviews for The Doors performance were rather negative and highly critical;

"The Doors were abysmal. Since watching them drag their weary way through that embarrassing set, people I’ve rapped to often tell me what I missed and how good Manzarek was and how well they did Light my Fire and how foxy Morrison looked. It must be fucking hard work for people who dug the band in the past to keep those pretty illusions floating around. They were bored and apathetic, to them it was just another gig to keep their charisma going; but this time they blew it." (Coleman, John. "IOW 70: The Music". Friends, October 2, 1970.)

Other reviews were a little more "forgiving" and not as harsh;

"For nearly everyone it was the very first time that they had ever seen the legendary Jim Morrison. Whether he lived up to their expectations we’ll never know, nevertheless both he and the Doors were given a resounding welcome (writes Roy Carr). Having seen the Doors on a number of occasions, I can report that this was a good, if somewhat subdued, performance which consisted mainly of songs from their three-year old first album. A bearded Morrison was just content to stand quite still and deliver his rather sombre songs, while organist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore provide an equally sinister backing. The Doors music is a very acquired taste, but it seems that it is liked by many." (Carr, Roy. "Yes, There Was Music Too !". New Musical Express, September 5, 1970.)

In Jim’s defence though, he was up for almost 36 hours straight without any sleep and was no doubt fatigued from jet lag. To top things off, Judge Goodman had changed the date for the Miami trial at the last minute, which forced The Doors to cancel the rest of their European Tour and return on the following Monday, August 31 to face the judge and jury - only to find out later that Judge Goodman had changed the date once again to Wednesday, September 2!

This was The Doors’ second European Tour and also the last time Jim would perform outside of the States.

This was The Doors’ second European Tour and also the last time Jim would perform outside of the States - unfortunately, it was Jimi Hendrix’s last live performance.

This recording is the complete (and almost un-edited) concert recording and is directly taken from the soundboard and mixed down into stereo. The only set back is that this version of "The End" doesn’t include "Away In India/Cross-roads". The sound quality of this concert is excellent.

Following The Doors concert on August 29, John Tobler, writer for Zig Zag magazine, had interviewed Jim Morrison at The Isle Of Wight Music Festival on the following day. In this interview, Morrison summarised his thoughts and feelings about The Isle Of Wight Music Festival and his previous performances. As well as the complete soundboard recording of The Doors concert at The Isle Of Wight Music Festival, this is the complete Jim Morrison/John Tobler interview with enhanced sound quality.