Free, Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, Sunday, 9 May 1971

Contents

Introduction
Recordings
Images
Japan & Australia May 1971
Reminiscences
Speakers & Amps
References
Acknowledgement

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1. Introduction

Between 6-9 May 1971 a group of British rock bands toured Australia, with concerts in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. They included Deep Purple, Free and Manfred Mann Chapter 3 / Earth Band. The Australian support acts were Chain (Perth), Pirana (Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney) and Fraternity (Adelaide). The tour was billed by promoter International Booking Corporation (I.B.C.) as Australia's 1st International Rock Festival and by Melbourne radio 3AK as The Biggest Thing of '71. The concert dates were as follows:

Thursday 6th May - Perth, Beatty Park Aquatic Centre. Evening concert. Support: Chain. Pool in front of bands.
Friday 7th May - Melbourne, Festival Hall. 7pm - 2am. Presented by 3AK. Support: Pirana.
Saturday 8th May - Adelaide, Apollo Stadium, 7pm. Support: Pirana + Fraternity. Presented by 5KA and Channel 9.
Sunday 9th May - Sydney, Randwick Racecourse, 1pm. Presented by I.B.C.. Afternoon concert. Attendance: 30,000 to 50,000.
Sunday 9th May - Melbourne, Festival Hall. Special evening concert. Organised to accommodate the 5,000 fans who could not attend the Friday night concert. Free did not participate as they had departed for England later that same afternoon.

Free, Sydney, 9 May 1971.

The Milesago website summarised the tour as follows (the incorrect concert dates on the website have been corrected):

Deep Purple first visited Australia as part of a ground-breaking, sell-out package tour with Free and Manfred Mann, supported by local Santana-inspired Latin-rock band Pirana. The tour played four states in as many days, breaking all previous attendance records for rock shows in Australia. It was an influential tour for the local scene, giving Aussie audiences their first direct experience of the heavy-rock style being pioneered by bands such as the headliners, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Up to that time, fans had been reliant on records, and on cover versions performed by local bands like The Dave Miller Set. The tour played to capacity crowds for one night each in Perth and Adelaide on May 6 and 8, followed by two nights in Melbourne at the Festival Hall. The first Melbourne show on Saturday May 7 ran overtime by more than two hours, finishing after 1.00am. Over 5000 fans were turned away, so a second show on the Sunday May 9 was hastily arranged for the benefit of fans who missed the first performance. According to GO-SET, Deep Purple's first Melbourne performance was troubled by equipment problems, as was Free's set at the Sydney concert. The following day the four groups played at a rapturously-received outdoor performance at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, attended by over 30,000 people. Segments of the concert were filmed by the ABC's GTK, and the tour received extensive coverage in the GO-SET edition of May 22, with reviews of both the Melbourne and Sydney shows by Ed Nimmervol and David Elfick. (Pettersson n.d.)

Upon arrival in Australia, local criminal Sammy Lee took over control of receipt of monies from IBC and, using threats and stiff-arm tactics, hijacked the tour financially. Fortunately Free had been paid beforehand, and with Peter Grant in tow - a tough, almost English criminal himself and experienced tour manager, have recently worked with The Yardbirds and now Led Zeppelin - there would have been no messing around with him. He was likely in the country making plans for that band's Australian tour the following February. The other bands were not so lucky - refer the Clayton and Smith book extract below - with a member of the Manfred Mann band being belted up by Sammy Lee.

Free, Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, 9 May 1971. Still from original crowd colour film footage.

The following article focuses on the Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, concert by Free and the various circumstances surrounding it and the band. Band members included the original lineup:

Paul Rogers (b.1949), vocals, piano
Paul Kossoff (1950-1976), guitar
Andy Fraser (1952-2015), bass
Simon Kirke (b.1949), drums

During the concert, in which the band was facing west, Andy Fraser was on the right (north) side of the stage, with Simon Kirke next, followed by Paul Kossoff and then Paul Rogers on the far left (south) side, out in front. Kossoff often played to the left of Rogers. However. it appears that in this case he was connected to the Marshall amp on the left, but also moved in close to the centre, next to the drummer.

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We just captivated the audience. It was just a fantastic afternoon. Free was all over the front of the Australian newspapers the next morning. That’s how big it was. (Free Road Manager Graham Whyte)

2. Video and Audio recordings

* Audience colour footage

Silent colour footage from the audience exists for the 9 May 1971 Sydney concert, with all four bands represented. There is no original audio for this, however, pre-recorded music from each of the bands - except Pirana - has been overlayed on the YouTube video. There is a brief segment which shows Free on stage - Paul Rogers is dressed in brown pants and red top, and Paul Kossoff's distinctive light brown Gibson Les Paul "Burst" guitar also stands out against his yellow top. It is difficult to distinguish Fraser and Kirke.

* Pirana, Manfred Mann, Free and Deep Purple, Sydney, 9 May 1971, YouTube, 27 June 2018, duration: 1.49 minutes. Original crowd colour footage, with added soundtrack of Santana at Woodstock re Pirana which performed Soul Sacrifice on the day, and studio recordings of the Mighty Quinn by Manfred Mann, The Hunter by Free, and Speed King by Deep Purple.

* The final interview

An interview with the members of Free at Sydney airport took place upon their departure from Australia following their last concert in Sydney on 9 May 1971. It was later played on the ABC television music show GTK.

* Interview with members of Free, Sydney airport, 9 May 1971, GTK (ABC Television), YouTube, blindmelon1019, 24 February 2007, duration: 4.20 minutes. Includes footage of the band arriving (?) at Sydney airport off a Qantas jet from Adelaide, and with Led Zeppelin manger Peter Grant walking with them across the tarmac. See also this copy with a normal aspect ratio here.

Transcript of the interview:

Interviewer: Free's success all began with Fire and Water, didn't it? What was happening before that? Was it a real struggle?

Simon Kirke: Well we had been working there for two years, fairly solidly around England and Europe, and we've had a couple of singles out and two albums which had done fairly well, you know, nothing phenomenal. Then Alright Now came along you know and sort of was a hit in just about every major country, and it opened up the market incredibly. We found that we were playing to countries that normally where we would probably never gone to.

Interviewer: Did you tour extensively in England before you came out here?

Kirke: Oh yeah. We've been around England six or seven times. We've had our own concert tours, but we started in little clubs - little blues clubs - and sort of graduated I suppose to ballrooms and concert halls.

Interviewer: Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just sort of go into a recording studio and turn out a lot of records and have a really big promotion machine behind you, rather than touring, because it must be really exhausting?

Paul Kossoff: That's not lasting, really. The way we started was by just playing, playing. By the first year we'd play 12 or 13 nights in a row all over England and we would maybe have a couple of days off and then the same and that was that for a year. We have never had a holiday once, and that way you play to the people. We develop musically on stage and you build a good strong honest following, rather than hype.

Interviewer: Have Free developed any stage act; do they have any sort of showmanship when they're on stage, or do they just stand and play?

Paul Rogers: We jump about all over the place.

Interviewer: Has this something that sort of happened spontaneously, or have you all really worked on the stage act?

Rogers; Spontaneous.

Andy Fraser: We’ve never really rehearsed for the whole time we've been together. I mean, when we feel aggressive we are aggressive; when we feel mellow we are mellow.

Interviewer: When you're aggressive do you break up your guitars or anything like that?

Fraser: Well, we save the guitars; the amplifiers really catch it.

Interviewer: Do you think touring a continent of Australia is really worth the effort? It must be physically exhausting for all of you?

Rogers: Yeah, it is exhausting, but it's worth it to play, once you get on the stage, after all the hassles are over, and the stage and the lights and the equipment and you're there, it's worth it.

Interviewer: Do you think that musically the work suffers?

Rogers: Well no. It tends to express what you've been through, really. I mean, if you feel mellow because you've had a nice flight with a nice sunset then that's how you play, but if there's been a lot of hassles the gear tends to suffer, like Andy says.

Interviewer: Have you been pleased with the response from Australian audiences?

Fraser: The Australian audiences have really been nice. We've had no idea what to expect, but it's been great, and when you get on stage you do realize it's the kids that you've come for, you know? They are the kids who are buying the album and want to see you, and although it's only for an hour you have got to try to get the other 23 and the other people and their various motives. It's good.

Interviewer: What are Free intending to do when they go back to England?

Fraser and Rogers: Rest!

Fraser: I tell you!

Rogers: A long rest.

Kirke: Yeah. Take a break.

* Bootleg recordings

Audio audience bootleg recordings exist for the Free Perth and Sydney shows. The quality of both is low, however the Perth show especially reveals the power and energy of the band, despite the distortion of Paul Kossoff's often mournful guitar (viz., Be My Friend) throughout. Paul Rogers' voice comes through very strong, as usual. There is no doubt that Free was on fire at Perth, and the audience obviously enjoying themselves, judging by the fulsome clapping with the final hit song All Right Now.

* Free, Live at Beatty Park Aquatic Centre, Perth, Thursday 6 May 1971, YouTube, 8 March 2023, duration: 24.33 minutes. Tracks: Fire & Water, Ride on a Pony, I Wanna Be Your Baby, Be My Friend, I'm A Mover, All Right Now.

At the Randwick concert Free was troubled by equipment problems. The promoter provided local Lenard speakers for the PAs and band. However, from the photographs we can see that three Marshall lead and/or PA amplifier heads were also used behind Fraser, Kirke and Rogers, and another behind Kossoff. The set list included the following songs:

An audience bootleg recording is available on CD and YouTube as follows:

(1) The Stealer, YouTube, duration: 5.10 minutes.

(2) I'm A Mover, YouTube, duration: 6.07 minutes.

(3) Be My Friend, YouTube, duration: 6.40 minutes.

(4) Fire and Water, YouTube, duration: 6.06 minutes.

(5) Heavy Load, YouTube, duration: 8.37 minutes.

(6) The Highway Song, YouTube, duration: 7.15 minutes.

(7) Mr Big, YouTube, duration: 7.58 minutes.

(8) All Right Now, YouTube, duration: 6.37 minutes.

(9) Ride on a Pony, YouTube, duration: 4.31 minutes.

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3. Photographs

A number of professional and amateur photographs of the Free Randwick performance survive. Some were published in magazines during 1971 and others have been released since then.

Free, Sydney, 9 May 1971. Photographer: Phillip Morris.

View looking north-west across the large crowd. Source: Unknown.

Sydney, 9 May 1971. Source: Unknown magazine.

Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, 10 May 1971. Transcript below.

Simon Kirke and Paul Kossoff, Sydney, 9 May 1971. Photographer: Phillip Morris, Flickr. Note the Marshall amplifier heads on the Lenard speaker boxes.

Promotional leaflet.

Source: Unknown. #1

Source: Unknown. #2

Source: Unknown. #3

Source: Unknown. #4

Source: Unknown. #5

Source: Unknown. #6

Source: Unknown. #7

Source: Unknown. #8

Source: Unknown. #9

Source: Unknown. #10

Manfred Mann & David Kossoff, Sydney, 9 May 1971.

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4. End of days

The Sydney concert of 9 May 1971 proved to be the farewell performance of the original incarnation of Free. The lead up to the breakup was outlined in the 2003 band biography chapter of the band's Asian and Australian tour.

* David Clayton and Todd K. Smith, Heavy Load: The Story of Free, Moonshine Publishing, 2003, 300p.

Chapter 14 - Japan and Australia, May 1971

..... For Island Records Manager Johnny Glover and the rest back at Island’s round table, plans were put together for a fortnight’s stay in Japan and four big shows in Australia. The tour would then continue with the talented package of Free and Mott The Hoople storming through the United States, capitalising on the popularity of Free’s two previous stints. Likely tours of Europe and the UK would then be booked to round out the itinerary before the band headed back to the studio and finished off another album. Management had no indication that the band was about to self-destruct. “They’d become a big act,” noted Glover. “So I said to Chris [Blackwell], ‘Look, I’d really like to do something properly, like a three-month world tour’. We were going to put them in a different bracket.”

Johnny Glover’s relationship with Andy Fraser was much closer than with the other members of the group because of the bassist’s prominent role in the band’s business affairs. The two spoke almost daily constructing the intricate details that were then surrounding a soon to be ‘world-class’ band. The first unsettling indication of a split, for Glover, was on the plane flight to Japan. Unusual for the two, Paul Rodgers and Fraser chose not to sit together. Simon Kirke and Paul Kossoff tried to lighten it up in their usual style, Kossoff with his comical impressions and Kirke with his sailor-like humour. Sitting next to Glover, Fraser leaned over and said, “I’m gonna be quite sad when we get off this tour’.” Glover asked, “Why?” “Oh, yeah,” Fraser went on nonchalantly. “It’s always difficult coming to the end of something.” Glover remained speechless as Fraser confided that, the night before, he and Rodgers had broken their code of silence and gone in to see Blackwell. They told him they were going to “knock it on the head because it just wasn’t happening”. In short, Fraser and Rodgers were breaking up the band at the end of the tour. Andy said that basically he and Paul had fallen out and that was it. Free was over.

The intensity of the song-writing team that had pushed Free to its most successful heights was now the leading factor in their destruction. “Andy would tell everybody what to do because he was that way inclined,” said Johnny Glover. “Andy is a tremendously strong personality, and was very much the business driving force of the band. They all accepted that. Then one day, Paul Rodgers realised that he was quite capable of making those decisions too. The two clashed at that point. All of a sudden Andy was being questioned.” Exhaustion added to the conflicting emotions. “I had made it clear to everyone that I wasn’t ready to do an American tour straight after Japan and Australia,” says Rodgers. “That was one of the frustrations. It was booked regardless and I thought, ‘Wow! I’m really not being listened to here’.

Everything was going along flat out and you felt that you were on a big wheel turning and it was out of your control entirely, and that really brought it home to me: ‘Another tour, is everybody deaf?’ I was not ready for it, and actually I’d just bought my cottage in the country and I needed to chill a little bit – sit back and take stock, that’s really all I wanted, but I was so frustrated by the fact that it just went steaming ahead. They ignored anything I had to say about the subject so I said ‘Right, I’m out’. “Another serious wall of contention would be that there came a time when I felt we needed to add more blues back into the set. We’d kept ‘The Hunter,’ made it our own, and I felt we could do the same with other blues songs – similar to what Zeppelin would do later. I could feel Koss’s frustration not being able to freewheel the material we’d been playing. Each attempt we made to play a blues song, Andy would either, put his bass down and walk out, or deliberately sabotage it by playing like shit. His inflexibility seriously pissed me off. I tried on a number of occasions and then gave up. Andy had the idea that the band was his creation alone – playing the little Emperor.”

“Simon and Koss didn’t want to break the band up. They would have been happy to play in Free forever.” ~ Johnny Glover

Everyone was looking for someone to blame as the plane descended into Tokyo airport. The imminent break-up hung heavy over the band and its management. Glover recalls, “There I was sitting on the plane with two months ahead of me on the road in Japan, Australia and America with Andy not talking to the other three. And that’s exactly how it was from that minute on.” Though the band was in Japan for nearly a fortnight, Andy rarely left his hotel room apart from brief business meetings and press calls. He secluded himself from the rest of the world, ordering and eating in and becoming involved with a Yuki Shibata, a young Japanese public relations girl from Atlantic Records. “Everyone got involved with Japanese chicks,” remembers Glover. “Rodgers fell in love with one and later married her. Kossoff fell in love with one who was going out with somebody else, so he was heartbroken all through the tour. Kirke fell in love everywhere he went.”

Japan enveloped the group in its exotic scent. Kirke says: “The group was almost over, and we had never seen anything like Japan. We took full advantage of our situation. The Japanese girls knew everything about us and they were doing everything for us.” From Rodgers standpoint “Tokyo was wild. They had never seen anything like us.” Free played two nights in Japan: Kyoritsu Kodo, Kanda, on 30 April and Sankei Hall, Tokyo, on 1 May 1971. The first night was absolutely electric, stretched to the very edge with tension. Free hit the stage, a vision of fury boiling over the top in front of 5,000 screaming fans. “I think Kossoff and Kirke were playing better because they were trying to will the thing to stay together,” Glover speculates, “or they were desperate.” An American singer named Alan Merrill (later in the UK band The Arrows and, with Jake Hooker, co-writer of Joan Jett’s massive American hit I Love Rock & Roll) saw the Kanda show. It just so happened that the girl Andy Fraser was dating invited Merrill along.

“Yuki was my public relations girl at Atlantic,” says Merrill. “I’d heard about Free, but I wasn’t really familiar with their records. Then I went to this show and was just blown away. It was such magic I still get goosebumps even now talking about it. I walked in about the third number and I stood at the back of the hall and was just transfixed. The sound was incredible. It was so powerful. I’ve never heard anything like it since. It was just unbelievable.” Merrill wasted no time becoming friendly with the group and joined the ranks of their Japanese entourage. Recently commenting on Free’s after-hours escapades he said, “Yuki was friendly with Machiko Shimizu, who was a big lyric writer. We all went out to this place called Spiglow, which was like speakeasy. We had some burgers and Paul [Rodgers] and Machi were all over each other. They were attached at the mouth like kiss fish.”

Later that same evening the friends continued their party moving on to a nightclub called Byblos. The alcohol continued to flow and after a very lively evening they decided to head back to the hotel for some long-overdue shut-eye. As they were leaving the club, Merrill – somewhat the worse for wear, noticed that Rodgers’ hair was on fire! “I guess it was caused by a cigarette – his hair was so LONG,” says Merrill. “I didn’t know what to do. Paul had a reputation for a quick temper and no fear of fighting at all – not the kind of guy to take kindly to being smacked on the head out of the blue. So I told Machi, ‘Your boyfriend’s hair’s on fire!’ She grabbed a glass of water and dampened it. This all happened in a matter of seconds, but to me it was like a slo-mo camera.”

Merrill’s connections included the Japanese bassist Tetsu Yamauchi. Born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1947, Tetsu had been playing in bands since high school. His parents hated the idea of him playing rock ‘n’ roll, so Tetsu’s elder brother, who was doing some jazz drumming, helped nurture his talent. Tetsu later joined a progressive band called Samurai who recorded a couple of albums for the Philips label. In 1969, they managed to break out of the country and do some work in Europe. Tetsu first saw Free while in Geneva at a club called the Black Cat. “I thought they were a really good band,” he says today, “and in the next year they came to Japan.”

When Samurai returned from Europe they broke up and Tetsu became a gun for hire. “One day someone in the studio came up to me and said, ‘Free is coming, why don’t you come and see them.’ I said, ‘Okay’, and went to see them at their hotel. Then I started talking to Paul Kossoff about Europe and music and all that. He said, ‘What do you do?’, and I said, ‘I play the bass’. Then we started talking about the gig in Geneva. He said with a laugh, ‘I didn’t notice you there’. He then asked to hear me play. The next day I had studio time so I said, ‘If you have some time, you can come to the studio’. I wrote down the address and phone number thinking he probably wasn’t going to make it. But if he did come, I would be really pleased. “The next day he came, with his guitar – his Les Paul – and we ended up playing for about two hours non-stop. The next day after that he brought Simon and Paul Rodgers down. So we did a session, the four of us in the studio. After that we went for a drink and Kossoff told me that they were going to split up after the Australian shows. He said, ‘Maybe we can form a band,’ and I said, ‘Why not?’ Free was a really good band and I really liked them so I asked Koss why were they splitting up. He said there were too many things happening in the band so they had to split up. He was saying, ‘It’s just a bad time’.”

Free’s second Japanese gig was at Sankei Hall, Tokyo. The venue had a revolving stage with the headline act on one side, the support band on the other. Free blazed through their set and were called back for three encores by the exuberant crowd. The band retreated, sweat-soaked, backstage. Kirke jumped into the shower while the others went to their independent corners of the dressing room. No one was speaking much. Within 15 minutes the promoter came running up to Glover shouting, “Look, you have got to go back down there. All hell’s broken loose. A riot has broken out and the police are firing smoke canisters outside. Everyone is going berserk!” The riot was bad news but the last thing Glover wanted was to intrude on the dressing room. “I never went in there after gigs because it was awful, even when they were great,” says Glover. They were so intense that when they’d get off the stage they were unbearable.” He refused to allow the promoter to address the band personally, saying he alone would be the one to ask them back for another encore.

With a delicate knock, Glover entered the room and was greeted by cutting stares. Hesitantly, he pleaded with them to consider returning to the stage to calm the riot. Moments later, still filled with aggression Free prowled out into the spotlights. Simon, half dressed, a towel draped over his shoulders began to pound out the beat and Rodgers picked up the microphone lunging out to the front. When Fraser and Kossoff reached down to plug in they suddenly realised that in their short absence, the circular stage had been rotated. Although they were facing the audience, their equipment was not. There was a riot going on and they were about to plug into the support band’s gear. Rodgers, eyes aflame, stared at his bandmates with uncomprehending anger – then began to sing. Within four measures he was in full song. He made no introduction, just ripped into an old blues number. No one remembers exactly what it was. Kirke continued to bash away on his adopted kit. The word went out to the roadies to rotate the stage again. Rodgers, suddenly realising what was up, leapt off the rotating section onto a fixed ledge at the front of the stage. Kossoff and Fraser followed suit, and Kirke broke off for a moment to sprint around to his own kit as it moved into view of the audience. At which point the rotating stage stretched their mains power cables to breaking point and all their equipment and lighting expired. Glover grimaces at the memory: “Just when they were all supposed to come in there was only an awkward silence.” Free smashed everything in sight and the crowd went berserk again. Still, this difficult night had its consolations. “In Japan, that one thing made them an absolute household name overnight,” notes Glover.

All the success in Japan didn’t make matters any better inside Free as they moved on to Australia. The manager had his hands full the minute the plane landed in Perth, Western Australia, on 5 May 1971. Glover’s ego was still badly bruised knowing that Chris Blackwell had been aware of the split prior to the tour and hadn’t seen fit to tell him. It didn’t help matters to see the Australian promoter completely shaken when they first met at the airport. Free soon discovered why; the tour had been hi-jacked by a local hood named Sammy Lee and while the official promoter was still handling all the arrangements, Lee was taking all the money. “Sammy Lee had essentially kidnapped the promoter of the tour, but things were made to look normal,” says Fraser. “He would be sent out to meet the bands at the airport and would tell them to get into this van or that bus and be taken to the hotel. All of which would seem to be perfectly normal. “In fact, everything occurred as one would expect, except that this promoter seemed under an abnormal amount of stress, nervously perspiring as if he was on the verge of a heart attack. He was being told what to do by these big guys with bulges in their coat pockets. The major difference was they were collecting the money.”

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, also on the tour, says, “Sammy had this side-kick called Jake who carried a case full of guns, silencers and ammunition. Those guys were so powerful that part of the plane was set aside for them… not even the hostesses would go up to them.” But, for Free, all this was a distraction compared to their internal problems. Rodgers and Fraser resented being together, Kossoff and Kirke were hanging on by a thread, none of them liked supporting Deep Purple, they were homesick and they missed their Japanese girlfriends. To add to their misery they were traveling without their own gear, and the equipment provided in Australia was substandard. For example, the tour cabinets contained only one 12-inch speaker and not the four 12-inch speakers they normally used. When Purple refused to continue with the gear provided, Sammy Lee intimidated them saying, “If you don’t carry on, we’ll shoot your legs off,” claims bassist Roger Glover.

Despite their troubles within, Free were determined to outplay Purple at every show. “We had to be tight,” says Graham Whyte. “No matter what happened internally we had to go on stage and put on a good show. That was the whole aim of it.” At the Festival Hall in Melbourne, the only indoor show, 5,000 fans were turned away when the venue sold out. At Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, the last of the three open-air gigs, the crowd was estimated at between 35,000 and 50,000. The shows themselves were aggressive to the point of violence. Marc Biddall, an Australian fan, recalled Paul Rodgers throwing the microphone and stand into the swimming pool in front of the stage at the end of the first show in Perth. During the same show, “Andy Fraser was kicking the shit out of the bass speakers”.

On 8 May 1971, at The Memorial Stadium in Adelaide, Australia, the show nearly didn’t happen at all. “Sammy Lee, he was just amazing,” says Whyte. “He liked me because we called his bluff. We were supposed to have a certain size stage and I went down there and it was a postage stamp. I went to Sammy and I said, ‘The stage ain’t big enough, we’re not playing here tonight’. He just freaked out and threatened to shoot the brains out of me. The other roadies were a bit scared because he had this other dude with him. I said ‘Come on let’s go. So we went to a pub down the road and we had quite a few bevvies and we’re there for a couple of hours. When I said, ‘Come on let’s go back and see what’s happening.’ The other boys were like, ‘Well, we’ve already been threatened!’ I said, ‘Naw, naw, it’ll be alright’. So we kind of waltz back in through the door. We heard all these skillsaws and hammers going. Sammy had got rid of 200 chairs and extended the stage. He sees me and comes running up and throws his arms around me and says, ‘Go and get hamburgers and chips for the boys. We got a show to put on tonight’.”

By the time the bands arrived in Sydney on 9 May, the atmosphere had become so bad that for Johnny Glover it was challenging just to stay sane. “They [Free] were looking to do two months in America after Australia and it was getting impossible to deal with,” he says. “It came down to the [Randwick] gig when I said to the guys, ‘I’ll have to cancel America, we’ll never get through it’. So I cancelled America two or three days before the end of the Australian tour. I’d rung up Blackwell and said, ‘Look Chris, I’m going to have to do this. I can’t keep them together. You should have told me they were going to break up’. I mean, it was getting violent, Andy and Rodgers were getting close to blows.

With the decision to cancel the American leg of the tour, Randwick had suddenly become their farewell gig. Glover sighs, “It was the day it was all going to end and it was real emotional. I was upset because it was the first band I’d been involved with on a management side, and one that had made a hit! You can’t recapture the excitement of the first time you’re involved with a band that has a hit record.”

As the caravan of buses, trucks and vans rolled up to Randwick racecourse the bands were greeted by the largest audience ever assembled for a Sydney rock concert up to that point. Free arrived in a green Ford Transit. But, behind the scenes the more sinister side of the tour was showing. Fraser says, “I remember Kossoff being threatened with a gun. When we were being shuttled from the hotel to the gig, Koss went into one of his favourite characters. With his hand on his forehead he proclaimed, ‘Oh! I can’t go on tonight. I won’t be ready for my close-up for quite a while, Mr. DeMille’. Well one of the big guys close by didn’t have a sense of humour and thought he needed to change Koss’s mind with showing his firearm! I think the most remarkable aspect of that was far from rattling anybody, we just figured… ‘Oh, no sense of humour’ and went back to our business. The whole situation was so surreal what with us breaking up anyway; it didn’t seem that absurd at the time. I have since heard that Sammy Lee is long dead, quite unpleasantly I believe, and won’t be kidnapping any more tours.”

Randwick went down a storm. “We just captivated the audience,” says Whyte. “It was just a fantastic afternoon. Free was all over the front of the Australian newspapers the next morning. That’s how big it was.” “Free: Just too much! UNDOUBTEDLY THE NEXT BIG WORLD WIDE GROUP!” wrote one reviewer. “The young FREE had everything.” The review climaxed with its account of Rodgers flinging his mike stand into the wings in a final defiant note. And that’s what they intended Randwick to be – final.

During this leg of the tour and especially during the Randwick show in Sydney, Sammy Lee’s thugs tried to take control of the bands, insisting they do all the dates over again. Every night had been sold out, busting the capacity of each venue and raking in the dough. Sammy Lee’s bunch saw a financial windfall at their fingertips. Manfred Mann’s manager told the “Mafia types” he didn’t think that this would be possible. He was answered with a rather bad beating. So, says Fraser, “Johnny Glover just got us to the airport and outta there.”

There was a final poignant encounter as Free climbed into their cars after the gig. “This English guy comes over,” recalls Glover. “And he says, ‘Hi guys, just wanna shake hands with you’. I saw one gig of yours in England before I emigrated and thought you were great!’ Nobody was really interested in what he was saying ‘cos they were all preoccupied thinking about getting outta there. But somebody says to him, ‘Where did you see us?’ He said, ‘Chesterfield Quaintways,’ and there was this quiet moment. That was the first gig they ever played as Free. He’d seen their first and last and nothing in between. “We sat in the car and the sun was going down. It was one of those things, an afternoon gig, and I was sitting next to Kirke and he looked out at the sunset and looked at me and said, ‘It’s a bit of a weird moment, isn’t it?”

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5. Reminiscences

Memories of the show and the performance by Free vary. The following reminiscences also include recent Facebook postings and conversations.

(Ian Gillian, Child in Time) Comments on the gangster invovlvement in the tour - Sammy Lee who ran the Cheetah Room. He was the person who beat up Bob Foster.

* Michael Symons, 30,000 turn up for Randwick Rock,Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, 10 May 1971. Text:

Thirty thousand fans swayed to the music at Randwick Racecourse yesterday afternoon at Sydney's biggest rock concert for many years. The size of the crowd - double that for the previous day's racing at Warwick Farm - surprised everyone, not least the promoters, a London-based organisation called IBC. Despite the crush, members of the young audience were more than well behaved - they were docile most of the time. They sat quietly during the numbers, then rose to cheer wildly. As often s not, anyone standing to dance was pelted with fruit and balls of paper. Marihuana was smoked, but more people seemed to sniff for it than puff it. Performing were three English groups, Deep Purple, Free and Manfred Mann Chapter Three, as well as a Sydney group Pirana. The visiting bands are not known so well for hit-parade songs as for long playing records. The bands performed with enthusiasm reaching frenzy, on a track-side stage which was covered with a blue canopy and cluttered with 50 huge speaker boxes. The blast of the music would have kept the crowd from storming the stage, like the fans of yesteryear. The crowd, sitting in the Leger grandstand and on the asphalt in front, looked out through the wall of sound across the green and white rails of the silent racetrack. The autumn sun shone high in the sky when Pirana opened the lively show. Manfred Mann entertained the crowd like a crazy organist with a new group and new boxes of tricks. Sometimes clapping on headphones and dashing between instruments, he produced weird electronic sounds to the rhythm of his assistants. Free marched around the stage like four young Popeyes with long, long hair. Led by the powerful singing of Paul Rogers, they were the quietest band with the most beautiful song. The adrenalin-pumping Deep Purple pushed the crowd to its greatest fever. The versatile singer Ian Gillan is well-known for his part as Christ in "Jesus Christ Superstar." At the final ovation, the pale full-moon rose and Deep Purple tinged the sky lilac. As each group finished, the members dashed off and airline trucks sped their equipment to catch flights to Melbourne, where an extra concert was scheduled last night. The bands played to huge audiences at Perth on Thursday, Melbourne on Friday and Adelaide on Saturday.

* Phillip Morris, photographer, Flickr, 23 January 2012. NB: Morris has published two shots of the concert on his Flickr site.

In May of 1971 Randwick Racecourse Sydney hosted an amazing concert line up. Free, Manfred Man and Deep Purple. In my opinion Free stole the show deter man to out perform Deep Purple which they did with sub standard equipment they had to borrow They played there aggressive set to a crowd estimated between 35'000 and 50,000. A great day at the race course Randwick 1971 Free , Manfred Man, Deep Purple. Free were amazing and in my opinion they stole the show. They played a load of Heavy Rock. Paul Kossoff's Bluesy guitar playing inspired a very young Angus Young who was watching from the front of the stage feeling lucky to be there to see this great band up close.

* (@MrNordertitoff, Facebook, 2023) I was there that day long ago at Randwick. Hearing Kossoff in full flight was a surreal experience, and I have never heard his equal to this day. Free blew Deep Purple well and truly off the stage.

* (@davidlowrie6660,Facebook, 2024) Koss did not play. That is why when they didn't play the Melbourne show that evening. Everyone loves to say they saw Koss. I am sad about Randwick. I saw him plug in aided by a roadie, but he then left the stage and didn't return to play the set. I have a friend who agrees with me. Lots of people don't, but they don't remember anything. I do.

* (@MrNordertitoff, Facebook,2024) You and your mate must have been severely stoned then, as I was seated in front of the stage and was able to see and hear Koss very well.

* (Gayle Beard, Facebook, 2024) I was at the Randwick concert. It was unforgettable and there was no indication of any problems at all, just amazing music and a very appreciative audience.

* (&kimshaw2364, Facebook 2024) I was there as well, though I was in the back stands... Considering that Free were playing at Sydney Randwick racecourse, I thought their choice of "ride on pony" as their opening song was a good one!!!!

* Hot Rock, Sunday Mirror, Sydney, 16 May 1971.

Hot Rock - For four hours last Sunday, 34,000 of us were joined in peace and brotherhood at the mightiest pop concert Australia has ever seen. I was a concert full of magic moments as, first, Australia's Pirana, then Manfred Mann, then Free and finally Deep Purple blasted our ear drums with hot, heavenly rock. You couldn't ask for better musically - and visually it was tremendously exciting and satisfying as well. The concert has done a great deal for the flagging pop music industry in Sydney. Among the audience were dozens of members of local groups and just being there MUST improve their own performances. As well, the concert has resulted in, at long last, a major re-think by the squares who control our radio programmes - for example, the day after the concert, one station was playing Free's All Right Now, which had previously, inexplicably, been on the banned list. After all, 34,000 people can't be wrong!

* Go-Set, Saturday, 22 May 1971.

The Manfred Mann - Free -Deep Purple - Tour Review

A new style of rock concert and audience

David Elfick reviews the Randwick Concert

A new type of Australian rock scene was born when in hectic days of last week, Free, Manford Mann, Deep purple and Piranha smashed rock attendance records in al four states Australian tour. The tour opened to capacity houses in Perth and Adelaide, reaching Melbourne on the Saturday night. An estimated 5,000 people were turned away from the Melbourne Festival Hall. The groups making up this tour were without precedent in Australia. They played four inspired sets in Melbourne. The finishing time went from the projected 11 p.m. to well after 1:00 a.m. The organizers announced that a further Melbourne concert would be held to satisfy the many disappointed fans who could not get tickets. Meanwhile, the groups grabbed a few hours sleep and flew the 600 miles to Sydney for their open air show at the Ranwick Racecourse. The Randwick show, which I attended, had an audience of between 25 and 35,000, wiping the memory of the badly attended and weather-plagued festivals which have been the only big rock action in Australia over the past few years. Although none of the groups on the show have ever really featured as top 40 singles acts, they drew a crowd of people whose ages were mainly around the 16 to 20 group. Before this tour promoters were convinced that hit record groups would be the only drawcard for this type of audience. The tour had all the feeling of the big rock shows of a decade ago when Chuck Berry and Little Richard and later the Stones and the Beatles packed in the screaming, squealing fans. This audience was different - involved in the sound, clapping, and cheering virtuoso performances, but not mobbing the stage. Woodstock the precedent. The changing face of rock music had helped create a new style of fan.

Piranha opened the event with music that set the tone of all the groups performing, only relying on driving, seismic material. They got the huge, swirling crowd together in a mass that ended in a standing ovation. Manfred Mann Chapter 3 followed. Manfred had brought a four piece group with him, featuring Australian Mick Rogers on vocals and guitar, and Manfred with his organ and other sophisticated electronic gadgetry. Manfredd was both electronic musician and magician, casting spells over his equipment and having it answer with an alluring variety of sound. He finished his set with a near radical Mighty Quinn and the second standing ovation of the day. Again, volume and rhythm created the atmosphere.

For 15 minutes the crowd watched the stage as roadies piled Marshall amp tops on the Lenard speaker boxes and put them into position. Then from around the racecourse track came a rented luminous green Ford Transit van with Free inside. The set was outstanding despite the problems with the lead guitar amp in the opening numbers. They finished with their big number, All Right Now, Paul Rodgers flinging his mic stand into the wings.

For the final performance then came Deep Purple. The audience, by the pre previous acts, Were poised for something special. The audience had never heard a guitarist or an organist or a singer like it, not to mention the rhythm section. Deep Purple was powerful, progressive rock. Fans stood and began moving on the spot. dancing to the power of Deep Purple. Some of the audience protested on the ground, throwing rubbish at the standing figures, dancing covering their view. Then it caught Everyone was standing and clapping and smiling, caught in something much more than sound. Deep Purple just played hard and soft, slow and fast, screeching and smooth, and the guys in the band were happy and digging it like hell. It was a sort of thing Australian fans dream about but never get the chance to become part of. It makes you think about why go to a rock concert? You go because the groups have many good records, although they come from overseas and you probably won't see them again. Or you were just curious because others dig their music and so you would like to get into it. You go see the big overseas acts playing because you know that the performance is special, and because you'll probably never witness it again.

* (Go-Set, unknown date): The fall out from the Australian tour with Manfred Mann and FREE. "Manfred Mann Chapter III, who came to Australia for International Booking Corporation (IBC) as part of the Deep Purple/Free tour, flew out of Australia almost two weeks earlier than scheduled. Deep Purple and Free were to leave after the Sydney show at Randwick Racecourse on May 9th, but Manfred was to do a week in New Zealand plus dates at the Canberra Aquarius Festival and Brisbane and North Queensland venues. There was no sign of unrest within the group at the Sydney concert on the Sunday afternoon and they returned to Melbourne with Deep Purple the same night for a hastily-organised second concert due to the Friday night sellout in the Victorian Capital. The following night a reception was to be held in Sydney's Cheetah Room Disco, to which two hundred and fifty people were invited. Both Deep Purple and Manfred Mann were to be present. On the day of the proposed reception, International Booking Corporation still maintained that all was well and that the reception was on. As it turned out, guests arriving at the Cheetah Room that evening were either told the whole affair was off because the groups had to fly out the next morning or that everything was okay and Deep Purple would be arriving shortly. An I.B.C. representative explained that Manfred Mann would not be coming as an altercation had taken place in Melbourne between Manfred's manager, Bob Foster, and one of the promoters. The result was reportedly a battered face for Bob Foster and a sudden flight back to London for Manfred Mann. To top everything off, it was discovered later that Deep Purple had, in fact, flown back to London from Melbourne and even the I.B.C. reps left the reception at an early hour. It is a pity that such a highly successful tour had to end on such a sour note."

* From Thirroul to Randwick - Reminiscences, August 2024.

My school friend from Ursula Road, Bulli, was a very good surfer and surfed at Peggies at the end of the road, He was accepted as a surfer with the older guys and they must have told him about he concert. Maybe the older guys must have bought the tickets for us, as I would have had no idea back then as to how to get them. The tickets must not have been too dear as my parents didn't have much money and my mum paid for the ticket. [NB: tickets were $3 and could be purchased at the gate.] My memory of the trip there is hazy after all these years, but I think we must have caught the train and then a bus to Randwick. It was a nice sunny day and a beautiful arvo (warm but not too hot) for the concert and I think Piranha started pretty early, maybe even before midday. They were sensational and their version of “Soul Sacrifice" was just like Santana's. I later bought both Piranha albums - the second of which is apparently now quite rare in the original issue. Manfred Man (at least as the “Earth Band”) was new to me but I was fan forever after, and long after the original Manfred Man solo "Mighty Quinn" days. Free where who I was there to see as just a week earlier I had bought another friend a single of “Fire and Water” which I loved, and was appalled the friend had the bad taste to not like it much. The sound was generally pretty good, right from the start when Prianha were on. The grandstand was a great place from which to watch the concert and there was the smell of Ganga around and joints being passed in full view of what looked to me like liked policeman - but it might be my memory and maybe they were just security guards.... I caught the bus back home and then the train.

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6. Speakers & amps

In a number of photographs of the gig we can see behind the band various arrays of Australian made Lenard speaker boxes, with up to four British Marshall 100 watt valve lead and/or PA amplifier heads on top of them. Free were accustomed to operating with Marshall amps and speaker cabinets, each of which usually contained four speakers. The Lenard boxes used at the gig were of two types: (1) smaller, rectangular boxes about 4 x 2 1/2 feet in size and containing a single speaker; and (2) slender 6 x 2 feet tall rectangular tower boxes, mostly used for the PA system.

We know that Free had technical problems during the early part of the gig, perhaps with Kossoff's lead amp cutting out during the early part of the show, as had happened at the famous Isle of Wight gig in August 1970 or, more likely, sound separation. An urgent fix was therefore required. This is reflected in a number of photographs and a video image which shows variations in the speaker and amplifier set up. The colour video footage referred to above perhaps shows the band and setup at the beginning of their set. The description below reveals the speaker array directly behind the band, going from stage right to left / Andy Fraser to Paul Kossoff / north to south. There were also PA speaker towers to the left and right of the band, separated from them.

#1 Initial setup, partially based on the content of the colour video image:

Four sets of two small speaker boxes, with 3 Marshall amps on top, located on the right of the stage, behind Fraser and Kirke. Fraser, Kirke and Kossoff are plugged into the Marshalls.
Five sets of single, six feet tall speaker towers in the middle. These are perhaps connected to the PA system.
Rogers's microphone connected to the PA system by the front of stage mixer panel.
No foldback speakers in front of the band.

From the above stage picture at right, it can be seen how the Lenard speaker towers on the right side of the stage were situated very close to the band, and also close to the edge of the wooden stage floor.

#2 Final setup, based on photographs such as Source Unknown #1:

To the far right and far left in the colour footage and various photographs can also be partially seen the separate rows of PA tower boxes, some located on the edge of the stage to the immediate right of the band. The problem with Kossoff's amp quickly required a complete reconfiguration of the amp and speaker setup.

The five central speaker towers in the middle have been removed and partially replaced by various smaller boxes, with up to six used;
the four sets of two small speaker boxes to the right have now become five sets, with the three Marshall amp heads unchanged;
a set of 2 x 2 small speaker boxes with a Marshall amp on top has now been placed to the left of the stage for use by Paul Kossoff, similar to his usual stage setup.
The connections of Fraser, Kirke and Rogers to Marshall amps and PA mixer panel remain unchanged.

This second setup would have removed the central PA sound to its position to the far left and right of the band. It would also have meant that the band sound could be according to their usual separation setup and enable them to better hear themselves, especially in light of the fact that there were no foldback speakers for Rodgers' vocal. It is also possible that there were slight variations to this setup throughout the performance as the small speaker boxes were manipulated to enhance the band's sound. It is likely all of these changes were the result of a mixture of technical issues, sound quality on stage, and the desires of the band to have their normal stage setup, with Kossoff to the left and Fraser and Kirke to the right and middle, along with Rogers. It appears that Kossoff continued to use the right amplifier while the speaker towers were removed and replaced, and eventually moved to the new left setup and Marshall amp. It is interesting that Rodgers should reflect on the technical problems in throwing his mike stand into one of the Lenard speakers at the end of the Free performance.

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7. References

Clayton, David, and Todd K. Smith, Heavy Load: The Story of Free, Moonshine Publishing, 2003, 300p.

James, J.P., Paul Kossoff : All Right Now - The Guitars, The Gear, The Music, Troubadour Publishing, 2017, 424p.

[Notice of forthcoming concert], Page 15 Live, Tharunka, University of New South Wales, 27 April 1971.

Pettersson, Svatte, Deep Purple / Free / Manfred Mann / Pirana, 16-20 May 1971, [webpage], Performance - Australian tours by overseas artists 1964-75, Milesago, n.d. Text:

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7. Acknowledgements

In the compilation of this blog I would like to thank Australian rock historian David Lowrie.

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|| Black Cat Bones 1966-68 | Free Live! 1968-72 | Free, Sydney 1971 | Gigs 1968-73 | Paul Kossoff Guitars | Posters | Walk In My Shadow 1968 | Wishing Well 1972 |

Last updated: 27 July 2024

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Free, Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, Sunday, 9 May 1971

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