This month's "Boot of the Month" is Rory's performances at the 1st and 2nd British Rock Meetings. These outdoor concerts were the promotional brainchild of Marcel Avram and Marek Lieberberg, the founders of MAMA Concerts, and showcased for the european audience a large number of British rock bands including: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac, Fairport Convention, Stone the Crowes, Rod Stewart, and a host of other notables. The first "Rock Meeting" took place on September 4th, 1971 in Speyer, Germany, and the second "Rock Meeting" took place in Germersheim, Germany on May 22, 1972. A 3rd "Rock Meeting" was planned for the following year in Ludwigshafen, Germany but was later cancelled.
The first British Rock Meeting was originally planned for the Amphietheatre Thingstatte in Heidelberg, West Germany, and the early posters and tickets reflected this venue. However, the venue was changed to the new port in Speyer in anticipation of a crowd of over 25,000 people. The first British Rock Meeting was part of a 2-day, 2-city event, with half the bands playing in Speyer, Germany, and the other half playing in Vienna, Austria. The next day the bands would swap locations and play at the other venue. The Vienna portion of the event was officially called the "Sensational British Superstar Festival."
photo of Rory Gallagher at the First British Rock Meeting in Speyer, Germany
German TV report about the First British Rock Meeting in Speyer, Germany
The Second British Rock Meeting
The second British Rock Meeting was suppose to take place on Friesenheimer Island in Mannheim, Germany; however, the Mannheim city council opposed it and MAMA Concerts had to change the venue. The early posters still show Mannheim as the festival location. As can be seen on the left, the original poster was done in blue, with Mannheim as the venue, new posters were printed in red after the promoters found an alternate site to hold the festival. MAMA Concerts first tried to relocate the festival to Korsika and then to the racetrack in Hockenheim but strong reaction from the city councils made these sites unacceptable.
After much searching, the concert promoters were finally able to relocate the festival to Insel Grün (Green Island) in Germersheim. Even then, it looked like the festival would not happen as Germersheim city officials began having second thoughts about allowing so a large festival to be held on Insel Grün and issued a police order against the festival the day prior to its start. City officials relented however after eleventh hour talks with the festival organizers, the mayor of Germersheim, and a top Rheinland Pfalz state official. Over 70,000 people attended this 4-day festival and 35 bands performed there, including Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep, Status Quo, Lindisfarne, and of course, Rory Gallagher.
By Saturday evening more than 72,000 - rock fans had crowded onto Insel Gruen... All told, the island, hugging the west bank of the Rhine between Mannheim and Karlsruhe looked like a cross between a muddy beach of drowsy sunbathers and a wartime refugee exodus...(read more)-- David Iams, Stars & Stripes (*Thanks to Timothy Boss for sending this article and ticket stub!)
fisheye view of the festival at Insel Grün courtesy of J.Wagner
Rory played on the final day of the festival and was one of only 2 bands to be broadcast over the radio, the other being Lindisfarne. Rory was also the only artist to give 3 encores.
"People from other countries hardly could imagine, how popular Rory was here in the earlyer 70's. I saw him there for the first time, and he really did a great and intense performance! He was so good, we couldn't hardly wait for his next show..."--Doc's Diary
Comments to date: 35. Page 2 of 5. Bootleg Rating:
Chris Dashiell Chicago Il
Posted at 3:12pm on Thursday, January 28th, 2010
I still have the original "Second British Rock Meeting flier"
Rod Fla
Posted at 1:07pm on Monday, November 30th, 2009
Went with my girlfriend too!
Rodney Thrailkill Fla.
Posted at 1:03pm on Monday, November 30th, 2009
Went with friends from the 83rd Transportation in Kapaun Barracks. I was 18 and will never forget it... nice to see this site!
Lori MD
Posted at 5:38pm on Monday, November 16th, 2009
WOW! Was there at age 15 with the love of my life. So shocked to find anything about it on here. Nice to see!
Roy Lara Tucson, Az.
Posted at 6:09pm on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
It was the best concert I went to while there from 1970 to 1974. I remember someone throwing a bottle of some kind at the band Uriah Heep and hitting the drummer where it counts. All the way back was a lake and nude bathing. Shops all the way aroun... read more»
hector juarez michigan usa
Posted at 1:11pm on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
20 or 30 of us went from hanau 39th finance section..My twin brother victor and i were drafted and stationed together...we share those moments all the time.. Pink floyd was awesome...of course we were all
very stoned
robert cunningham dallas tx
Posted at 8:50am on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
It was a great time. Hard to believe it's been 37 years ago. Those were the days of a life style,Rock and Roll.
Daniel Grant Las vegas
Posted at 4:41pm on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Do you have a complete list of all the groups that played at the second meeting? I was there, stationed at lst Armored Div Hqtrs in Ansbach. I have talked about this festival my WHOLE life - i went on to see pink Floyd again in germany when they did ... read more»
Administrator comment: The complete list of all the groups can be found Here: http://www.germersheim.de/kultur/popfestival/spielliste.html -- the list on the left are the groups that were suppose to play and the list on the right are the ones that actually played. -- Milo
The first British Rock Meeting was originally planned for the Amphietheatre Thingstatte in Heidelberg, West Germany, and the early posters and tickets reflected this venue. However, the venue was changed to the new port in Speyer in anticipation of a crowd of over 25,000 people. The first British Rock Meeting was part of a 2-day, 2-city event, with half the bands playing in Speyer, Germany, and the other half playing in Vienna, Austria. The next day the bands would swap locations and play at the other venue. The Vienna portion of the event was officially called the "Sensational British Superstar Festival." 
The Second British Rock Meeting
After much searching, the concert promoters were finally able to relocate the festival to Insel Grün (Green Island) in Germersheim. Even then, it looked like the festival would not happen as Germersheim city officials began having second thoughts about allowing so a large festival to be held on Insel Grün and issued a police order against the festival the day prior to its start. City officials relented however after eleventh hour talks with the festival organizers, the mayor of Germersheim, and a top Rheinland Pfalz state official. Over 70,000 people attended this 4-day festival and 35 bands performed there, including Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep, Status Quo, Lindisfarne, and of course, Rory Gallagher. 
