Rare footage of David Bowie, Genesis and Hawkwind from the 1970 Atomic Sunrise shows to be streamed
Atomic Sunrise was a celebration of music that took place during the week of Monday, March 9th, 1970, for seven nights at the Roundhouse in North London. The advertising for the event at the time said it would be “Seven Nights of Celebration [in a] Living Theatre Environment”.
Many underground acts, including Third Ear Band, Arthur Brown and Quintessence, all played in what was, in fact, a replacement for a string of cancelled Grateful Dead concerts.
Atomic Sunrise also featured a few new names to the progressive rock scene that had just begun to take root, including Genesis and Hawkwind, the latter of which were making a name for themselves for being the British go-to band if you wanted to “freak out”.
Not only did those two big future prog-rock names appear at the event, but arguably the biggest Rockstar of all time – David Bowie – also showed up to play with his new band, Hype. Bowie rocked up adorned in superhero costumes, which premeditated the birth of glam-rock just around the corner.
Amazingly, Atomic Sunrise was also filmed in its entirety in colour, giving us a glimpse into a historic musical moment of legendary status. Who filmed the event is unknown; there have been long rumours about Yoko Ono’s involvement. The film was due to be destroyed in 1990, but fortunately, its current owner Adrian Everett saved it from its gloomy fate.
Everett has been restoring around 33 hours of the tape and has released some teaser clips of Bowie, Genesis and Hawkwind. However, he intends to stream a longer, higher-quality film cut early next year, including scenes of spontaneity in the crowd and the countercultural occurrences of the early 1970s.
Check out some of the clips on the Atomic Sunrise website here.
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