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NME Festivals Blog 2009 - Festival action, all year round -  Festival action, all year round

By Luke Lewis

Posted on 12/06/08 at 03:12:08 pm

Isle Of White has witnessed some legendary performances over the years, but which is the greatest of them all?

Ahead of the festival kicking off tomorrow (June 13), here's our Top 5.
What's your personal Isle Of Wight highlight?

The Who
They'd played Isle of Wight the previous year, on the same bill as Bob Dylan, but it's their epic 1970 performance that everyone remembers. Here's Pete Townshend and co windmilling through 'I Can't Explain'.

continued...

Jimi Hendrix
The 1970 event attracted a crowd of over 600,000, making it even bigger than Woodstock the year before. At the time it was thought to be the largest human gathering in history. Hendrix's performance, though peppered with moments of genius, wasn't one of his best. It was to be his last UK appearance: he died two weeks later.

Free
'All Right Now' had already hit Number 1 in 20 countries when Free took the stage at Isle Of Wight in August 1970. It was the apex of their career. Six years later guitarist Paul Kosoff died of drug-related heart failure, aged just 25.

Kasabian
Trotted out everywhere in 2007, from Glastonbury to Live Earth, the 'Empire' set soon got old – but here, at the start of the summer, it sounded immense.

Muse
'Black Holes And Revelations' was a year old by this point, but Muse's set was still mighty enough to be stand comparison with their legendary Reading Festival performance the previous summer.

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