Shown to the right is the cover of a new book by legendary rock festival promoter Freddy Bannister, called "There Must Be A Better Way". The 330 page paperback book, with over 85 illustrations, combines the two fascinating books from the Bath and Knebworth Festival Commemorative Sets, which include Pink Floyd's involvement and are reviewed elsewhere on these pages in the past.

Wendy Bannister has dropped us a line with a special offer; they have reduced the price of the book, until the end of January, by £3.00 to £9.99, plus £3.50 p&p to the UK and £4.44 p&p to Europe, and as a special offer to Brain Damage visitors they are also including a special free gift with the paperback.

Wendy has also told us that, if you want, Freddy will sign and dedicate the book - just ask when you are placing your order.

More details of the book are below, and can be found under "New Items" at RockMusicMemorabilia.com, or by dropping Wendy a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it And if you are the lucky winner of our latest competition, a copy of the book and CD will be in the mail to you free of charge!

Simply drop us an email by January 21st with the answers to these questions, your name, and your country of residence, and keep those fingers crossed!

What signalled the start of Pink Floyd's 1975 Knebworth performance?
Where is Knebworth?
What Floyd song was premiered at the 1970 Bath Festival, under a working title?

Best of luck!

The book tells the story of Freddy Bannister, a promoter in the UK during the sixties and seventies - the golden years of pop and rock when he worked in small ballrooms with literally hundreds of bands, from Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, his first booking, through The Beatles, Kinks, Small Faces to The Yardbirds, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, and John Mayall's Blues Breakers, before working with such heavyweights as Cream, The Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, using Led Zeppelin on one their very first gigs when they were billed as 'formerly known as the Yardbirds' attracting an audience of less than two hundred to the Pavilion Bath, before he and Zeppelin both moved on to bigger and better things.

In 1969 and 1970 he organised the two Bath Festivals of Blues and Progressive Music, after which he found Knebworth and ran the first seven festivals there before quitting the music business after the great Led Zeppelin debacle.

Throughout his career he specialised in working with American Bands and the 1970 Bath festival featured, alongside the British bands that included amongst others Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, the largest array of US talent ever assembled in the UK for one event with Jefferson Airplane, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, The Byrds, Santana, Johnny Winter, Steppenwolf, Canned Heat, Country Joe, Hot Tuna, Flock, It's a Beautiful Day and Dr John The Night Tripper on the bill.

He was also the European representative for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and also Grunt Records The Jefferson Airplane label which included Hot Tuna, Jack Bonus and Black Kangeroo etc.

The book is full of stories about the famous and sometime idiosyncratic bands, how a steward laid out Roger Daltrey, how a nude girl inspired Led Zeppelin, how Captain Beefheart saved Freddy from a beating and Jefferson Airplane having their equipment trashed by irate German fans. It also explains the difficulties organising mega events, the problems with local authorities, the do-gooders like the vicar who felt the promoter should provide, for everyone arriving after the event at the main London train terminus, individual taxis to their homes, The Rolling Stones' manager, who feeling a little neglected the night before the festival, played a recording of the Damn Busters March through the main PA system at two in the morning, just to get Freddy's attention, waking up the whole area in the process. It also describes for the first time the trouble he had with Led Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant whilst promoting the two 1979 Knebworth Festivals.

The book contains 85 rare illustrations - set lists from the Bath, Lincoln and Knebworth Festivals and a virtually complete list of the Bands that played for him over a seven year period at the Pavilion Bath that has to be seen to be believed.

Our thanks to Wendy Bannister for the info, and for offering this prize.