The Best Rock Concerts From 1970 No True Music Fan Will Ever Forget

While the idea that rock music used to be better in the past is certainly a matter of debate, that it mattered more to a greater number of people back in the early decades of its creation is undoubtedly true. Before the age of the internet, video games, and smartphones, there were far fewer cultural cornerstones for young people to latch on to and use to establish themselves as part of a tribe. Rock music therefore provided a shared sphere of cultural references, an escape from the social norms of the age, and an insight into other, more hedonistic modes of living than most people of the mid-20th century were afforded.

The consumption of physical media meant that many of the rock stars of the day became exceptionally rich through record sales. But they also gained iconic status thanks to notable live performances that have gone down in history as some of the most legendary concerts of all time. In 1970 alone — the year in which the flower power of the 1960s gave way to a widening and hardening of the rock genre — there were some truly unforgettable shows that listeners continue to return to today.

Possibly the greatest live rock record of all time, The Who's "Live at Leeds" was recorded on the campus of Leeds University in the U.K. on February 14, 1970. By then, the British rockers had achieved an immense level of fame and critical acclaim thanks to the release of their boundary-pushing rock opera "Tommy," which was released in 1969. The live album that resulted was something of a cash-in on this success but just so happened to catch the band at the height of its powers.

The setlist showed The Who in their full range, featuring high-octane performances of some of their greatest hits to that point — including 1965's "My Generation" and "I Can't Explain" — as well as covers of rock classics like Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and Johnny Kidd's "Shakin' All Over." It goes without saying that the destructive energy the band was famous for is in full effect. Indeed, the album liner notes made clear that the recording itself is uncorrected, adding to the sense of live chaos.

The atmosphere of the show was such that, if anything, it had to be toned down. As lead singer Roger Daltrey told Sounds magazine later that year (per uDiscoverMusic): "It was one show and it was a very valid bit of plastic, you know. There was hardly anything dubbed on it — there were more things taken off than put on. Two backing voices were added, but that was only because the mike fell over. The whole thing is as it happened. We even pulled a lot of the crowd out because it was like, distracting to listen to."

The live shows of Bay Area psychedelic blues rockers the Grateful Dead have achieved mythic status in the years since their heyday in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Touring almost constantly, the band had evolved beyond the psychedelia that first brought them to prominence to revisit folk and country. The group also pushed farther into the realms of the epic, offering dynamic live sets that ebbed and flowed over the course of several hours.

For many Dead Heads — the name by which the band's huge hardcore following is known — the epitome of their live act came on February 13, 1970, on the second night of their three-night residency at Fillmore East. The band played an incredible four sets, ranging from acoustic to fully electric, which culminated in epic renditions of some of its most ambitious songs. The Dead were known for improvising during performances, meaning they often stretched way beyond the length of their studio versions. On this particular day, highlights included versions of "Dark Star," "The Other One," and "Lovelight," each of which is over half an hour long and drawn to incredible new heights by Jerry Garcia and the rest of the band. It's a sensational set from an era in which the Grateful Dead was utterly unbeatable.

It's impossible to discuss the rock music landscape of the early 1970s without exploring the major festivals that helped bring live acts to enormous audiences across the U.S. and beyond. Of course, the festivals of the late 1960s, such as the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock, are famous for setting the template that music festivals still follow today (although the truth of the matter is that Woodstock was absolute chaos). But even in the 1970s, there were still festivals that went down in history as some of the greatest of all time.

One of these was the second and final Atlanta International Pop Festival, which took place on Independence Day, 1970. It's remembered fondly as perhaps the last great free music festival of the era (originally ticketed, the promoters decided to throw open the gates once they realized they had underestimated demand). The concert featured some of the most in-demand acts of the day, including The Allman Brothers Band (which played two sets), B.B. King, and Procol Harum.

Headlining the concert was the ultimate rock guitarist himself, Jimi Hendrix, who, with his new group, Band of Gypsys, delivered an incendiary set in front of an estimated 500,000 people, the largest audience of his career. His performance was suitably iconic, with his famously unhinged take of the "Star-Spangled Banner" undoubtedly the highlight. That it took place in Atlanta at a time when the city was still segregated gave the show an even greater force, and it is considered one of the key concerts of Hendrix's career.

Jimi Hendrix was also a headliner at one of Europe's biggest music events of 1970, the U.K.'s Isle of Wight Festival, which took place at the end of August that year. With Hendrix signed on, the festival was able to attract the attention of some of rock's biggest names. These stars repaid the audience of up to 700,000 people — it remains Britain's biggest ever festival — with some of the finest performances in rock history. That the event had grown from an attendance of around just 8,000 just two years earlier indicates just how the appetite for large-scale rock concerts exploded at the end of the 1960s.

Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, and other major artists from a range of music genres performed at the legendary event. But Isle of Wight 1970 was something else when it came to rock lineups, with The Who and The Doors both giving some of the most legendary sets of their careers, alongside appearances by The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, and more.

In many ways, Led Zeppelin's rise to prominence is emblematic of the changes taking place in rock music at the dawn of the 1970s. Their self-titled debut, released in 1969, had introduced to the world a band that had an exceptionally heavy approach to the blues. But nothing prepared listeners for the group's sophomore effort, released later that same year. The opening track, "Whole Lotta Love," showed that the 1970s were going to be a decade of big riffs, big performances, and even bigger levels of sleaze.

The magnetic band fronted by vocalist Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page was already notorious for its live shows, but Zeppelin's appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in London stands as one of the historic peaks of the group's early career. The prestigiousness of the venue was not lost on Page, who told Guitar World in 2003: "Albert Hall was a massive gig for us, and we really wanted to do the best we could ... It was a magic venue. It was built in Victorian times, and you [are] in there thinking about all the musical history that has preceded you."

The performance did not disappoint: A two-hour romp through their material to that point, beginning with "We're Gonna Groove" and ending with a huge encore medley, by which time the crowd was utterly delirious. Though not released until 2003, the concert film remains some of the best footage of Zeppelin live, revealing the band's unique onstage chemistry.

Creedence Clearwater Revival has proved to be one of America's most timeless rock 'n' roll bands. In the late 1960s, the group's rootsy brand of swamp rock produced a string of smash singles and albums. But 1970 was the year John Fogerty and the gang confirmed themselves as international superstars, with major overseas shows that saw the band at the height of its powers. One such show was the legendary April 1970 gig at London's Royal Albert Hall.

The venue is widely considered the most prestigious in the British capital, and CCR was more than prepared for the occasion: The classic lineup of John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and Stu Cook delivered a note-perfect performance that displayed their abilities as both hitmakers and a talented jam band. The April 14 set contains many of CCR's biggest hits to that point, including the blistering anti-war song "Fortunate Son," "Proud Mary," "Born on the Bayou," "Green River," and, of course, "Bad Moon Rising." While the big singles are delivered in a polished, tight, record-quality manner, the set closer "Keep on Chooglin'" is extended to almost nine minutes, bringing the show to a dazzling climax.

For years, the 1970 Royal Albert Hall gig was notorious for having been mislabeled on a 1980 release, which actually contained a recording from CCR's Oakland Coliseum in January of that year. The London show finally received a full release in 2022, which was an event for many hardcore collectors.

Though overshadowed by the monstrously large Isle of Wight Festival held the same year, 1970's Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music, held in the British city of Bath, was arguably just as memorable for fans of classic rock. The festival was notable for bringing together some of the biggest names in West Coast rock to the U.K., such as Jefferson Airplane and Fairport Convention. It also featured major acts whose fame was rising fast, such as headliners Led Zeppelin and future legends Pink Floyd.

Zeppelin played a three-hour set that the band later saw as one of the defining shows of its early career — the moment when its fame in the U.K. caught up with its renown in the U.S. Whereas around 12,000 people had seen the band perform the previous year at the same event, around 150,000 showed up in 1970, with the headliner's huge fanbase boosting attendance. The set opened with a live debut of "Immigrant Song" and went on for more than three hours, with five encores. 

Pink Floyd, meanwhile, performed material from its upcoming album "Atom Heart Mother," coming onstage at 3 a.m. on the Sunday morning after bad weather caused delays to the schedule the previous night. Though the album itself is not considered a classic, the performance is, with the British four-piece at its experimental best. Footage and audio recordings of the 1970 Bath Festival are rare and generally poor quality, which has meant that the weekend has not gone down in history in the same way as better documented festivals of the same period. But a large and continuing online following made up of many of the thousands who attended the event shows that Bath 1970 remains vivid to many rock fans who were there more than half a century ago.

The "Festival Express" was one of the high-water marks of the counterculture movement in Canada. It was a visionary tour that saw some of the finest acts of the era take a week-long train journey together across the country, playing to huge audiences as they went. The special Canadian National Railway train adorned with "Festival Express" banners began its journey in Montreal, made its first stop in Toronto, and then moved on to Winnipeg and Calgary.

Acts on the tour included the Grateful Dead, The Band, and Janis Joplin. Musicians collaborated and jammed throughout the journey and during the handful of shows that made up the tour. Joplin, who would be dead just months after the tour ended, was especially outstanding, delivering some of her finest vocal performances, as footage from the tour makes clear.

Classic rock fans are lucky that many of the highlights of the Festival Express were saved for posterity. A 2003 documentary about the tour gives insight into the heady, hedonistic atmosphere that defined the final months of the counterculture era. As of this writing, you can rent "Festival Express" on Apple TV.

Pioneering heavy metal group Black Sabbath was at its best in 1970. The band thrilled audiences with high-octane performances buoyed by the powerful vocal style of frontman Ozzy Osbourne and the hard, hypnotic guitar work of Tony Iommi. And on December 20 that year, the British act was in Paris, where it delivered one of its most celebrated shows of all time.

Black Sabbath's show at L'Olympia theater sees Osbourne, Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward tearing through early material — classics that have stood the test of time as some of the hardest heavy metal ever composed. The opener, "Paranoid," is delivered in a frantic style, while "Hand of Doom" and "Iron Man" are imbued with a grinding malevolence that many later bands would attempt to emulate, but few could capture. Sure, Ozzy is fast and loose with the lyrics throughout, but by the end of the set you'll be convinced that this is top-class Sabbath. The show has been widely bootlegged over the years, and footage of the show remains sought after online by Sabbath fans looking to enjoy the classic "Paranoid" lineup at its very best.

The Tanglewood concerts in the summer of 1970 were considered a major stride forward in the history of live music. To that point, the venue in the Berkshires was typically used for classical concerts. But promoter Bill Graham, who had made his name in the late 1960s bringing big names to New York's Fillmore East venue, realized that it would also be a great location to host rock, jazz, and everything in between.

Miles Davis, Santana, and other legends graced the Tanglewood stage in 1970, but arguably the most historic set from that summer came from the jazz-rock band Chicago. Led by virtuoso guitarist and vocalist Terry Kath, the seven-piece band was just about to enter the mainstream after years of intense touring, and the confidence and power of the group are plain to see. Highlights include a warm, uplifting rendition of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and a driving "25 or 6 to 4" — two tracks that demonstrate the emerging band's incredible range when played back-to-back. Footage of the show is, thankfully, high-quality, and it makes for addictive viewing.

1970 was the year everything changed for Eric Clapton. After years of making his name with Cream, Blind Faith, and Delaney & Bonnie, he was looking to take things in a new direction. The result was Derek and the Dominos, the short-lived group made up of Clapton, guitarist Duane Allman, keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle, and drummer Jim Gordon. Together, they sought to create a back-to-basics rock 'n' roll band.

The group was booked to perform its debut at London's Lyceum Theatre, with two shows on June 14 as part of a fundraiser for Dr. Spock's Civil Liberties Legal Defense Fund. In the press, Clapton was billed along with other individual musicians of the day, with Derek and the Dominos only announced moments before the group was due to arrive onstage. It was a historic moment — one that the lucky audience that night would never experience again. 

No recording of either show is known to exist. Sadly for Derek and the Dominos fans, the lineup would fluctuate throughout the band's existence, with Allman leaving soon after its formation. The band split permanently in 1971, making memories of the debut shows all the more precious to those who were there.

It's impossible to say which concerts from the past were truly "the best" in any given year. If you wanted to, you could give the task to a musicologist, who could transcribe the performances of each musician and grade sets in terms of the combined virtuosity of those on stage. However, the results wouldn't be likely to offer much of the tangible experience of being present at these legendary shows back in 1970.

The abilities of the musicians involved are ultimately a central part of what makes these concerts great. But they are also accompanied by a strange alchemy that includes the atmosphere created by the crowd, the venue's capacity to put on such a show, and the concert's place in history and greater contribution to the rock genre's zeitgeist. Each of these shows has become legendary in the minds of rock music fans down the years, and together they represent something of a high water mark for classic rock as it existed more than 50 years ago.