Issue 17 was billed as the 30th Anniversary Special and was made available to coincide with the celebration gigs held at Newcastle Under-Lyme, the scene of the original Hollywood Festival in 1970. Special guest on the day was the legendary JOE RUSH, the band's washboard player from the old days, and we repeated the 'JOE RUSH - MUNGO CONNECTION' feature from the first issue, as well as an exclusive interview with Joe that you will find on the interviews page.

What the guys thought...

BARRY MURRAY..."We added MUNGO to the bill of the Hollywood Festival in May 1970 that we were organising to promote our acts. We brought THE GRATEFUL DEAD in from the U.S, that cost us £10,000 and several others as well - FREE, JOSE FELICIANO, BLACK SABBATH, GINGER BAKER'S AIRFORCE and TRAFFIC. Well, MUNGO just blew them away, it was amazing!"

COLIN EARL..."The Hollywood Festival, the best thing by a long way that Red Bus ever did for MUNGO JERRY. They even got us in an early evening spot, when not only had it stopped raining, but the sun came beaming across the horizon in sliver shafts. We were also the first band to use the lights (it being dusk), and this has a galvanizing effect at any all day-type show. During daylight, the stage visually is just part of the landscape, but flood it with good lighting plus the sounds, and the performers come to life, like so many enchanted puppets. And what else are you gonna watch? We knew our music worked. We'd played plenty of small colleges, like Borough SE1, Brunel, etc, and large ones like Goldsmiths, Oxford University, etc. And we were like any rent party band that our heroes belonged to. We were a part of the whole - that's all! But we knew our music. Hollywood was magical and I am proud to have been part of something so heart warming and good!"

MIKE COLE..."It was a colossal bill. You know, a lot of big names on it. GRATEFUL DEAD, JOSE FELICIANO, GINGER BAKER'S AIRFORCE, FAMILY and obviously, we were a bit nervous. A bit tentative with that bill, and there was about 40,000 people there in this field or fields. We did the first number, I think we all must have been a bit nervous, finished the first number and then something happened that was totally unexpected, and that was about 40,000 people stood up and started cheering and waving their hands. It was fantastic! It was probably better than scoring the winning goal in the Cup Final, because it was so unexpected. I think that a lot of it was down to Ray and his stage presence and I suppose, the rest of the band too, but the thing was that, there were a lot of electric bands. I think we went on after THE GRATEFUL DEAD the first time, they were playing thirty minute numbers and JERRY GARCIA's sort of, ten minute guitar solo's which is a bit...I mean, he's not that great a guitar player, that I can listen to him soloing for ten minutes. I always thought that their music was a bit self indulgent. Well anyway, we went on after all these bands, some of them good bands and some of them...We went on immediately after GRATEFUL DEAD and we were just a sort of skiffle group basically and I think they just loved that idea and the acoustic sound of it".

RAY DORSET..."Hollywood was amazing! When we went on stage the first day, the sun just suddenly came out from behind the clouds. It was like an omen. The first number got tremendous applause and with each one we did, it just grew and grew. I asked the audience to put their hands in the air and thousands of hands went up, glinting in the sunshine. It was an amazing sight! On the second day when we were re-booked, the sun was going down and they were lighting bonfires on the hillside. It was like an excerpt from a biblical film. We couldn't see what was going on but I asked them to bang things and make a noise and the whole audience just stood up and started banging coke tins together along with the music."

LOCAL PRESS REPORT...All the big names were given ample time to show their worth and without an exception, they lived up to their reputation. FELICIANO, FAMILY, TRAFFIC, FREE, COLOSSEUM, AIRFORCE, GRATEFUL DEAD, they all played superbly.

But none of them received the applause and hysterical crowd reaction of one of the comparatively new groups on show, MUNGO JERRY, a name to remember!

They may never achieve the exalted heights of being termed a supergroup, but that is just what they are.

They make no pretensions, they just go out and have a good time and entertain. Their joy of playing is infectious!

Here we are, after a lot of organising, the 30 years celebrations are here. To all fans who have made the events, I hope you really enjoy them, to those of you who can't make it, you don't know what you are missing! I first contacted Ray at the beginning of the year after several fans had got in touch with me with their idea's, as usual I thought mine were best. When Ray heard about my Hollywood plans, he was enthusiastic, as they were similar to what he had in mind. The ball started rolling when I contacted customers of my promotions business about suitable venues. The Village Tavern is a small old style traditional English pub ideal for a skiffle-type session.

Ray straight away said that he wanted JOE RUSH for his sidekick on this. All those memories of their Timex days together came flooding back; the only problem now is fitting everybody in! The Oxford Arms is a bigger type venue and hopefully, we won't have as much trouble fitting everybody in. Invitations have been sent out to as many old band members, road crew, etc as I could locate. They have all been asked to bring their instruments or screwdrivers along to make it the MUNGO session to end all jam sessions. With the venues both being within spitting distance of the original Hollywood Festival site, lots of memories have come flooding back. Locals have been contacting me with their stories and the fact that the festival was like a tornado hitting the local villages, they had seen nothing like this happening before and most are disappointed that it never happened again.

As many locals as possible are turning up to the evening gig at the Oxford Arms and we will create a mini-Hollywood through the night with big screen projection of film footage and music from this major happening. Remember, apart from MUNGO JERRY being launched, FREE also had the festival to thank for 'ALRIGHT NOW' being their anthem and BLACK SABBATH'S career was kick-started with 'PARANOID' at the same time. With THE GRATEFUL DEAD playing their first ever UK gig at Hollywood, a lot of people other than RAY DORSET will be eternally grateful to ELIOT COHEN and his crew for making it happen.

I wonder if I will go down in history to the same extent for making HOLLYWOOD RE-VISITED come to town. Somehow, I very much doubt it!

DEREK WADESON.

Ray once again teamed up with new pals, THE DOG HOUSE SKIFFLE GROUP for a night of fun at THE SPRINGHEAD, a really good music pub, located in the boys native Hull. Following on from last years surprise appearance at THE PROCESSED PEA, they invited Ray to play on their 'home ground' - as it were.

A good gathering assembled - it was jam packed really, as the Dog House boys got the proceedings underway with a short set featuring some of the songs from their 'HONK' album, before Ray joined them on stage. With the line-up, instrumentally consisting of guitars, washboard and tea-chest bass, the set was predominately jug band and skiffle with some old MUNGO hits thrown in, to the obvious delight of the locals.

The crowd seemed to me to be amazed to have MUNGO JERRY (Ray) playing in their pub, but he soon had them relaxed and in a party mood. 'LADY ROSE', as ever went down very well, as did 'IN THE SUMMERTIME'. For me, I loved hearing, 'THE SUN IS SHINING' and 'TEN LITTLE WOMEN' again as both are favourites of mine.

These gigs really are good fun and THE DOG HOUSE SKIFFLE GROUP and Ray seem to complement each other very well. They are scheduled to appear at Hull City Hall on December 17th on the same bill as THE SEARCHERS...I can't wait!

PLAYLIST (as per JIM SMITH'S video footage - "thanks again Jim")

'PUTTING ON THE STYLE'/'BRING A LITTLE WATER SYLVIE'/'STACKOLEE'/'DUSTY ROAD'/'SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES'/'AIN'T YOU GLAD'/'JEAN HARLOW'/'KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF'/'THE SUN IS SHINING'/'TEN LITTLE WOMEN'/'DUST PNEUMONIA BLUES'/'LADY ROSE'/'FEELS LIKE I'M IN LOVE'/'HE'S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS'/'JESSE JAMES'/'ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT'/'RED LEATHER & CHROME'/'BABY JUMP'/'IN THE SUMMERTIME'/'MIGHTY MAN'/'GOODNIGHT IRENE'/'THAT OLD DUST STORM'