CROSBY, STILLS & NASH IN NEAR-MISS WOODSTOCK AIR CRASH

July 2009: Crosby, Stills & Nash’s reputation as one of the all-time great bands was almost assured after their incredible set in front of 500,000 fans and an audience of their musical peers at Woodstock Music and Art Fair, 1969. But, Graham Nash has revealed, the band almost never made it to the stage after their helicopter almost crashed delivering them to the site.

GRAHAM NASH: Getting into the concert was traumatic for me because, as we were being transported to the backstage area in a helicopter, the tail rotor stopped operating and the pilot had to slam the machine into the ground… Welcome to Woodstock!

The revelation is made in a new, limited edition, multimedia boxed set entitled Woodstock Experience, due to be published by Genesis Publications on the 40th anniversary of the iconic festival, August 15, 2009.

Having made it to the festival site in one piece, the terror wasn’t over for Nash and his band mates. Woodstock was just their second ever live performance and if the half-million crowd weren’t enough to put them on edge, the high expectations of their peers was:

GRAHAM NASH: We waited for a few hours before our show and then took to the stage for what was only our second concert ever. At one point Stephen mentioned that we were ‘scared shitless’. True, but we weren’t bothered by the amount of people in front of us; we were apprehensive about whether we could pull off a good show in front of the crowds of our peers, our heroes, who were standing at the side of the stage trying to see if this new band could really be as good as the record we had made.

Graham Nash is one of nearly 70 contributors who share their personal memories in Woodstock Experience. Others include David Crosby, John Sebastian, Arlo Guthrie, Joe Cocker, The Band and Ravi Shankar, as well as audience members, photographers, artists and Woodstock producers Artie Kornfeld and Joel Rosenman. Woodstock’s Executive Producer, Michael Lang, is also the project’s Executive Editor and, along with his own story, provides letters, notes, contracts and more from his personal archive.

Woodstock Experience is more than simply a book. The boxed set comprises two separate volumes: Volume One is the definitive oral history of the festival; Volume Two features the previously unseen photographs of the late Dan Garson, taken as a 17-year old student. In addition there are loose-leaf essays, a specially pressed vinyl record featuring Santana and Jefferson Airplane live at Woodstock, a facsimile hand-drawn site map, a fine-art print by legendary Sixties artist Peter Max, and an original festival ticket with every set. This collection of artefacts are housed in a three-part folding box which itself features exclusive screen-printed art by leading artist and designer Shepard Fairey –  the man behind the Barack Obama ‘Hope’ posters.

Only 1,000 of these boxed sets are available worldwide, each one signed by both Michael Lang and Arlo Guthrie.

Editor’s Notes

More photographs available on request. Copyright material can only be reproduced provided the following copy appears accompanying any article/feature:

Woodstock Experience signed by Michael Lang and Arlo Guthrie – the limited edition box set of 1,000 copies, is available only through Genesis Publications:

www.genesis-publications.com; tel: +44(0)1483 540970; price: £395.

About Genesis Publications

Brian Roylance founded Genesis Publications in 1974. His aim was to start a unique publishing company true to the arts of printing and craftsmanship and to establish a community shared by its authors and readers. Years later, in 1995, he found himself explaining the nature of hand-bound books in an interview with the New York Times and noted, ‘I suppose to some extent I am stuck in a time warp. I don’t know of many people who go to this much trouble to produce a book anymore. But I think there is a future for it.’ Today, Genesis is headed by Brian’s son and daughter. Many other publishers have been inspired by the work of Genesis but few, if any, have matched the attention to design and craftsmanship for which Genesis has become known. As a result, over 35 years since work began on the first book, Genesis has developed a reputation for exceptional signed limited editions.

Website: www.genesis-publications.com

Shepard Fairy, the Artist Behind the Iconic Barack Obama Campaign and Official Inauguration Poster