Experts to map out ‘historic stage’

Archaeologists scour Woodstock ’69 concert field

BETHEL, NY, June 21, (Agencies): Archaeologists scouring the grassy hillside famously trampled during the 1969 Woodstock music festival carefully sifted through the dirt from a time of peace, love, protest and good vibes.

Perhaps they would find an old peace symbol? Or a strand of hippie beads? Or Jimi Hendrix’s guitar pick?

The five-day excavation did reveal some non-mind blowing artifacts: parts of old aluminum can pull tabs, bits of broken bottle glass. But the main mission of Binghamton University’s Public Archaeology Facility was to help map out more exactly where The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker wowed the crowds 49 years ago.

“The overall point of this investigation is to kind of define the stage space,” said project director Josh Anderson, kneeling beside a hole that showed evidence of a fence that kept 400,000 fans from the stage area.

“We can use this as a reference point,” Anderson said. “People can stand on that and look up at the hill and say, ‘Oh, this is where the performers were. Jimi Hendrix stood here and played his guitar at 8:30 in the morning’.”

Aging baby boomers might blanch at the thought of archaeologists combing over the place that literally lent its name to their generation — as if it was a Civil War battle site. But Max Yasgur’s old farm about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of New York City is already on the National Register of Historic Places. And the hillside has been preserved since the late ’90s by a not-for-profit that runs an adjacent ’60s-themed museum (complete with a psychedelic bus).

“This is a significant historic site in American culture, one of the few peaceful events that gets commemorated from the 1960s,” said Wade Lawrence, director of The Museum at Bethel Woods. He said the archaeologists’

policy of separating immigrant families at the border.

“I hate Donald Trump so much,” he whispered into the microphone. “I used to work will help the museum plan interpretive walking routes in time for the concert’s 50th anniversary next year.

Lawrence said aerial shots taken during the August weekend can’t be relied upon to show the exact location of the ’69 stage and light and speaker towers.

On-site data helps, though the bottom of the hillside was re-graded in the late ’90s to accommodate a temporary stage for anniversary performances. The spot of the original stage is under a layer of compacted fill.

Match

But archaeologists think they’ve found the spot where a chain-link fence on the side of the stage area met the wooden “Peace Fence” that ran in front of the stage. Now they can match concert photos to a specific spot in the field. That could help them estimate where the corners of the stage were 49 years ago.

During the dig, archaeologists rolled back meter squares of the long green grass and carefully scraped away inches of dirt as they searched for clues about the long-ago layout.

“It’s some science. It’s some guesswork,” said archaeologist Paul Brown as he worked a square. “You hope that you get lucky.”

What artifacts they did find along the way will be analyzed and mapped for depth and location. Anderson said obsolete artifacts like the pull tab parts are useful since they suggest where the surface level was at the time of the concert.

Lawrence said the archaeologists’ report also will be used as museum officials consider restoring the grades in the area of the original stage. The museum is weighing any change to the site carefully, given its significance to so many.

A stream of visitors on a recent sunny day visited the corner of the field with a big metal plaque commemorating the concert. Some made peace

scream I hated George Bush. This one is a little different. This one is bad, it’s like acid gone bad.”

Armstrong’s set included a cover of signs as they smiled for pictures, others paused quietly to gaze at the grassy expanse.

“There’s just something about this place that — and I’m not the only one — that draws people here,” 67-yearold Woodstock veteran Charles Maloney said as he stood by the plaque. “I mean, this area here could have 200 people. And you can still hear the silence.”

PARIS:

The first draft of music Mozart wrote for the last act of his opera “The Marriage of Figaro” failed to find a buyer when it went under the hammer in Paris Wednesday.

The manuscript — which experts had billed as “exceptional”, dating from the height of the composer’s career in 1786 — was expected to sell for half a million euros ($578,000).

But a draft of Schumann’s oratorio “Scenes from Goethe’s Faust” did go for 650,000 euros.

The almost complete manuscript of Schumann’s masterpiece “containing several versions from the first sketches until the orchestration” was described as “an extraordinary item” by the French auction house Ader Nordmann.

NASHVILLE, Tenn:

After 80 years of being a male-only organization, the Barbershop Harmony Society has announced that women will be allowed to join the a capella singing organization.

The organization, which is based in Nashville, Tennessee, said in a statement Wednesday on its website that membership to the society is open to everyone, effective immediately.

But the statement also says that its local chapters will get to decide how to, or whether to integrate their chapters, such as keeping male-only groups, or having female-only groups or mixed groups. Chapters can start accepting women in January 2019.

“Rockaway Beach” and some hits from Green Day’s album “Dookie.” He closed with “Time of My Life,” which was met with ecstatic applause. (RTRS)

LOS ANGELES:

Also:

James Bay warmed up the crowd at London’s Twickenham Stadium before The Rolling Stones took the stage last night. But after Bay’s opening set, Stones frontman Mick Jagger invited him back onstage to perform a duet of the band’s hit “Beast of Burden.” The song, originally from 1978’s “Some Girls” album, saw a second life in 1984 when it became a radio and MTV hit for Bette Midler.

Before the show started, Keith Richards chatted with Bay and showed the singer some of his pre-show rituals.

After the performance, Bay took to Instagram to thank The Rolling Stones, citing the impact and influence the band has had on his career thus far. “This band has probably shaped the way I make music and perform more than anyone else,” Bay wrote. “Their relentless passion and energy on stage is so inspiring. I can’t believe last night was real. Thank you X.”

Bay previously performed onstage with Stones band member Ronnie Wood in 2015 after asking the guitarist to join him to play a cover of The Faces’ “(You Know) I’m Losing You” at the Brixton Academy. (RTRS)