On 20 July 1974, a ticket for Bucolic Frolic, the first-ever rock festival at Knebworth House, would cost £2.75. This was for a full day of rock, headlined by the Allman Brothers Band, and the seeds were sown for the future of the ego and bravado that it takes to want to perform at Britain’s largest venue.
This summer, Knebworth House custodian Henry Lytton Cobbold will release Knebworth – 50 Years Of The Greatest Rock Venue In The World!, an illustrated journey through the concerts that shaped three generations.
“We do it well, and we’re the perfect place for it,” Henry told MetalTalk. Knebworth have certainly proved that, and it is the artist’s ego and bravado that fully justifies the exclamation mark at the end of the book’s subtitle.
Knebworth House – The Bucolic Frolic
The Bucolic Frolic was born out of the spirit of the San Francisco Renaissance Fairs of the early ’70s, a hippie theme which made Knebworth, as a Tudor historic house, an appropriate fit.
The promoter Fred Bannister approached Knebworth in ’74 to stage The Bucolic Frolic. “He turned around and said, well, actually what I really mean is that I want to bring Led Zeppelin here,” Henry says. “We were slightly less sure about it. My mum and dad said no, originally. But Freddie said, ‘Everything has a price. Give me an example of what you might accept to allow me to do this.’ They tried to come up with some really big figure, like £10,000.”
Bannister immedialy gave them a cheque and the festival was on. “They saw how well that first show went,” Henry says, “even though in fact, it wasn’t Zeppelin in the end. Zeppelin pulled out because they didn’t like the fact that the Allman Brothers had put an ad in Melody Maker suggesting that they were joint headliners.
“But even so, it was a very strong bill. Everybody saw that this was a fantastic field for this sort of event. So it grew out of that. It grew out of those hippie events that were going on in California at the time. Fred Bannister had titles for all of his shows in the ’70s. It wasn’t just about the headliners. It was about the festival, it was about the venue, it was about the vibe of the time, and that again keeps the stories alive.”
Henry was there as a 12-year-old. “I just remember it being a fantastic day,” he says. “I don’t remember the details of the Allman Brothers playing for three hours. But I do remember it being a fantastic filled out great day, with some great music.”
It was the springboard for everything that followed.
Lynyrd Skynyrd performed live at Knebworth Park in England on 21 August 1976, as part of a daylong festival. They blew The Rolling Stones off the stage and, to this day, whenever anyone sees footage of Free Bird, it is always that Knebworth film. It must have been incredible to have been there.
“It was the definitive recording of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd,” Henry says of the film, which can be found on YouTube. “It gives you such a great sense of that hot 1976 summer and what a great afternoon show can be. When you’re rocking the stage to that extent at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, you’re doing something right.
“The ’70s Knebworth shows, not only did they all have sort of names attached to them, but they were extraordinary events. Full of legends with all the hijinks going on behind the scenes.”
The Rolling Stones
What happened later on that evening after the Lynyrd Skynyrd performance is now legendary. “You won’t see a recording of the Rolling Stones playing Knebworth, despite the fact that they had a Hollywood director and 35 millimetre film cameras filming the whole of that gig. You won’t see that film because of the extraordinary background.
“A film about that day would be a pretty interesting feature film. The Stones came on at 11 o’clock. It was an amazing event, and anybody who was there remembers it as being amazing. I think, in terms of musical performance, it wasn’t there. It was a fantastic hour for the Stones in terms of their legend and their mythology, but not their best musical performance.”
“The whole band knew that as a core, Lynyrd Skynyrd, we were unstoppable,” Artimus Pyle told MetalTalk in 2023. “When we opened up for the Rolling Stones to three hundred thousand people, the London Times Mirror said that we possessed – this is how they put it – they said: ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd possessed the energy of the day.’
“Now, The Stones came out two hours late and drunk, but they can do that because they’re The Stones. But I’d put us up against anybody on the planet.”
That day, following Skynyrd was not on anyones list. “But then Skynyrd had already blown everybody off the stage at 3 o’clock in the afternoon,” Henry says. “So that was part of the problem, because nobody wanted to follow Skynyrd. The story is that somebody poured a pint of beer into the mixing desk after the Skynyrd set. So that there was a 3-4 hour delay before 10cc came on, who therefore nabbed the sunset slot when the sun was going down, which was pretty perfect for them.”
It was less perfect for the Rolling Stones when the stage was ready for them at 11 o’clock, “which was after the close of our license,” Henry says. “The police and the licensing officers were actually on stage, about to pull the plug.
“Freddie Bannister, the promoter said, ‘you’re gonna tell 120,000 people to go home before they’ve seen the Rolling Stones? It’s not gonna work.’ Eventually, that message got through.
“But then the Stones didn’t finish until 1-2 o’clock in the morning when all the trains had finished. So there are a lot of people who can tell you stories of sleeping in Hertfordshire fields or in Stevenage laybys in 1976.
“But fortunately, the weather was good enough that we didn’t have any cases of hypothermia the following morning.”
People talk that Skynyrd were great and 10CC were brilliant, even if getting home as tough. “The story and the mythology, it doesn’t matter what your journey was like getting home,” Henry says. “It all gets distilled into this amazing memory of a key point in your life.”
Knebworth – 50 Years Of The Greatest Rock Venue In The World! has some really lovely little snippets of information from various people. There are news clippings and chats with people behind the scenes and fans.
This is a book that adds to that sense of atmosphere there. There are some negative parts there, too, such as people sniping, which is great. It is not praising everything, but it gives a wonderfully balanced view of what Henry and the Lytton Cobbold family were fighting against.
“Every one of these shows is a massive challenge,” Henry says. “There are battles fought at every level. It’s a miracle when they work.” 
With over 1,600 photos in the book, this is a story of the venue and legends and mythology of a historic gothic building. “It was something that was great fun for me to do,” Henry says. “We have an archive. We keep everything, as we’re a museum. Every ticket, every t-shirt, it all gets kept. It was quite fun, therefore, to get all of that into scrapbook form.”
As a reader, it is wonderful strolling through the book. There is background on how Frank Zappa was, and his bodyguard eating all the chocolates. It is great reading about the Led Zeppelin shows, though I did not realise that the second one was so problematic for them.
“That’s of course what people forget,” Henry says. “We’ve bounced our grandkids on our knees and told them about Zeppelin in ’79. But all that drama that was going on backstage is forgotten. But at the time, it was pretty traumatic for everybody involved.
“We were never paid for the[second] Led Zeppelin show in cash terms. There was no money that came out of that second weekend. In so many ways, we’ve been paid back by the fact that that weekend happened, particularly by the American Metal bands who wanted to play Knebworth because Zeppelin played in ’79.
“The legend of those two weekends in 1979 has extended right the way three or four decades later. You have bands wanting to play because of that weekend and the hallowed ground that it therefore makes us.”
In Part Two, we cover Queen performing on Freddie Mercury’s last ever show, Deep Purple, Sonisphere and the challenges of getting 125,000 people in and out of a country field.
Plus, showing Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers around the house with his family and having tea with Shawn Crahan, the clown in Slipknot, and his kids. “He’s just a really nice guy from Idaho.”
50 Years Of Legendary Live Music
Henry Lytton Cobbold will reflect on 50 years of legendary live music at Knebworth Park when he hosts 50 Years Of Knebworth Rock Concert Memories on 26 May 2025 as part of the book launch.
Henry has promised to share behind-the-scenes stories, personal insights, and archival highlights from 50 years of unforgettable concerts that shaped British music culture.
The 50 years of Knebworth Rock Concert Memories talks are at 11 am and 2 pm and can be pre-booked from here.
From Deep Purple to Queen. From Lynyrd Skynyrd to the Rolling Stones. You can read much more about 50 Years Of The Greatest Rock Venue In The World! in our interview series with Knebworth House custodian Henry Lytton Cobbold. Click here to read more.
