The Isle of Wight /ˈaɪl əv ˈwaɪt/ is a county and the largest and second most populous island in England. It is located in the English Channel, about 4 mi (6 km) off the coast of Hampshire and is separated from mainland Great Britain by the Solent. The island has several resorts which have been holiday destinations since Victorian times.
Until 1995, like Jersey and Guernsey, the island had a Governor.
Home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria, who built her much-loved summer residence and final home Osborne House at East Cowes, the island has a maritime and industrial tradition including boat building, sail making, the manufacture of flying boats, the world's first hovercraft, and the testing and development of Britain's space rockets. The Isle hosts annual festivals including the Bestival and the Isle of Wight Festival, which, in 1970, was the largest rock music event ever held. The island has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe.
Isle of Wight was a posthumous live album by Jimi Hendrix, released in November 1971 by Polydor in the U.K. only. The album documents Hendrix's performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival on August 30, 1970, his last performance in England before his death in September. The album was engineered by Carlos Ohlms (a British based engineer). The record company did not use a picture from the Isle of Wight concert. The cover photo is from a live concert from Berlin, Deutschlandhalle, September 4, 1970. The album spent only two weeks in the U.K. albums chart, peaking at No. 17.
Isle of Wight contains just part of the concert, but this release has a unique mix compared to the Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight 2002 release). The entire performance was released on the 2002 album Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight.
All songs written and composed by Jimi Hendrix, except where noted.
Coordinates: 50°41′02″N 1°19′12″W / 50.684°N 1.320°W / 50.684; -1.320
Isle of Wight (/ˈwaɪt/) is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2001 by Andrew Turner of the Conservative Party.
Created by the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election it covers the whole of the Isle of Wight and has had the largest electorate in all elections from 1983 onwards.
The Isle of Wight forms a single constituency of the House of Commons. The constituency covers exactly the same land as the ceremonial county of the Isle of Wight and the area administered by the unitary authority, Isle of Wight Council which consists almost wholly of the island itself plus a few uninhabited rocks.
With an electorate of 110,924 (as of 2010), the constituency has by far the largest electorate in the UK, more than 50% above the England average of 71,537. This is five times the size of the smallest electorate (Na h-Eileanan an Iar, formerly known as the Western Isles), despite the Isle of Wight having some of the same problems as other island constituencies.
The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was held between 26 and 31 August 1970 at Afton Down, an area on the western side of the Isle of Wight. It was the last of three consecutive music festivals to take place on the island between 1968 and 1970 and widely acknowledged as the largest musical event of its time, greater than the attendance of Woodstock. Although estimates vary, the Guinness Book of Records estimated 600,000, possibly 700,000 people attended. It was organised and promoted by local brothers, Ronnie, Ray and Bill Foulk. Ron Smith was site manager and Rikki Farr acted as compere.
The preceding Isle of Wight Festivals, also promoted by the Foulks, had already gained a good reputation in 1968 and 1969 by featuring acts such as Jefferson Airplane, T. Rex, The Move, The Pretty Things, Joe Cocker, The Moody Blues (performed at the 1969 festival), The Who, and Bob Dylan in his first performance since his 1966 motorcycle accident.
The 1970 version, following Woodstock in the previous year, set out to move one step forward and enlisted Jimi Hendrix. With Hendrix confirmed, artists such as Cactus, Chicago, The Doors, Lighthouse, The Moody Blues, The Who, Miles Davis, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Jethro Tull, Sly and the Family Stone, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Free willingly took up the chance to play there. The event had a magnificent but impractical site, since the prevailing wind blew the sound sideways across the venue, and the sound system had to be augmented by The Who's PA. There was a strong, but inconsistent line up, and the logistical nightmare of transporting some 600,000 people onto an island with a population of fewer than 100,000.
The Isle of Wight Festival 2007 was the sixth revived Isle of Wight Festival on the Seaclose Park site in Newport on the Isle of Wight. It took place between 8 June – 10 June 2007. Tickets went on sale at 9am on Thursday 22 February and were sold out by Monday 26 February. It was the first festival since 2003 with no official sponsor.
The festival capacity was around 60,000. Local artist, Helen Davenport, created a 15 ft (4.6 m) illuminated wicker and tissue paper statue to commemorate the performance of Jimi Hendrix at the 1970 festival. The campsite was located next to the site on an extensive farmland site. The Seaclose Park site was within ten minutes' walking distance of the town of Newport.
The 2007 Festival sold out in a record time of less than five days. The festival was The Rolling Stones' first British festival performance for over thirty years since their performance at the 1976 Knebworth fair. The festival once again featured the popular Carling warm beer amnesty, in which people could trade warm beer for cold cans of Carling.
The Isle of Wight Festival 2005 is the fourth revived Isle of Wight Festival on the Seaclose Park site in Newport on the Isle of Wight. The attendance of this festival was around 50,000, a 15,000 increase on sales of the year before, which was testament to its growing success as a British music festival. It was the second year of Nokia sponsorship, which saw the likes of The Who, David Bowie and R.E.M. grace the Island stage.
In this year the Isle of Wight festival began to seriously stake its claim as one of the big festivals of Britain. Attracting a line-up featuring Faithless, Travis and R.E.M.. This event was filmed and highlights of the event were shown at late night by Channel 4. This was scheduled to include Morrissey as the Saturday night headliner, but he had to pull out and was replaced by Travis.
The Isle of Wight Festival 2010 was the ninth revived Isle of Wight Festival to be held at Seaclose Park in Newport on the Isle of Wight. The event ran from 11 until 13 June 2010. Tickets were released on Friday 4 December 2009.
The 2010 event was the last in the current contract with the Isle of Wight Council to take place, tying in with the last event for Festival First, guaranteeing festival-goers a ticket for three years. Event organisers Solo are in discussion with the Isle of Wight Council to seal a deal to guarantee the Festival continue for a further ten years.
The first acts were confirmed as Jay-Z, The Strokes, Blondie, Pink, Squeeze and Orbital.
The complete line up was as follows:
Friday
Saturday
Sunday