JANUARY 3, 1970 - Viv Stanshall announces that the Bonzo Dog Band are splitting up, Steve Ellis leaves The Love Affair and Ian McDonald and Mike Giles quit King Crimson.
The Moody Blues are tipped as the group of the 70s. Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris is the top single, with Sugar Sugar by the Archies at No.2.
The Who's Tommy is hailed as the pop album of 1969. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young arrive in the UK for their first appearance, at the Royal Albert Hall.
'Let It Be' is announced as the Beatles' next single.
The Who are announced for the bill at the Isle of Wight Festival. Here's a link to their performance at the festival, considered one of their best.
Bob Dylan's Self Portrait album is set for release.
Eric Clapton forms a new band with Bobby Whitlock, Jim Keltner and Carl Radle, that would go on to make the album Layla as Derek & The Dominoes.
Led Zeppelin say no to a $200,000 fee for two dates in the US, saying they are keeping faith with their booking at the Bath Festival on 28th June.
'Harrison in supersession' as Clapton, Ringo and Phil Spector gather for George's first solo album, All Things Must Pass.
No such problems for Led Zeppelin, who play five encores to the 150,000 strong crowd.
Controversy over the inferior recording quality of the new Jimi Hendrix album Band of Gypsys.
Jimi's manager says the UK release was not taken from the original master tape.
You can read more about the background to the Band of Gypsys album here
Jethro Tull and Ten Years After are added to the Isle of Wight Festival bill.
Having been sacked by the BBC, DJ Kenny Everett gets widespread support, with one colleague describing him as "the Spike Milligan of our generation".
His Saturday morning show is taken over by 21 year old Noel Edmunds.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer record their first album.
Neil Young had planned to appear as well but didn't like the festival vibe.
The IOW show is remarkable because it demonstrates not only Joni's qualities as a songwriter and performer, but her determination to win over a hostile crowd.
Joni was visibly upset by the bad vibes from a section of the crowd, some of whom just wanted to hear the rock bands. Then there were the freeloaders, who thought it was all too corporate and should be put on for nothing.
She toughs it out, enduring a stage invasion by one of the disgruntled hippies and telling the audience at one point that they were behaving like unruly tourists.
And when she could rightfully have fled the scene as it threatened to get out of hand, she stayed and won them over, even getting called back for an encore.
It remains a great shame that one of the greatest music festivals was marred by this conflict between promoters with a genuine love for the music and the high ideals of those who thought the promoters were selling out the free love, free everything culture of the late 1960s.
At the other end of the 1970s, Joni would collaborate with jazz legend Charles Mingus (confirmed in MM this week for his first dates in Britain).
That would have been unthinkable at this point in her career, but as we now know, Joni's music took a more jazzy direction in the late 1970s.
Also in this edition of Melody Maker, Jimi Hendrix on his new band, which was sadly not to be, as he died in London on September 18th. His former manager Chas Chandler talked subsequently about how Jimi had come back to the UK seeking to pick up the pieces of his career, which had become increasingly directionless. Chandler had planned to meet up with Hendrix the following week to map out a plan.
The BBC refuses to show what it considers an inferior performance by Bob Dylan on the Johnny Cash Show. This was the legendary performance where Cash and Dylan performed Girl From The North Country.
It was Dylan's first TV appearance since his brief withdrawal from the music scene following a motorcycle accident. He had holed up in Woodstock with wife sara and their young children.
Freda Payne is at No. 1 in the singles chart with Band of Gold, about to be overtaken by Deep Purple's Black Night.
Melody Maker's Chris Welch says the new Led Zeppelin (III) album "spans as many moods as a widescreen epic". Meanwhile Deep Purple's Ian Gillan plays the son of God in 'Jesus Christ - Superstar'.
Mick Jagger says he won't be promoting the single Memo from Turner from the film Performance. The song features Ry Cooder on guitar.
Drummer Buddy Rich lays into rock musicians, avant-garde jazzers and the forthcoming drum dual between Ginger Baker and Elvin Jones.
"Guitar smashing Ritchie Blackmore" is pictured in a report saying Deep Purple have cancelled their French tour because of worries there might be another incident of fans dying in a blazing dance hall. This was way before the incident that inspired Smoke On The Water.
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