The news that China has banned Bob Dylan from playing concerts in Beijing and Shanghai may well be greeted with rueful smiles from those old enough to remember IOW 69.

Dylan may be considered too dangerous for the former Stalinist state, but the great minstrel had decisively rejected the role of political figurehead by the time the sixties came to a close.

Dylan’s appearance at the Isle of Wight, clad in a country-style white suit, mollifying his once radical-sounding songs, was a key turning point in his development and is central to 69ers, the novel I shall shortly (belatedly) complete. Check out the archives for much more about the UK’s first great rock festival. Comments welcome.