Described in International Times as 'A lagoon eyed hatchet and bronzed faced astral commando, dressed in the uniform of an armed lover' by Wally Williams, Phil Russell AKA Wally Hope can be cited as a prime mover of the 70's festival scene in the same breath as Michael Eavis or Ubi Dwyer.
Inspired by the love and beauty of Windsor Free Festival, Phil hatched a plan to take back Stonehenge for the people, '...(a place that he regarded as sacred to the people and stolen by the government) and make it: a site for free festivals, free music, free space free mind; at least that, like 'happily ever after', is how the fairy story goes.' wrote Penny Rimbaud in The Last of the Hippies.
Phil enlisted the help of Penny in early 1974 to publicise the first Stonehenge Free Festival. They set about producing thousands of flyers and posters and invited hundreds of people to the event.
Only
a few hundred people turned up and the festival's one stage was dogged
by sound problems but Wally considered it a success, even scoring
tabloid publicity for next year's event, off the back of a high court
eviction of the camp, which stayed after the festival for several weeks.
Buoyed by the success of '74 Wally set about publicising the '75 festival and by May had it nailed and decided to get away for a few days before the event.
Crashing a night in a squat that was raided on a trumped up warrant, he was arrested for possession, and was only seen twice by visitors before his release, 2 days after the 1975 festival, a changed man.
A few weeks later Wally was dead, having choked on his own vomit after taking sleeping pills. Whilst in captivity he had been sectioned, denied access to the outside world and given massive doses of tranquilisers which broke his spirit.
The 1975 festival went off and the event continued to grow through the years until its enforced demise. It inspired a generation or two who still carry the spirit of Wally in their hearts to festivals across the land, although they might not know the name as well as some of his contemporaries.
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