In pictures: Isle of Wight Festival in years gone by featuring Paul Weller, Iggy Pop, The Charlatans and others

Paul said: “I was more than excited when I heard the festival was making a comeback, and I jumped at the opportunity to cover it. My cousin Viv went to the last 1970 festival and apparently stayed for three weeks. Some, it is reported, never left and settled on the island.

“The first two years were modest affairs with a one-day festival in 2002, headlined by The Charlatans. With only 9,000 attendees it was indeed a soft opening for the festival. After all nearly 600,000 came to the last one – resulting in a bye law restricting large gatherings of the unwashed youth.

“There was a solid undercard of The Coral, Ash, Starsailor and genuine rock legend in Robert Plant. A worthy start to establishing the event as a leading rock festival.

"The following year it was enlarged to two days with a step-up in quality of line up. As a massive fan I was thrilled to see that Iggy Pop was on the bill and it remains one of my favourite gigs of all time. It was pre-digital age so I had two cameras primed and ready to go. He was incredible to photograph and I was more than pleased with the results.

“The modfather himself Paul Weller was playing on the speaker on the bus home. I remember a young couple having a massive row...it was clear the girlfriend wanted to go home early and boyfriend didn't. Then Weller started a few Jam numbers, the young man clearly incandescent with rage shouted: “That's it, I am really fed up now.”