'I didn't have a care in the world': Iconic 1970s festival hippy chick reveals she was a boring housewife celebrating divorce

'I was too naive for drugs and wasn't at all promiscuous,' says Jennifer Wilson, now 67

'I seemed to be photographed at pop concerts every time I went'

It's an iconic image that captured the free spirit of the hippie movement.

A pretty, long-haired, semi-naked young woman stands amid her friends, playing air guitar, lost in the music at an open-air festival.



But now more than three decades on the woman in the shot has revealed she wasn't a drug-taking hippie chick of easy virtue, but a straight-laced married woman looking for something to do.



The picture was taken at a music festival in 1978 shortly after Jennifer Wilson, now 67, moved away from her home city of Exeter in Devon to London.

Rocking spirit: Jennifer Wilson, originally from Exeter, was the subject of an iconic image thanks to this old rock festival photograph that epitomised the free spirited summer of love

'I seemed to be photographed at pop concerts every time I went,' she said.



'I used to wear unusual clothing with lots of colours - I still do but I'm trying to tone it down now I'm older.



' I didn't take drugs... I was very straight. I went to pop concerts for something to do'

'The photo could have been taken anywhere between 1975 and 1982.



'I think it was at Reading Festival while dancing to a band like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Genesis - it could have been any band like that.



'I used to love music when I was at school.



'The teacher used to tell us to close our eyes when listening to a piece of music so you can hear it properly and not get distracted by what's going on around you.



'I still close my eyes now when listening to a new record.



'Sometimes the photo is used with the wrong story, like drugs or promiscuity, that insinuates all sorts of things I don't like.



'I didn't take drugs, I was too naive. And I wasn't even promiscuous.



2011: Jennifer Wilson more than three decades on aged 67 was a long haired, scantily clad woman in her youth

'I had been married for a few years at that time. I was very straight. I went to pop concerts for something to do.'



Ms Wilson was the eldest of eight children, five girls and three boys, and grew up in Alphington, Exeter.



She got married to an Exeter man and moved to London after her divorce aged 25, where she made a living as a dress maker.



Jennifer Wilson enjoyed watching bands such as Led Zeppelin

Today she lives in East Acton with her partner of 12 years and has raised three daughters.



She regularly visits Exeter, where her mother and two sisters still live, and can recall the times her dad used to take her and her brothers and sisters to watch Exeter City.



'When I divorced I started going to rock concerts as a way of trying to pick myself up off the floor,' she said.



'It was a kind of freedom after being brought up strictly and convent educated.



'I used to go to Reading and Knebworth a lot to listen to various bands.



'I can't remember them all. I remember it was a really hot day and people started to sunbathe topless.



'I looked like the odd ball with my clothes on. All the girls were going round with their tops off so I did the same.



'I couldn't believe I was the one who was photographed. It was the happiest time of a my life. I met lovely people. It was all love and peace.



'There was no violence like there is now.'



Ms Wilson said she worked for a time as a Go Go dancer in London.



She also spent a year living in a bus in Morocco sitting on the side of the road selling beaded headbands.



'I used to get recognised in and around Earls Court near where I lived,' she said. 'Even the bread delivery man noticed me.



'I seemed to get photographed all the time. Every time anyone sees a photo of me I try to get a copy. And a friend's son found quite a few pictures of me on a hippie website.'

