The Archive.

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The Reading Rock Festival.

Richfield Avenue. 
Reading 
August 22-24th 1980.

The Recordings

Photos of Reading Rock 1980 © Pete

Recordings and Setlists .
    It looks like the BBC recorded a fair number of sets from the festival and these have gredually emerged over the years, mixed with a smattering of audience recordings , we have a pretty good recored documentation of this event .

Krokus 8-22-80

  • Mad Racket
  • Fire
  • Bedside Radio
  • Heatstrokes
  • She’s got Everything
  • Bye Bye Baby

Tommy Vance show FM 40 mins

Marc Storace - vocals. Tommy Kiefer - lead guitar. Fernando Von Arb - guitar. Chris Von Rohr - bass. Freddy Steady - drums

Rory Gallagher 8-22-80

There appears to be some confusion by some bootleggers as to which day Rory played reading 1980...

Gillan 8-22-80

  • Unchain Your Brain
  • Mr. Universe
  • If you Believe Me
  • Trouble
  • Vengeance
  • Smoke on the Water
  • Lucille

Bonus tracks included on CD - Mr. Universe (Virgin) 1979

 

  • Ian Gillan – vocals 
  • John McCoy – bass 
  • Colin Towns – keyboards
  • Bernie Tormé Guitars
  • Mick Underwood drums

 

Pat Travers Band 8-23-80

  • Rock & Roll Susie
  • Your Love Can't Be Right
  • Life in London
  • Born Under a Bad Sign
  • Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)
  • Snortin' Whiskey
  • Hooked on Music
  • Hammerhead
  • It Makes No Difference

    BBC FM Live In Concert

Iron Maiden 8-23-80

Aud recording

UFO 8-23-80

Tygers of Pan Tang 8-24-80

 

A rather distorted audience recording, 42 mins.... dont pay for it listen to it here

  • Euthanasia
  • Bad Times
  • Rock and Roll Man
  • Badger Badger
  • Slave to Freedom
  • Guitar Solo
    (John Sykes)
  • Wild Catz
  • Fireclown
  • Suzie Smiled
  • Straight as a Die
  • Money
  • Don't Touch Me There
  • Tush

Angel Witch 8-24-80

 

 

  • Intro
  • Angel Of Death
  • Sweet Danger
  • Flight 19
  • Sorcerers
  • Guillotine
  • Guitar Solo
  • Angel Witch
  • Extermination Day

    Aud 35 mins B+ grade


Budgie 8-24-80

 

  • Breaking All The House Rules
  • Crime Against The World
  • Napoleon Bona - Part 1 & 2
  • Forearm Smash
  • Panzer Division Destroyed
  • Wildfire

    FM broadcast BBC Radio 1

Magnum 8-24-80

FM broadcast BBC Radio 1

  • Guitars: Tony Clarkin
    Vocals: Bob Catley
    Keyboards: Mark Stanway 
    Bass: Wally Lowe
    Drums: Kex Gorin

 


Def Leppard 8-24-80

  • It Could Be You
  • It Don't Matter,
  • Long Way From Home
  • Answer To The Master
  • Rock Brigade
  • Me and My Wine
  • Satellite
  • When The Walls Came Tumblin' Down
  • Medicine Man
  • Overture
  • Lady Strange
  • Rocks Off
  • Ride Into The Sun
  • Wasted

  • Mix of aud and FM broadcast BBC Radio 1 although it has passed into legend that Leppard were received badly at Reading , they seem to have received reasonable applause . They may well have been bottled to some extent but that did not stop them from playing an encore. you can listen to, and download the audience recording of their set here as well as reading reviews of their set.

  • Show Comment -- Joe Elliott 2004

    "The legend about us getting bottled off at Reading 1980 is a myth really - we got an encore at Reading. We probably had six or seven bottles of piss thrown up - and maybe a tomato - but it didn't put us off. That 'backlash' was all blown out of proportion. We're living proof that bad reviews make no difference."

Slade 8-24-80

Whitesnake 8-24-80

Whitesnake at Reading 1980 © Phil Ryan

Whitesnake at Reading 1980 © Phil Ryan

recordings also circulate of

Samson

We don't have copies of ANY of these shows nor do we know where they can be obtained.

Thanks to photographer Alan Perry for allowing us to use his excellent photos of Reading 1980, you can purchase copies of these pix at his website where he has oodles of top photos of metal bands from the 70s to date.

We need more info on this and the other Reading festivals, we are now in the curious situation of having better documentation of some of the earlier festivals, so c'mon headbangers, get yer photos out and fire up whats left of the aging braincells .Send your recollections and scans to us NOW ! !! Contact us

Reading 1980 pages

The early festivals.

You can find out the complete line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below .
  1961
1962
1963
1964

Festivals 1965-1990

Most of these have fairly complete documentation .But new contributions of any sort are always welcome regarding any of the festivals.
Richmond 1965
Windsor 1966
 Windsor 1967
Sunbury 1968
Plumpton 1969
Plumpton 1970
Reading 1971
Reading 1972
Reading 1973
Reading 1974

 

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