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For
information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk |
Created December 2007 Updted Jan 2012
The Reading Rock Festival.
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Reading August 28-30th 1981. |
Photos and Recollections.
Desperados onstage Reading 81 © Theresa |
Can we get a witness ?
We need more info on this and the other Reading festivals, we are now in the curious situation of having better documentation on 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 ! !!
An English eccentric goes bathing in the Thames © S Vaughan |
Da campsite © Phil Teague |
38 Special sporting various hats © Phil Teague |
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Atomic Rooster © Stephen Vaughan- visit his Flickr site to see more. |
Phil Teague made these notes regarding the running order of bands and what he thought of them at the 1981 festival.
Fri 28/8/81
Didn't bother with the first few bands, then:
Lightning
Raiders; Saga; Telephone (all fairly forgettable) Sat
29/8/81 Sun
30/8/81 |
The Enid © Phil Teague |
Ref the question who
dropped out. Alex Harvey died shortly before the festival and Atomic Rooster
took thier place.
I was wanting to see Alex Harvey so was absolutely gutted at the news.
Atomic Rooster were very good from what I recal with the lead singer, dont know
his time, taking time out to be sick part way through a song.
Hope this helps
Simon
Good view innit ! This photo nicely illustrates the perils of large festivals, especially if you are of short stature |
Hi
The 1981 Reading Rock Festival was my first festival experience. I wanted to
go to the 1980 Festival as I was, and am, a huge fan of UFO and many of the
other classic rock bands that played that year. However, my mother refused as
I was only 15, but said I could go when I was 16. On turning 16 in early February
of 1981, the first thing I told my mum was that I was going to the Reading Festival.
She said no, but after remembering that she had promised, she relented. So in
August, I along with my best friend Paul got on the bus from Southend and headed
to Reading. I remember along the way stopping at some town for lunch. We got
off the bus and found a record store, where I purchased Sammy Hagar's Plain
Jane single (the Red Rocker was my first ever gig in 1980 - went with my older
brother).
On arriving in Reading we followed the crowd to the camp ground. It was beginning to get dark and as we pitched the tent - it was an old tent without a groundsheet - we realized that we did not bring a torch. So, I had the bright idea of using our gas stove as a light source. As I screwed on the stove to the cannister - hisssssssssssss - Paul got his matches out and started to strike them. By the time the stove and cannister were attached, Paul struck the match and the tent LIT UP. A bright, large flame caused by the stove dial being in the on position filled the tent. Being the quick thinker that I am, I shoved the stove into the dirt and turned the stove off. We both gasped a sigh of relief which had been previewed with a few colourful words and headed to the stages. My
memories of the bands that played (and some of this is contrary to other
comments on your site - especially about Enid) are as follows: |
Theresa and friends at the campsite © Theresa |
This is the first time I had witnessed a band being (what my friend and Paul would call) 'canned' offstage. The problem with throwing these beer containers at the stage was that many of them landed short and would hit other spectators. So, these containers would be returned, with venom, from whence they came. It was cool to see from the other side of the field this rainbow of beer containers going back and forth.
Anyway, I digress. The front man/guitarist from Long Tall Shorty then turned to the crowd and said something like - "OK, we'll give you what you want" - and launched into a bad version of Paranoid. This increased the number of beer containers reaching the stage to the point where the band left. Lasting about 10 minutes, if that!
There was a Steel Drum Band - god knows why they were picked for the Reading ROCK Festival. Needless to say, when they started to play the beer containers flew. We were not a cultured bunch! A message came over the tannoy system asking for the crowd to stop as the drums were sensitive equipment and could be easily damaged. More containers rained down! This barrage stopped when a 20 ish blonde in a leopard skin bikini stood up and started to dance seductively. The mainly male audience around her came to a standstill. The barage stopped and she stopped dancing. This happened, I shit you not!
Saga
- a great performance. I knew of them and enjoyed them immensely. Even a guy
near us said "for people dressed up like a bunch of ponces they play real
good."
.38 Special - The best band at the Festival - AMAZING
The Enid © Stephen Vaughan |
The
Enid - it was a hot weekend (for England). The Enid came on and started playing.
Within 5 minutes they had me asleep. Not due to the fact that their music had
a lullaby effect, but because they were boring. I paid the price when I woke
up with a bad sunburn.
I also have one other memory and need help with this one. On, I believe the
Sunday, the local paper had a pull out special about the Festival. On the front
of this special there was a picture from behind a section of the crowd looking
at one of the stages. Lo and behold, in the middle of the crowd, front and centre,
was Paul and me from the back. I want to get a copy of this picture and have
been meaning to call local libraries in Reading to see if they have it on file
anywhere in any format. I live in BC, Canada now. If anyone knows where I can
get a copy of this I would be very grateful.
All in all it was a great experience and something I will never forget.
Cheers
Clive Lovett
More Enid © Stephen Vaughan |
The rotund photographer ! © Stephen Vaughan |
Bloody Elric again ! © Stephen Vaughan |
Hijinks in the arena between bands © Stephen Vaughan |
Wishbone Ash © Stephen Vaughan |
Pity the poor support Band .... Our
band was called Long Tall Shorty and we had evolved from the Mod Revival
of 1978/79 so we were never really going to fit into what had now become
a Heavy Metal Festival but we did have a slight glimmer of hope as 9 Below
Zero had played there the year before and gone down a storm. We The
day we played in 1981, it was a glorious sunny day and a band called Twelfth
Night had been added at the last minute to open the Festival. They were
kind of Prog Rock, a bit like early Genesis and I don't remember much
about them apart from thinking how sad it was that a bunch of young blokes
were playing that sort of music! We had got there earlier in the day and
done a soundcheck and when the time came for us to go on, we climbed the
ramp at the back of the stage with anticipation. Our first song started Anyway,
we were now ready to go and for some bizarre reason that I have never
understood to this day, I was looking out across the field and right at
the back, a few hundred feet away, I saw a biker swinging a chain Back
to the gig though and to incur the wrath of the crowd, While
all this was going on, Girlschool had a massive Neon Sign at the When
we came off stage and back down the ramp to the backstage bit, we saw
all these stage hands cowering down the bottom and a couple of them who
used to work at the Marquee, exchanged a few laughs with us before heading
back up to the stage to clear up the mess. Our manager came The
rest of the day we spent ligging round the record company tents |
Gillan Reading 81 © D Mitchell
anyone identify this dude ? © D Mitchell |
More Wishbone Ash © Stephen Vaughan |
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38 Special again © Phil Teague |
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The crowd catch a few rays © Phil Teague |
My
strongest recollection of Reading 81 is the Kinks playing on the Sunday and
being truly awful. After they had finished playing the campsite had an unusual
amount of mini riots and other disquiet as people vented their frustration after
an anti-climatic closing act.
Kind regards
Hilary Mudge
Hiya
This is a great website which I'm going through at the moment - great memories
of my teenage years at the festival.
I think you have missed a couple of banda from 1981 - Dark Star who were 2nd
or 3rd to play on the Saturday
And Twelth Night who opened the Friday/
This was my first Reading Festival - I remember being caught in the middle of
a massive can fight on the Friday in front of the main stage
And on the Saturday night, somebody stole an ambulance and drove it into the
middle of the crowd! There was also a fourth day indoor
Festival at the Reading Hexagon for those who had not yet had enough (if memory
seves me well Tygers of Pan tang may have headlined
but if anyone knows better ...
keep up the good work
Yours
Andy Downes
© Theresa |
In 1981 I was a young 18 year old about to experience my first ever Rock festival.
I had been attending rock concerts & frequenting pubs since the age of 16 but a three day rock festival was something else entirely. I loved watching bands and I loved drinking so the prospect of doing nothing but that for three whole days was a dream come true. I was both excited and a little bit apprehensive about what to expect.
My two mates & I were so naïve we didn’t even contemplate getting a tent (a pretty important requirement for a festival although I did go one year without one!) until about a week before and then, wanting to ensure we would have enough space, we bought a large army tent that could easily hold eight!
It
wasn’t until we arrived at the camp site we realised we had no idea how
to assemble it and it was only with the help of an older friend who we happened
to see there that we managed to put it up.
We arrived on the Thursday, purposely a day before the festival officially started,
to enable ourselves to acclimatise and become acquainted with our new surroundings.
It
was also an excuse to start the drinking a day early! Again, showing our
naivety, we had bought enough cans of food to open a mini-market. They
were stored like a pyramid in the back of the tent and there they stayed
for the duration of our stay whilst we made do instead with the corner
café, the chippy & the local curry house. The
streets surrounding the site were paved in denim & leather and the
unmistakable scent of patchouli and marijuana wafted in the air.
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Hmm, that looks like the stage on fire .....© Theresa |
I
do remember the two of us returning to the camp site the first night with no
idea where our tent was (we had already lost our one mate) and being in a very
intoxicated state we grovelled around in the dark (we didn’t have anything
sensible like a torch) in desperation shouting to anyone who would listen "Has
anyone seen a blue tent?". Eventually we stumbled across some guys who
had a camp fire going who told us, obviously sarcastically, it was just over
there. We went off in the direction they pointed to and lo and behold it was
where they said. But rather than then go to sleep we were that thrilled we had
found our tent we decided to go back to the camp fire guys and thank them. Needless
to say, we lost the tent again!
Every time we went to a Festival after that we always made sure to pitch our
tent next to a distinctive landmark.
Of the bands we did see, Gillan I seem to recall put on a really good show. I was a big Purple fan back then & had recently seen Gillan in concert so I was familiar with most of the set list. I remember being surprisingly impressed by Steve Hackett. I have never really been into ambient/prog rock type music but he made such an impression I bought a few of his albums when I returned home. I had been a big fan of The Kinks since my early teens so this was probably the highlight of the three days for me. They played a mixture of newer stuff with some of their sixties classics but I don’t think they went down as well as they might have. Nevertheless, I certainly can’t recall the mini riots that apparently occurred afterwards according to one reviewer. I’m sure I must have seen Wishbone Ash, Nine Below Zero, 38 Special & Greg Lake but I cant really remember them at all. I do seem to recall a Steel drum band although the drugs may have kicked in by then!. I really liked The Enid at the time (God knows why) & Chicken Shack so I’m sure I must of enjoyed their sets despite them being on quite early in the afternoon. I am a bit embarrassed to say I did quite like Billy Squier’s set although I have no idea why because I have never been a fan of that American radio-friendly type music. Having recently seen the line up for ’81 I couldn’t understand why I never saw Alex Harvey because I was big fan back then but someone reminded me he had died a few days before the festival started so I’m sure I would have been very disappointed by that. I don’t think the line up was fantastic but then we never went just for that. It was the atmosphere more than anything. The weather was great too & it was sunny every day. Other memories of that year was getting wasps drunk by trapping them inside plastic beer glasses (there was a record number of stings that year I believe!), people jumping in the Thames & a few beer can throwing incidents but nothing too serious – it was usually in the direction of some unfortunate support band. I
have very fond but hazy memories of my first Reading Rock Festival and
although I went a handful of times after this, for many reasons, this
was one of the best. |
Gordon Rowley of Nightwing |
ALEC
JOHNSON/GUITAR-VOCALS...
|
Steve |
i am the drummer in nightwing and i remember the gig well, we were there as special guests of 'gillan' as we were their support for that year on their euro and british tour. there
is a nightwing biog on our 'my space' site,at www.myspace.com/nightwinguk...
|
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Theresa having a good time © Theresa |
Somehow
you’ve missed the opening act which was Twelfth Night. I remember
it well as it was the first time I saw them and it was the first time
that Geoff Mann sang with them. Most of their stuff was still instrumental
but they did play ‘Sequences’ which became the crowd favourite
in the following couple of years. Hello, |
Reading 1981 Pages
Can we get a witness ?
We need more info on this and the other Reading festivals, we are now in the curious situation of having better documentation on 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
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.
Reading in the 80s to date- Fat Regs excellent site covers Reading from 1982 onwards
The early festivals.
You can find out the complete line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below .
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Festivals 1965-1990
Most of these have fairly complete documentation .But new contributions of any sort are always welcome regarding any of the festivals.
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