Lightning Raiders; Saga; Telephone (all fairly forgettable)
Budgie @7:45pm (very good - got crowd going)
Steve Hacket @ 8:45 (good, but a bit out of place really)
Girlschool (enjoyed the first 20 mins, then they got a bit boring) -
finished @11pm

Sat 29/8/81
Arrived back from the pub at 2:15pm, just as Atomic Rooster were finishing
Vardis
Lionheart (very ordinary)
Chicken Shack (quite good)
Samson; Rose Tatoo; Billy Squier (average)
Trust (went down badly - didn't even get an encore)
Gillan (OK, got two encores)

Sun 30/8/81
First 3 groups included Afraid Of Mice & Reluctant Stereotypes
The Enid (best set of whole festival - got great ovation, but didn't play an encore)
Desperados (got canned initially, but a fair reception after)
.38 special (very good)
Wishbone Ash (didn't come over as well as on the recent tour, but enjoyable)
Greg Lake (with Gary Moore) @7:30pm (excellent set)
Nine Below Zero (not up to much)
The Kinks (OK but a bit boring in the middle of the set) - finished 11:15

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:
Long Tall Shorty - came on stage and opened with a 'punk-ish' number. Straight away the crowd started booing and plastic containers of beer started to rain toward the stage.

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
had a similar style, playing early 60's R and B and kind of thought that
we might be tolerated among some of the older people in the crowd.
    The reason we got the gig was because our manager was Jerry Floyd, the DJ at the Marquee and because of him we used to play the Marquee Club in Wardour Street every month to pretty big crowds. For the previous couple
of years we had been given guest tickets to the Festival and it had always
been a dream of ours to play somewhere like that. In fact before we did
appear there, I had stood on the side of the stage watching people like
Rory Gallagher and another band I remember were Girl the previous year who got canned off. They were all "pretty boys" from North London and the
singer went out with Britt Eckland who was standing next to me on the
stage while they were doing their thing.

   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
with the drums before the guitars were supposed to come crashing in but
someone, somehow had taken the plug off our guitar players Vox amp and
because I used to pose with a guitar that was plugged in but wasn't very
loud, the song started with rather a whimper than a load of youthful
energy. A stage hand came rushing over to assist and there was a slight
delay while someone put a new plug on the amp but our first song was met
with total silence which was quite bizarre as I'm told there were about
12000 people in the arena at that point.

   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
around his head and I muttered something like, "what a bunch of wankers"
into the mic as an intro to the next song. As we started playing, a few
things were lobbed at us and we decided to have a bit of fun. In fact
before we went on, we had decided if we weren't going to go down well,
we'd try and incite a bit of crowd unrest so as to be remembered for
SOMETHING! I must point out at this stage, we were the youngest band to
have ever played the Festival until then and we were all quite fiesty in
those days.

   Back to the gig though and to incur the wrath of the crowd,
our drummer came to the front of the stage, I got onto the drums and we
started doing a piss take of Paranoid by Black Sabbath. That truly had an
effect and we were now being pelted with all sorts of stuff, cider
bottles, stones and flints, half a brick (!!) and all manner of other
missiles. Our bass player got hit on the shoulder by a wrapped Cornish
Pasty so I jumped out from the drums and grabbed it for my lunch later in
the day. After the song finished which to be honest none of us really
knew, the sound of the missiles hitting the stage was amazing and all the
stagehands had run out of the firing line, in fact when we came off a
little later, the majority of them were standing in the backstage area to
avoid getting hit. As a little encore and to try and wind the crowd up a
bit more, we started the chords to the Who's, Substitute and then all
grabbed mic's singing, We Are The Mods, while lobbing things back into the
crowd. It sounds childish now but our band had an average age of about 16
or 17, but it was a bloody good laugh at the time!

   While all this was going on, Girlschool had a massive Neon Sign at the
back of the stage on this hydraulic thing and the glass was getting
smashed and a band called .38 Special had one of those old Hammond Organ
things on very spindly legs. I remember seeing that collapse, the legs
literally folded out and it fell to the stage in a cloud of dust. We
really, truly had a Mods/Rockers pitched battle and thought it was great
fun and hopefully anyone who was there who was pelting us enjoyed
themselves too.

    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
rushing up with tears in his eyes, he was really crying his eyes out, but
a few reporters, one from Radio Reading, another from the Evening Post
etc, asked to interview us back in the dressing room. The line of their
questions was "that must have been disappointing", but we were all
laughing and joking and told them at least we would be remembered for
something, anything other than being mediocre!

    The rest of the day we spent ligging round the record company tents
backstage, nicking beer, getting ejected, going to the next tent, nicking
beer, getting ejected and on and on. Girlschool turned up acting like
superstars, each member in a convertable American car but no one really
took them seriously because let's face it, the bill was pretty crap that
day and they were only playing venues like the Electric Ballroom so were
hardly suitable for headlining a festival. We all fancied the guitar
player, Kelly, though but the fairy tale ended as none of us were able to
pull her.

Regards
Tony

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.
I don’t think they had that many food stalls on site in ’81 but I could be wrong.

The streets surrounding the site were paved in denim & leather and the unmistakable scent of patchouli and marijuana wafted in the air.
Unfortunately we spent so much time frequenting the pubs and drinking that we only saw less than a dozen bands that first year and what bands we did see are a blurred memory due to the excessive intake of alcohol & illegal substances. This may seem like a bit of a waste but the atmosphere in these pubs, full of fellow rock fans was awesome. They usually had a jukebox on or even a local band performing.

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.
Regards
Robin H
PS – I lost my camera in the gents toilets on site so if anyone has got it can I have it back please

ALEC JOHNSON/GUITAR-VOCALS...
KENNY NEWTON/KEYBOARDS-VOCALS
GORDON ROWLEY/BASS-VOCALS
STEVE BARTLEY/DRUMS

Right :Kenny Newton

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.

Mac (Malcolm McDonald)

Hello,

All my brain cells are intact, despite my first and last blowback that weekend.

My recollection is of Nine Below Zero. I wasn’t there to see them, and I wasn’t interested (I was there for Gillan, Steve Hackett and Girlschool). Neat boys in smart suits and ties stepped onto the stage, and the crowd didn’t seem to know what to do. Except perhaps hate them. And then the boys started to play, so well and so bluesy that the crowd warmed and warmed and finally cheered them. The highlight of my Reading: the triumph of good music over primitive allegiance.

Regards

Malcolm W

Ps why do I recall Hawkwind playing? And someone in sparkling lycra or its predecessor wielding a great big hammer to the tune of ‘Silver Machine’? I know that I was very, very drunk and probably quite stoned, but surely not so much that I would have invented that? Ah, that’s why: five years telescoped into one. 1986. Just drunk, then.