Reading's pre-eminence as THE hard rock festival of the Uk was given a thorough shaking in 1980, when promoter Paul Loadsby established a one day festival that focused on presenting heavy rock and metal acts . Loadsby was an experienced promoter who was responsible for organising Richie Blackmore's Rainbow summer UK jaunt and the Donington show was to be the final show of the tour.
    Donington circuit is not exactly a verdant setting ,but it beat Richfield Ave at Reading, as the ground sloped slightly , so the punters got a pretty good view of the stage- which was a definite advantage . Otherwise though, its a fairly featureless racing car arena, although the surrounding country is nice enough. The raceway has the advantage of being near major roads and rail links and it was probably as amenable a venue as most other festival grounds of the day.The usual grumbles and protests from those who lived nearby were overcome , even though these delayed preparations ( as usual ) .......

 It rained considerably in the days preceding the show , which made conditions unpleasantly muddy for the punters, but this was better than it pouring on the night and the 35,000 who attended *were given satisfaction by the fairly sound lineup of heavy UK and overseas acts who performed in the open air on a warm but overcast day.

(This is the attendance figure quoted in most reports- the Samaritans however, give a figure of 60-70,000 and declare that the facilities provided were totally inadequate "perhaps due to many more arriving than had been expected" .)

  The Samaritans also state that camping facilities were provided and about 400 people camped out the night before , this practice was not encouraged in 1981and led to some contention .

   There was only one stage at this date so longish changeover times between acts would have been something the audience had to endure- pretty much a re-run of Knebworth. However, there WAS a large video screen so it was possible to get a good view of the bands once it was dark enough for the screen to be viewable

     The quadraphonic sound system assembled by Loadsby was not an overwhelming success. The day before the show the PA was damaged by an explosion that was apparently caused by the crew who were testing drummer Cozy Powell’s pyrotechnics ( shades of Keith Moonism on a scale vaster than even he could have dreamed of ). It was an expensive test- £18,000 worth of damage was done to the stage set-up and this may have affected the sound of the PA as many punters complained about the sound being too quiet ( a cardinal sin at a Metal show, where DEAFENING LOUDNESS is one of the prerequisites demanded by the punters).

Judas Priest © Pierre Julien

Judas Priest © Andy

The first one! The original Monsters of Rock. Initially it was planned as a one off event, just a big way for Rainbow to end their 'Down To Earth' tour. It quickly shaped up into something much bigger.

I'd been to see Led Zeppelin at Knebworth the previous year which had been my first festival. It made a big impression on me and resulted in me going to at least one major festival every year for the next two decades.
The Monsters of Rock show was less eclectic than previous festivals, specialising instead on the recent interest in Heavy Metal, in particular, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal that a lot of older bands like Rainbow and, second on the bill, Judas Priest were riding. Saxon were the NWOBHM representatives here with Scorpions from Germany, April Wine from Canada and American bands Riot & Touch completing the bill.
The host for the day was DJ Neal Kaye who I'd seen touring with Iron Maiden earlier in the year. He was great, and really kept the momentum up in between acts.

I lived in Stockport, Cheshire at the time and had decided to catch one of the charted coaches with my (then) girlfriend Debbie, which bizarrely left at midnight on the Friday from the centre of Manchester. It's only a 70 mile journey so we arrived way too early and ended up 'hanging around' outside the gate for hours drinking beer for breakfast. My brother had taken the more sensible option of biking there with his friend Paul, who was more commonly known as Thermos.

The bands performances and events have been well documented over the years, the lead singer of Touch swallowing a bee for example. I don't remember too much about Touch or Riot, second band on. It was Saxon that caught my attention first, they'd already had a couple of hits so were really the first 'name' band on the bill. They warmed the crowd up well with a ten song set that included their two hits of that year 'Wheels of Steel' and '747 (Strangers in the Night)'.

Next up were April Wine who I found a little boring, the exception being their rip roaring rendition of King Crimson's '21st Century Schitzoid Man'. The Scorpions received the biggest cheer (so far) has they walked onstage. They were arguably the first band up that people had actually come to see having proved themselves to be an exciting live act. They were in the perfect place at the perfect time and played a blinder.

Judas Priest had been around for ages, even back in 1980 they were considered part of the 'old school'. Their latest album 'British Steel' had given them a new lease of life and won a new audience in the NWOBHM fanbase. They couldn't fail, expecially when Rob Halford arrived onstage riding a Harley. It was during this set when Halford hinted that this was to become an annual event.....how right he was.

As for Rainbow, well, no surprises really. I'd already seen them earlier on the tour up in Manchester and today's show was very similar. A few more pyrotechnics, an over the top drum solo (Cozy's last with the band but not his last at Donington) an equally over the top guitar smashing routine and some extremely over the top fireworks at the end.....oh, and they added 'Stargazer' to the set, easily their best song.

All in all, the first Donington festival was pretty bloody good and still stands high on my list. Due to the shape of the site everyone got a good view and there was the additional advantage of a big screen. The trip back on the coach was no picnic though....never again...!

Ashley Haynes

April Wine © Pierre Julien

Saxon © Andy

© Pierre Juelien

In 1980 I had never attended an outdoor festival before, so my excitement was at fever pitch during the preceding week, especially as my all-time hero (still is to this day) Ritchie Blackmore would be headlining. There were allsorts of rumours about Blackmore playing a major solo on top of the speaker stacks way above the stage (as it happened this didn’t take place due to some mechanical lift failure apparently).

My very first view of Donington (and my earliest memory) was as we approached the entrances from the car park I could see the merchandise stalls from afar with the Rainbow ‘Down to Earth’ knitted scarves pinned to the top of the marquees. I had missed out on one of these scarves from the tour earlier in the year, so my wallet was honed into buying one as soon as we got in. I still have it today (along with all the festival t-shirts and programmes from every year).

I also recall that there was a Greenpeace stall, selling ‘what else’ but ‘Rainbow Warrior’ t-shirts. There was also an official Rainbow fan club stall on site.
Musically the highlight of the day (and probably of any day) was the way Rainbow segued Since you been Gone into Somewhere over the Rainbow and then straight into Stargazer (my favourite song ever)….even though Graham Bonnet did mess the words up a bit. Cozy Powells 1812 overture drum solo went off with its usual bang and Blackmore’s (stage managed) setting fire to a speaker stack during his guitar onslaught finale were other fond memories of the headlining act.

I remember getting into a queue for a burger approx 20 minutes prior to Judas Priests’ set and still being stood in the same place in the queue some one and a half hours later after they had left the stage. I think the stallholder must have been a Priest fan.

To me the Scorpions were playing as well as they ever did at that time in their career (prior to the MTV-friendly version we got a few years later) and their set was as faultless as ever (I saw them 3 times during 1980). I recall Pictured Life being a particular favourite of mine at the time.

Saxon were also on a roll on the back of their nationwide Wheels of Steel tour. They went down very well.
Of the other bands I can only really remember April Wine being ok.
The weather on the day was fine, but the preceding fortnight continuous rain had made the site a mudbath.
The toilets were appalling !!!

April Wine © Andy

hi

my name is Larry Hogan, in 1980 I was Sandy Slavins drum tech from Riot I have many fond memories of this event. first off it was the first time I had left the U.S.A. I had worked with Sandy for 4 years by this time and it was a gift from Sandy and management to bring me along. "it was cheaper to hire a tech when they got there" so I appreciated it even more. Yes I remember the mud,and all the hay bales. but what I remember most was hanging out with Cozy Powell sitting on a road case on stage drinking Heineken pint cans."we didn't have these in the states. the fire marshal was there to inspect the pyro tech. and there was a count down ,but I thought they were just testing the pa. "and I'm sure Cozy thought the same because you could see the shock on his face.." when the blast came the concussion blew the cans right off the road case. I found out latter that they used a double charge.from the concussion the speakers blew right out of the cabinets. thus,an all night work order was put in place because all of the speakers had to be replaced, they had to have new speakers sent in from London. my ears rang for 2 days. I also remember the size of the stix cozy played and all the saw dust around his kit when he was done." HE PLAYED REAL HARD." there was a picture of me coming up the high steps to the stage just before we went on carrying a spare pedal , stix, and towels, I believe Ross was the photographer, I had real long hair and I stuck my tongue out at him .It made the inside sleeve of the live album. I haven't seen that pic in years.

with best regards, Larry Hogan.

Andy

Scorpions and photographer © Pierre Julien

© Pierre Julien

© Pierre Julien

Roger Glover © Alan Perry

visit his site to see

more photos of Rainbow Scorpions , etc at Donington 1980

1. Intro
2. Eyes Of The World
3. Love's No Friend
4. Since You've Been Gone
5. Man On The Silver Mountain
6. Catch The Rainbow
7. Don Airey Intro
8. Lost In Hollywood
9. Ritchie Solo
10.Difficult To Cure
11.Don Airey Solo
12.Drum Solo - Cozy Powell
13.1812 Overture
14. Lazy
15.All Night Long
16.Blues
17.Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
18. Long Live Rock'n'Roll
19. Kill The King (Instrumental)

Rainbow personnel

Graham Bonnet (vocals)
Ritchie Blackmore (guitar)
Don Airey (keyboards)
Roger Glover (bass)
Cozy Powell (drums)

This was Cozy Powell's last gig with Rainbow, he left due to the usual "artistic disagreements".

The entire show was filmed and Rainbows set was broadcast on TV, portions of this have appeared on Youtube in recent months and there is a fun section where young master Blackmore most thoroughly destroys his guitar and then sets fire to a fake stack.

Judas Priest

Saxon

1 Motorcycle Man (4:07)
2 Still Fit to Boogie (2:48)
3 Freeway Mad (3:06)
4 Backs to the Wall (4:02)
5 Wheels of Steel (5:33)
6 Bap Shoo Ap (6:48)
7 747 (Strangers in the Night) (4:58)
8 Stallions of the Highway (4:45)
9 Machine Gun

A compilation album was released called

Castle Donnington

Monsters Of Rock

1. Stargazer / Rainbow 8:20
2. Loving You Sunday Morning / Scorpions 5:22
3. Another Piece of Meat / Scorpions 5:06
4. Backs To The Wall / Saxon 3:48
5. All Night Along / Rainbow 7:53
6. I Like To Rock / April Wine 4:16
7. Don't Ya Know What Love Is? / Touch 3:58
8. Road Racing / Riot 7:34

A Cd version exists on a Japanese label