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Updated June 2021

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Magnum at Donington 1985 © Ray Oates

Recollections.
1985
Change of tack this year. The 'Monsters of Rock' tag was dropped for some reason. Maybe because the two top names this year couldn't or wouldn't be associated with the heavy metal genre. Instead we got 'ZZ Top - Rockin' The Castle', the irony of all this was the fact that one of, if not THE biggest heavy metal band of the future was on the bill, namely, Metallica.

ZZ Top started a short run of Doningtons that was headlined by the 'two years previous third on the bill', if that makes sense. The Top appeared in 1983 and since then their album 'Eliminator' had gone through the roof and done a complete 'Bat Out Of Hell'..... ZZ Top were, this year, the biggest rock band on the planet.

Marillion photos courtesy John

Second on were Marillion, a stranger choice even than 1982's Hawkwind inclusion but in hindsight a clever one in terms on the bands popularity at the time. The Neo-Prog band had become huge in the UK and had built up a big following amongst metal fans after consecutive appearances at the Reading Festival, namely 1982 & 1983.
The rest of the bill was filled by Bon Jovi, yet to make their biggest move, Metallica, Ratt and Magnum who sat quite comfortably on a bill that included Marillion. They were a little bit 'proggy' too!

As for myself and my colleagues, well, we once again used the official camping facilities only this time we managed to actually get our tents up! We arrived Friday night and popped into Castle Donington for a few beers.

On the day of the concert we paid our usual visit to the local pubs, this year favouring The Turks Head (my late brother Carl was continually formulating a song about the Turks Head, bless him) which wasn't quite as wild as the previous year which we put down to the presence of the more 'bookish' Marillion fans. In fact, the pubs were a lot quieter with most people seemingly heading straight to the show.

We missed Magnum, but didn't shed any tears arriving in time for either Metallica or Ratt....

Metallica photos courtesy John

I was at Donington 1985. Radio 1, the Friday Rock Show, who had taped and broadcast several previous years’ Monsters of Rock, for some reason did not broadcast 1985. I have managed to track down, over the years, Metallica, Marillion, Magnum and Bon Jovi’s sets on bootleg. It was a great day – I remember Cliff Burton’s bass sounding (fantastically) like nothing on earth, the hail of plastic bottles between Marillion and ZZ Top; Eliminator (ZZ Top’s car) slung beneath a helicopter circling the festival; a triumphant set by Magnum; Bon Jovi being brilliant; Marillion riding their crest and it being a hot, sunny day. Fantastic! John.

Images courtesy Ashley Haynes

With regards to the Monsters of Rock in 1985 at Donington Park, the line up went something like this.

Metallica, Bon Jovi, Marillion (Fish took a photo of the crowd for his mum, bless him) and then Top of the bill was an excellent ZZ Top

They flew the ZZ Top car over the park, slung underneath the Marlboro helicopter, followed by a fantastic firework show.

Hope this helps.

Bob Baird

Although on paper the line up looked relatively weak compared to the previous two years, some of the performances were excellent.
ZZ Top had returned to headline this year. Earlier in the (sunny) day their Eliminator car had been flown over the site suspended beneath a helicopter. Several thousand plastic bottles being propelled skywards was quite a sight. The played a good solid headlining set.

I didn’t really get Marillion at the time, but like me the previous year, some of the gang went down to the front and came back raving about the performance (most reviews backed this up over the following days….shows how much I know).

Bon Jovi were a fairly new name at the time, their meteoric rise to mega stardom was still a year away. Their performance was brilliant, even including a version of Dobie Gray’s ‘Drift Away’. One member of our gang (a Donington virgin at the time) even predicted that this band would headline within two years…….how right they were.
Definitely a contender for band of the day.

It would take me another 5 or 6 years before I took any notice of Metallica (or any thrash style bands), so it would be unfair for me to pass comment at this stage.

Magnum on the other hand were a band I was looking forward to seeing. The album ‘On a Storyteller’s Night’ was one of my favourites at the time. Even though they were first band on they didn’t disappoint. It would another 5 years before a band would challenge them for the title of best opening band. One image I remember is Bob Catley being hit in the crotch with a clump of (accurately thrown) mud. He was wearing very pale jeans which made it stand out even more.
Another warm day.

Paul Hartshorn

   Mick Wallis
just found this interview from lars Ulrich Metallica’s Drummer.

     "  Asked about the strangest time he has ever had at a festival, Ulrich said: "The first time we played at Monsters Of Rock at Donington in 1985, there was a pig's head that was thrown up onstage while we were playing. If you just pause for a second and walk through that, step by step… like, just… first you gotta acquire a pig's head, which I guess you can maybe buy at a butcher's or slaughter yourself. Then you've gotta be motivated to carry this pig's head to the gig and keep it with you. Then you've gotta get it in the venue. Then you've got to get up to the front, still with this pig's head. And at some point, you've gotta launch the pig's head up onstage for it to land in close proximity to the singer. It was just lying up there for the better part of the set. It was a truly bizarre thing. And that was our first British festival experience. I'm not sure that anything has really matched that since on the bizarre scale, and that's 30 years ago."

Hi there.

Bored and desperately wanting a nostalgia trip I’ve come across your site. Fantastic, I’ve read with interest the memories of other people there at that time. It’s amazing what you remember. The weather was incredible even though Tommy Vance had recommended taking a groundsheet during his preview on 16/08/85 Friday Rock Show. I’d forgotten about the car being flown over the site by helicopter but I do have very vivid recollections of Ratt and possible reasons for a lack of good quality bootleg recordings of their set that day.

Firstly the day started well with Magnum being introduced by Tommy Vance as one of the UK’s most underrated bands. To be fair to them, if you see them live today they’re just the same as they were then. Superbly crafted songs well played with passion and belief. The sound I remember was superb.

After a break of approximately 25 minutes an almighty roar greeted Ratt. The next 40 minutes however from my recollections were a bit hit and miss. Not due to the bands performance (although a guitar solo by the late Robbin Crosby could have been ditched ) which was a full on LA attitude glam fest but for reasons best known to the PA company the sound system kept cutting out or emitting horrible electronic rumbles, squeals, crackles and bangs. Stephen Pearcy’s vocal was practically non existent during the opening song.

I don’t recall the setlist for that day I do however remember You think your tough, You’re in Love and Round and round

Stephen Pearcy himself must surely be credited with the award for the most sweary person of the day. A few times he shouted ‘FUCK’ when the PA cut out or made a noise that wasn’t pure LA. His sign off at the end of Ratt’s well received if troubled effort was the inspired and subsequently much copied ‘ See ya later Muthatfuckers’ Pure class. I went straight to the record shop on the Monday after the show and bought ‘Invasion of your Privacy’. It’s currently my music of choice whilst driving to work at 6am. Pure 80’s corn…and I refuse to grow up. Unbeatable!

I’ve got extremely fond memories of what was my first Donington experience and so far the only one where I was completely sober!! Long may they continue.

Cheers

Kev

Hi

I was just having a nostalgia attack and googled to see if there was anything about my first ever festival. Was delighted to find your site - good work.

Sadly any photos I had of the day are long gone - all I can offer is a current photo of a very faded tshirt - at least it shows I was there. I have only happy memories of the day. Worries about the weather proved unfounded. I seem to remember it as being a wet summer and being very lucky to hit sunshine for the day itself . A very early morning start for the drive to Derbyshire - and the fun of a feeling of community as we passed more & more coaches and cars filled with rockers on the way down. Magnum - a really good opening set from a professional, experienced band who tried their best to get the crowd going. Can't be easy being first on and Catley's attempt to get a crowd cheer for the backing singers was met with total indifference (god knows why I remember this so clearly). Ratt - like your article, I could have sworn that this lot were on second. no real memories of this. Metallica - seem to remember that there was a bit of a buzz about this lot as being the next big thing. I was keen to buy a tshirt, but all that was on offer was a "metal up your ass" one with a picture of a knife wielding hand coming out of a toilet - which is a bloody awful image. The sound was big and different, but I thought that it wasn't really my kind of thing - still isn't. I understand that they've managed to forge a reasonably successful career despite my lack of support.

Bon Jovi - another band who I've never much liked but have still been able to sell a few records. Clearly good showmen though and they tried to put on a crowd-pleasing act in the blazing sunshine - a good effort, just not my thing.

Marillion - more what my crowd were really here to see. They seemed to enjoy it - I think that I was taking a drink fueled nap at the time. Although I clearly remember the vast cheer for the car being helicoptered overhead, so if this was during the Marillion set I can't have been totally out of it. Mind you - a huge cheer for a car dangling from a helicopter, we must have been easily pleased in those days.

ZZ Top - fantastic - festival music as it really should be. Very decent lighting set, not too much chat, nothing self-indulgent - just a succession of great rock tracks played superbly well. A bit of a shakey start as Dusty got hit by a bottle fairly early on - but that's hardly the bands fault.

And the bottle throwing was the only downside - every act, all the time, a constant barrage of bottles. Does the thrill of pissing in a bottle and then chucking it never fade away? Other than that only good memories of a glorious day in the sunshine with my best friends.

Thanks again for the site

Cheers

Bruce

Hi there.

Bored and desperately wanting a nostalgia trip I’ve come across your site. Fantastic, I’ve read with interest the memories of other people there at that time. It’s amazing what you remember. The weather was incredible even though Tommy Vance had recommended taking a groundsheet during his preview on 16/08/85 Friday Rock Show. I’d forgotten about the car being flown over the site by helicopter but I do have very vivid recollections of Ratt and possible reasons for a lack of good quality bootleg recordings of their set that day.

Firstly the day started well with Magnum being introduced by Tommy Vance as one of the UK’s most underrated bands. To be fair to them, if you see them live today they’re just the same as they were then. Superbly crafted songs well played with passion and belief. The sound I remember was superb.

After a break of approximately 25 minutes an almighty roar greeted Ratt. The next 40 minutes however from my recollections were a bit hit and miss. Not due to the bands performance (although a guitar solo by the late Robbin Crosby could have been ditched ) which was a full on LA attitude glam fest but for reasons best known to the PA company the sound system kept cutting out or emitting horrible electronic rumbles, squeals, crackles and bangs. Stephen Pearcy’s vocal was practically non existent during the opening song.

I don’t recall the setlist for that day I do however remember "You think your tough", "You’re in Love" and "Round and round"

Stephen Pearcy himself must surely be credited with the award for the most sweary person of the day. A few times he shouted ‘FUCK’ when the PA cut out or made a noise that wasn’t pure LA. His sign off at the end of Ratt’s well received if troubled effort was the inspired and subsequently much copied ‘ See ya later Muthatfuckers’ Pure class. I went straight to the record shop on the Monday after the show and bought ‘Invasion of your Privacy’. It’s currently my music of choice whilst driving to work at 6am. Pure 80’s corn…and I refuse to grow up. Unbeatable!

I’ve got extremely fond memories of what was my first Donington experience and so far the only one where I was completely sober!! Long may they continue.

Cheers

Kev

Hey there,
I was at Donington '85 and my memory of the playing order is different to yours (but my memory may be going). Magnum seemed to be first on at any and all festivals of the period and I remember realising with horrror that I knew almost all the words to their set at the time - I couldn't stand them but you couldnt escape them. Ratt came on second, and heres where I may have a kink (or you guys do) because I remember Ratt being followed by Bon Jovi - My mate and I were there for these exact two bands and we had a 2-liter bottle of vodka and orange that we disposed of during those two bands before we had to go and have a lie-down while those nasty hairies from america, what were thy called? ah, "Metallica" were making a nasty grindy noise on the stage. I didnt listen to them or any of the thrash bands until much later (I think Slayer were responsible for bringing me back to metal from goth and US punk) We werent glam-metallers by any means (more denim-clad AC/DC fans) but for some reason we loved Ratt and early Bon jovi and I cant imagine we would have fought to the front of the stage for Ratt, drunk our V&O, gone back to sleep during Metallica and then fought our way back for BJ (hyuck). Whatever. I remember ZZTop being a disappointment apart from the car on a helicopter thing but we quite liked Marillion at the time and I remember this gig hardened our fanship somewhat.

andy

Today I'd like to fast forward to 1985 when I had just turned seventeen and I was full of hormones and cider, and covered in long hair (well, my head was at least) - It was also the first 'Donington' (Not, you notice 'Monsters of Rock - It had been rebranded at 'Rockin the Castle' and was advertised as a ZZ Top gig with support) I'd been to with a real live girlfriend with her own long hair and breasts and spray-on jeans, rather than a selection of skinny boys with chests like xylophones, wearing innapropriate studded wristbands and huge white Hightop baseball boots that made them look like poundshop astronauts.

I (well, I should really say 'we' I suppose, but this Blog's about my recollections,and the time we spent together didn't end particularly amicably, so from now on I'm going to say 'I', OK?) arrived on site by bus, because that is without doubt, THE most Rock-n-Roll way to arrive at any Gig, Festival, Cattle Auction or Outbreak of Infectious Disease (All of which could be used to describe Donington) that there is.

Once I'd staked out a decent spot a few hundred yards from the stage, and complained about the heat a few times, Donington stalwart and professional bottle of urine avoider, DJ Tommy Vance came on to whip the crowd up into a state of mild annoyance. Now, a lot of people have had a go at Tommy (or Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston as his Mother called him for some UnGodly reason), and broadcast, via the medium of chanting, far and wide of his imagined pleasure in solitary sexual pursuits. I remember personally commenting that there was no way that someone as old as him could know about what the 'Kids' wanted to listen to... I now appreciate that I am as old now as he was then - And I am a little embarrased. But he did more to promote Rock and Metal music than pretty much any DJ or presenter at the time, I was an avid listener of his 'Friday Rock Show' on Radio 1, as was everyone I knew at the time, and he was really, very good at dodging bottles of urine and chunks of mud that were propelled at him all the time he was on stage. Rest in Peace Tommy, you W*nk*r!

OK, so... To the music. Magnum were first on - I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't their greatest fan, they always struck me as the kind of band whose name you'd see scribbled in ballpoint pen across the back of some spotty thirteen years old's denim jacket. But I have a vague memory of them not being all that bad, although the openers always had a reputation for just being there to soak up the first barage of plastic bottles, more than for their musical value.

Then there was a bit of a break, where I finished all the alchohol I'd brought with me, until Ratt came on. I've never being a fan of Hairspray rock, and I'm sad to say that I completely ignored their set and wandered around the ground trying to buy a t-shirt that didn't have the ZZ-Top Eliminator or a hand, clutching a dagger, coming out of a toilet on it (I failed) and getting a burger (I succeeded)

I got back just in time to see this bunch of hairy, denim-clad, long haired, Californian dudes who nobody had heard of, they were OK, a bit thrashy for me at the time - I quite liked one of their tracks though, it was called 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' - They were, of course, Metallica, with a twenty-two year old Clifford Lee Burton on bass (Who was to die in a terrible tour-bus crash the following year). They're another band that I wish I'd payed more attention to at the time, as Metallica get through Bass players like Spinal Tap get through Drummers.

Next up were Bon Jovi, who also weren't particularly famous at the time. Remembering that this was (just) before Slippery When Wet was released, so the only songs I recognised were In and Out of Love and Runaway, and they were dressed like refugees from a Tom Baker era Doctor Who episode. Oddly, they headlined Monsters of Rock two years later, and played one of the greatest sets I'd ever seen there.

The sun was, whilst not exactly setting, but certainly heading for the trees when Marillion took to the stage. This band was the whole reason that I'd attended that year. I loved them, I bought all of their singles, albums, 12" EPs and would play their stuff constantly on whatever recording device was closest to hand. I knew every word to every version of every song that they ever released. They were the first band I ever saw that sounded exactly the same live as recorded.

Highlights included Fish (The lead singer) asking the entire crowd of 80,000 people to 'Squash in a bit at the sides' so that he could take a photo for his Mum, as she still didnea believe that he was in a popular (prog) rock band. Fish sitting down and shouting 'Well you bloody sing it then' when the crowd started to sing Script for a Jesters Tear louder than he was, and the roar that went up, followed of course by a barrage of plastic bottles, when ZZ-Top's Eliminator car was flown over the crowd, slung under a Marlborough Cigarettes branded helicopter.

The headliners, of course, as has been mentioned on various occasions, were Texan Blues-Rockers, ZZ Top. Billy, Dusty and Frank were still riding high on the wave of their 1983 Quadruple (at the time) platinum album 'Eliminator', hence the flying car stunt. Their set was OK, I mean I liked their music and everything, but they just stood there and played... No pyro, no stunts, no nothing. Not what a seasoned Donington crowd were used to, or had come to expect. But they finished with 'Tush' my favourite song of theirs, so they redeemed themselves a little.

We all oooo-ed and Aaaaah-ed at the fireworks for a while and then found our way back to our respective car-parks... None of us aware that we had missed the best part of the entire Gig, something we could have told our Grandchildren...

Secreted somewhere backstage was a fifteen year old Suzy Perry (off of the Gadget Show and F1 Coverage and stuff), and if the words, 'Suzy Perry' and 'Backstage' don't get your juices flowing, then you're already dead... (Note I said nothing about the whole fifteen years old thing... Not in the current climate... Hoooo no!)

Rob Grimes

Recordings and setlists.

      We cannot find any record of Ratt's set being circulated as a boot, or at least we can't find the cover art or whether these recordings are audience tapes or FM , usually the BBC recorded portions of the event and broadcast them via Radio One , but this appears not to have happened in 1985 as even ZZ Tops set is attributed as an excellent audience recording . Our friend Hal has kindly provided an answer as to why there were no broadcasts in 1985 .......

Hola.
I was googling around trying to find details on the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington in 1985. Initially I was just looking for the date, as I've been ripping some of my old Friday Rock Shows and this one was broadcast the night before, ending with a Donington music sweep: a track by all the acts appearing the day afterwards.
And I found your interesting page here:
http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/donington-1985.html
This recording explicitly answers one question raised on your page, namely:
'Radio 1, the Friday Rock Show, who had taped and broadcast several previous years' Monsters of Rock, for some reason did not broadcast 1985.'
To quote Tommy Vance directly from the show:
'Just a bit of bad news though about Donington is down to the fact that we this year will not be recording any of the acts on the bill. Ever since it started we've always been there with the big BBC mobile recording virtually all the acts, well all the acts that we could get permission to record, cause we just can't, you know, turn up with about a million quid's worth of equipment and go 'thank you very much' and without getting anybody's real express permission. We asked and asked and asked and in the end it came down to the fact that it was all embargoed by ZZ Top or their management. We kept on asking and asking and asking and we kept on getting no reply from America, spent a fortune on phone calls and whatever, and eventually we got the nod from the States yesterday, or was it the day before? It was the day before... by which time we just could not get it together physically. So really it's not our fault, I have to tell you that. There will be no recordings from Donington this year but the music will still be excellent live tomorrow.'
Take care,
Hal

Alternative boot version of Metallica at Donington

Tokyo Road Breakout Only Lonely Runaway In And Out of Love I Don’t Wanna Go Home Get Ready Jon Bon Jovi – vocals Ritchie Sambora – guitars Alec Jon Such – Bass David Bryan - keyboards Tico Torres – drums.

ZZ Top onstage photo © Zac