The Archive.
|
|
Created December 2008.
Updated Dec 2012 :view at 1280 X 1024 for best results
 |
|
New Order charm the wet Indie hordes- Friday night Reading 1989 |
Reading August 25-27th 1989. |
Main stage 1989 Jesus Jones onstage © Gavin Wilby |
Campsite and other Photos ; updated Jan 2011
|
Early advert for the festival. |
Its oddly symbolic that the first band to headline the revamped Reading festival under the direction of Mean Fiddler , was New Order . No doubt this is just a coincidence, but it really did indicate just how much the festival had changed . After the disastrous 1988 festival, where bottling of acts had reached almost epic proportions and attendance had halved due to some very dicey choices of bands on the Saturday and Sundays sessions , something had to change , or the festival would have died . The Mean Fiddler organisation had basically decided that Donington catered for the headbangers , but there was room for another festival that modeled itself along the lines of Glastonbury. They looked at what worked at Glasto , determined what wasn't needed in the context of Reading ( the green elements , the travellers field etc ) and launched a new look Reading onto the UK festival world . Regardless of what the old guard who attended Reading thought ( Fat Reg a longtime Reading punter, regarded the new lineup as mostly "sad indie shite "), it worked ! Attendance in 1989 doubled over 1988 and the festival was a sellout for the first time in years. There were a few nods in the direction of previous years, with the goth orientated act The Mission headlining on Sunday night , but apart from that there wasn't much left over musically from the old formula . According to Mean Fiddler, they cleaned up the toilets, provided beter quality food and got rid of most of the bottle throwing . One thing they could NOT do however, was ensure good weather . It pissed it down for some of the time -mostly on Friday night , but the punters seemed to enjoy themselves and the stage was set for a more impressive lineup in 1990. So who did the new lineup attract to the reclaimed rubbish tip that formed the festival site ? Well, probably some of the people who attended festies such as the Elephant Fayre and Glastonbury , although Reading was minus most of the world music elements which featured at Glastonbury and overall there was probably a slightly harder edge to the whole thing . Living Colour would have added a heavier tone to Sunday's procedings and there were some truly loopy acts such as Gaye Bykers On Acid to liven things up and drive the traditionalists up the wall . |
There was also another leaf taken from the Glastonbury book (and a return to an old National Jazz festival tradition ), which had also been tried in 1988 .Instead of just two big stages side by side , a second venue was established called the Mean Fiddler stage, There lesser known acts were allowed to strut their stuff. A place where one could chill out if you were overwhelmed by the pressure of the main stage , or just simply wanted to grok on the minor acts .....
|
Pop Will Eat Itself .Reading 1989 © Gavin Wilby If Friday was the Indie night then Saturday was the night of fun and politics, with the fun being provided by the Pogues and the politics via Billy Bragg and New Model Army . Mary Coughlan would have given good value with her feisty blues and the Bhundu Boys would have delivered an uptempo set of danceable African music. These guys would have been the first black artists to take to the Reading stage since Phil Lynott was there in 1983 with Thin Lizzy . The last black act , Inner Circle, had played the festival (and received a good reception ) way back in 1979 . For many in the crowd Sundays highlight was the manic set by the Butthole Surfers, which ended in a storm of feedback, smashed guitars and general lunacy .The Mission finished off the festival in fine Gothic style, their third appearance at Reading and their second headlining gig . They may have been filmed as they were creating a documentary of their tour , but so far we haven't been able to find out if any of the Reading set was included in the final production. Reading 89 saw the festival set on a new course which would last for the next three years until control of the festival was taken from Vince Power , The transformation into an Indie event proved it was possible to revitalise the festival , but of course there were new musical trends on the horizon which would once again see the festival mutate into yet another sort of beast ...... |
The final lineup- image courtesy Jan |
Main stage.
Friday 25th Aug.
|
Sat 26th Aug
|
Sunday 27th Aug
|
|
|
|
*Did not appear, replaced by Crazyhead .
NB : Acts are listed in order of appearance as far as we can ascertain. There also MUST have been some changes in the eventual line-up, can anyone supply details ?
New Model Army Reading 1989 |
Mean
Fiddler stage
All Because the Lady Loves ,Ancient Beat Box ,Andrew Cunningham ,Andy Pawlak ,Barely Works, Clive Gregson and Christine Collister ,The Cropdusters, The Dinner Ladies, Edward II & The Red Hot Polkas, Evon Brenon ,Frank Sidebottom ,God's Little Monkeys ,Gutter Brothers, Hank Wangford , The Jack Rubies, John Wesley Harding , Joolz -,Kevin Kennedy & A Bunch of Thieves ,King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys ,Los Pistoleros, McCavity's Cat , Orchestre Jazira ,Peter Jagger, The River Detectives, Sally Timms ,The Senators, Shanty Dam ,Sons of the Desert ,Stephen Fearing, Ted Hawkins, To Hell with Burgundy ,Tom Robinson. NB : Acts are listed in alphabetical order. There also MUST have been some changes in the eventual line-up, can anyone supply details and when the acts appeared ? |
Recollections
The crowd for Voice of The Beehive Reading 1989 © Martin Brett |
I did the main stage in 88 & 89, the Big Top stage
in 1990 - Think Vince Power bought his own crew in for the Main in 1990. Have
to admit it's all a bit blurry in terms of what happened when, but then again
we'd been there for 6 days by the sunday night each year and didn't get a lot
of sleep - weekenders are lightweights :) . Backstage was a very different (and
much more civilized) world to that out front! We had our own 'pound' made up
of cars, vans, bikes and two caravans backstage. Also two large fridges of beer!
Eight in the crew, four to each caravan, tents for visits from the ladies (ours!)
when the festival was on. Food tent, frsh cooked food/sarrnies/tea/coffee on
the go 24/7, and a barrel of beer int he corner - strangely, no-one ever took
the piss with the free beer, couple of pints with dinner and out of there. One
of the many unwritten backstage laws I guess. Shared crew shower + toilet blocks.
Was delighted to walk into the showers one day to find that the backing singers
from Les Negresse Vert were using them, not realizing they were crew blocks.
You wouldn't believe how many people 'accidently' walked in on them once word
got round. Shocking behaviour :).
Our pound was behind the stage right speaker tower - we put them up, put the desks in the mixer tower and the speakers in the delay towers. The mixer tower was a bitch to put up, but was heaven if you had the right laminate - we used to work 6 hours out of 8 on a rota, so got a couple of hours off each night and could watch a coulpe of bands. Top floor of the mixer tower only had two follow spotlights in there, but it also mysteriously used to sprout a sofa on the friday morning. Watched NMA and the Pogues from there, big fat stogie and a four pack of beer, watching the rain sheet across the rest of the crowd. Sound was perfect there too - the mixing deck was about 10 feet below my arse, so the PA sweet spot was basically the front of the tower. Nice - no toilet tho' . We used to just piss out the back of the tower if it was raining. Sorry about that to all you people sheltering round the back. The bottlings were rarely less then utterly hilarous even when we were on the receiving end - the Yank crews really didn't get it, which made it doubly funny. We weren't averse to chucking a few ourselves while out front on a break. In the days of the two stages, we had a curtain across the stage we were working on while a band played on the other. Crowd used to be impatient if the was a delay between bands and we'd usually get a botting while opening the drape. Was doing it one day when Jem (my crew-buddy) got a full one square in the knackers and just dropped. Probably got the biggest cheer of the weekend, apart from when Deacon Blue stomped off in a huff :)
|
 |
You get a basic mental bottle tracking system in your head after a while. Empty
ones just kinda flop or spin realy fast, half full ones do a sort of slow loopy
spin and full ones go up dead straight, fast and don't spin, and you can guess
where they're going if you see them coming. We were stood in the middle of the
stage watching a band when a then well-known TV presenter (shade of purply-pink)(dead
fat American Transvestite actor/singer) pushed past us, despite not having the
right pass. She took a few photos and then stood there. We were looking at each
other to decide who wanted the honour of lobbing her out when I clocked a full
one going up high and realized where it was heading and shouted 'incoming'.
We scattered, she stood there looking slighty bemused and it landed, hitting
a scaffolding pole two inches above her head and bursting. She got the full
two litres over her, and it took her a few seconds to understand why it was
warm, in fact, about body temperature. She screamed and ran off and apparently
disappeared straight out the arena in her car. Dunno who threw that bottle,
but whoever you are, I''d still like to buy you a pint sometime.
cheers
Paul
Section of audience on the Sunday , Reading 1989. Where have all the big haircuts gone ? © Gavin Wilby |
Things
changed in 1989 when Reading ditched the "ROCK" part from the festival
and the Mean Fiddler took over from the Marquee as the promoter. They added
another stage, and attracted a generally younger and more mellow crowd, except
for a few malicious meatheads from New Model Army's Militia. It also attracted
a few stnand-up comedians such as Joolz and Frank Sidebottom for the first time,.
As for the weather, it hammered down for most of the weekend.
Ian
Section of audience on the Sunday , Reading 1989. Seemingly much less....errr..... pissed, than the old lot , but perhaps "seemingly" only in word and not in deed.... © Gavin Wilby |
The soundboard and center PA © Gavin Wilby |
Thanks
for your photos, I was at the Reading Festival in 1988 and 1989. Unfortunately
I don’t think any of us even owned a camera.
I mostly remember the rain with the heat rising through the crowd and of course
the mad bottle throwing. Long runways were made in the crowd to get a good run
up before the launch. We all got soaked by beer or toilet juice, who knows.
Thanks for the website.
Craig Barnard
© Chris |
Some
friends and I devised a way to get through the crowds more easily… (toilet
roll and ketchup)
" Make way, injured people coming through …"
1989
The friend of ours with the crutch had it stolen one night and we found remnants
of it in a fire. People were burning anything and everything. We had to help
him get around after that!
Chris. (3rd from left in pic)
Campsite and other Photos ; updated Jan 2011
Setlists and recordings
It seems the BBC did not- yet again , record any acts at Reading 1989.
However, with the change of direction came a new surge of audience recordings and many of them are possibly of better quality due to less bottle throwing :-)
However, it appears that Indie and Goth fans don't produce as many boot covers as do Metal afficionados , so if you have any cover art send it along and we will add it here....
Venue is the main stage unless stated. Dates in US format as I've got used to it for far too long to change now .....sorry :-)
Friday
| Spacemen 3. 8-25-89
|
Swans 8-25-89
45 minute video recording exists of the set shot from the pit Audience source looking for artwork and setlist |
|
|
New Order 8-25-89
|
Courtesy Coops |
Saturday
|
Billy Bragg 8-26-89
|
Not on the flyers,probably a late addition to the bill . |
Billy Bragg 8-26-89
|
|
|
The
Pogues 8-26-89 |
|
|
122 mins Audience -both video and audio , but from different sources looking for artwork |
Sunday
| Loop 8-27-89
|
Audience source looking for artwork |
Voice Of The Beehive bassist Martin Brett entertaining the troops Reading 89 © Martin Brett |
| Voice Of The Beehive 8-27-89
Audience
source
looking
for artwork
|
Jesus Jones 8-27-89
Audience source looking for artwork |
| The Butthole Surfers 8-27-89
|
Oops there goes another geetar !- Texas maniacs The Butthole Surfers have fun trashing their equipment at Reading during "Concubine" |
|
The Mission 8-27-89
|
Can we get a witness ?
We need more info on this and Reading festivals 1986-1990, we are now in the curious situation of having better documentation on some of the earlier festivals, so c'mon goths and Indie fans , get yer photos out and fire up whats left of the aging brain cells .Send your recollections and scans to us NOW ! !! Contact us
External Links
Reading in the 80s to date- Fat Regs excellent site covers Reading from 1982 onwards .
Photos of Reading in the 80s at the Reading Musuem.
The early festivals.
You can find out the complete line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below .
| |
|
|
|
Festivals 1965-1990
Most of these have fairly complete documentation .But new contributions of any sort are always welcome regarding any of the festivals.
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
This site is non profit making , its
a site for die-hard fans- and run as a source of information for those interested
in Rock music of the past .We are completely against the sale of bootlegged
artefacts , especially musical ones .We attempt to obtain permission to use
articles and photos wherever possible, but on occasions , due to the age and
obscure origin of some items , we have not been able to ascertain the owner
of the copyright .It is also possible that occasionally we are sent material
from sources that assert that they own the copyright of material, but their
claims are spurious - If you see any material on the site that you believe you
own the copyright of - please send us an e-mail with proof that you have ownership
of the image and we will remove the offending item from the site immediately.
Contact
us
