The Archive

Last update Jan 2012.

Wrexham Football Club Ground.

Racecourse Ground. Mold Road Wrexham , Clwyd. North Wales . July 24th 1982. Motorhead, Budgie , Tank, Raven, Orion, Twisted Sister, The Moon Rampant Antics.

A one off outdoor show featuring a slew of heavy bands and a rare opportunity for Welsh metal fans to see some of their heroes on local turf. Our guess is the venue was chosen as Wrexham FC had been relegated in 1982 .This meant the club was strapped for cash and they had to get rid of players, so the club may have been forced to hold a rock festival on the grounds in an attempt to raise finds.    Motorhead were big at the time and were in the midst of their ' Iron Fist ' tour , the rest of the bill, apart from Budgie and possibly Twisted Sister, was comprised of second grade bands and may not have drawn in as many punters as the organisers had hoped.    For whatever reason , whether it was due to a poor crowd numbers, bad behaviour by the crowd , damage to the pitch , the club becoming solvent and not needing to hold another event or tory MP's protesting about noise, dirt, leather, denim, booze, drugs, rain, shine, fornication or anything else that came to their tiny little minds, to our knowledge ,the festival was not held again ......

Recollections

Sadly my memory is in bits for all the usual reasons, but hey, I was there! There on this occasion being the first and last Wrexham festival. OK I can only remember one bit, but its the important bit! Shortly after Motorhead came on stage Lemmy,the front man, announced to the crowd that the the sound system had been set up pointing directly at the hospital, and because the sound level had to be reduced Motorhead were leaving. Lemmy did however give us some advice, he suggested that we vent our disappointment on the organisers! There then followed a bit or a riot, sods of turf were the order of the day, with anyone who looking remotely official, including the small security presence, locking themselves in the building. !!!

Happy Daze

Jude

Hi
I too went to the Wrexham Festival !!!
I also remember Lemmy telling us all to "rip the F***in pitch up" when the hospital had complained !!

I also remember queuing up outside and all you could see was a mass of hair and leather WHEN all of a sudden a bloke on a scooter came down the road !!!!
OMG he must have thought BIKERS !!!!! and quickly did a U-turn and shot off in the direction he came from !!!! So funny.

I remember touching DEE SNIDERS HAIR through the fence- god he was tall- mind I was only 15yrs at that time- and was in total amazement !!
Like you say Jude- HAPPY DAZE
Cheers- what a gr8 site- nostalgia GR8 :)
Jayne x

Hi,
My recollections of this event was Dee Snider claiming people were dying in the hospital because they were playing so loud and the DJ (Phil Easton?) telling the crowd that the volume would have to be turned down a bit but 'it wouldn't make any difference if we all moved closer'!

Lemmy was asked several times by the organisers to turn the volume down as the Local Authority were threatening to disconnect the power to the venue and his response was to ask the crowd 'shall we turn it down or shall we turn it up?' which led to a predictable answer. Eventually this led to the power being disconnected which then prompted Lemmy (without a PA) to instruct the crowd to trash the place, or words to that effect, and I recall him saying he wanted the flood lights bringing down. At this point all hell broke loose so we rapidly made our exit.

I also recall the scooter incident as referred to by Jayne above. Incidently, the vocalist with the support act 'Orion' was Tony Martin, better known in later years for his time with Black Sabbath.
Graham

Hi,

I attended the 1st (and last!) Wrexham Festival in 1982. Here is what I can remember of the day,hope it helps.

It was my first gig, I was 17 at the time. Myself and 3 friends travelled up from West Wales in the early hours of Saturday morning.
We arrived in plenty of time for the show and went to buy our tickets. We were a bit worried on the way up if there would be any left, we need not have been, there was a fairly poor turnout, a couple of thousand at the most if I remember correctly. The weather was also fairly decent.
Once inside there was major disapointment for my mate who had driven us up. He was a big Budgie fan and the first announcement of the day was that Budgie would not be performing. I can't remember the reason they gave, but he was ready to go home there and then.

I remember before the first band came on, some guy with short ginger hair in SATIN shorts doing a sound check. Found out later that day it was Brian Robertson. Satin shorts, not very Motorhead at all!!

I have no recollection of the first few bands (old age!), but Raven and Tank were quite entertaining. I think Lemmy came on stage to introduce Twisted Sister. I had not heard of them before, nor had many others, but they put on a great show. Dee Snider is a great front man.

Next up were Motorhead, again I can't remember what they played but we were quite disapointed that Fast Eddie was no longer a member, Robbo just didn't cut it!! As others have mentioned, thieir set was cut short due to the noise levels and Lemmy's departing words were something along the line's of "Wreck the f##king place!"
A long drive home afterwards, but it was worth it, if only to see Twisted Sister on their first UK show.
Great times :-)
Keep up the good work,
Richard.

i too was at this gig ,

i was about 14 and coached in from manchester, my best recollections of the day were of a couple ( yes as in 2 people ) looking after me for the day as we tried despeately to get a drink somewhere. the whole bloody town seemed to have shut down or just point blank said no to any one who looked like a rock fan.

tank were awful as the singer was pretty much falling down drunk .

motorhead were somewhere between fantastic - first time id seen them- and awful - brian robertson kept forgetting what to play and lemmy looked like he would have happily murdered him .

and twisted sister . i enjoyed them so much . but they are the only group of make up and spandex clad people i have liked . before or since

dave

Hi,
I'm doing a movie about Twisted Sister and their time as a club band, leading up to their signing with Atlantic (which would be the end of the story). This, of course, includes their performance at Wrexham in '82, where Lemmy helped introduce them to the crowd. I would like to have some kind of picture material to go with Dee's telling of the story and wanted to ask where I could go to get not just photos of the show if possible, but also general images of the festival itself, like the general scene and audience and such. The latter could even be from another year if it looked similar enough to look right.
Would you know where I could find anything or be able to suggest someone who might know where to look? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Please let me know. Thanks!
Andy Horn