CASTLE DONINGTON 1984

The Inaugural Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington was a cracker. The next 3 years were good, even great days too, but the line-up's never quite matched the first one. Some friends would either not go or, like me in '83, see who you wanted and slink off before those you weren't that keen on played. When it came to 1984, we had arguably the strongest field yet, possibly the strongest of all. 

The big news was the US Invasion in the shape of the UK debut  of Motley Crue to kick things off and the first time in four years (and last ever for the classic line up) the return of the mighty Van Halen. 

Couldn't say no, really! Anyway, we fired up the old brown bomber transit and a bunch of us headed up from Canvey on a sunny friday afternoon. After a scenic detour (ok I got lost) we arrived at the 'official' campsite and paid the princely sum of £1 a head if I remember right and got ourselves into festival mode. Brad, Rob and Si at least came along, there was a large tent and I slept in the brown bomber. Memories, eh? 

On the morning I noticed this was by some stretch the biggest Donington crowd I'd seen. Only '88 eclipsed it. With 2 elpees and a raft of bootleg tapes, we were well versed in the prowess of festival openers Motley Crue. 

A short sharp shock, you could say. They opened with the sweet ballad Bastard and pranced and pouted through a little over half an hour of songs and crowd rallying, ending with a sterling Looks That Kill. They went down well, especially for an opening act, and the rain of missiles and bottles of questionable liquid were kept to a minimum. They gave an interview to the BBC for the OGWT after the set, all stoned as f&%@, and made their mark for sure.

Accept came next. Not really my thing, first came across Udo and the bys in '81 opening for Judas Priest and they didn't really impress that much. Kind of a mix of Priest and the Scorpions without the swagger and panache. They did have a couple of classic tunes though, and opened with one of them, Fast As A Shark. They played the other Balls To The Wall to close. They went down well, not a well as the Crue mind you. Their set was broadcast and naturally made it onto bootleg.

Y & T had the job of keeping things moving, and were hampered to these ears by their less than great In Rock We Trust elpee, in fact they'd been labouring a bit since the double hit of Earthshaker and Black Tiger. 

Their set wasn't as powerful as Reading two years before, and the sound was a bit hit and miss, definition lost in the cross winds that swirled the sound around. Still, Rescue Me and I Believe In You are classics and lifted the crowd and their set no end. Part of their set was broadcast along with the Reading '82 recording and mashed together on bootleg.

Gary Moore kept the guitar assault high and delivered as he always did. Was never too keen on his vocals on the rockier numbers, let alone the red jumpsuit, but there's no disputing what a fine guitarist he was. 

One of those I saw a fair few times over the years, the last time 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall with Paul Weller and Robert Plant, and because he was always there he got almost taken for granted. 

He knew how to work a crowd, especially a large festival one, and mixed new tracks like Murder In The Skies with crowd favourite Parisienne Walkways and got the best crowd response so far. 

Then came Ozzy 'widow twanky' Osbourne. With Jake E Lee on guitar he got the crowd going with a set of early solo classics, a couple of less than classic newer tracks, a couple of solo's and a 3 track finale of Iron Man, Crazy Train and Paranoid. loved much of his early solo work but it was all getting a bit panto for me by then, buckets of water and constant shuffling around and screams of 'let's go f&%king crazeeee!' every five minutes. 

Still, the confines of a festival set cut out some of the flab and kept things ticking over. Again, an FM broadcast was heavily bootlegged, as was an audience recording and the odd live video clip too.

And then came the set many of us were waiting for. Despite suffering some mindless missile throwing before they hit the stage, Van Halen took the day by the scruff of the neck and went for it. Although possibly the least impressive set I saw them play (largely due to ok but not great sound or view), they were still a class above. 

With a ludicrously ott stage set and a drum kit the size of which put Neal Peart's to shame, they pummelled with unchained and an unbelievable Hot For Teacher, which had a damn drum solo but damn well worked! That track was broadcast on the OGWT, and essential it is too. Old and new mixed together including a crowd rallying Runnin' With The Devil, and a wonderful Michael Anthony bass solo that sat between House Of Pain and I'll Wait.

Before that Little Guitars swung, and after Everybody Wants Some was Diamond Dave's big moment as ringmaster supreme. Of course, by then it was home runs all the way, with 1984/Jump before Eddie's extravaganza and the closer Panama. You Really Got Me was encore time, with Happy Trails thrown in to keep us all smiling. And there we have it. The UK return. Great set and performance, all you'd come to expect and a very good but not 100% crowd reaction. 

We didn't stay inside the arena for AC/DC, and along with a few thousand left.

We made our way to the campsite for a beer and a grin and heard Angus and the boys in the near distance. by 1984 I'd lost a bit of what AC/DC had to offer. For Those About To Rock wasn't a great elpee in my mind and they were on a bit of a slide for me. 

Still a great live band (and would be for many years to come) but just couldn't stay and watch 'em after Van Halen.

Overall, it was a great day. Some fantastic sets, a large crowd and lots of sunshine. If Led Zeppelin at Knebworth was the last in the era of great rock festivals, the Monsters Of Rock package was the new way, and 1984 surely had the best line-up you could have got then, only possibly rivalled in 1988. I managed to see more of these shows in Switerland and Germany a couple of weeks later, and although Karslruhe had a slightly better bill, sound and atmosphere (some 120,000 and no missiles) I'll always have a soft spot for Donington.