MONSTERS OF ROCK - CASTLE DONINGTON AUGUST 16TH, 1980

1980 certainly was the year of heavy rock. Or heavy metal, hard rock. Call it what you will. As Biff Byford would later ask on Denim And Leather 'where were you in '79 when the dam began to burst'. Although the 1979 Reading Festival had its' fair share of rock, we didn't have a UK event dedicated to all things loud and rock. The idea of a who day of heavy rock was an appealing one, but who and almost as importantly where? 

There wasn't Kerrang back then, that was a year away,  just Sounds to push and promote all things rock without the sneering sarcasm and puffing superiority of NME and the rest, so when rumours of an event set in the east midlands featuring some of the biggest rockers around began to circulate, I knew it was something not to miss. As the line-up was put into place, it was originally billed as Rainbow plus special guests and prices were tagged at £7.50, the same we paid for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth (and everyone screamed 'how much?'!!). As soon as the guests began to be confirmed I was there. Not for Rainbow, but for the rest, and the day, the event. There was no thought of this being an annual show. It was risky and so much could go wrong. 

But it didn't go wrong. I think we went up on the train if memory serves. Me, brother Si and Mark Kirkman. possibly Keith too, we went to so many things in so many combinations of the six or seven of us it's difficult to think who came with me to what!  Lovely hot day too. must've got there by noon or so, in plenty if time for all the scheduled bands. After the gargantuan crowd for Zeppelin the year before, nothing about the crowd fazed me. Bigger than Reading for sure, I guess there were 60, 000 or so eagerly waiting for Touch to kick things off with the help of DJ Neil Kaye. 

Touch

The sound as I recall was OK but not that loud or distinct. Touch were quite good, harmless stuff really. My memories consist of lots of people shuffling around trying to get closer to the stage as they arrived during their set and that afterwards we found out bassist Doug Howard swallowed a bee near the end of their set. One of their songs 'Don't Ya Know What Love Is' is featured on the compilation elpee culled from live performances of the day. Their eponymous debut elpee was something of an AOR classic and always fetched good money back in the day.

Riot

That's more like it. Loved Riot from the day I picked up an import of Rock City, and then came Narita and a support slot with Sammy Hagar. They played an extensive UK Tour with Sammy and from the bootleg tapes went down a storm most nights. Sadly, Capitol didn't see any future and ditched them as soon as the tour commitments were completed. 

On the day they got the day going for sure, a solid powerful set with vocalist Guy Speranza working the crowd well. The extended live version of 'Road Racing' was chosen for the compilation live elpee. For Riot, especially after being championed way back by Neal Kaye, this was a great day. 

Better days were to come in the short term with their Fire Down Under 3rd elpee for Elektra (their finest in my opinion) and more great live shows to boot. 

Saxon

Now we're cooking. Saxon took the chance and wowed the crowd with a set full of early classics. Full of adrenalin, we got a rapid 45/50 minute set beginning with Motorcycle Man and ending with Machine Gun. Nothing new, nothing slow. Full on NWOBHM power and glory. They went down like heroes, it was their time. 'Backs To The Wall' was chosen for the live elpee set. There is also (apart from the bootlegs) a semi-official CD from a soundboard tape of the set. The bootlegs use the same source, if not as clean or well mixed.

So enthused were Saxon that they wrote 'And The Bands Played On' about the day and their experience. A fitting tribute. 

April Wine

It was always going to be tough following Saxon, and April Wine found it so. I remember picking up an import copy of The Whole World's Goin' Crazy in the late 70's, and then Harder...Faster before they came over and toured in March 1980. They had Angel Witch and Sledgehammer opening for them, but I did enjoy their melodic hard rock style, a touch of Boston amongst others I recall.

 Even a solid version of '21st Century Schizoid Man' featuring a solo from drummer Jerry Mercer was fine, They performed well on the day, but were a bit out of place at times. 'I Like To Rock' was their contribution for the live compilation.

The Scorpions

As the afternoon rocked on, so did the Scorpions. With all due respect to what had come before the Monsters Of Rock now kicked up a gear. Experienced and classy, they kicked straight into Lovedrive and Don't Make No Promises before the brilliant Loving You Sunday Morning. 

Their ten song set, including the final encore madness of Can't Get Enough was really something. The sun was getting slowly lower in the sky and the volume and clarity was creeping up. Great memories of their closing acrobat  style pyramid, the amazing flying Scorpions indeed! 

They had two tracks on the comp live set - Loving You Sunday Morning and Another Piece of Meat - and the version of The Zoo came out on the Axe Attack compilation elpee that was released in 1981 I believe.

Judas Priest

So, how do you follow The Scorpions? Easy, give Rob and the boys a call. Riding high on the success of the British Steel elpee and Living After Midnight single, this was as close to a triumphant homecoming as you're gonna get. No messing, straight into Hell Bent For Leather (always be Well Bent For Trevor to me!!), a nasty chugging The Ripper and rampant Runnin' Wild. Boy did they rock. As well as filling the set with classic after classic we also got my who favourites of the new songs - You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise and Grinder.

 They left us with a thumping Green Manalishi and a blitzkrieg encore of Tyrant. And Rob rode out on the Harley. With a whip. And for whatever contractual reasons, no Priest songs have ever been released officially to my knowledge, although there are several tapes and by reason a few bootlegs CD's.

Rainbow

And so we come to the headliners. Chaz and Paul had snuck into the arena to capture some soundcheck snippets from Priest, Scorpions etc and some Rainbow too. Allegedly, a pile of the pyro set up for the show had inadvertently gone off the night before, seriously damaging the bass bins of the large PA system. This didn't help the sound for Rainbow, as they were the only band 'permitted' to use the full weight of the sound system. They did, however, have two extra speaker towers at the rear of the field just for Ritchie's solo widdly bit. And they were ok. Not really my cup of tea, and despite Down To Earth an underrated classic in my opinion, onstage it always seemed an awkward mismatch.

But, they played a mix of old and new, Stargazer and All Night Long made it to the compilation, and bade farewell to Graham Bonnet and Cozy Powell, who had one more chance to play with pyro and drum along to the 1812 Overture. It was spectacular, but for me a bit dull at the end of a long, long day. Still glad to have seen my second favourite line up crown the inaugural Monsters Of Rock Festival. 

There is a new CD/DVD set of Rainbow's performance, but it's sadly just assorted/edited highlights. The following year the BBC showed a half hour special of highlights, including the exploding fake marshall stacks, but it was a hotchpotch in the wrong order and just 'ok'. Sadly this new release won't fill the void. 

Bootleg wise, there are a few audio 2CD sets and about half an hour of soundcheck/rehearsal audio too.

So there we have it. Monsters Of Rock. A one off, they said it couldn't be done. No one would come, and if they did there would be trouble. Drugs, fights, Angels, debauchery. In the end nigh on 60,000 came saw and enjoyed a great day out. And it worked. And soon it became an annual event, then international and now an institution. But we were there when the dam began to burst.