Status Quo headlining the 1982 Monsters of Rock Festival,
Donington Park in front of 60,000 people.
Fairly decent audience recording.
With an excellent setlist full of crowd favourites.
Not quite the full performance Bye Bye Johnny appears to be missing.
Dewey-eyed memories of '82.
ReplyDeleteIt was an odd choice for Quo to headline Donington, in fact it was a strangely unbalanced bill from top to bottom that year. I think Reading had snapped up all the must-see heavy bands that summer. Neither Quo nor Hawkwind were really Heavy Metal bands though both had fans from that audience.
Uriah Heep were back on the upswing after some time in the doldrums, though they were now playing a more AOR leaning brand of Hard Rock than at their 'eavy, 'umble peak which seemed to confuse matters. The classics went down well, the 'new stuff' less so.
Gillan were solidly entertaining though Bernie Torme had recently left & his presence was much-missed. No disrespect to Janick Gers who's a great player in his own right, but Bernie was just a big fan favourite & it left a musical & visual hole when he desparted.
Only Saxon & Anvil were providing the proper hard stuff, though most that day seemed to hate Anvil for some reason & showed their disapproval with the usual hail of urine filled receptacles.
I seem to remember Saxon going down an absolute storm & it felt like they could have topped the bill at that moment in time, so much so that a fair amount of people departed the site after they played, leaving Gillan & Quo to bring down the curtain to a less than capacity audience. It got proper cold later on too, with folks huddling round makeshift bonfires for heat.
The sound seemed problematic for Quo's set for some reason, which is the opposite of how things usually work at festivals, but they carried on regardless, troupers that they are/were. I seem to remember Parfitt & Rossi getting a proper dose of the giggles at one point, though i've no idea what set them off. It lasted for ages, maybe a whole song. They'd settle down for a moment, then exchange a glance & that'd set them off laughing again. Must've made it hard to play, but despite all the hilarity i don't think they fluffed a single note. Funny the things that stick in your mind.
Thanks anonymous always appreciate these memories of these Old concepts
Deletesounds like it was very entertaining day
I agree about gillan,saw them live many times,a lot better when bernie torme was on guitar,no disrespect to janik gers who has proved himself in iron maiden over the years,Saxon have also always been great live.
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