by Ian Carroll
And that was it, after a rather cool firework display the show was over and it was time to find the blasted coach, which took ages mainly because several hundred other coaches had arrived after us so it was like finding a needle in a haystack. Still, about 50 mins later I was re-united with the coach and friend that I had lost at the beginning of the show, he never went again, I don’t think he got on with the sheer size of the crowd, however, that was the beginning of my love affair with Donington Park, one that continues to this day.”
Roger Moore (Glinton, Peterborough)
“What a scorcher…….the weather was red hot. I even got sunburn.
The day’s line up wasn’t too bad either. Most people would probably look back on the 1984 show as having the best line up of all.
AC/DC performed much better than in 1981 and rolled out the cannons for the Donington crowd for the first time. ‘For Those About To Rock’ was televised on ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ a few weeks later.
I wasn’t a big Van Halen fan prior to the event, but I got carried away with all the hype and decided to give them a closer look. Venturing down to the front for the first time in 5 years. I really enjoyed their set….even Michael Anthony’s bass solo (he rolled around the stage with his bass clutched to his chest if my memory serves me well). When I made my way back up to the rest of our troupe they all said that they had been disappointed with Van Halen. Maybe the performance didn’t carry too well towards the back of the crowd, but from my vantage point (approx 6 rows from the front) they were very good.
I remember Ozzy performing with his usual ‘craziness’ and also receiving a Gold Disc during his set.
I recall Gary Moore resurrecting ‘Parisienne Walkways’ for the day (I think he had previously dropped the song from his usual set list). His set comprised of the usual mixture of rockers and ballads.
I enjoyed Y&T. I still like to give their ‘Meanstreak’ album a spin every once in a while.
Neither Motley Crue nor Accept ever really did anything for me, although I do remember a big surge to the front when Motley Crue came on stage about half hour earlier than advertised.
The event T-shirt had pictures of gravestones on the back, each one showing the line up from previous Doningtons….a neat idea I thought (I still have mine, in fact I still have all the event T-shirts and programmes).”
Paul Hartshorn (Chesterfield)
1985
ZZ Top,
Marillion, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Ratt, Magnum, Tommy Vance
The bill this year was a bill of two halves. Three bands making their debut and only Donington performances and three bands who would return again, two in headline slots.
Openers Magnum were at the time unsigned, but they were head hunted by a talent scout from the Polydor labels German office. Having just released ‘On A Story Tellers Night’ in the UK on FM Records, Polydor had picked up on this and come to watch their performance at Donington, signing them in the backstage area.
Next up were Ratt; raised in LA like Motley Crue and of the similar ‘hair metal’ contingent which included Poison, who were yet to make their Donington debut. Ratt were already big news in the States with ‘Round And Round’ already an MTV hit. Lead guitarist Robbin Crosby sadly died from AIDS in 2002 at the age of 42; his guitar dexterity on the day was very popular.
Marillion made their only appearance at MOR in the special guest spot on the day, which seemed a little out of place for a ‘prog rock’ band at a rock and metal festival; although an exceptional band, could they have been described as a ‘Monster of Rock’. At the time Marillion were riding high on the success of their chart singles ‘Garden Party’, ‘Punch and Judy’, ‘Assassing’ and their biggest hit then and which they haven’t topped since, the passionate, yet heart-rending, ‘Kayleigh’.
Bon Jovi were making their debut at Donington, only to return 2 years later as triumphant headliners. Their album ‘7800° Fahrenheit’ had been released four months before and so was already a favourite with their adoring fans; tracks included from it on the day featured were ‘Only Lonely’, ‘In And Out Of Love’ and the rousing ‘Tokyo Road’ as their opener.
Making their first appearance, the band with the record for the most shows at Donington were Metallica. Playing mid afternoon with original bass player Cliff Burton, they were like nothing else at the festival and were more fitting with Download Festival now; Burton was die in a coach crash only 13 months later in Sweden on the ‘Master Of Puppets’ tour.
Metallica were targets for bottles on the day, but were targets for adoration from that point on; their first headline show at MOR was in 1995, but they also played in ’87 & ’91, rising up the bill each time.
ZZ Top were ‘topping’ the bill this year and would not return until 2009, then in the 3rd place slot.
Playing a greatest hits set, packed full of tracks from ‘Eliminator’ and their illustrious back catalogue. ZZ Top would release their 10th album ‘Afterburner’ 2 months later, but surprisingly no tracks from the album were played on the day. What did make an appearance was the ZZ Top car, the red 1933 Ford 3-window coupé Hot Rod from their videos, suspended above the crowd from a helicopter.
Great sunny weather for the whole festival and the dulcet tones of Tommy Vance again throughout the day.
“Growing up as a fan of music and metal, clutching my copies of Sounds and Kerrang! on a weekly basis, as I grew up through the eighties, getting to see Metallica’s name on a Donington poster in 1985 was obviously a pretty big deal. We were bright eyed and completely star struck and we were so psyched to come in there and be a part of that whole thing.
We went on that first year early in the afternoon; this was back then and whenever we played festivals it would always be with rental gear and half the issues were ‘would the gear function?’ We wouldn’t get to the gear until we were actually at the site, so you never really knew what you were walking into.
It was early in the afternoon and we were ready to go out there and just throwdown as hard as we could. The main memory and the story that has become folklore from that gig was that there was a pigs head thrown up onto the stage. We were playing and it was back in the day when there was a lot of mud throwing, bottles of piss and all that type of stuff, which we had been warned about and took no offence to, as it was all part of the fun and games; but when the old pigs head ended up on stage, I remember the look on Cliff Burton’s face was one of surprise and ‘that they really go a step further here!’ It’s all true!!
It was a fun day and our first foray into British ‘mega festivals’. It was certainly the first time that anybody playing our type of music was introduced to an audience that was that big and varied in it’s make up.
It was a very varied line-up and we were obviously proud to represent, the kind of music that we were representing and it certainly was the first time that an audience of that kind of cross section of rock fans, were introduced to us, or a band of our ilk.
We must have made some impact because I remember I saw Marillion about a month later, they were playing in Copenhagen where we were recording ‘Master Of Puppets’ and I went to see them as I was quite a big Marillion fan actually. I remember at one point Fish was talking and introducing the band, with a bit of stage banter. All of a sudden he started talking about ‘we’re not like some of these new bands that you run into at the festivals playing this horrible noisy stuff’ and then Marillion, lo and behold, went into their attempt at 30 seconds of ‘speed metal’. I’m not sure if they were aware that I was in the audience, but it was quite funny and there was a smile on my little Danish face because we must have made some kind of impact on the other bands.
The festival was certainly a fun day and there was a great ‘piss up’ back at the hotel that was a couple of miles from the site where a bunch of the other bands were playing. Some of the guys from Ratt were hanging out and some of the guys from Venom came up and we had a lot of fun.”
Lars Ulrich (Metallica – Drums)
; “It was a really hot typical summer’s afternoon and Donington was quite a day in the History of Marillion. It was one of those occasions that put us in books as being a good festival band. We played just before ZZ Top and really rocked the audience so much so that when the ZZ Top car was flown over the stadium I don't think that many of the crowed actually saw it and realised the significance of (ZZ Top arriving).
We didn't get to see ZZ Top as they had their own enclosure inside the enclosure INSIDE the back stage area. My guess is they were not wanting to be disturbed.
We were in the band area which was pretty secure with Bon Jovi and the others. I don't remember much socializing going on except with the Magnum boys as we new them quite well and they were and still are good blokes I imagine although I haven't seen any of them for years.
Bon Jovi looked the part and played a good set as far as I remember, but we were more focussed on our own show than anything else My Wife Fiona was there with me and enjoyed herself along with the other Wags.
Interestingly we played just before Bon Jovi at Rock In Rio back in the early 90’s and they put their heads round the door and wished us good luck having remembered us from those earlier years.”
Pete Trewavas (Marillion – Bass)
“To be Honest I was trippin’ a little before we played because I was on the sides of the stage watching the other bands play before our set and I was seeing plastic one gallon milk jugs full of piss being chucked up at the stage and all over each other in the crowd.
And I was thinking, if I get hit in the fucking head with a jug of piss I'm gonna lose it.
What did come flying onstage was even more shocking, some stooge cut the head off a pig and threw the head on stage......Ummm, was that 1985? Ummm no it was 1578 that’s right!!
Unbelievable gigs there. I had heard that while Ozzy was on that another part of the pig flew up there and all they could tell was that it was a female....
Hello Cleveland!”
Bobby Blotzer (Ratt – Drums)
“We had a German record executive, come over from Germany; he had approached us and had heard the ‘On A Storytellers Night’ album. A DJ gave him the album and said to him ‘you should sign this band’; he then contacted us and said that he wanted to put the album out on the Polydor label, who he worked for.
So I can remember that we went on stage at Donington and I turned around and I could see this German guy, he was called Michael Göhler and he had come to see us play live.
So we played, I don’t remember much about the playing part, but our manager then came up to us backstage and said that Michael wanted to sign us to Polydor. That was obviously the start of things for the band; he signed us and helped us a lot over the years.
I watched ZZ Top and I watched Marillion from out front. I remember also being interviewed in a caravan with a guy from Ratt; but I didn’t even remember seeing Metallica, they were in their infancy then. I can remember Jon Bon Jovi walking around, but I didn’t actually see them play.”
Tony Clarkin (Magnum – Guitar)
“That was the day that we signed a major deal with Polydor, a lovely German guy called Michael Göhler and he loved us so much that he got us to sign on the dotted line.
Only a few things were thrown, so we were very lucky.”
Bob Catley (Magnum – Vocals)
“I remember that we had to stop on the motorway on the way there for the police to form a cavalcade and escort us in there. I do remember a piece of mud hit my mixing desk, I’d love to thank the guy who did that.”
Mark Stanway (Magnum – Keyboards)
“My first great experience at Donington was the first time I ever went. I was watching Ratt play and a mysterious and very cute girl stood beside me and asked which member of Ratt was my favourite. Knowing nothing about Ratt I chose the guitarist who looked like Joe Perry, whereupon she called me a star and gave me a blowjob. My first groupie and the best blowjob I ever got. All thanks to a rather dreadful hair metal band from Los Angeles.” Ginger (The Wildhearts – Vocals/Guitar)
“I went in ’85 and Metallica were ‘fucking awesome’; although at that time I was a proper ‘Ratt head’. I was into all those bands from LA like Ratt and Motley Crue.”
Pete Spiby (Black Spiders – Vocals / Guitar)
“ZZ Top thought flying their car over Donington would be impressive.
We saw Pink Floyd at Main Road Manchester. During the show a man in a hospital bed appeared on a large video screen above the band on stage. He took off through the ward and out of a window, seconds later a full size bed flow over the length of the football ground with a man in it and crashed right into the video screen.
Now that’s impressive!”
The Bailey Brothers (Mick & Dez Donington Comperes)
“I first became aware of some... thing called "Monsters Of Rock" around 83/84. I wasn't really into metal at the time - I was more hard rock (Queen, Magnum, and ZZ Top) and prog (Genesis, Jethro Tull, Marillion) then, so didn't really bother much with the likes of Ozzy, AC/DC, The Scorpions, Motorhead etc. But I'd seen the t-shirts at gigs and the posters in HMV & Kerrang!
In 85 ZZ Top, Marillion & Magnum were all on the bill for that years event. I'd attended my first festival - the infamous 1984 Nostel Priory festival - already and felt ready at the age of 18 for more. There was a company in Leeds called "Cavendish Travel" who did travel & tickets to events all over the country so my girlfriend of the time and myself went to their seedy little office, handed over the money (£12.50 I think, and about a tenner for the coach) and retreated tickets in hand.
The night before, I listened to the Friday Rock Show as DJ Tommy Vance was doing a run down of the bands on the bill that year. Three of the bands I knew well, but Ratt, Metallica and Bon Jovi were very much unknowns at the time. I wasn't impressed with the Metallica track they played – ‘Seek And Destroy’ How cheesey. But the other two seemed ok.