by Ian Carroll
woken up by '7 o'clock' and invited to a 'Sex Party', 70's party rock with a 90's slant.
Poison were loved enough at the time to play all their hits and have female fans drooling at the front, whilst their boyfriends hung back in the crowd waiting for Aerosmith to play. 'Talk Dirty To Me' was their most popular of the set, proving that their debut album was still the best Poison release to date and the one that the fans longed to hear tracks from.
Eventually, the wait was over and Aerosmith made their all singing, all swaggering, all sexual innuendo oozing Donington debut.
Playing a career spanning set from 1973’s ‘Dream On’ right through to ‘Love In An Elevator’ from the 1989 album ‘Pump’. Aerosmith were the band of the day and the most anticipated by the crowd, having not played in the UK for nearly a year. Aerosmith also pulled a masterstroke by bringing on Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin for their encores, which was an unexpected treat for all the avid rock fans.
Finally the headliner for 1990 was another British band, back for their ‘rock ‘n’ roll hat-trick’; three appearances at Donington, two in the headline position and what a different beast Whitesnake were now!
The 90’s Whitesnake was the ‘MTV friendly’ totally Americanised version of the classic British rock band. Thanks to the constant MTV airplay of the ‘Snake videos for ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Here I Go Again’ (a re-recording of the original from the ‘Saints & Sinners’ album in 1982), Whitesnake were reaching a totally diverse audience. From AOR fans, to metal fans, to soft rock fans and fans of David Coverdale’s wife to be (at the time) Tawny Kitaen, who featured heavily in the erotic styled videos, the ‘Snake was slithering its way across America and picking up more fans worldwide than ever before.
Whitesnake had also re-recorded ‘Fool For Your Loving’ which again featured as a more ‘bluesy’ rock standard on the 1980 release ‘Ready An’ Willing’; the new versions of the classics were dividing the fans.
So, the 1990 performance of Whitesnake had been upstage by the old pro’s Aerosmith, who were again on steep curve to renewed success. Whitesnake would return to play as special guests to Def Leppard 19 years later, but we would only had to wait 4 years for the return of Aerosmith, then boosted to the headline position.
“There are two clips from the 1990 which are THE most requested videos on Whitesnake.com; videos from that Monsters Of Rock.”
David Coverdale (Whitesnake – Vocals)
“For me it’s a personal triumph, I have always been a lover of British Rock’N’Roll .It was always my dream to be in a British band and to Headline a major festival in England where people have come from all corners of the earth.”
Rudy Sarzo (Whitesnake – Bass)
“We want to take this time to thank the fans, we had a few technical problems we ironed them out but that shit happens in Rock’N’Roll you know.
For a lot of times shows are consistently tough to do but this wasn’t. It was an above average out door show, but hey it takes two to tango and the fans were fantastic.”
Brett Michaels (Poison – Vocals)
“Before Donington we were on tour in America and every show on that tour was sold out.
We were never ‘glam rock’, we were more like ‘Steptoe and Son’ on speed, it was our gypsy look.
I spent most of the day, before my family turned up, with Jimmy Page, because our tour manager was Richard Cole, who was Led Zeppelin’s tour manager. We had been on tour in America and had gone through about four tour managers and I remember that we were in somewhere like Bumfuck, Idaho and I saw this guy and he was pouring a bottle of Jack Daniels down the drain, by a tour bus and then a bottle of vodka and I said ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ and it was Richard Cole.
When we played it was very weird watching 70,000 people singing along to your songs in the broad daylight; ‘Meet the gangs ‘cause the boys are here, the boys to entertain you…..’ that was our intro tape.
It’s always a good time with the Quireboys and everyone loves a tune that you can whistle.
After Donington they all left and I was left with Thunder; the Thunderbirds were the most embarrassing thing you’ve seen in your life.”
Spike (The Quireboys – Vocals)
“When we came to Donington it was a real event, with 5 or 6 bands and 72,000 people.
When you go into Donington as a band, in a bus, you go over the top of the hill and you could see the audience, this huge audience and that’s when you get a daunting feeling. Everyone has probably seen the footage, but when you go up these stairs and you can see from the side of the stage this sea of people, that’s when you go ‘oh fucking hell’. But luckily enough we were in our early twenties and you have that confidence to go out and do it; I’d probably shit myself now!”
Guy Griffin (The Quireboys – Guitar)
“Donington was very different for us, we had started make some money.
We’d recorded an album in LA in ’89 and Sharon (Osbourne) was our manager, so by 1990 things had changed quite a lot.
We’d toured at the end of ’89 and then again March and we’d also done Top Of The Pops.
We had already played with Aerosmith. We had our dressing room all day, which was different to Reading, so we stayed there all day and had our friends over! The stage was a lot bigger and the crowd was around 77,000.
Playing in daylight was quite bizarre and the wind was blowing you around, which was different as we were used to club dates and we played above Thunder.
We wandered around backstage saying hello to Steven Tyler and Whitesnake. Back then Whitesnake were quite friendly, but we’ve recently done a tour with them and got thrown off it!”
Nigel Mogg (The Quireboys – Bass)
“The first time we played was quite spectacular and we had a lot riding on it.
We had a few small ‘warm up’ gigs before Donington and Danny had a throat virus and lost his voice on the tour. It was four days before we were due to play at Donington to 93,500 people and there was a lot of anticipation because the year before it had been cancelled, because of what had happened the year before that and we were opening and it was a really cracking bill.
Danny went to see his Harley Street specialist and he said ‘I am going to give you an injection and you mustn’t talk for three days’, which for Danny is quite difficult.
So he went away and rested and we just sat in corners and worried a lot.
Even the day before we played he wasn’t aloud to speak; so we turned up on the day and even he didn’t know if anything was going to come out!
We went and sound checked without him. We went out onto this huge stage, in front of this huge field and I was thinking ‘I wonder what it’s going to look like when it’s full of people?’ The sound check went nicely and we were still worried about Danny. He still hadn’t spoken a word and he had no idea what was going to come out of his throat.
I remember that the stage manager came in and said ½ an hour and we all went quiet, especially Danny! We couldn’t get away with all instrumentals; we’re not a ‘prog rock’ band are we!
We turned up on the stage and the first number we were in was ‘She’s So Fine’ and there’s one particular note and if he hits that we’d know everything was OK. He hit this note absolutely spot on with laser like precision and if you watch the video of us on one of our DVD’s, you can see the look of relief on all of our faces; you could see us all going ‘everything’s going to be OK.
It was a magical moment and from that point on we were so happy and it came out in our performance and we had one of the best gigs of our life.
It was a great day, really beautiful and sunny.
I couldn’t believe how spectacular it was with the field full of arms waving.
At the time we were signed to Capitol records in America and they were really interested in English rock, or in fact, rock music at all.
The president of Capitol at the time said to us that he cursed the day that he signed Poison, who were one of
his biggest selling artists at the time.
We were being courted by Geffen Records who had Whitesnake, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Aerosmith and Cher and just about every good rock band that you cared to mention.
We had a bit of a ‘celebrity fan club’ at this point and David Coverdale, very kindly, was talking to David Geffen and John Kalodner about us, ‘you’ve got to hear this band Thunder’. Axl Rose was doing the same, he was a big fan; he stopped us in a car park at the Rainbow Bar and Grill (LA), while he was getting mobbed by people and shouting ‘you shouldn’t be listening to me; these are the boys you should be listening to!!’ So he was telling Geffen to listen to our band and Aerosmith were doing the same!
Subsequently when we supported Aerosmith, we found out that on their tour bus, on the way to Donington, Radio One was broadcasting the concert live and they were listening to it on the radio and Joe and Steven were on the tour bus with John Kalodner. They said to him that this was the band that they were telling him about and he said ‘well I’m here now, I guess I can check them out’, so the fact that we had a particularly good show that day, got us signed to Geffen America and we got off of Capitol/EMI which had never been done before.”
Ben Matthews (Thunder - Guitar)
“That was a crucial point in our career, we had started Thunder in 1989 and had gone out and done a lot of touring the clubs and a few shows with Aerosmith and a few shows with Heart.
We hadn’t realised how popular we’d become and on the day all the hands went in the air and we went wow.
It added poignancy as 1989 had been cancelled, when the kids got killed in the crowd, so this had to go well and the promoters were quite nervous and everything was a bit tense.
We were the first band on, the weather was beautiful and as a result of that show our first album went gold and we sold out some shows in the states.”
Luke Morley (Thunder – Guitar)
“Danny lost his voice the week before, we had been very busy, we didn’t stop.”
Harry James (Thunder – Drums)
“I had to go and see a doctor after Nottingham and he told me to take a few weeks off (yeah right).
We had to cancel Friday’s London Marquee show which I was upset about but I got through today.
We had the audience clapping and singing along it was tremendous.”
Danny Bowes (Thunder – Vocals)
“Last time we played here was interesting back in 1985. We haven’t been able to get back due to recording schedules and touring. We are coming back here in October for some shows and maybe we will do Donington next year and really kick you in the ass.”
Stephen Pearcy (Ratt – Vocals)
“The promoters once again played it safe with the choice of acts for the 10th Anniversary of the Donington MOR 1990 Thunder and Quireboys provided traditional British Rock at its best whilst Poison had a party atmosphere going down.
Back stage all eyes were on Steve Vai who seemed to have cameras following him everywhere he went. The dude looked so cool but he had competition for the lenses with the one and only Rock Star duo Steve Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Meeting those guys in the flesh was a pretty amazing experience and they gave Whitesnake a real run for their money.
We interviewed a lot of the bands for our radio show and everyone was just thrilled the MOR was back.
The first decade of the Monsters Of Rock would set precedence for decades to come. The courage of the promoters, the dedication from the fans and the performances of the artiste on the bill will proudly grace the pages of British rock history.
The Bailey Brothers brought the Monsters Of Rock into the homes of millions of fans across Europe via MTV and those shows are still circulated and enjoyed to this day. The Donington Monsters Of Rock was the jewel in the crown and we were all kings of the Castle at least for a while!”
The Bailey Brothers (Mick & Dez Donington Comperes)
“1990 was the year of big hair at Donington. Everywhere you looked there were masses of backcombed hair-sprayed barnets, skin tight jeans and cowboy boots as Donington went glam for its 10th birthday party event. To celebrate this event highlights of the day also went out live on Radio 1 for the first time, which gave many a performer the chance to say a few choice words.
The day was bathed in glorious sunshine (surely another Donington first?!), and the day was completely stolen by the days opening band and relative newcomers Thunder. Danny Bowes and his merry men came on and played a complete blinder and by the time they wound their set up with a drawn out ‘Dirty Love’ they had everyone singing and dancing along like drunken idiots.
The Quireboys followed and while they couldn’t match the euphoria brought to the day by Thunder, they played a solid set and were well received.
Poison hit the stage next and seemed to split the crowd, with those like myself deciding it was more fun to throw bits of melon and any other bits of available rubbish at the band and at others, than put up with their cheesy brand of glam.
Aerosmith got the place jumping again and their set also featured one of the finest collaborations in Donington history when Jimmy Page strolled out onto the stage to join Aerosmith for a blistering performance of ‘Train kept a Rollin’.
Once Aerosmith finished it was all downhill from then, with David Coverdale’s new version of Whitesnake featuring guitar hero Steve Vai providing a pretty awful performance to finish the day on a downer.
Whitesnake are one of this countries finest exports of blues rock, and with Steve Vai widdling his ‘cosmic tapestries’ over classic blues rock numbers most were left wondering what the fuck was going on. Time was even given to nearly every band member to bore the crowd with drawn out solo spots and the crowd started to thin out as people decided a more fun way to end the day was to drink themselves to oblivion while devouring some legendry Donington death burgers.
While standing waiting for the appearance of Aerosmith a fellow punter in front of me decided to have a fag. While sparking up his lighter Aerosmith came onto the stage and the crowd surged forward pushing him and his naked lighter flame into the woman stood directly in front of him. Due to the copious amounts of hairspray on this poor woman’s hair the naked flame ignited her hair which went up quicker than Gary Glitter outside a primary school.
The woman was still completely oblivious to this fact until everyone behind her started to throw beer over her to douse the flames. This of course inflamed the matter even more as she turned around and started throwing punches completely unaware why she was the target for everyone to throw beer at. Someone soon managed to let her know her hair was on fire as people continued to throw any available liquid over her head until the flames finally went out, leaving her with a badly smelling, black crispy hair do.”
Nigel Taylor (Plymouth)
“My first Donington experience was in 1990. First up were Thunder, the sun was beating down and Danny Bowes belted out those songs, what a voice! I still remain a fan to this day. Next up were the Quireboys they whipped up the crowd good and proper, I recall an inflatable Newkie Brown bottle or two bouncing around the crowd; I'm thinking Spike probably appreciated this... Later the mighty Aerosmith and Tyler back in the day, when he could still back flip across the stage, what a set list topped off by Jimmy Page. Then Whitesnake, Coverdale's vocals and Steve Vai's guitar just completed the day's hard rockin' goodness. I remember getting back home in the wee small hours thinking that it just doesn't get any better than this...” Matt Allison (Plymouth)
“I went to Donington Monsters Of Rock festival in 1990. I was eighteen years of age.
Whilst there I was hit, with considerable force, by a passing tennis ball.
It hurt.”
Mrs Holly Allison (nee Taylor as I was then, Plymouth)
“1989 was cancelled while the powers that be decided on the future of the festival after the tragedies of ‘88.
I was quite relieved when they announced that 1990 would go ahead, this was the correct response, learn from the lessons, im
plement the changes and get on with it. I think that cancelling indefinitely would have had a disastrous effect on all major outdoor music events.
So line-up released (surprisingly only 5 bands this year) it was time to dust of the cordial containers and head off to sunny Derbyshire again. I must admit that Aerosmith aside, I was not overly excited by that years line-up and considered it to be somewhat weaker than the previous two, however, this was Monsters of Rock and I would have probably attended if the Wurzels were headlining, just being there and soaking up the atmosphere was enough for me at that time.
It was noticeable on entering the arena that the crowd was considerably less than ‘88 and was back to a more manageable size, this was way better and meant that you could actually visit the stalls at the back again without the risk of losing the crowd you were with.
Thunder were today’s openers and were well received by most of the early day crowd, our group included. They played all of their radio friendly hits from what was easily their best album ever, the sublime 'Backstreet Symphony' and left us in jovial spirits, a great party band and possibly the best opening performance of any band at MOR.
I was not a fan of the Quireboys so their set largely passed me by, they seemed to get on ok and got away without being bombarded with too many missiles. I thought that they were a bit of a come down after Thunders sing-a-long set.
Poison were the first of only two American bands on that day, this was weird and in complete contrast to ‘87 where all of the acts were from the states. Poison were a bit of a marmite band, you either loved them or would prefer to stick your head in a barrel of acid than subject your ears to their poodle haired sounds. I fell into the former category but I also refused to fall into the silly thrash vs. glam nonsense that was prevalent at the time, I liked both.