by Ian Carroll
Another big name on the bill in 1991 was Motley Crue, to be honest not exactly my cup of tea, so I don’t remember much about their performance.
Queensryche & Black Crowes were also on the bill.”
Paul Hartshorn (Chesterfield)
1992
Iron Maiden,
Skid Row, Thunder, Slayer, WASP, The Almighty
Iron Maiden headlined Donington 1992 for their 2nd time; in 2003 they would return again for their 3rd appearance and making it the 4th time in 2007, smashing the record set by AC/DC and Metallica. AC/DC will equal this record with their 4th headline appearance in 2010. The performance by Iron Maiden was recorded for the video and double cd, called 'Live At Donington'. Iron Maiden are one of the three bands that are most recognised as 'Donington Icons', the other two being Metallica and AC/DC. Who can forget the battle cry of Bruce Dickinson cutting through the night air as he yells 'SCREAM FOR ME DONINGTON'. The Almighty, who opened the day, also recorded their set for a future cd release. A hard rocking set from 'north of the border' was just what was needed to blow away the cobwebs and clear the heads, that were already topping up with the first pints of alcohol of the day. Ricky Warwick, the lead singer of the Almighty, would make his solo debut at Download Festival in the tent, playing his 'Americana' based solo music, 11 years later in 2003. Back for a second appearance, W.A.S.P. played another good selection of tunes from their back catalogue, including their latest album 'The Crimson Idol', but they were not as threatening and exciting as the were the first time that they played, though their career has had great longevity and they are due another appearance. Slayer were making their very first appearance at the festival in '92 and it was also their first appearance since Dave Lombardo had left; their new drummer, Paul Bostaph, had previously played with Forbidden. Slayer were the last of the 'Big Four' to play Donington. The Big Four were Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth and it referred to the main players in the world of thrash metal. Of the four bands, Slayer were the most aggressive, with the most controversial songs included songs like 'Angel Of Death' and '’Raining Blood'. An excellent set, by the masters of 'Satanic thrash'. Thunder were back for their second appearance in 2 years and had risen up the line-up from openers to 3rd from top. Another solid classic rock set, Thunder always delivered and were again a very popular performer on the day. Skid Row were special guests on the day and very deserving of the position. Having played as the opening band at the Bon Jovi Milton Keynes show in 1999, their increasing popularity, mostly due to their enigmatic frontman Sebastian Bach. With a set featuring all their most popular songs from '18 And Life' and ‘Youth Gone Wild’ to newer ones like ‘Monkey Business’ and the set opener ‘Slave To The Grind’, Skid Row were the slightly less crazy GNR and their frontman was a much better singer than Axl, these were a band on the way up. So it was up to the mighty 'Maiden' to finish the day off and they did in grand style; a British band blasting out their many hits to an adoring crowd of denim and leather clad metal heads. They wouldn't return to the hallowed grounds of Donington for another eleven years.
“In 1992 it pissed down with rain, which is always a bit difficult for an audience at a festival, it doesn’t get them in the best possible mood.
It was a couple of days before our second album. I think the bill wasn’t as good that year as when we did it in ’90 it was Whitesnake and Aerosmith and it was a difficult bill for Thunder to be on with Maiden and Slayer, but god bless our punters, despite it pissing down with rain, it was a good day”
Luke Morley (Thunder – Guitar)
“The second time was good fun as we were further up the bill, which was a lot nicer, but it was pissing down with rain, which is a nightmare.
It’s really difficult playing in the rain, as it doesn’t come straight down and blows in your face, all over your hands, all over your fret board, all over the stage, all over your leather boots and I remember Sebastian Bach slipped over twice; he came flying out, said ‘hello Donington’ and fell flat on his ass!
The weather definitely put a bit of a damper on it.
Playing in the driving rain is very difficult; it plays havoc with your hair as well!!
It’s a very important festival. It has served us very well indeed and a lot of the press said that we were the best band of the day.”
Ben Matthews (Thunder - Guitar)
“August 22nd 1992 was a huge day for me because Donington was the ‘Holy Grail’ of metal. It was just a huge dream come true for me, having been there in ’88. I kept thinking most of the day that I had done it; I had fulfilled one of my dreams to play there.
We opened the show, full of excitement, happy to be there, very nervous and a complete feeling of wanting to do well.
The rest of the day goes into a bit of a blur. We came off, started having a few drinks, hanging out and we started doing interviews. But the actual being on stage I remember really vividally and just looking out at a sea of people, it was just amazing! I wasn’t able to get my breath for the first two songs, it was just like ‘oh my god, this is just mental!!’ Then I started to relax and get into it and before you knew it, it was over.
But in the lead up to it, I remember staying in a hotel the night before and listening to the radio and hearing our name getting mentioned that we were opening it up and then waking up in the morning and knowing that today we were going to open up Donington, for a soccer player it must be like going to a cup final, for us it was like going to a cup final!”
Ricky Warwick (The Almighty – Vocals/Guitar)
“We opened up the show in ’92. I had never played to an audience that size before and as soon as we got out there adrenaline just took over; it was easily one of the highlights of my gigging career and I have done thousands and thousands of gigs. Donington and supporting Metallica at Milton Keynes Bowl the year after are pretty much the two best gigs I have ever done.
I remember seeing Tom Araya at the side of the stage smiling, which was cool.
We didn’t get to see much of the other bands as we were stuck in a portakabin doing interviews for most of the day and by the time we got out it was pretty much done and dusted. But we managed to watch Maiden and also saw a tiny bit of Skid Row and they had the worse weather of the day.”
Pete Friesen (The Almighty – Guitar)
“Little did I know that 11 years later I would be playing bass in the opening band?
Our agent John Jackson had our dressing-portakabin loaded with Huggies and talc. Thankfully they weren’t needed.”
Floyd London (The Almighty – Bass)
“What I do remember was that Tommy Vance was going to introduce us on stage, but when they tried to get us on stage, he decided he wasn’t going to. So we had to get our man Bomber to do it, the same guy who introduced us on the live Album; ‘Donington can I welcome to the stage, the All Loud, All Wild, the All Fuckin' Mighty’; he did that at the last minute, as he was forced to do it.
All the stuff hat I had thought about before about being calm went out the window and I played ‘Crucify’ at twice the speed it should have been!
We were the first and usually the first band doesn’t get much of a reaction, but the whole crowd was there and we got one of the best reactions, apart from the headliners of course.
We had just come back from Australia at the time and it was great to get that amount of cheers.
After that, the set was a blur. There were lots of Scotland flags being waved and lots of cheering.
Then we went backstage and I met Steve Harris and Sebastian Bach and it just went downhill from there and there’s not much more I can remember.”
Stump ‘Stumpy’ Monroe (The Almighty – Drums)
“I have one odd memory from before 3 Colours Red... I was drunkenly stumbling around the festival in ‘92 when a girl randomly stopped me and asked for a photograph, don't ask me why... but I’m like, "erm, ok then!"
That to me is what the festival is about; the crowd is friendly and always really pissed! I don't kn
ow how many times I've walked around the crowd trying not to step on hung-over rock fans asleep clutching a bottle of their own piss! Donington rules, shits all over Glastonbury because it is rock, and we all know that rock has the best fans and the best music."
Pete Vuckovic (3 Colours Red – Vocals/Bass)
“I don’t think I ever saw anybody’s set in all those years; I was always too busy running around backstage. I do remember, though, being in the photo pit for Slayer’s sound check one year....let’s just say it was a life-changing experience!” Judy Totton (Monsters Of Rock PR)
“I was a teenager when I first went to Donington in 1992. My friend and I went on a coach trip to Monsters Of Rock, which was headlined by Iron Maiden that year. I remember being SO excited to be in the same field as Skid Row!”
Emma Watson (PR – Bowling For Soup/MC Lars/Zebrahead)
“My best memories of Donington Park go way back to 1992 when the festival was still called 'Monsters Of Rock' and the mighty Iron Maiden were headlining for a second time.
There was such an awesome bill that day with British upstarts The Almighty kicking off the day quickly followed by W.A.S.P., Slayer, Thunder and Skid Row as special guests.
I remember this festival most as this was my first ever gig and I would be seeing my favourite band Iron Maiden and I pretty much liked every band that was appearing that day.
The campsite was an awesome experience, something I didn't expect. We got together with a bunch of guys from ‘up north’ who had accidentally burnt their tent down and we had this huge tent so we offered them part of it for the weekend. One of the guys from what I remember was a Dave Mustaine look alike and had passed out quite early on in the night.
When I finally dragged myself into the tent for some sleep I found myself quickly awakened by the constant taking off and landing of the planes overhead. The next morning I woke up and the guy was still dead to the world, everyone else was awake so I gave him a shove to see if he wanted a beer. When he woke up I said to him ‘how the hell did you sleep through the racket of the planes and the car stereos blasting out throughout the night?’; at this point he tucked his hair behind his ears and proceeded to turn on his hearing aids, I felt like such a tool, I didn't even realise.
The best memories of the gig were Skid Row front man Sebastian Bach’s impressive stage dive at the start of the set when he went arse over tit from all the rain, but they played an impressive set and witnessing probably one of Iron Maidens finest shows, which I relive on DVD regularly and the loudness of 72,000 people singing every word in unison.”
Neil & Maria Bees (Perth, Australia)
“Iron Maiden returned to show the world they could still cut it. And cut it they did, although I must admit to being very drunk by the time they came on stage.
After the fireworks had finished we made our way through the exits with the rest of the crowd, but for some reason I decided to run up a grass bank, only to lose my balance and fall heavily back down to the bottom. Several minutes later I was in the back of an ambulance on my way to Derby Royal Infirmary with a dislocated thumb.
The pain sobered me up somewhat.
The embarrassing part then was to telephone my eight month pregnant wife at four in the morning to come to collect me. I didn’t get much sympathy.
I don’t know whether it was my musical tastes changing or the rock world in general (I blame Nirvana and the whole grunge movement) but from 1992 onwards the Donington line ups weren’t exciting me as much as they used to. Don’t get me wrong, I was still enjoying the whole atmosphere and the day out, but looking back in hindsight is that all it was towards the end….just a good day out.
Skid Row, Slayer, WASP just came and went
Even Thunder just weren’t as impressive as they had been two years earlier, maybe I had seen them too many times in a short period of time (five or six times within the last twelve months).
1992 had been memorable, but not necessarily for the right reasons.
Once again their was a hiatus the following year. Maybe this would recharge the festivals and my batteries.”
Paul Hartshorn (Chesterfield)
1994
Aerosmith,
Extreme, Sepultura, Pantera, Therapy?, Pride and Glory
2nd Stage:
The Wildhearts,
Terrorvision, Skin, Biohazard,
Cry of Love, Headswim
After a break of a year, Monsters Of Rock returned in '94, this year with the addition of a 2nd stage featuring smaller popular rock and metal bands.
The second stage featured British favourites Terrorvision, Skin and The Wildhearts in the headline position. The Wildhearts came back to play Download in 2008, Skin played the mainstage in 2009; Terrorvision have yet to return to Donington. Headswim, Cry Of Love and Biohazard also played; Biohazard had their set cut short after two songs when they overly encouraged the crowd to come on stage and there was a massive stage invasion.
Pride & Glory were the first band on the mainstage, a band that featured Ozzy's guitarist Zakk Wylde on lead guitar; this band was the band that Zakk formed before Black Label Society where he would see much more success.
Therapy? were on next and this would be their first of four appearances. Gaining chart success since the release of their most popular album ‘Troublegum’ in February 1994, the set was popular, though they were not a normal type of MOR band. Over the next year there popularity would increase even more with the release of ‘Infernal Love’ and they would be back to fill the 'special guest slot'.
Next was a 'double whammy' of extreme metal in the shape of Pantera from the US and Sepultura from Brazil; but to follow this with the soft rock of Extreme, playing hits such as 'More Than Words' was a bizarre choice. The metal fans wanted thrashing metal and what they got was the popular radio sounds of Gary Cherone and the boys from Massachusetts, a lot of the fans in front of the mainstage weren't happy.
But most people were happy with the final band, Aerosmith were back now in top slot and four years since they had supported Whitesnake at Donington.
Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were American music icons and were seen as the American rock version of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones, with a similarly large music selection to back them up. Playing such hits as 'Dude Looks Like A Lady', 'Sweet Emotion' and 'Walk This Way', they had the crowd eating out of their hands and who could not love their style of performing, the back flips, the posing, the playing up to the crowd, they were a massive success.
The return of Aerosmith in 2010 will equal the three headline appearances of Metallica and only Iron Maiden and AC/DC will have headlined more times, with AC/DC’s 2010 appearance notching up four top slots and equalling that of Iron Maiden.
“Donington’s a weird one. I grew up on punk rock, I was a ‘punk kid’ and I formed Therapy? with Michael and he was a ‘metal kid’.
The people we hung around with, in the small town we’re from, ‘the outsiders’ liked punk and metal, Ramones, Motorhead, AC/DC and Iron Maiden. But whenever I met anyone from our village that’d been to Donington it was always long hair, cut off denims and patches, which wasn’t really my scene.
When Therapy? Started out I was only into Thrash metal and the only metal bands I liked were early Iron Maiden, Motorhead and AC/DC, everything else was a bit too pomp and theatrical and not really what I liked.
The first time we got offered Donington, all I remember was the outrage at the time because we had short hair! A few years ago Metal Hammer did a ‘piece’ on ‘Days That Changed Metal’ and one of them was Therapy? played Donington in 1984.
We were second on the mainstage and we had short hair and bands like Skid Row were on. People were thinking ‘well Kerrang! has championed the band and you’re hear in front of the Metal faithful, but if you go down really badly that will be the decider’! Michael he was up for it and I just went onstage and by the end of the set it was absolutely brilliant.
Troublegum was out then and we’d h
ad a few singles in the charts and then after Donington the album just went up the charts and we did Reading the same year and we got a Gold disc out of it. But, I remember Donington was the most daunting one because the NME had extensively covered the band, so Reading was like a safe bet. But just before Donington Kerrang! had latched onto the band, but we did get letters in asking why we had short hair.
But, I remember the gig being very good and after about 4 songs in thinking this is great and the crowd’s fantastic.”
Andy Cairns (Therapy? – Vocals/Guitar)
“When we played at Donington, I got out of the van, to have a wee (because I was that excited) before we’d even got in and the van drove off!
For some reason I had my rucksack and my bags for the mainstage and I had to walk in with the crowd and blagged my way past security, telling them that I was playing on the second stage.
I remember standing on the hill and Sepultura had just finished and then everyone came over to the second stage. Considering these people had come from watching Sepultura, to come and watch us, with our ‘doo wops’ and singing about ‘Our House’ it was fantastic.
They all put their hands in the air and gave us a taste for more.
It was a bastion of rock!!!
If we had a ‘fuckin’ brilliant album to come back with, we would come back.”
Tony Wright (Terrorvision – Vocals)
“Early 94 saw us break thru into the charts and offers to play both Donington and Reading dropped onto our doormat. How cool was that???? Donington was great 'cos we'd always been there as kids and we were sandwiched between Sepultura and Pantera!”
Leigh Marklew (Terrorvision - Bass)
“Terrorvision played literally thousands of festivals, it's hard for me to distinguish one from another, mainly due to the state I have usually been in at these events. The nineties may have been a blur but a couple of memories are surfacing through....