Wishbone Ash promo ballooon © Paul Brannigan

Those were the days. My 1st festival in 1980 at the grand old age of 16. The Saturday (possibly Friday) was very gray and dreek and I can clearly remember watching Bad Manners from through the fence at the back. They were a lot of people watching from the back fence. I could obviously only afford a one day ticket. Sad as it seems I also caught SLF, The Tourists and the Jam from the same fence. From the fence I believe I stayed at the local youth hostel.

The Sunday (possibly Saturday) was a bit brighter. There were certainly the odd showers and people playing in the mud, just like the pictures you'd seen on the telly. I can't even remember eating or going to the toilet. Perhaps I only started doing these things as I got older. I don't even remember taking any drugs or drink. More likely I had so much that my memories been distorted. I remember standing at the fence by the back stage area collecting signatures from Gillan , Saxon etc. I actually went on to meet Saxon about 10 times but this must have been my 1st meet. The name was 'Beastie' back then if anyone from Saxon remembers me from Glasgow gigs.

For all these years I've felt guilty about spilling some old guys beer during Lindisfarne. The whole audience changed and increased in age for this set. If you ever read this, I'm still sorry. At least I now understand why the ring pulls were removed. I should have left my skateboard at home.
I actually left before Wishbone Ash but I do remember enjoying most of the other bands. I thought they were gay rock back then. Not metal enough for me. I probably needed to catch the last train or something
Thanks for the memories
Gordon

All was well between the rival tribes strangely united by The Chords - a 'Mod' band with a decidedly 'new wave' sound. The SLF fans in the crowd seemed happy enough with their music if not their clothes, and a good reception enabled them to nip back onstage to steal an unplanned encore.

Such is festival etiquette that this meant all subsequent bands should also take a bow. Unfortunate, as next up were Bad Manners. In the subsequent 20 years I’ve never seen a worse performance than the ‘set’ from Buster and pals - a while before they became a lovably eccentric British institution and Buster became a hotelier. Tuneless, feckless, they were downright awful.

Of course, come the end of their set, the DJ - Clyde legend Brian Ford, if memory serves - somewhat desperately asked the question "do you want some more Bad Manners?" Together, with one voice, shoulder to shoulder, the punks, mods and anyone else with ears replied "No! Fuck off!"

They came back on anyway to be met by a hail of bottles, cans, rocks and leftover bearshit. Stray missiles hit the already traumatised bystanders, and pitched battles ensued, like 1960s Brighton. Except for the rockers being punks. And Brighton being a muddy Scots field.

Fortunately, the Tourists took the stage and the fighters lapsed into a coma at Annie Lennox’s horribly miscast powerpop. The Jam managed to reunite the crowd as punks and mods saw their heroes, who, if memory serves, played 'Going Underground' for the first time ever.

Stuart

Recordings

Looks like hardly anyone could be bothered to smuggle in a tapedeck under the sporran, we have only been able to find a recording of the Jam so far, does anyone else know of more sets recorded ?

The Jam 6-21-80 Loch Lomond Rock Festival Audience . Low c quality 64 minutes

1. Thick As Thieves
2. Saturday's Kids
3. To Be Someone
4. Burning Sky
5. Pretty Green
6. Start!
7. Going Underground
8. Mr Clean
9. Private Hell
10. The Dreams Of Children
11. Smithers - Jones
12. Little Boy Soldiers
13. But I'm Different Now
14. When You're Young
15. The Eton Rifles
16. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
17. Strangetown
18. The Modern World
19. 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street
20. All Mod Cons
21. David Watts