The Archive.

Updated Feb 2008

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As we can see on the left, the crowd wasn't just content to lob stuff at the stage, here they are at the end of Van Halen's set pelting merry hell out of each other. We suppose it wasn't quite as bad a spitting on the artistes, as was practiced widely in the punk era, but it was frigging dangerous at times if the bottle was full of liquid - (well where else are you gonna piss in the midst of a crowd of 60,000 , most of whom were hardened drinkers ......)

Donington 1984 merchandise

Recollections.

1984
This was the big one........possibly the best of the Doningtons, well, at least I enjoyed it! The social side of the festival really started to kick in by now and this year we decided to make a weekend of it by 'visiting' a town on the way down on the Friday night. The town chosen was Ashbourne, where we merrily visited most of the town's central pubs and crashed out in a variety of places around the market square. There were seven of us travelling in two cars and we had a rude awakening and a very early start due to being 'in the way' of the Saturday market.
Breakfast was next on the agenda and we found an amazing cafe 'somewhere' between Ashbourne and Derby where we were served by a very friendly Dame Vera Lynn look-a-like.

This year we were making use of the 'official' campsite, although we never actually got our tents up preferring instead to crash out under the stars. For this was yet another amazing summer with the weather for Donington being even hotter than last year. We parked the cars and headed in town, town being Castle Donington. We spent longer in the pubs than last time, this year favouring the Moira Arms which seemed to have welcomed the 'Monsters of Rockers' a little more than the Turks Head across the road. problem was, this meant we missed quite a few of the bands which this year had gone back up to seven. AC/DC were returning to headline followed by Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne (last minute addition I heard), Gary Moore, Y&T, Accept and Motley Crue playing their first 'major' UK show. I think we arrived part way through Y&T who I'd seen supporting AC/DC in 1982 and I thought were rather dull back then.

AC/DC at Donington 1984

Big news this year was the arrival of the licensed bar which ran the, then, UK pub times- closing for the most important part of the afternoon when you're the most thirsty. Luckily you could still bring your own as long it was in the required specification of plastic container, ie: big! So you could buy a the bar or bring your own....we did both! We settled down at a good spot and almost immediately struck up a rapport with a crowd from Stoke-on-Trent. That was one of the best things about those ealrier Donington's, you felt like you were basically in a big field with 60,000 mates...!

We sat around chatting while Gary Moore came on with his usual rock n' blues. Just the job for a hot afternoon although hard work just sitting in one spot. Myself and John, one of our party, decided to take a stroll halfway through Gary's set. I happened to say...'Wonder if he'll play 'Parisienne Walkway'...to which John replied 'I reckon, doesn't he always?!!'....and at that nano-second....he did!

The heat was getting a bit much as then afternoon rolled on so we acquired some bottled water to drink and pour on our heads....and other peoples.....the crowd was in high spirits and very boisterous...there were 'mini' bottle fights happening all over the place.

       The crowd packed like sardines into the arena , hours of bad food,heat , can throwing and waiting....

Ozzy Osbourne arrived onstage wearing huge bat wings.....which was SO last year...but Ozzy can get away with things like that. He had a great time..."I'm here...I'm here" he kept saying......OK get on with it then!! He did his usual. Best of solo, best of Sabbath. Pity really, I would've liked to have heard some different Sabbath songs, I get a little tired of 'Iron Man' and 'Paranoid' all the time. But saying that, they always go down well, so Ozzy must know best. 'Bark At The Moon', his newest LP title track sounded a bit iffy mind....

Now a lot has been said about Van Halen's appearance at Donington '84. About how they upstaged AC/DC both 'on' and 'off' stage. Well, I'm not too sure about what went on behind the scenes but 'on' stage they didn't come even close. OK, I'm biased, I'm a card carrying AC/DC fan and not a Van Halen fan at all, even though they did impress me when they supported Black Sabbath back in 1978, but really, on the day, Van Halen didn't really live up to the hype preceding the show or the urban legend that followed it. They were good, I guesss, but just not good enough. Maybe all the hype had built up our expectations too much, who knows? One thing I did notice was a lot of Halen fans getting pissed off with Eddie's over-use of the keyboards.

In hindsight, VH were ok, I'm just glad they weren't headlining, the early stuff sounded good and Dave Lee Roth certainly came out with the best one-liner of the day...."If you throw another bottle at me I'm gonna come down there and fuck your girlfriend".

At last the sun was down and we could cool off little. It actually started to get a little TOO cool so a few fires were lit. We were all still in t-shirts and starting to sober up a little. Then the sound of Angus hit the sky and AC/DC were on, 'Guns For Hire' off the latest album 'Flick Of The Switch'. Great opener, and we'd already forgotten all about Van Halen. This was the only show the band were playing in the UK this year and also the UK premiere for the new drummer Simon Wright. He did well, although I felt that something wasn't quite right with his drumming on 'Let There Be Rock'. AC/DC have a 'get out of jail free' card when it comes to festivals, they're always good, even when they're 'average' and this year there was the added attraction of the cannons at the climax of the show. Great stuff, with the fireworks this year going off while the band were still playing...
This had been my most enjoyable Donington so far, and was really never matched, all that remained now was breakfast on the way home with Dame Vera.

Ashley Haynes

Motley Crue being daft as brushes backstage after their successful set at Donington 1984 .

Recordings and setlists.

Motley Crues bassist Nicki Sixx smashed his instrument and then threw it into the crowd at the end of the set. Apparently a crowd member was injured - oh dear ...

Thus even though the band went down well they did not come back for an encore and got boo'd for their pains.

Eddie Van Helen entertains the troops ( from Old Grey Whistle Test Donington footage )

AC/DC Guns For Hire Shoot To Thrill Sin City Back In Black Bad Boy Boogie Rock 'N Roll Ain't Noise Pollution Flick Of The Switch Hells Bells The Jack Have A Drink On Me Highway To Hell Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Whole Lotta Rosie Let There Be Rock T.N.T. For Those About To Rock Pro shoot of the set exists - not to be confused with the more famous 1991 release.

Crowd shots 1984

AC/DC	Fireworks display at the end of the show .