The Archive.
Updated Dec 2011
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Reading August 27-29th 1976. |
The 1976 Reading Festival.
Reading Recollections:The View From The Mud
I was there and remember the African band Osibisa closing the show. They are not mentioned on the site. They were totally brilliant.
Show best remembered by the UK mag NME featuring as Eddie and the Hot Rods saving rock and roll - NME was gagging for a change and of course it was already happening, under their noses. The Sex Pistols were up and running by then!
For me the young Aussie band AC/DC stole the show but again I remember them earlier, maybe the Saturday. They certainly played in daylight. Camel used fireworks and closed the Saturday show, Rory G was on the other stage before them - your order is wrong.
For
me it was a very important Reading. Punk was already in the wind (hence NME's
comments) a sea of change was about to happen and that particular Reading had
a lot of what was going on in those days, why rock was going up its own arse
and dying - Camel! It had the mega boring creative - Van de Graf Generator and
801 (I was a huge Roxy Music fan so seeing them minus fart Ferry was good but
I thought they sucked a little) and all the crap in between. What was great
though was Osibisa - I guess they filled in for someone but they were more or
less the only black act then. The show was totally white, totally rock and roll
but for them. Oh, and did it rain!
Yours
Garry
Hi there-
you have omitted Osibisa who played on Saturday or Sunday night...........how odd! And a one man band on Sunday - Tom Jackson I think he was...... There was also the legendary john peel is a cunt chant started by the great man himself over some mistake or other...... Not to forget the awful Wally chant that continued at gigs for a while after.........good times tho'........ted nugent what a bore!I remember cries of 'get on with it'.... haha he was the hot act -
Paul
Wow, a rock festival. I just turned 16 and I have my own back pack and tent – a road warrior with no packed lunch. There was no drinking age in the 70’s right?... The spirit of Woodstock arriving late in Britain – it arrived intoxicated on Newcastle Browns, Watney’s Party Six’s and Woodpecker Cider.
I am wide-eyed staring at bra-less breasts in cheese-cloth tops. Bell bottom blue jeans have red Coca Cola patches sewn to them and cowboy boots with wooden heels rub all the hairs off your calves. "You’re ok with Us" was the deodorant advertising slogan and we all ignored it. There was no health movement and women were wider and somehow more naked - "tightly undone" as The Who had it.
The only good thing about being a teen is that you get to do things for the first time. People live on double-decker busses. Its Cliff and the Shadows summer holiday, but they are all on acid. Every woman looks like Stevie Nicks and this is a good thing. I am part of something. Underground comics and fanzines. John Peel’s a c*nt. Underground is cool. Wally! – shout it loud – we had no idea why. I still don’t.
As we listen to the afternoon shows a beautiful Stevie-Nicks stranger walks out of the crowd towards me. She is maybe 18 – she smiles and French-kisses me for what seemed like 5 years then walks away saying only "I love you" as she leaves. My friends ask me “who was that”? I have arrived.
John Connell
Brooklyn NY
1976 festival pages
The early festivals.
You can find out the complete line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below .
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Festivals 1965-1990
Most of these have fairly complete documentation .But new contributions of any sort are always welcome regarding any of the festivals.
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