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information on today's festivals see eFestivals.co.uk
The Archive.
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For
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Updated September 2006. Best viewed at over 800x600 screen resolution
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Reading August 1977. |
The 1977 Reading Festival.
This was a true "sea of mud " festival as it rained spectacularly for several weeks beforehand . As a consequence the arena was a mudbowl with a veritable lake near the front of the stage. The enevitable coterie of 'mudpeople' had a ball, the rest just suffered and deadened their discomfort by indulging to excess with whatever stimulants were available.
Right: The Mudbowl at Reading 1977, photo © Mike Slocombe urban75 ezine visit their site to see more photos of Reading 77 |
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This was also the year that the festival finally 'came out ' and removed the Jazz and Blues elements from its title. In reality , the jazz was a relic from the past and had not featured (apart from one off' acts like George Melly ) for a number of years. Although blues rock was certainly still a regular feature , blues bands as such were pretty much also a thing of the past. The change of name finally made the break from the festivals roots in the 60s and recognised that most of this type of music was no longer in vogue. The new name also appealed more to the current youth audience and in case, by this date the term "rock" encompassed a very wide variety of musical forms ( although increasingly, hard rock, in the form of Metal and Punk, was to dominate Reading as the decade played itself out ).
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Punk reared its naughty little head in the form of The Electric Chairs, who were pelted with mud and cans by those elements of the audience who did not yet appreciate the raw 'garage band' sound . Although at this stage the audience was largely composed of pissed up longhairs wearing ex army greatcoats (and who wouldn't given the weather ) ,this was a precursor of big changes that would dominate the festival within the next few years. Like pure Blues and Jazz , Prog as a major feature of the festival was on the way out .......
1977 Festival Lineup
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Playing in the mud © Baz Harrison |
There are some weird mixes of music in this lineup .One would have thought that if anyone was going to get bottled it would have been the extraordinarily middle of the road Little River Band (I know I would have been tempted to hurl a few objects at them ). However,there were also some prime examples of great UK bands appearing .Thin Lizzy , Graham Parker , Hawkwind and Alex Harvey were guaranteed to deliver the goods in a festival setting .The US bands were also mostly good festival fooder , but there were also a lot of "also rans" on the bill as well who have now disappeared ingloriously into the mists of rocktime.
Recollections .
The music may have changed but the busts remained the same . |
A year after Knebworth 76, it was off to Reading. The atmosphere was entirely different. This was the summer of Punk. The whole old wave "hippy rock" era now seemed so naff to those who embraced The Pistols, Clash and Buzzcocks. The crowd were predominately hairy however. Very few punks present, which is normal. Rock and Roll belongs in a small sweaty club, not a muddy field. What was I doing there ? Well, I still had a soft spot for good old Phil Lynott and it was a good excuse to feel rebellious in drainpipes amongst so many flares. |
The early sets were unimpressive. The Enid for example. Ultravox (with John Foxx, not Midge Ure) were superb however. Not really a punk band, more in line with Roxy Music I thought. Little River Band were very slick and really warmed things up. Their singer looked like William Shatner !
Graham Parker
was just great. Such a gutsy and professional soul show. John Miles was in control
also but seemed a little too "pop" for a rock festival. Thin Lizzy
didn't disappoint, delivering an exciting set, with Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson
trading some great solos. Everybody's mate, Phil Lynott was full of charisma,
a real star. I remember him aiming a reflected spotlight off his mirrored scratch
plate into the crowd. Oops, I forgot, I was a punk fan back then. It certainly
wasn't cool to like Thin Lizzy in 1977. They were great though.
Keep On Groovin'
James Hawthorn
Ian Ellis has provided us with a running order for Fridayand Saturday as well as a few recollections of happenings onstage .
I kept a diary then and religiously noted all the performers we saw, so this is, according to my mud spattered diary, an accurate running order for:
Saturday
27th August 1977
Sunday 28th August 1977
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Five Hand Reel at Reading 1977 Photo©Baz Harrison
Thin Lizzy Reading 1977 Photo©Baz Harrison |
George Hatcher Band reading 77 Photo©Baz Harrison |
Setting up the stage at Reading 1977 |
I still have some great memories from both '75 & '77 though. I recall poor
old Woody Woodmansey apologising to the crowd as he ended U Boat's set with
'Suffragette City' (from his time with Bowie) as Staa Marx had already played
it as their final number less than an hour and a half or so before!
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We have lost the details of who sent us these nice photos from Reading 77, if the photographer is out there, can you please contact us so we can acknowledge you ?
Thin Lizzy sound checked early Friday morning and a few of us had got into the arena, although they only did about three or four numbers hearing them perform 'Peaches' by The Stranglers was quite a surprise. Lynott said at the end of it something to the effect of: "We play it better than they do..." and of course, they did! Although having said that I found their set disappointing on the Saturday evening, from the moment the flares went off at the beginning of 'Jailbreak' about four seconds too late they never seemed to recover. I'd seen them in an underground garage at Essex Uni in Colchester the previous year and they had been brilliant. I caught up with them again the following year (78) at the Kursaal in Southend and they were equally as mesmerising as they had been in Colchester, so perhaps Reading was just 'one of those shows...' or, perhaps, they always played particularly well in the good county of Essex? Who knows? |
The rear of the arena- Reading 1977
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All
The Best
Ian Ellis
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Ediie and the Hot Rods © Baz Harrison |
Don't know how I found myself going to Reading as I was a confirmed free festival goer and only the likes of Windsor and Stonehenge were important to me .That would have been compromised if The Who ever played though.Anyway I didn't mind the mud and I didnt even mind the rain and I have to say that I saw an absolute belter of a set from Golden Earring who were the Dutch Who.I even got nostalgic with Uriah Heep who were the first band I ever saw . No, what really really got up my nose was that this was the first ever festival were I actually felt I was being ripped off.I mean I know now its almost a competition to see how much dosh you can screw out of the poor old punter and certainly the likes of Jagger and co now have it off to a fine tee,but then you could still see a fine festival line up for the price of a few beers eg Charlton 74 ,the early knebworths the Isle of Wight and many others.I hated it .I sat on the metal barrier around the mixing desk for most of Friday night and it really did seem to me that people were playing at Woodstock "Oh c'mon man lets slide in the mud" This was also the festival that introduced chucking bottles of piss developed to a fine art the following year when punk put in appearence.
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The next day ,I awoke ,packed up my bag and walked up to the prettiest freak buying a ticket and gave her my rip off weekend ticket The irony of it was that the festival was rabidly policed ,OK not as bad as Windsor or Seasalter etc but bad enough and as I waited on the station at Reading waiting to go home I got busted ,strip searched ,the fucking works and that never happened to me in the years I went to free festivals.Needless to say I left Reading never to return ,sorry.
Trogstrew
Great memories guys and girls. I remember the mudbath in ’77, and the PA kept cutting in and out due to the wet conditions. John Peel (he was always the compere/DJ at festivals) got increasingly desperate as the wet and increasingly muddy punters became restless and started booing. Then (as recalled in his splendid posthumous autobiography Margrave of the Marshes, well worth a read) he famously tried to distract the audience by encouraging them to chant ‘John Peel’s a C***’ repeatedly. This largely did the trick, and became a festival favourite ‘thing to do’ in boring bits between bands and when it rained at future festivals. We all also sang along to Ivor Biggun’s notorious ‘I’m a W*nker’ which Peel played many times that year. Eddie and the Hot Rods were great, and Thin Lizzy of course despite my becoming mostly influenced by punk by then. The Doobies were also an unexpected pleasure with their superb musicianship.
Andrew Hartley
1977 festival pages and links.
The early festivals.
You can find out the complete
line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below ,as well as new
information recently received in 2004 .
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Festivals 65-83
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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