The Archive.

Updated June 2009

Richfield Avenue.  Reading  August 25-27th 1978.

1978 Reading Rock Festival.

If you can help with more info please Contact us

View From The Mud

Headliners were The Jam ( who moaned about the sound system throughout -ultimately with Weller declaring that '..someone had stitched them up'!!!) - Status Quo ( we went and made a campfire!!) and Patti Smith (brilliant!)
a strange mix, other acts included Sham 69 - with a bizarre Steve Hillage taking the stage with them.
John Otway was as eccentric as ever !

          David Birch

I remember Spirit were amazing and Status Quo were pants.
I remember enjoying Foreigner ( what a guilty pleasure that seems now ) and I remember Patti Smith being just amazing.

My first festival it was.
Slept in a mark 3 Cortina for 3 days.  Can't imagine it now.
Thanks for the memories.
 
         Steve Davies

Hi there,
Nice to see so many memories of these festivals - keep up the good work! Just to add to them: I was at Reading 1978, and Slade definitely weren't. Patti Smith was the headline on the Sunday night - a surprisingly good, tight, set. I adored Spirit at the time, and was delighted to see them live. I remember a chap next to me calling out for 'Looking Down', which I thought was pretty hard-core of him as it wasn't released until their live
album appeared later that year. I missed the Friday (and didn't see any evidence of violence), but I thought the Saturday & Sunday were a very good way to see a lot of bands quickly (it was my first festival, y'know).
Cheers,
       Jeremy Walton

Hi             Just to answer a point on your website Jimmy Pursey broke down in tears during his performance out of sheer frustration at certain sections of the crowd. He brought Steve Hillage on during the Kids are United to try and unify the Punk/Old Guard audiences. (this was the first time reading had embraced punk)             There was a group of skins who didn’t take much to this and were attacking any long-hairs down at the front. I know , as I was one of them – the longhair not the skin! It deeply upset Jimmy to have to watch this going on and be helpless to stop it.    Hope that helps. Pete NB: a number of people dispute Slade as appearing at the 78 festival, we will leave this here until a press account can confirm that they were NOT there .

Lindisfarne and Spirit onstage at Reading 1978 photos © Stuart Alexander

Hi
As I remember it Jimmy Pursey shouted out ‘ let’s see some action’, that’s when all the skinheads jumped onto the stage and kicked shit out of everything and Jimmy started to cry.
By the way there were lots of skins on the first day getting pissed on scrumpy, throwing up and laying on the ground, several people gave them a friendly boot for being twats. I remember one guy getting beat up by about six skinheads earlier in the day, then getting a motorbike chain and wading into a group of skins later.
It was warm because me and my mate Phil slept in our sleeping bags outside under the stars.
Patti Smith was fantastic as were the Jam, Bethnal, John Ottway and Chelsea. Saturday nights bands were shit.
Very big thanks to ‘Sally Army’ for soup tent as we spent all our money on booze, (as any self respecting 17 year old would).

Gary Rogers

Pursey was totally hacked off with the aggro and it must have been overwhelming performing in front of around 15,000 people on the Friday.
 
It was my first proper gig, me and a mate camping, aged fifteen, miles away from parental control.  It was magical, I had already fallen in love with Sham 69 and found it amazing that Jimmy Pursey would spend most of the day hanging around with us idiots.  He was, and remains, a really genuine bloke, always accessible.

Reading '78 was one of the best experiences in my life, mainly because of the great performance of Sham 69 a brilliant live band who always gave 100%
 
Peter Stitt

Great site - great memories!

I was at Reading in '78 and '79 and remember it as a great festival with a mix of top-name performers as well as up-and-coming and, frankly, unknown acts. It also offered a good mix of musical genres which was not always the case in later years.

The Jam were disappointing for reasons well recorded elsewhere.

       Of the other acts on Friday, the Pirates were brilliant. How a simple rock'n'roll band can get a cynical festival crowd jumping on the first afternoon I don't know - but they managed it. And I remember the following year some time in the afternoon they played a short clip of their '78 performance on the video screen - and even that got a tremendous crowd reaction!

      I'm sorry, but Patti Smith was awful. The music wasn't too bad if you like power ballads, but my God, didn't she go on? What was that about a long tarmac road stretching off into the distance? We listened to her whine for a while then started building human pyramids. Actually attracted a small but amused audience of similarly unimpressed festival-goers.

     On the Sunday TRB got people singing "Glad to be Gay" - and this was 1978, remember. John Otway was special; when his microphone packed up (he was halfway up the scaffolding at the time) he simply cupped his hands and shouted... I always liked Squeeze as a band, good musicians playing pop-rock and with ladies taking their clothes off. Does it for me every time.

Paul Inder replies

Hi,
I just wanted to clear something up here - the poster Noel Churchill claimson your Reading Festival '78 webpage that I was in my early teens. I was not- I had turned 11 in May of that year. I was just a kid, not a teen, and my getting a slot on the festival had absolutely nothing to do with my Dad
Lemmy.

I don't quite remember exactly how I got the gig, but I think it was throug the (late) photographer Ron Reid, who took a lot of photographs of me atthat time, he knew some of the festival's organizers. My Mother also had something to do with it, I must ask her...

BTW, I recall someone threw a can at me from the audience, and within seconds whoever it was got showered in so many cans it was unbelievable...! His one can missed but it didn't seem like any of the ones that were lobbed at him did! Ahh...
I also met and subsequently developed a long standing friendship with Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) backstage in 1977 Phil was a lovely guy and Lizzy were riveting to watch. I remember being in the scaffolding of the stage when they were on. I wish I had had a video camera, it would be priceless footage now.
Warmest wishes,

Paul Inder

You asked for reminiscences of Reading '78. Here are mine. It was my first festival, and because I was a student at Reading at the time, I walked over from my digs at the other side of town to the festival site every day. Because I'm a bit obsessive like that, I wrote down all the bands and running-order at the time, and luckily I still have a copy. They were:

Friday - Dennis O'Brien; The Automatics; New Hearts; Radio Stars; Penetration; Sham 69; The Pirates; Ultravox; The Jam

Saturday - Speed-O-Metors; The Business; Jenny Darren; Next; Gruppo Sportivo; Nutz; Greg Kihn Band; Lindisfarne; Spirit; The Motors; Status Quo

Sunday - After The Fire; Chelsea; Pacific Eardrum; Bethnal; Squeeze; John Otway; The Albion Band; Paul Inder; Ian Gillan Band; Tom Robinson Band; Foreigner; Patti Smith Group.

The two faces of Reading 78, left: Sham 69 crowd , right: Paddy Mulvenna and friends For every punk /skin at Reading there were probably three or more longhairs .

I'm absolutely sure Slade didn't play that year.

What do I remember? Dennis O'Brien, who'd won some sort of competition in Australia (I think) with an appearance at Reading as the prize, getting canned off. His band all wore matching t-shirts with a tacky scorpion logo, so I suppose he was asking for it from the punks. He went off virtually in tears.

The guitarist with New Hearts trying to head away a beer can. It turned out to be full, and he had to be helped off stage for a while with a cut head.
The Sham riot, well covered by everyone else.
The Pirates went down well with the skins, but Ultravox didn't. John Foxx played "dodge the beercan" all set, including what looked like a full Party Seven.

Saturday was a bit of an anti-climax after Friday. Friday was the punk day, Sunday was a bizarre mixture but Saturday was definitely a throw-back to earlier years. I got bored during Status Quo's set and went home.
Speed-O-Metors saying that three great bands had come out of Shepherd's Bush: The Who, The Pistols and them. Well, two out of three isn't bad.

I really enjoyed Bethnal, who were punks with a violin and who did a good version of "Baba O'Reilly". Subsequently they vanished without trace. The Albion Band went down well, in spite of not being like anyone else on the bill, and did a superb song called the Gresford Disaster (although I've always had a soft spot for mining disaster songs).

I enjoyed Tom Robinson and Patti Smith (who had flyers with slogan "Outta Traction - Back In Action" and the lyrics to Ghost Dance handed out), was disappointed that John Otway didn't perform with Wild Willie Barratt and found both Ian Gillan and Foreigner ineffably tedious. But I thought I was a punk at the time, so this was compulsory.
Now, where did I put my band list from Knebworth the same summer?
All the best
Paul Steeples

---

1978 I remember as very hot – I bought a bootleg sex Pistols album which I still have. Friday night was brilliant with the Sham 69 fiasco (well documented on the site, I was busily trying to avoid the skinheads near the front) followed by The Pirates (really top class, whatever happened to them?) and The Jam. Weller did get frustrated but the set was right on it – the second album got panned, and then they came back with this set and All Mod Cons – they found themselves. Spirit were majestic on Saturday and then Patti Smith blew everyone away on Sunday. Stunning – one of the best gigs ever.

Andrew Hartley

---

Memories from an Aussie at Reading Rock festival in 1978 I attended just about every set at the Reading Rock festival in 1978. Drove there with a friend in my clunker of a blue Volkswagen camper van (the alternator had clagged out the night before so the battery wasn't charging. Not so good when you need the inside fluoro at night after the gig) I was usually about half way back from the front stage during the music, so got to see pretty much everyhting that was happening. Like many others, it was my first festival so I was pretty excited about it all. Can't remember the set where this occurred, but my over riding memory of the event was watching some band whilst pinned tight in the crushing crowd and suddenly feeling this trickle on the back of my jeans. Turned around to see some horrendously drunk punk with safety pins all through his face and a mohawk taking a piss on my left leg. My first thought was to turn around and confront him. (What the bloody hell ya doin' mate!) My second thought was to smile weakly when there turned out to be half a dozen of this similarly clad friends laughing with him. Didn't fancy getting smashed, so I went back to watching the band. Had to chuck the jeans away eventually. I can also concur with many others. I witnessed some awful violence. I stood by meakly whilst SIX drunk skins laid into some poor bugger on the ground. It was also the first time I had ever heard "I'm a wanker" by Ivor Biggun. They played it over the PA system during a break in proceedings and in my drunken stupor I remember leaning on both elbows and thinking "Hey that's a cool song!" Did I really drink those HUGE cans of lager? Yikes. Bloody awful stuff. As I saw every band on the bill over the three days, I can say without qualification. Slade did NOT appear at the 1978 Readng festival. I would certainly have remembered them as they were one of my favourite bands of the 70's and we played plenty of their songs in my own bands repertoire. And hey, I bought the t-shirt with every bands name on the back. I wore that t-shirt for years. Still had it until about 5 years ago. As to the bands themselves. Why does everyone slag off Status Quo? I loved them and still do. They did a great set. Spirit were excellent. I was way up front near the stage for that one. Another great set, they really blew the others away with their rofessionalism and approach. Patti Smith did some poetry reading intro to "Because the Night" and I particularly remember one or more of the band coming in at the wrong time and totally screwing up the atmosphere she had created. Took them a few seconds to all meet up again.

Paulas T shirt

The Jam were pretty good and was hoping to hear them do their new single " David Watts". It was a good version they did, but I can concur with others on here that the sound for their set wasn't that great. Still they played well enough and I was happy. Why I remember Gruppo Sportivo I'm not entirely sure, but they were quirky and humorous if not exactly my cup of tea. I never got to see Deep Purple in their original incarnation so I was happy to see Ian Gillan. Didn't care for Tom Robinson much (part from "2-4-6-8" I've never cared for his music) and The Motors were just like an average pub band, not great, not bad either. Didn't do much for me though.

Have little recollection of Nutz, The Business or Jenny Darren but I vaguely remember hearing a few good tunes from Speed-o-Metors. Lindisfarne did a fine set. Nice to hear an acoustic guitar and matched vocals anyway. Always loved "Meet me on the corner" and I wanted to hear that bass line played properly! Oh yeah, Foreigner. Not my fave band by any stretch but they weren't bad. Always thought the were posers (they were) but they could play well.

Sorry to say I've never been much of Sham fan and found them little more than youthful anger. (We're going down the pub?).Pulled out my old Sham tapes a few months ago and my original opinion of them was still valid. Enjoyed them on Radio 1 at the time but would never have paid to see them anywhere else. John Peel was geting just a wee bit pissed off at the trouble happening. Wish I'd had my camera with me too.
I had a great time but I'd got live festival fever out of my system after that August and I've never been to another one since.
Aussie Paula

---

had a backstage pass for Reading 78 as a guest of Liverpool rockers Nutz.

My main memory through the haze of alcohol on that long-ago sweltering summer's day is of a drunken groupie in the VIP beer tent giving a blowjob to a drummer (no names, no packdrill) while everyone looked on and applauded. Sooo decadent.

And of being wildly impressed by how uber cool Billy Idol looked with his streaked hair and red leather jacket.

And all the stretch limos parking up while rock stars I'd never heard of self-importantly clambered out and stood around looking bored.

I think Lizzy guitarist Scot Gorman turned up in the beer tent too, but it might well just have been someone who looked like him!

I thought Status Quo were ace, they just did what they do best and everyone seemed to have a good time while they did it.

Nutz were on form, but I seem to recall a shower of beer cans hitting the stage at some point?

Motors were rather dull, as were their small army of PR people who milled about backstage handing out merchandise to anyone who couldn't get out of the way quick enough.

Weird to see that hot air balloon (with, naturally,"The Motors" flags all over it) and raggedy stage again after all these years. I thought I'd forgotten all this.

Oh, I have.

Thanks for the memories, guys.

Redleader

---

Hi Guys
Great site by the way,
Re: Redleader's info about 'Nutz' at the Reading Festival 78' Correction: there were no beer cans thrown at the stage when Nutz were on - they stormed it and went down really well the cans were actually thrown at a band called 'Next' also from Liverpool.

Regards
Tobol

---

It was my first ever festival and many of your existing recollections sum up most of my experiences.
I was a punk (in musical taste) as well as still being an avid Quo fan so I was happy to see the Punk Friday as well at the traditional mainstream bands.

Regarding the Sham 69 anecdotes, I vividly recall a group of skins calmly walking into one of the beer tents [front right as you looked at the stage] and trampling down the wooden table that served as a counter and physically picking up the cash till. Don't forget this was pre electric tills etc, so it was just an old fashioned ring it up and put the money in the till. You then saw a group of 4 guys running with this till and the boys in blue looking like the Keystone Cops chasing them. If you had filmed it, the result would have been like one of those Benny Hill chase sequences. What was ridiculous was that instead of channelling down from the crowd and penning the skins against the fence & arresting them, the police removed a fence panel and chased the thieves out into the crowd. I don't know what ultimately happened, but all around me everyone was cheering the skins and "accidently on purpose" getting in the way of the boys in blue.

As for music my most vivid memory was of Bethnal's rendition of Baba O'Reilly - so much so I bought the album & still have it [33 rpm vinyl!]. I'd seen The Pirates at smaller venues and was amazed how they delivered on the big stage. I am one of the guys who found Patti Smith boring, especially after Foreigner.

Regarding keeping in booze once the money ran out on Sat afternoon [I was a student at the time], I made do by helping people open their wine bottles without a corskscrew & taking 1st swig as a payment. It's amazing how much wine you can glug when its free! I also recall being able to chat up the food stall owners and getting free food once the bands had stopped playing. The campsite was just a field, I can't recall showers or WC's but I guess there must have been some , at least WC's.
I didn't do another Reading until 2002 and I can honestly say I prefer the old style double main stage - there was more focus and spirit - but hey, I guess that just makes me an old git!
All the best

Tot Barling

---

Hello there,

my memory of the festival was when i was 15 yrs old and is pretty sketchy due to the fact that i spent most of it tripping my head off, i remember on the friday morning having hitch hiked from Cardiff, i'd just got dropped off at the reading junction of the M4 when i got arrested on sus and was taken to reading police station, (i had to give my DOB as 1959, so that my mother wasnt informed that i was so far away from home )i was then stripped naked and searched (cavity as well) i was then driven directly to the main enterance of the site and dropped off by the police, (the looks i got were pretty weird to say the least).

Anyway, i headed to the campsite set up my tent and then went on a walkabout, i met a girl selling acid so bought 2 trips off her and then got talking to one of the (Hells) Angels, who i think were doing the security that year, not long after i dropped the acid and continued on my tour.

It was the first year i'd ever seen punks and skins at a rock concert / festival, so imagine my surprise when just as my trip was reaching its peak, a drunken punk rocker with full mohican and safetypin piercings decided to jump on my back shouting lets ride the hippy, to which i respnded with a swift judo throw, and a kick to his head, then to my amusement his mate said, "I dont think he's a hippy" passed me a joint, shook my hand and went on there way.

Anyway, i enjoyed the rest of the festival, especially Lindisfarne, Status Quo, Gillan and Foreigner, and the continuous chants of "John Peels a Cunt" - from that day i was hooked on the festival lifestyle, and from then up until 1984, i made as many festivals as i could including Knebworth, Deeply vale, Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Ingleston common and the psilocybin fayre,

I think its a shame that everythings been commercialised these days and that todays festival goers have gone from being "new age gypsies" to mainly middle class people who can spend alot of money on a three day pass for glastonbury every year.

Marc Downey

---

Program of artistes ( in order of appearance . list courtesy Paul Steeples)

Prize for band "most likely to be in the wrong place at the wrong time "goes to the folk outfit the Albion Band , totally out of place amongst this lot, yet apparently they went down quite well. Which is nice to hear .....

Recordings and Setlists

Having been at the 1978 Reading Festival I can certainly add a bit to who performed what, as I taped two hours worth of Sunday, the 27th. Looking now at the tape, although these tracks were played in this order there are obviously some missing from each acts setlists. After recording most of Ivor Biggun's 'Winker's Song (Misprint)' blaring over the sound system to rural Berkshire, I caught the following: Squeeze - 'Take Me I'm Yours' Ian Gillan Band - Secret Of The Bells,' 'Getting Back In The Game,' 'Child In Time,' 'Dead Of Night,' 'Message In A Bottle,' 'Smoke On The Water' and 'Lucille.' Tom Robinson Band - 'Too Good To Be True,' 'Power In The Darkness' and 'Don't Take No For An Answer.' Patti Smith - 'Privilege (Set Me Free),' '?,' 'It's A Man's Man's World,' 'So You Wanna Be A Rock'n'Roll Star,' '?,' 'Because The Night,' 'Gloria' and 'My Generation.' (In the dark I didn't realise that the batteries were running out so, by the time I got to Foreigner, after 'Double Vision' the other two tracks start 'speeding up' to oblivion. Doh! Foreigner - 'Double Vision,' 'Cold As Ice,' 'Feels Like The First Time' and 'Hot Blooded' Dec H.

The early festivals.

You can find out the complete line ups of the first festivals if you follow the links below .
 

1961

1962

1963

1964

Festivals 65-83

Most of these have fairly complete documentation .But new contributions of any sort are always welcome regarding any of the festivals.

Richmond 1965	Windsor 1966	Windsor 1967	Sunbury 1968	Plumpton 1969
Plumpton 1970	Reading 1971	Reading 1972	Reading 1973	Reading 1974
Reading 1975.	Reading 1976	Reading 1977	Reading 1978	Reading 1979
Reading 1980	Reading 1981	Reading 1982	Reading 1983	Reading 1984/5
Reading 1986	Reading 1987	Reading 1988	Reading 1989	Reading 1990

Return to Archive

This site is non profit making , its a site for die-hard fans- and run as a source of information for those interested in Rock music of the past .We are completely against the sale of bootlegged artefacts , especially musical ones .We attempt to obtain permission to use articles and photos wherever possible, but on occasions , due to the age and obscure origin of some items , we have not been able to ascertain the owner of the copyright .It is also possible that occasionally we are sent material from sources that assert that they own the copyright of material, but their claims are spurious - If you see any material on the site that you believe you own the copyright of - please send us an e-mail with proof that you have ownership of the image and we will remove the offending item from the site immediately.
Contact us