The last Reading Rock held at the Richfield Avenue site. The local council decided that it would be a good idea to redevelop the site and unceremoniously kicked the rock festival bods off without providing a new venue- spoilsports !.

  This last festival ( for the moment) featured one of the potentially better lineups of the 80s , certainly the lineup was more varied than it had been for years, with reggae from Steel Pulse, classy Hendrix styled psych blues from Stevie Ray Vaughan and a dose of new wave rock from the Stranglers.

   The old school was represented by Suzi Quatro , Black Sabbath, with Reading fave Ian Gillan in place of uncle Ozzy on vocals. Reading 83 was also notable for the last ever festival performance by Reading institution Thin Lizzy.

   Although this was by no means the classic and highly potent Lizzy of the mid to late 70s , the crowd were kind and gave Lynott , Moore and co a highly emotional sendoff, almost as if they knew this would be last time they would see the boys back in town...

  The weather was warm all weekend, but the welcome wasn't warm for Steel Pulse. They were bottled by a biker element in the audience and were forced to retire early into their set ... not the first time this had happened to a reggae act at Reading , this had occurred back in the mid seventies when the Mighty Diamonds and Uroy were bottled and subject to racist taunts by a section of the audience in 1976 .

  Saturday night was notable for the inclusion of Black Sabbath's monolithic Stonehenge set, the band dwarfed by 45 ft high henge slabs which took up much of the stage - apparently this was the inspiration for Spinal Tap's ludicrous stage set . However, Hawkwind had done something similar( but on a smaller scale , the Sab's set filled three semis) in the 70s with their "Atomhenge " backdrop.

• Auto da fé
• Pendragon
• Solstice (1)
• Pallas (1) L
• Hanoi Rocks
• Man (1) L
• Steel Pulse R
• Big Country (1) L
• The Stranglers (1) R

Steel Pulse were bottled off after one and a bit songs)

() indicates number of encores

L Is left stage , R is right

• Crazy Angel
• Fortune
• Lee Aaron
• Heavy Pettin'
• Mama's Boys (1)
• Magnum (1)
• Anvil (1) R
• Suzi Quatro (1) L
• Stevie Ray Vaughan with Double Trouble (1) R
• Marillion (1) L
• Black Sabbath (1) R
  

We had a 2 man tent of which the guy ropes were detached periodically by folk who stumbled over them. However, the most annoying thing was a bloke who was obviously on commission selling the official Reading Rock newspaper and who peddled his wares at the top of his voice all day and too damn early on a Sunday morning!

He got a good bawling at, but I now regret not hanging onto the paper. I have just managed to source one and will send scans, if you wish them. This is the one with Ian Gillan on the front (right ) and came with a free badge (sadly mine is long lost)

The official t-shirts were really quite duff but one of the best unofficial ones was one that named all the bands on it, in their own logos in full colour. Having all that properly printed on a black t-shirt made for a really good effect. Sadly I no longer have that t-shirt but I am sure anyone at the festival will remember it as it was a superb t-shirt.

I no longer have my original ticket. It was perforated into three parts, one for each day, but started to get a bit thread-borne after a while of showing it to get in & out the arena. So you could trade it in for a blue plastic wrist band and that way you could gain easy access in and out. However, folk got wise to this and cut them off wrists in the middle of the night (and day!) Therefore, the security staff tested your band to see that it was not broken. Luckily, mine was not tampered with, but it was a scary moment, After all, £15.95 was a lot to pay if it got nicked.

No glass bottles or cans were allowed in the arena, so a local drinks shop did a roaring trade in 1 gallon plastic containers where the two of us got our favourite brew (mine was McEwen’s Export and Roger’s was Scrumpy Jack cider) and decanted it out of the cans into the container. As it turned out, the heat & sunlight did not make it last long (deduce from that what you will!). However, the other popular container was the 2 litre (was it litres in those days?) plastic bottles of cider & beer, and these were the main missiles of choice for the crowd to chuck at the bands !

If I remember rightly, a local band played a free gig in the Duke pub (I think) and did cover versions, most memorably of Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf. It whiled away the Thursday evening while we waited for Friday to come!

A review in Sounds magazine later did state (very rightly) that Marillion were brilliant (playing 'Assassing' for the first time) and that Black Sabbath were rubbish. Sorry, but they were! You are right about the Friday Rock Show playing Marillion’s set too.

As the pictures reveal, it was indeed a two stages arena and me & my pal spent most of our time on at the right hand stage because the better acts were there. I do not think I have any photos of the time. Even if I did, they would have been 110 film size, without a zoom lens, so not great quality.

I do believe that one band did not turn up (if I had my t-shirt I would know) and there were a late substitute (not sure who) but my t-shirt did name all the bands correctly.

View of the stage from the campsite . Reading rock 1983 © Phil Teague

Auto da fé – a good new band at the time. Nice set, to start things off.

Pendragon – my memory of them is hazy but I recall them to be similar to Marillion (a favourite at the time). Therefore, I thought they were okay.

Solstice – Ah, nice hippy band. A memorable quote was 'let’s make this the most peaceful festival ever'. I am not sure if that comment triggered the bottling sessions! Note : first band to do an encore.
Pallas - Superb set from Euan Lowson et al. A truly great band. If I remember rightly, they set off a flare during their set (deliberately). I just have a vision in my head of this. Maybe I do have photos some where …

Steel Pulse – infamously bottled off. I think they played one song, then stopped about half way through song two, stormed off and never returned. I think they warned the audience once, and when that was not heeded, disappeared. In my opinion, no great loss!

Big Country - Now, this is more like it. No huffs here. Stuart Adamson, also stopped mid-song and warned the audience (oi, you tubes, quit flinging bottles!) as it was getting quite out of hand. They carried on to the end though, and I think actually helped calm the bottle throwing down, because it was hard to dance to the music and chuck bottles! A really good set by a great band.

Crazy Angel – my memory of them is hazy too. Sorry.
Fortune – my memory of them is hazy too. Sorry.

Lee Aaron – Now Lee Aaron always puts on a good show and was a good looker so was always nice to watch.
Heavy Pettin’ – these guys were okay and I was to encounter them as support acts for Kiss and for Ozzy Osbourne later that year.

Mama’s Boys – These guys were great. There are three brothers and really rock. Not only that, they were one of the few acts that supplemented their guitar playing with violin. Class stuff and justifiably got 10 out of 10 from me!
Magnum – my memory of them is hazy too. Sorry.
Anvil – most notable for playing the guitar with his teeth and shouting into the pickups. Nice effects, and a good show.

Suzi Quatro – it was only when I revisited my memories of this, that I remember she was on. Okay, not that memorable then!
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – This sort of washed over me, sorry. I was busy waiting for Marillion.

Marillion – While not yet at their peak, they had just recorded the Fugazi album, and so let rip with 'Assassing' for the first time. A truly magnificent set, not least because they started off with the full 15 minutes of Grendal. My pal was in raptures about this - justifiably so. Sadly, only one encore but more later …

Sunday - 12 noon start

Opposition – The only band I missed.
Twelfth Night – Now I think they were not that bad

One The Juggler – interesting choice for a Rock festival. Enough said.
Sad Café - This band were the surprise hit of the festival. They put in a great set and (although the lead singer had got huge since we last saw them on telly) were full of energy and superb voice. A very good set indeed.

The Enid – Old favourites and did not disappoint.
Climax Blues Band – Not really my cup of tea.

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Another act that I did not remember playing. But they must have!
Ten Years After – Notably the only act to get hauled back for two encores. If there had been a roof, it would have been brought down. A really great act.

Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul – bit dull, sorry - not really my scene. Never mind.

Thin Lizzy – The pyrotechnics let them down, all going off in one go and that was that. Still a good set and I am happy to say that I have seen them live.

Duncan Watson

Pallas 8-26-83

we are looking for cover art and setlist for this set , can you help?

Man 8-26-83

• Spunk Rock
• C'Mon
• Talk About A Morning
• The Ride And The View
• Asylum
• Remain
• Bananas

The Stranglers 8-26-83

Introduction
Nuclear Device
Toiler On The Sea
Ships That Pass In The Night
No More Heroes
Golden Brown
Midnight summer dream
European female
Thrown Away
The Raven
Duchess
London Lady
Down In The Sewer

FM

Lee Aaron 8-27-83

Nightriders
Lady of the darkest night
Metal Queen
Under your spell
I like my Rock hard
Deciever (Different Lyrics)
Shake it up
Hold out
Head above water
We will be Rockin´

Looking for confirmation of whether this is an audience or FM source.