The Archive.
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Created December 2008.
Updated December 2011- new photos
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August 28-30th 1987. |
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The overall 87 lineup was probably a cut above the program in 1986, although there were some funny combos, a weird mix of post punk, rock, pop and goth on the Friday night, just who would that appeal to ?. Once again the organisers could not seem to decide just who their audience was, one could call it eclectic, but we reckon it was just more likely to cause bottling incidents as audiences in the late 80s were far less tolerant of music that did not fit their preconceived idea of what "good" meant. You could get away with this to some extent in the 60s and 70s , but polarization had set in by this time and it must have been a bit daunting to take to the stage at Reading if one wasn't a band that fitted a particular festival mould.... Once again the promoters had managed to trawl in a decent trio of headliners on all the nights. They were playing it safer on the weekend itself by bringing back a few old favourites- Dumpys Rusty Nuts, a bit of eye candy in the form of Lee Aaron and perennial prog rock weirdos the Enid, who seemed to be able to tame the Reading hordes by dint of their sheer eccentricity . A few other bands returned after success on previous years- The Stranglers were making their second appearance as were the exotically named Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction- certain members of which managed to get into a bottle fight with a portion of the audience, but who still delivered their entire set without sustaining too much damage. Semi legendary Japanese rockers Vow Wow made their second Reading appearance , under a new name (they used to be known as Bow Wow ) and joined by former Whitesnake bassist Neil Murray . They were pursued by a posse of cameramen who seem to have made some sort of doco on the band . To date this and a single camera shoot of MGM onstage seems to be the only film record of the 87 festival in circulation. ULtra silliness was represented in the form of spoof Metal Band Bad News, who featured three of the Young Ones cast and who were on this occasion joined onstage by Queen guitarist Brian May . Theatricality , and dare I say it , a bit of silliness to boot ,was provided by Sunday headliner Alice Cooper, who brought his usual glam shock rock paraphernalia , including robots, guillotines , as well as a plethora of costumes which livened up the last part of the weekend for the assembled fans .
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Friday 28th Aug. In order of appearance on the bill |
Sat 29th Aug In order of appearance on the bill |
Sunday 30th Aug In order of appearance on the bill |
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* Although billed . Mammoth did not appear , replaced by Shy , thanks to Chris Lee for the info !
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Hi
I
was at Reading 1987 as a photographer and I am at the moment scanning my pictures
for an exhibition.
There are some bands that played that don't appear on any running order lists.
The ones I have found so far are:
New Model Army
Chiefs of Relief with Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols on drums
Lords of the New Church,
Graham
Parker
All the best
Martin Mitchell
NB : Acts are listed in order of appearance as far as we can ascertain. There also MUST have been some changes in the eventual line-up, can anyone supply details ?
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Weather conditions seem to have been good in 87 - at least on the Sunday when the screen grabs from Vow Wows set were taken |
Recollections
courtesy Phil |
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I
saw Bad News play live at the Reading Festival. They were very impressive,
the whole audience loved them. They
gave them all their bottled drinks. I
seem to recall a certain royally curly chap guesting too.There were some
truly impressive bands on that day, Terraplane (predecessor to Thunder),
Alaska (Post Whitesnake Bernie Marsden), Magnum and Status Quo. Magnum
were the best by a good margin, but Terraplane won the crowd, by catching
and drinking the incoming bottles - though they didn't contain much beer... |
Alice and metal friend © Greg Gregori |
The first Reading Festival I went to was the one in 1987 - with Alice Cooper headlining on the Sunday. Back then you could buy a day ticket on the door which suited us fine as we were only interested in seeing Alice. I was 18 and had only recently passed my driving test. Not being festival regulars we didn't think about bringing a tent and ended up sleeping in the car which we parked outside someone's house. On the Sunday we woke early and set off to find a chemist where we could buy some mascara and eye liner to put on our 'Alice' faces.We drank throughout the day enduring clumps of turf and bottles of pee raining down from the back of the festival field. At one point there was a huge food/bottle/turf fight between a group of Punks and Rock fans. Well witty.Several beers later I remember watching the Stranglers and thinking - just get offff the stage. It was finally Alice's turn and as he took to the stage there was an almighty surge forwards from the crowd and I was swept along from side to side sometimes moving as much as 40 feet closer to the stage and back again in the space of one song. There were no namby pamby cups of water and lifts out of the crowd for the girlies squashed down the front - it was very much a 'you chose to be down the front now deal with it' attitude - and rightfully so. It's the same with festival toilets - why do we have to have portaloos? what's wrong with a pit and a row of toilet seats suspended above it ? That's what festivals should be about. Alice's performance was up to scratch and included all the theatrics from his Nightmare Returns tour - Guillotine, Robot and exploding crutch (I said crutch).When the gig was over I waited outside for my friends as arranged. They all showed up apart from one - who we eventually found in the first aid tent. He'd drunk so much alcohol that he'd fallen asleep and had sunstroke. This was particularly worrying as he was our 'designated driver' and the only one insured to drive the hire car .... Richard Hogg |
Reading 1987 - My first proper festival. Losing my mate who I'd travelled down from Scotland with in the crush to see "The Mish"... then realising, halfway through their set, that I was standing next to a guy I knew from back home. Not bad in a crowd of 30,000. Status Quo being surprisingly good... also The Fall on the same day... strange bill. Pompous prat of a lead singer from American Metal act "Lizzy Borden" being hit square in the face with a bottle of piss and storming off in the huff.
courtesy Steve Peach |
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| Hi, My first ever gig!! I remember that the Babysitters are probably still the worst band I have ever seen! Spear of Destiny did not play because Kirk Brandon had broken his arm. I can still see the announcement chalked onto a board at the entrance. I don't don't remember seeing the Mission; I just heard them through an enormous amount of dry ice! I bought albums by the Nephilim, the Mission, the Icicle Works, and Zodiac Mindwarp on the strength of this festival and I wasn't even a goth! I saw Lee Aaron at the Marquee (Hot to be Rocked indeed), The Georgia Satellites at the T&C in Kentish Town (remember Fly Post?), Alice at the Marquee (wow!), the Stranglers several times, and the Quireboys countless times. My Mum was quite distressed by my "I saw Bad News F**k Up at the Reading Festival" T-shirt. I still have a tape of the Georgia Satellites set recorded from radio 1. They were fantastic. A gallon of cider please and let's see who we see. Good times! Steve |
courtesy Steve Peach |
Magnum onstage Reading 1987 © Dave Hall |
Love the site, lots of great memories! Thought I might share some recollections of Reading '87 with you, please cut and edit my ramblings as you see fit!
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A friend and myself, both fresh faced 17 year olds, caught a coach trip from Manchester and we arrived at the festival early on Friday afternoon. After swapping our tickets for wristbands (see attached scan), we went to find a camping spot - bit of a problem, my mate had forgotten to bring the tent! Never mind, the weather was great and we eventually found plenty of people we knew with room to spare in their tents. We spent the rest of the day boozing and taking it in turns to scavenge for combustibles so we could have a nice campfire, we had a lovely big pile of logs, branches, twigs and handfuls of dry grass and I set about building a big blaze. At this point two blokes strolled up and cheerily asked "Do you need any grass lads?". Now please understand, I had spent the previous few hours drunkenly focused on preparing our campfire, and so I replied "No thanks mate, we've got plenty", thinking to myself "Can't they see this huge pile of dry grass I have here - blind idiots!" |
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were a hundred yards down the campsite before I realized, by which time
my mate had nearly wet himself with amusement! Saturday was a different story, lots of great stuff. M.G.M were pretty good, I seem to remember that Mel Galley still had the metal "claw" on his hand as a result of the accident that ended his time in Whitesnake. Lee Aaron was much better than we expected, although it was a bit dangerous down at the front of the stage because about ten huge bikers were having a dwarf throwing competition. The little fella was obviously one of the gang, wearing cut-down leathers, and he seemed to be enjoying himself as he flew though the air ! When Miss Aaron threw her damp towel into the crowd it landed right in the middle of the hairy bikers, it was like throwing a piece of raw meat to a pack of starving grizzly bears! My mate caused serious disruption during Lee's set when he spotted Bruce Dickinson standing at the side of the stage and pointed him out to me. Everyone standing around us heard him, and within 30 seconds the whole crowd was chanting "Maiden!, Maiden!". Lee looked a bit put out and poor old Bruce had to make a hasty retreat from sight. |
Magnum yet again © Dave Hall |
The Georgia Satellites were fantastic, guitarist Rick Richards ("the pride of Pickins County, Georgia!") was amazing and they really had the crowd rocking and singing along to "Battleship Chains" and "Keep Your Hands To Yourself ". Great band, shame they broke up.
All together now, "F**k off Bad News! F**k off Bad News !" When Bad News had played at Donington the year before, a lot of folk were rightly annoyed that a "joke" band had taken the place of a "proper" band. At Reading, as part of a much larger three day lineup, they seemed far more acceptable. Well, what I mean to say is that they were still rubbish, but no-one seemed too upset about it ! The sheer volume of crap that was launched at the stage when they came on had to be seen to be believed. Their act was pretty dire - "Look, Rik errr I mean Colin hasn't really got long hair, it's a wig and I'm going to pull it off !". Ho hum. Brian May popped up to play on "Bo Rap", no doubt thinking what a jolly jape it all was, when in fact a lot of people thought it was a desecration - particularly my mate who was a huge Queen fan.
Next on were Magnum, the main attraction for me. From 1985 through to 1988 Magnum produced most of their very best music and performed some of their best live shows. They had widened their fanbase with high profile appearances at Donington in '85, Milton Keynes (at Marillion's Garden Party) in '86 and now at Reading in '87. They had promised to play a couple of new songs, and we were treated to first airings of "Don't Wake The Lion" and "Days Of No Trust", both of which would appear on the "Wings Of Heaven" album released the following year. They played a great show, loved every second of it. 1988 would turn out to be Magnum's "greatest" year, sold out tours, a #5 album, 3 top forty singles, appearances on Top Of The Pops and numerous other TV and radio shows, expensive promo videos and a sold out show at the NEC Arena in Birmingham - the big time at last ! Unfortunately it was mostly all downhill after that for Magnum, but I have happy memories of their Reading '87 performance when they were a band heading for the top.
MGM © Dave Hall |
Saturday's headliners were Status Quo, and our expectations were low. We had seen them support Queen at Knebworth the previous year, and they had been dire, every inch the cheesy rock/pop band. Well, what a shock ! Quo rocked at Reading, they were fantastic ! This must have been the sort of performance that they built their live reputation with in the seventies, I was just blown away by how good they were. "Marguerita Time" ? "The Wanderer" ? No chance, there was no room for cheesy nonsense in this show, just drivin' bluesy hard rock.
I must confess that a lot of Sunday is a bit hazy in my memory, the previous night we had met up with a load of friends and overindulged ourselves somewhat. Hey, you're only 17 once ! About 20 of us staggered into the arena on Sunday morning, threw ourselves to the ground near the back and promptly fell asleep. That was when I got my festival souvenir, a one-sided suntan!
I remember waking up for Vow Wow, not that I had much choice - God awful racket! I borrowed some binoculars to have a quick perv at Gypsy Queen, they looked better than they sounded unfortunately. Lizzy Borden didn't leave much of an impression, and as for The Enid - they may have been a Reading institution but I was just bemused, they were very strange !
I notice from the festival poster that FM played. I liked FM, I had their album and I had seen them support Magnum the previous year, they were really good. The thing is, I have no memory whatsoever of their performance at Reading. I don't remember hearing "That Girl" or "American Girls", did FM actually play or did they cancel? Perhaps I'd popped to the gents or something. Mind you, I don't remember The Bolshoi either !
Lee Aaron and Band © Dave Hall |
Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, everybody thought they were going to be the next big thing. They looked really dirty and grubby, and their guitarist was called Cobalt Stargazer! I remember them playing "Prime Mover", they were pretty good, shame it never really happened for them.
I do remember watching The Stranglers, but I wasn't a fan and I didn't know any of their songs with the exception of "Golden Brown", so they didn't do much for me. Lots of people thought they were a bit of a strange choice for that year's Reading, I can think of dozens of bands that I'd rather have seen instead.
Sunday headliner - Alice ! Everybody was looking forward to this, and we weren't disappointed. What a showman, he commanded your attention and we followed his every sinister move. Highlights for me were "Only Women Bleed" and "Teenage Frankenstein".
During the latter, Alice constructed a huge robot from separate arms, legs, torso and head. When the head went on, the eyes lit up and the whole thing started to lumber around the stage in murderous pursuit of Mr Cooper. Then at the end of the song Alice kicked the whole thing to bits, but there was no-one inside !! Great trick ! Kane Roberts, Alice's guitarist, looked like Mr Universe but the guy could sure play. I have a vivid memory of Alice in white tophat and tails, brandishing a cane and belting out "Elected" in a blaze of lights - a great show from a class act.
And
that was it, my one and only visit to Reading, I remember it (or most of it!)
with great fondness. I was always a bit pissed off that I never got to see the
really great Reading lineups of the early 80's, but I'm glad I got to experience
what was probably the last decent ROCK festival at Reading. Meatloaf and Bonnie
Tyler? No thanks!
Cheers,
Dave.
MGM yet again © Dave Hall |
Hi
I was reminiscing today about my festival days. I was at Reading in 1987 and
remember it well. In fact in my attic I have the original ticket, flyers from
in and around the festival, and the programme. The highlights of the festival
in numerical order from 10 to number 1.
10. The call sign of the Mission fans - "Esssssskimmmmooooooo"
9. The Godfathers - cracking set played with attitude.
8. The massive plastic bottle fight and the poor bugger in the middle of it
all.
7. Status Quo set
6. Zodiac Mindwarp getting bottled off stage - I did laugh
5. No Spear of Destiny - not a big fan
4. Alice Cooper - set was amazing, I still have the t-shirt I wore and I'm sure
there's fake blood stains on it
3. The Icicle Works - Drummer ran off stage to throw up after a heavy night,
then returned and continued to play - a true professional
2. Living out of our car because the tent was not habitable
1. Glory - the lead singer losing his cool and picking up a monitor and trying
to throw it into the crowd and getting tackled by the stage hands and bouncers.
Ah memories
Davie
Photogalleries
Setlists and recordings
It seems the BBC may have recorded a few of sets from 1987, although unlike 86, they did not record the headliners.
Audience recordings proliferate for this year ,almost all the sets out there seem to be sourced from audience, probably because there wasn't as much FM coverage. If you know of any sets that exist we have missed please send us details.
Friday
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All About Eve 8-28-87
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The Godfathers 8-28-87 Audience source looking for setlist and artwork
udience source looking for setlist and artwork Fields of the Nephilim 8-28-87 Audience source looking for setlist and artwork |
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Icicle Works 8-28-87
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The Godfathers 8-28-87 Audience source looking for setlist and artwork Fields of the Nephilim 8-28-87
Audience
source
looking for artwork |
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The Fall 8-28-87
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Audience source looking for artwork |
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The Mission 8-28-87
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Saturday
| Bad News 8-29-87
With Brian May of Queen |
Audience source looking for artwork |
| Lee Aaron 8-29-87
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Audience source looking for artwork Setlist i nfo kindly provided by Johan |
| The Georgia Satellites 8-29-87
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| Status Quo 8-29-87
Quo's only UK show in 1987 and their last Reading Festival show to date |
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Sunday
| Vow Wow 8-30-87
FM friday Rock show
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| The Bolshoi 8-30-87
Audience |
crowd at Reading 87 |
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The Stranglers 8-30-87
official live release mostly recorded at Paris with several tracks from Reading 87 |
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| Zodiac Mindwarp 8-30-87
Fm, apart from tracks marked * |
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| Alice Cooper 8-30-87
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Can we get a witness ?
We need more info on this and the other Reading festivals, we are now in the curious situation of having better documentation on some of the earlier festivals, so c'mon goths and headbangers, get yer photos out and fire up whats left of the aging braincells .Send your recollections and scans to us NOW ! !! Contact us
External Links
Reading in the 80s to date- Fat Regs excellent site covers Reading from 1982 onwards .
Photos of Reading in the 80s at the Reading Musuem.
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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