Monsters of Rock Totally Explained

Everything about Monsters Of Rock totally explained

Monsters of Rock was an annual rock music festival in England held every August at the Castle Donington racetrack from 1980–1996 (with the odd exception, and a one-off comeback in 2006). Monsters of Rock festivals have also been organized in other cities around the world. After the success of Monsters of Rock 2006 there were suggestions for a Monsters of Rock 2007 but the show was cancelled.

History

In 1980 Promotor Paul Loadsby planned a day-long summer festival dedicated specifically to bands from within the heavy rock and metal genre. As he'd been promoting the recent Rainbow UK tour, he asked the band to headline, to which they agreed.
   The venue chosen for the event was the Donington Park motor racing circuit at Castle Donington, Leicestershire. Capable of holding up to 100,000 fans, it was near to the industrial Midlands and had easy access to major transport links. Early preparations were delayed after objections from locals and police but the festival organisation had addressed fears the event was scheduled for Saturday 16 August 1980.
   The rest of the bill meantime was assembled as a balanced mix of British and international hard rock. A quadraphonic sound system was installed. Parallel to a Judas Priest sound-check days before the event a test of Cozy Powell’s pyrotechnics resulted in an explosion heard some three miles away, that blew out all the P.A. and caused £18,000 worth of damage to the stage set-up.
   Ticket prices were £7.50 in advance. Though torrential rain over the preceding week had turned the site into a quagmire the day itself dawned bright, hot and sunny. The P.A. system only seemed to work well for those few thousand crammed down the front of the stage but, minor criticisms apart, the occasion was deemed an overwhelming success. From the organiser’s point of view they'd lost money but had proved the principle sufficiently to have the confidence to organise a festival for following years.
   Within a few years it became the annual event for the UK hard rock fraternity, superseding the rival Reading Festival. The event was destined to become a British music tradition for over a decade, and was eventually extended to include a list of dates through mainland Europe as well.
   Paul Loadsby: "It was a great day, the show Rainbow put on is still one of the best headlining performances at Donny...the first of its kind and a terrible risk."
   Attendance at the first festival in 1980 was 35,000, and this continued to grow to 107,000 at the 1988 show when 2 fans died in a crowd surge during the Guns N' Roses slot. The festival was cancelled in 1989 because of this. When it was held in 1990, the attendance was capped at 72,500. In 1991, Metallica, AC/DC, Pantera and some other artists, played in Russia one of the biggest gig in Rock history and the biggest in a Monsters of Rock Festival, in front of 1.6 million people in the Tushino Airfield. In 1997, as the event had always been a one-day festival, organisers would add on a second day only to have the event cancelled shortly after.
   In 2003 the year after the Ozzfest festival took place at the same venue after two visits at the Milton Keynes Bowl (1998 and 2001) and a Stereophonics concert at the same venue in 2001, Download Festival took over where Ozzfest had left off and is seen by some as a successor to Monsters of Rock. The Download Festival website claims to be the successor to Monsters of Rock, that the return of rock music heralded the return of rock to Donington.
   In 2006 another festival by the name of Monsters of rock was held at Milton Keynes Bowl, headlined by Deep Purple and with Alice Cooper as a special guest.

UK Festivals

1980

August 16 1980: First "Monsters Of Rock" Festival

Rainbow
Judas Priest
Scorpions
April Wine
Saxon (recorded as Live at Donnington and Live at Donnington 1980)
Riot
Touch

It was reported that a member of Touch swallowed a bee while performing onstage. The whole event was recorded, with the exception of Judas Priest. An LP was released consisting of two songs each by Rainbow and Scorpions and one from each of the other acts. The cassette version had a slightly longer running time and added a third Scorpions track. Part of the Rainbow performance was filmed and shown on UK television in the Midlands broadcasting area (the locale of the festival). This would be Cozy Powell's last appearance with Rainbow. Rainbow performed "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" the Carole King/Shirelles song (intended to be their next single) live, though never released.

1981

August 22 1981

AC/DC

Whitesnake

Blue Öyster Cult

Slade

Blackfoot

Tommy Vance (DJ) Blue Oyster Cult had only recently parted company with drummer Albert Bouchard, and his place was taken by a roadie. One lacklustre set later, singer Eric Bloom was presented with a memorial plaque which he proceeded to jump on and smash

1982

August 21 1982

Status Quo

Gillan

Saxon

Hawkwind

Uriah Heep

Anvil

Tommy Vance (DJ)

Jaguar

1983

August 20 1983

ZZ Top

Dio

Tommy Vance (DJ) The BBC recorded the sets of ZZ Top, Twisted Sister, Dio and Diamond Head for subsequent broadcast, with some editing, on Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show.

1984

August 18 1984

AC/DC

Van Halen

Ozzy Osbourne

Gary Moore (recorded as Live At Monsters Of Rock)

Y&T

Mötley Crüe The BBC recorded the sets of Ozzy Osbourne and Gary Moore, for subsequent broadcast, with some editing, on Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show.

1985

August 17 1985

ZZ Top

Marillion

Bon Jovi

Metallica

Ratt

Magnum

Tommy Vance (DJ)

1986

August 16 1986

Warlock

Tommy Vance (DJ) This concert is notable for Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen's return to live performance after the 1984 car accident that severed his left arm.
   Each act's performance was accompanied by a barrage of plastic bottles from the crowd. Tommy Vance introduced the first two acts, the second time wearing an American football player's helmet to protect himself from the flying bottles, before giving up as the crowd just wanted to hear the music, not introductions. Jonathan King, dressed as the Pope, introduced headline act Ozzy Osbourne in suitably foul-mouthed fashion.
   The Bad News set was filmed for the "More Bad News" episode of The Comic Strip Presents. Many fans thought this was a waste of a slot, as Bad News were a 'joke' band made up of Comic Strip actors. Motörhead's set was interrupted mid way through when someone shot a firework rocket at the stage, narrowly missing guitarist Phil Campbell.
   The then-forthcoming rock publication Metal Hammer was announced at this year's event, with stickers distributed among the crowd. When the magazine hit the shelves, columnist and Monsters DJ Tommy Vance wrote a highly critical piece about the event, centered on the fact that the turntable he was expected to use proved faulty, with the needle frequently sliding across the record he'd just announced. As a result, he was dropped from the following year's event, and banned from even attending.
   The BBC recorded the sets of Motörhead and headliner Ozzy Osbourne, for subsequent broadcast, with some editing, on Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show. The 50-minute broadcast of Osbourne's set hasn't been commercially available but Motörhead's was released as the bonus CD on the 'expanded edition' reissue of Rock 'n' Roll. Scorpions, declined to have their set recorded, as they'd recently released the live album World Wide Live.

1987

August 22 1987

Bon Jovi - during their set Dee Snider, Bruce Dickinson and Paul Stanley joined Bon Jovi to perform "We're an American Band", seemingly oblivious to the fact that Grand Funk's anthem was unknown to most British punters. Bruce Dickinson prowled the stage in Union Flag shorts; he sang little, but asked the crowd if they'd like Maiden to appear at next year's event.

Dio

Metallica

Anthrax

W.A.S.P.

Cinderella

The Bailey Brothers (DJ's)

1988

August 20 1988

Iron Maiden

KISS

Megadeth

David Lee Roth

Guns N' Roses

Helloween Largest crowd, after Russia's 1991 where Metallica and AC/DC (with others like Pantera) played in front 1.6 million people, approx 107,000. This was the year 2 people were crushed to death during the Guns N' Roses set (more specifically, during the song It's So Easy).

1989

No festival this year
Monsters of Rock was cancelled in 1989 because of the deaths of two fans during the Guns N' Roses performance in 1988. This was widely reported to have been due to fighting in the crowd: in reality it was a tragic combination of people at the front of the 95,000 crowd moshing and slipping in the mud (it had rained heavily) in conjunction with a surge to see band. Unfortunately, this resulted in the two fans being crushed. (External Link

).
It was replaced with another rock festival which took place in Milton Keynes with Bon Jovi headlining. Line-up included Europe, Vixen, and Skid Row.

1990

August 18 1990

Aerosmith

Whitesnake

Poison

Quireboys

Thunder (recorded as ) This event was broadcast on BBC Radio 1

1991

August 17 1991

AC/DC

Metallica

Mötley Crüe

Queensryche

The Black Crowes AC/DC's set was recorded and released as a live DVD Called Live At Donington. Part of their set is also available on their DVD Plug Me In AC/DC is headlining for the third time, who along with Metallica are the only band who have done that (External Link

)

1992

August 22 1992

Iron Maiden (recorded as Live at Donington)

Skid Row

Thunder

Slayer

W.A.S.P.

The Almighty W.A.S.P. played material from The Crimson Idol, and most of it was recorded for a 2 disc special edition The Crimson Idol. The Almighty's seven-song set would later appear, unedited, on a bonus disc included with early copies of their 1993 album Powertrippin'. Iron Maiden also released their set as a video, much of which was also shown on MTV Headbanger's Ball.
This was Slayer's first performance with new drummer Paul Bostaph.

1993

No festival this year

1994

June 4 1994 Main stage:

Aerosmith

Extreme

Sepultura

Pantera

Therapy?

Pride & Glory Second Stage:

Skin

Headswim After just performing two songs, Biohazard were ejected from the second stage at the Monsters of Rock festival by the organisers for allowing crowd invasion on stage, then proceeded to vent their frustration by smashing up their dressing room and was removed from the venue as a result. The band would be allowed to perform again two years later on the Main Stage with the obligatory tighter security.

1995

August 26 1995

Slayer

Corrosion of Conformity The event was called Escape from the Studio '95, as Metallica were taking a break from recording their Load album.
Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn recalls Donington being the band's first appearance there, but also recalls it being one of the worst concerts of his life. He was apparently being sick on stage during songs, after eating some undercooked sausages earlier in the day.

1996

August 17 1996 Main stage:

KISS and Ozzy Osbourne (Joint Headliners)

Fear Factory Kerrang! Stage:

Korn

Cecil Donington's only joint-headline date was widely regarded at the time as being more of a "special guest" slot for a pre-Ozzfest Ozzy Osbourne. KISS, who performed last, had returned to the make-up and theatrics of their early days.
   However, the day was regarded as being most significant for two major events in the history of nu-metal. Sepultura were forced to perform as a three-piece after the death of the adopted son of vocalist Max Cavalera. Guitarist Andreas Kisser filled in for the absent singer, who had returned to US for the funeral.
   The second major event was the first UK festival appearance of KoЯn. The second stage was sponsored by Kerrang! magazine, who had prepared a short list of five bands to be voted in preference order by the readership. Korn wasn't on this list, and the general expectation was that Type O Negative would become headliners on this stage. However, the magazine had included a write-in slot on the ballot, expecting to be able to find a popular but minor UK band to open up on the stage. When the numbers came in, Korn had received more write-in votes than Type O Negative had first votes. The hugely over-crowded bowl that housed the second stage was further proof that the then-underground Korn were becoming a major act.
   Fear Factory had a 10 minute sound loss during their third song "New Breed"

1997

No festival this year.
Initial planning began for a Monsters of Rock 1997. It was to be the first two-day Monsters of Rock festival. When, in 2003, Monsters of Rock's spiritual successor the popular Download Festival began at the venue, it was a two day show. 1998 would knock the final nail in Monsters of Rock's coffin with the first UK offering of Ozzfest, a rock festival which was less traditional than Monsters of Rock and more current. Ozzfest returned to the UK in 2001, 2002 and in 2005 was a part of the Download Festival.

2003

Monsters of Rock's successor, Download Festival is born in Donington. Has run up to present, taking the place of, and dwarfing, Monsters of Rock.

2006

June 3 2006

Deep Purple

Alice Cooper

Journey

Thunder

Queensrÿche

Ted Nugent

Roadstar This event was the first Monsters Of Rock in 10 years and resided at the Milton Keynes bowl. Around 20,000 people attended the event.

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