Monsters of Rock – 1986

August 16th 1986 – Donington Park

Monsters of Rock…….the home of Metal, the church of Rock…..it’s difficult to sum up what the feeling was looking back to a 21 year olds first ever full blown heavy rock concert!

To this point in my musical adventure, I’d touched on what would be classed as true rock with Marillion (prog rock) and Killing Joke, but neither of these or anything that has gone before was rock rock……..so the excitement of seeing a legend in Ozzy Osbourne was just amazing.

There was a group of about 8 of us went on the coach to Donington Park, a mere 20 miles, half an hour up the M1 from Leicester. The atmosphere was electric just on the bus!!

What a line up for us…..Ozzy Osbourne headlining, who had recently released “The Ultimate Sin” following up the mega successful, “Bark at the Moon”……my first heavy metal rock album.

Supporting were:

• Scorpions – German rock band. I knew very little about them at this point in time, but would ultimately enjoy their music.
• Def Leppard – This would be emotional. In 1984 drummer, Rick Allen, had a car crash where he nearly died, but lost his left arm. This would be their first concert back in the UK since this accident.
• Motorhead – Goodness me, these were loud and proud. Lemmy, the king of metal.
• Bad News – Not quite a spoof bad (ok, maybe a bit of a fun take on metal, but more rock than Spinal Tap), but made up of comedians of the time, The Young Ones.
• Warlock – Another German band, but with a superb girl lead singer, which was fairly unusual at the time.

Warlock

We didn’t know much about Warlock’s music, just that Dora Pesch was the hottest thing to hit metal! Burning witches was a great track, but the show was off to a fantastic start with Earthshaker Rock……these guys and girls were the real thing. A fantastic opening act, throwing all the recognise rock shapes, twirls and guitar poses, solos etc….great start to the day.

Warlock Setlist

• Earthshaker Rock
• Shout It Out
• Vorwärts, All Right!
• All Night
• Love in the Danger Zone
• Fight for Rock
• Burning the Witches
• True as Steel
• Hellbound

Bad News

Around this time, 1982 to 1984 to be precise, a few comedians had hit the big time with a hilarious series called “The Young Ones”. Now, as a sort of spoof band for the follow up series “Comic Strip Presents….” and to extend their careers into music, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Alan Metcalfe formed Bad News……and somehow got to play Monsters of Rock.

Bad News fictional members were Vim Fuego (aka Alan Metcalfe), vocals and lead guitar (played by Ade Edmondson); Den Dennis, rhythm guitar (Nigel Planer); Colin Grigson, bass (Rik Mayall); and Spider “Eight-Legs” Webb, drums (Peter Richardson).

No one was expecting much but it was great fun with a few jokes thrown in as well.

Here’s an awful quality clip from the time, with the usual caveat…..we didn’t have decent recording equipment in those days!

Bad News Setlist

• Drink Till I Die
• Vampire Spunk Merchants From Hell
• Bitch Hell Mother
• Motorbike
• Warriors Of Ghengis Khan
• Bad News

Motorhead

Things were about to get rocking….Motorhead, Lemmy Kilmister. This was going to be loud. Warlock and Bad News had played quite small sets, but Motorhead were the first band of the day to play a full set.

Straight in with Iron Fist, this was going to be too noisy for me! All the classics were in there, Bomber, Ace of Spades, Overkill, Steal Your Face. The guys I went with loved it. This was the heaviest thing I’d heard….not really for me although as my mate Martin always said, “It’s just four bar blues…..loud and fast on steroids”

Motorhead Setlist

• Iron Fist
• Stay Clean
• Nothing Up My Sleeve
• Metropolis
• Doctor Rock
• Killed by Death
• Ace of Spades
• Steal Your Face
• Bite the Bullet
• Built for Speed
• Orgasmatron
• No Class
• Motorhead (Hawkwind cover)
• Bomber
• Overkill

Def Leppard

A boy this was emotional. As mentioned, in 1984 on 31st December, Rik Allen, drummer with Def Leppard had a terrible car crash hitting a wall and careering into a field, turning the car over……it led to him losing his left arm…not ideal for a drummer!

In the context of Def Leppard, they had just made a break through in 1983 with the highly acclaimed and brilliant rock album, Pyromania. This was the follow up to High and Dry and had brought Def Leppard to the front of the queue (got to wait another year yet for Hysteria). The timing couldn’t be worse, but Rick fought to be able to play drum again and adapted his drums so he could play with one arm and two feet…….just breath taking.

The show was amazing, the crowd was so supportive and glad to see Def Leppard back. This would cement their place in rock. This was right up my street after Lemmy. Rock of Ages blasting out over a field was just immense.

Def Leppard Setlist

• Stagefright
• Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
• Another Hit and Run
• Too Late for Love
• Love and Affection
• Photograph
• Let It Go
• Run Riot
• Rock of Ages (including a medley of Not… more )
• Wasted
• Encore:
• Travelin’ Band (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover) (included a snippet of Led… more )

Scorpions

To be quite honest, I knew nothing about this band at the time, nothing. I think some of the guys with me did, as they had been into rock music for many years, my New Romantic days had meant I hadn’t wandered far into this world.

Like Warlock before them, The Scorpions were a German band and had been one of the greats since the late 60s and hadn’t finished yet. In fact, they would bring out a few more great albums yet!

They were a fantastic final warm up band for Ozzy, I really enjoy them. Loving You Sunday Morning and Rock You Like a Hurricane being highlights. The crowd loved them.

More dodgy footage :-)….

Scorpions Setlist

• Coming Home
• Blackout
• Bad Boys Running Wild
• Loving You Sunday Morning
• Make It Real
• Big City Nights
• Coast to Coast
• Still Loving You
• Rock You Like a Hurricane
• Can’t Live Without You
• Another Piece of Meat
• Dynamite
• Encore: The Zoo, Can’t Get Enough

Ozzy Osbourne

Something I found out about myself during this set…..I hate drum solos!!! What a waste of time! The only one I really enjoyed was Ultravox with 4 drummers on the Quartet and Set Movement Tour.

We weren’t sure what Ozzy would play, as he had been in Black Sabbath, so we hoped he would give a nod to the past….he did!

Straight into Bark at the Moon. Ozzy was a strange character who strides around the stage and talks to the crowd which gives him a stage presence that fans love. A great showman and a privilege to see him at the top of his game with a superb band.

The set was a mix of Ozzy records with a few classic Black Sabbath tracks thrown in, the crowd loved it. I don’t know what the crowd size was, but I’d be guessing around the 80,000 mark.

The first big outdoor concert I went to was U2 on their Longest Day, which was about the same size but nowhere near as rocky as this one. This gig would start a whole new line of music for me going down a heavier route alongside ny pop and rock music.

Here is a final fairly ordinary video of Ozzy at Monsters of Rock. Bear in mind stuff like video cameras were in their infancy and we were yet to hear of mobile phones and data. Thanks to Andrew Ellis on YouTube for allowing the sharing of the footage.

Ozzy Osbourne Setlist

• Bark at the Moon
• Suicide Solution
• Never Know Why
• Mr. Crowley
• Shot in the Dark
• I Don’t Know
• Killer of Giants
• Thank God for the Bomb
• Flying High Again
• Secret Loser
• Iron Man (Black Sabbath song)
• Crazy Train
• Encore: Paranoid (Black Sabbath song)