Monsters of Rock

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Monsters of Rock was an annual rock music festival 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 appears to have been cancelled as rumours have died down.

[edit] 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 had been promoting the recent Rainbow UK tour, he asked the band to headline, which they agreed.

The venue chosen for the event was the Castle Donington motor racing circuit in 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 had 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 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 Download, 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.

[edit] UK Festivals

[edit] 1980

August 16, 1980: First "Monsters Of Rock" Festival

Rumour has it that a member of Touch swallowed a bee while performing onstage. The whole event was recorded. An LP and cassette was released consisting of two songs each from Rainbow and Scorpions and one from each of the other acts, except Judas Priest. The Rainbow performance was filmed and shown on UK television in 1980-1 but has never been repeated or released on video/DVD. Rainbow performed "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" the Carol King/Shirelles song (intended to be their next single) live, though never released.

[edit] 1981

August 22, 1981

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

[edit] 1986

Poster for the 1986 Monsters of Rock at Castle Donington.

August 16, 1986

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.

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 Lemmys head.

[edit] 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"
Dio
Metallica
Anthrax
W.A.S.P.
Cinderella
The Bailey Brothers (DJ's)

[edit] 1988

August 20, 1988

Iron Maiden
KISS
David Lee Roth
Guns N' Roses
Megadeth
Helloween
Neal Kaye
The Bailey Brothers (DJ's)

Largest crowd ever, approx 100,000. This was the year 2 people were crushed to death during the Guns N' Roses set.

[edit] 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, however, in reality it was nothing more than people at the front of a 35,000 crowd moshing and slipping in the mud (it had rained heavily). Unfortunately this was followed by the crowd pushing forward, which led to the two fans being crushed [1].

Nevertheless, it was replaced with another gigantic rock festival which took place in Milton Keynes with Bon Jovi headlining.

[edit] 1990

August 18, 1990

This event was broadcast on BBC Radio 1

Some dates on the subsequentes tour featured Vixen, Dio and Faith No More

[edit] 1991

August 17, 1991

AC/DC's set was recorded and released as a live DVD Called Live At Donington.

[edit] 1992

August 22, 1992

Iron Maiden released their set as a video and live CD. A lot of this was filmed and shown on MTV Headbanger's Ball.

[edit] 1993

No festival this year

[edit] 1994

June 4, 1994

Main stage:

Second Stage:

After just performing two songs, Biohazard was 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.

[edit] 1995

August 26, 1995

The event was called Escape from the Studio '95, as Metallica were taking a break from recording their Load album.

[edit] 1996

August 17, 1996

Main stage:

KISS and Ozzy Osbourne (Joint Headliners)
Sepultura
Biohazard
Dog Eat Dog
Paradise Lost
Fear Factory

Kerrang! Stage:

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 Brazil for the funeral, but this was seen as the start of events that lead to the collapse of the band.

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 was not 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 underground Korn were becoming a major act.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 2006

June 3, 2006

This event was the first Monsters Of Rock in 10 years and resided at Milton Keynes bowl. It was perfect festival weather and around 30,000 people attended the event.

[edit] See Also

[edit] Monsters of Rock festivals in other locations

Monsters of Rock in other locations include:

[edit] Argentina

[edit] 1994

Buenos Aires, River Plate Stadium - September 3 and 4

[edit] 1995

Buenos Aires, Ferro Carril Oeste Stadium - September 9

[edit] 1997

Buenos Aires, Ferro Carril Oeste Stadium - December 13

[edit] 1998

Buenos Aires, Vélez Sársfield Stadium - December 12

[edit] 2005

Buenos Aires, Ferro Carril Oeste Stadium - September 11

- Judas Priest (Headliner)
- Whitesnake
- Rata Blanca
- Tristemente Celebres
- Lörihen

[edit] Chile

[edit] 1994

Santiago, Chile Estacion Mapocho - Agosto

[edit] 1998

Santiago, Chile Velódromo del Estadio Nacional - December 12

[edit] Brazil

[edit] 1994

São Paulo, Estádio do Pacaembu

[edit] 1995

São Paulo, Estádio do Pacaembu

[edit] 1996

São Paulo, Estádio do Pacaembu - August 24, 1996

[edit] 1998

São Paulo, Pista de Atletismo do Ibirapuera - 24 de Setembro de 1998

[edit] Bulgaria

[edit] 2006

01 August - 08 August Varna, Bulgaria

The festival is cancelled.

A Monsters of Rock festival was to be held up in Varna, Bulgaria in the summer of 2006. Unlike other festivals with the same name, this one had been planned to take place in five consecutive nights. The bands list up to this date included:

Motörhead
Morbid Angel
Saxon
UFO
Kreator
Axel Rudi Pell
Masterplan
U.D.O.
Gamma Ray
Nevermore
Gotthard
Anthrax
Metal Church
Edguy
Tony Martin
Annihilator
Michael Schenker Group
Opeth
Brazen Abbot
We
Overkill
Doro
Victory
Fear Factory
Onslaught
Atrocity
Leave's Eyes
Rose Tattoo
Doomfoxx
Holy Moses
Uli Jon Roth
Reckless Tide
Ektomorf
Delirious
The Bronx Casket Co.
Nikki Puppet
Hellfueled
Noise Forest
Gorilla Monsoon
The Birthday Massacre
Suidakra
Fleshgore
L.O.S.T.
Post Scriptum
Cornamusa
Everfest
Justice
SJK
Celtic Frost
H-Blockx
Orphaned Land
Thunderbolt
Silent Madness
Disbelief
Dreamland
Archeon
Holyland
Diva Int.
Enthrallment
Knight Errant
The Revenge Project
Frogcircus
Definitive
Pooria
Sarah
Damon
Pooria (Calgary, Canada)
Manam Hastam

If conducted as planned, the festival was going to be the biggest Monsters of Rock festival to date and by far the largest heavy metal event ever to be held in Eastern Europe.