‘Pissed up longhairs wearing army greatcoats’

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Went with Dick Graham – I think. For one Reading I remember travelling up from Somerset in the back of a van with John Twose and Tim Knowlman, but that could have been the year before. The 1977 Reading Rock Festival. Stand out acts from the line-up were: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band –brilliant as usual – see previous post ‘The Who?’; Thin Lizzy; Frankie Miller, an early Aerosmith; The Doobie Brothers; The Hot Rods; Graham Parker and  Wayne County.

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/reading-77.html

Of course this young feminist had already burned her bra?:

Special weekend tickets £7.95!!! A fair amount of rain and the ground got very, very muddy. This festival was wet, hairy and macho flavoured with a hint of reactionary violence. But there were several acts that made it worth it

Whiskey In The Jar:

And I can say that I saw Hawkwind and Golden Earring (‘Radar Love’ anyone?) although neither were really my cup of tea. Hawkwind were post Lemmy (Ian Fraser Kilmister). He’d been fired from Hawkwind in 1975 after he was arrested at the Canadian border in Windsor, Ontario on drug possession charges. He spent five days in jail. He called his new band ‘Bastard’ before changing it to ‘Motorhead’. Hawkwind were, and still are, influential to both the hippie and punk scene, and have an interesting history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkwind

Interesting this one as it was the first festival to feature a few bands linked to the ‘New Wave’ scene – Eddie & The Hot Rods, The Motors & Graham Parker (all  pub rock/R n’ B acts riding the new wave tag and being played by John Peel). In the spring of 2011 Parker reunited with all five original members of The Rumour to record a new album. The Motors were early Peel favourites (which I think he was later embarrassed about as they really weren’t very good!) & Ultraxox, pre-Midge Ure (gigging again in 2010 & one of the first electronic new wave bands).

Eddie & The Hot Rods had a No. 9 hit (as The Rods) with the rather wonderful ‘Do Anything You Wanna Do’:

There were only two punk rock bands – Gloria Mundi and Wayne County & The Electric Chairs. Reading crowds still weren’t ready for it. Gloria Mundi were an early punk band, and this single, ‘Fight Back’, isn’t very good but is interesting as an early punk song:

Punk did not go down well. Gloria Mundi met with an abusive reception. I think they finished their set despite the raining cans. Reading crowds were predominantly conservative rock crowds and didn’t take kindly to the new attitudes, especially when it came in the form of a cross dressing, loud mouthed American Wayne (later to become Jayne – ‘the world’s first transsexual singer’) County. They had a catchy bluesish  single (on puke (ha!) coloured vinyl – I still have it) called, subtly enough, ‘Fuck Off’. I think it was during the playing of this song that the mud & beer cans started flying (some of them heavy, large ‘party sixes’). Things got very messy, and, needless to say, they didn’t finish the set.

Apart from all the above mentioned acts there was a lot of middle of the road dross here...Most would be washed away over the next couple of years. Some careers were stopped before they started - The Welsh band Racing Cars scored their only hit in 1976 with They Shoot Horses Don't They:






So...Maybe next year?