Memories of the Reading Festival 1975

In amongst the old brown suitcase full of music memorabilia from my youth is quite a bit of stuff from Reading Rock '75.

I even have my festival t-shirt, which has somehow survived.

The 1975 Reading Festival featured a wide range of music and a few bands at the top of their game, including Yes and Hawkwind.

It was probably the last of the classic rock/prog era festivals, before heavy metal and new wave took over. It was also notable for featuring bands who became much bigger sometime later, like Thin Lizzy, Supertramp, Judas Priest and Joan Armatrading.

The denim-clad hordes descended on the Thames-side festival site on the August Bank Holiday of 1975. It was typically squally bank holiday weather and that played its part, not least for fans of the Saturday night headliners, Yes, who endured a heavy rainstorm. On Sunday, though, the weather was warm and sunny all day, culminating in a blistering afternoon of rock guitar from John McLaughlin, Robin Trower and Wishbone Ash.

Shirts are off so this must have been Sunday

On the festival site, the atmosphere was largely peaceful amongst the crowd of probably around 50,000 people.

But this was still the era when the hardcore freaks believed that bands should be playing for free - anything else was a sell-out, man! So there was a degree of suspicion and cynicism among the more experienced festival goers.

One of the regular conversations heard through the weekend was who was going to be at the free festival at Watchfield the following week. The hardcore freaks were all going to be there and Hawkwind were headlining. See the report by Allan Jones at the end of this article for more on that.

The two-stage set up at Reading

Onstage at Reading, there were several musical highlights for me. The '75 festival had a strong line-up, but you can see from my crossings-out on this flyer that Richard & Linda Thompson and Lou Reed were no-shows.

from the Festival newspaper

Here are the highlights for me, with links to audio and video where available:

HAWKWIND
The headliners on the Friday night, they were suitably loud, spacey and heavy - a mind-expanding experience.

Singer and lyricist Robert Calvert made a guest appearance at Reading, after which he chose to rejoin the band as a full-time lead vocalist.

Bob Calvert

They started out playing Warrior On The Edge of Time and then played Psychedelic Warlords Disappear In Smoke and Master Of The Universe.
Bob Calvert wasn't much of a singer, but he was the perfect frontman for Hawkwind, chanting his space poetry.

"In the event of sonic attack...!"

As the official programme noted in very un-PC terms, "even if you don't like the music, there's the ample frontage of Stacia to keep you occupied, as she cavorts about the stage".

Simon King's impressive drumkit

Visuals were always a large part of the Hawkwind experience, with psychedelic lighting provided by Liquid Len and the Lensmen. Stacia had joined Hawkwind in 1971 as a dancer, typically performing topless and wearing body paint.

Stacia having a bit of a cavort

Reading '75 was the end of an era, though, as this was the amazonian dancer's last gig with the band.

The Melody Maker reviewer was unimpressed, describing Stacia "stomping around with all the grace of the Statue of Liberty animated by Ray Harryhausen on an off-day."

Their encore was the much-anticipated Silver Machine and then, as midnight approached, Dave Brock wished the audience a good night and told them to "smoke plenty of good dope".

The reviewer concluded that "The Hawks were surprisingly tight and well-disciplined. One would suggest this was one of their better performances. Simon House, on violin and keyboards, displayed a fine lyrical mastery that proved an excellent counterbalance to the rumblings of Nik Turner and the rest of the band."

Judge for yourself. Here's the full set they played at Reading

Second on the bill on Friday were Dr. Feelgood. They warmed up the crowd with a typically high energy set. I'd seen them earlier in the year at Brunel University, so knew what to expect. We were a bit too far away to get the full effect - the two stage set-up meant you had to make a choice if you wanted a good position for the headliners. The Melody Maker review (see the scans at the end of this blog) reckoned they were one of the festival highlights. Here's some film of them just a month before the festival.

YES - Saturday night
As Hawkwind had done the previous evening, Yes kept us waiting, but eventually put on a show worthy of festival headliners, complete with an elaborate stage set designed by album cover artist Roger Dean.

Rick Wakeman had left the band earlier in 1975, after a series of disagreements over what he saw as the over-indulgent music on their last album Tales From Topographic Oceans.

His replacement, Swiss keyboard whizz Patrick Moraz, brought a similarly showy and virtuoso style to the music. They began their set at Reading with the track Soundchaser from their new album Relayer. The set included many of their most popular favourites, such as I've Seen All Good People, And You and I and Close To The Edge.

YES played on through the rain

Unfortunately for us, as the set progressed, it began to rain and became torrential by the end of their set, as laser beams pierced through the deluge. "Silvery specks of rain cascaded through the green pencil beams and the soaked hordes roared their defiance against elements," said the MM review.

"Until the rain, Yes played magnificently. They played on regardless, with commendable courage and they were greeted with tumultuous cheers.

"And You And I was exceptional, with fine country guitar work from Steve Howe."

I have a bootleg CD of it, bought in Japan several years ago. Jon Anderson thanks the audience profusely for braving the conditions.

My clip featured here gives you some idea of how it looked. And here's a reasonable audio of it. For a better idea of their set from this time, check out the Live at QPR films that are fairly easy to find.

John McLaughlin at Reading

The Mahavishnu Orchestra featuring John McLaughlin - Sunday Afternoon
This was a later version of Mahavishnu, stripped down to a four piece featuring Narada Michael Walden on drums, Ralphe Armstrong on bass and Stu Goldberg on keyboards.

Although the band had changed, much of the material they played was familiar to fans of the first two Mahavishnu albums, The Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire.

They began their set with Meeting Of The Spirits, which was as frenetic as ever. The MM reviewer was surprised how animated McLaughlin appeared: "Stomping about the stage like a heavy metal kid rather than the darling of the jazz rock avant garde, face bearing a smile that was positively beatific, except when he was wringing out those deliciously agonising galaxies of notes on his guitar."

Here's a link to the MO's set at Reading.

The sun was out and there was a good vibe in the crowd. Festival DJ John Peel played Cream's Born Under A Bad Sign and next up on the left hand stage was the Robin Trower band.

Robin Trower and drummer Bill Lordan at Reading

This was the high point of the Sunday afternoon and perhaps the whole weekend. I have this memory of the crowd getting in such a frenzy – it was a lovely sunny afternoon and a kind of delirium came over the crowd during Trower’s set. 

At the climax of one of the songs, a great wave of cheering could be heard as a rubbish fight broke out across a no-man’s land puddle of mud towards the back of the crowd. Or maybe they were just chucking everything into the void. I just remember this cloud of paper and empty bottles suspended in the air, the crowd seemingly spurred on by the excitement of the music.

MM hails Trower and Yes

Trower's set was drawn from the first three albums, particularly the classic Bridge of Sighs. Another highlight was always Trower's tribute to 'the man', the song Daydream, dedicated to Jimi Hendrix.  

Trower had been saddled with being a Hendrix imitator and the MM's reviewer said he still sounded like Jimi. "Not an imitator, you'll note, but if you close your eyes and just listen to the chops, feel the chord sequences in your gut, it might well be James Marshall Hendrix reincarnated."

Trower proved that the heavy power trio had far from run out of steam, said the review. "I would not have believed it possible for such limited instrumentation to keep one's interest alive for 90 minutes. But Trower did it, and of course they loved him for it, calling him back for two encores."

I've written a separate blog piece about the Robin Trower band who were close to their peak at this time, certainly in terms of the intensity of their playing. 

Here's a link to audio of Robin Trower's set at Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8rRhH9uEFI

According to a fan of the band (in the comments below), Sunday night headliners Wishbone Ash were very late taking the stage owing to technical problems. I do remember there were problems and doubts even that they would appear, because the stage was dark for ages. It was a slightly disappointing end to a great day. No footage or boots that I can find of their show at Reading, possibly because the technical problems. But here's some film of them playing at Winterland in February '76.

from the festival newspaper

Thin Lizzy - This was early days for the Mark II Lizzy but they had already trademarked the twin guitar sound, with new guys Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham. Later on in 1977 and '78, Lizzy would hit the big time with Jailbreak and the Live & Dangerous album.

In 1975 though, they were still building up to that and went on mid-afternoon, playing songs from their current album Fighting. I'd heard them playing a session on the radio and, as a fan of the original band (I bought Whiskey In The Jar and The Rocker) I was interested to see how the new one compared.

John Peel announced them as "one of the best bands you're going to hear this weekend."

Of course, they were great. The template was set, Lynott leading the line with a swagger and bantering with the crowd. It may have taken them a while to get the crowd going, but eventually "the pounding of Brian Downey's two bass drums and the twin guitar leads backing Lynott' earthy vocals began to bite," said the MM.

"Heavy riffs came flying, but it was 'I'm Still In Love With You', a slow piece, that helped relax the band and gave space for a fine solo by Brian Robertson."

Here's some brief film of that show tagged with a recording of it, for those who were there.

If that's too rough for your taste, here's a sample of their live set from that tour.

Supertramp - all dressed in white jumpsuits as I recall. They played a faithful rendition of the Crime of The Century album. It was raining though, and I remember ducking for cover at one point. It felt like I wasn't missing much, because Supertramp were not projecting any great spectacle to the crowd. It was just like listening to the album.

Here's audio of them playing School in 1975
and here's video of them playing Dreamer

UFO - Another band I was fond of at the time, they played before Dr. Feelgood on Friday evening.  Doctor Doctor has become a rock classic and in this clip, they are playing another, Rock Bottom in 1975

Soft Machine, were a treat for jazz rock fans. John Etheridge joined the band in early 1975, replacing Allan Holdsworth, the guitarist on their then current album Bundles. Etheridge told Jazzwise magazine, "Following Allan as the Soft Machine guitarist was demanding. I felt that I was one of the few people who could cope. I was quite proud of that.”

Although they didn't do much in the way of performance, a bit like Supertramp, I found their music was quite intriguing. The MM noted their set consisted mainly of songs from Bundles, "together with some rather nice material distinguished by good wind and guitar voicings and an excellent drum solo  by John Marshall."

Here is Etheridge with Soft Machine in 1975.

Judas Priest - I was a fan of their first album Rocka Rolla. This was well before their international fame in the 80s and Rob Halford's leather fixation. Halford had long hair at this time and the music was much more blues rock than the metal of later years. Good though. This is probably the earliest footage of them, live at Reading.

And for any diehard Judas Priest fans, here's a link to the audio of their set
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjFRYutoJsE

Joan Armatrading

Gary Holton - stage left, standing on a
speaker, hones his acting skills

She was the opening act on Sunday. It was clear she had something special. A deep beguiling voice and some good songs. She was promoting a new album, Back To The Night.

"Joan announced she was going to sing some blues and the response from the crowd was immediate," said the MM. "By the time she finished with 'Back To The Night' she had raised them from their somnolence."

Not sure if I'd heard her before this, but she definitely made an impression.

The Heavy Metal Kids - They'd shortened their name to The Kids at this point. They were my mate Kev's favourite from the weekend, I think, because of singer Gary Holton's theatrics. It was apparent that Holton was a character,  even then, way before he appeared as one of the cast in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

The band were a lot tighter than their appearance here the previous year, said the reviewer. "They roared through 'Boogie Woogie', 'The Cops are Coming', 'Rock and Roll Man' and even a jokey chorus from the Bay City Rollers. Gary raced around the stage, gesticulating, posing and being just enough of a pain in the neck to arouse the ire of a whole coach load of rock writers."

As we trudged home on the bank holiday Monday, tired and hungry, a voice cried out from the distance: WALLY!!!

Also on this blog:

Steve Howe joins Yes, Rick Wakeman joins The Strawbs

The Yes Album - 50 years old and still sounding great

The Who Put The Boot In at Charlton FC, 1976

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

The following week, the bikers and hardcore hippies convened at Watchfield