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Reading Rules

25th National Rock Festival - August 1987

It was the most successful Reading Festival for years, and METAL HAMMER joined In the celebrations. Harry Doherty, Dave Ling, Al Simpson and Kirk Blows report.

After the battle scars of the Donington weather, the prospects of Reading Festival lurking on the horizon was hardly an enticing possibility. Another week-end of wet clothes and colds. No way. The sun shone to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of Europe’s most famous rock festivals and although there were the usual mish-mash of metal, hard rock, pop rock and even contemporary pop, this was a week-end of good music to genuinely savour.

One of the "quaint" attractions of Reading has been the policy to give new bands a chance to perform in front of a major audience. Sometimes, they fail to cut the ice, but at least the opportunity is there, and 1987 is no different. Rising bands like Kooga, Chariot, Virginia Wolf and Vow Wow were able to mix easily with th e likes of Magnum, Status Quo, Alice Cooper and the Georgia Satellites. Some of them looked like strange bedfellows, but the absurdity of a rock conglomerate that had the Stranglers playing between Alice Cooper and Zodiac Mindwarp, and the southern boogie of Georgia Satellites preceding Bad News, Magnum and Status Quo.

Weird... but wonderful.

It would have been more wonderful if it hadn’t been for the mindless few who once they’d got drunk on cheap booze, decided to fill the bottle with piss and throw it at the stage. Idiots, and the most idiotic thing about it was that the intent wasn’t malicious but purely fun. Some sort of fun, huh?

Anyway, the memory of Shy’s singer, Tony Mills, catching a bottle and he came out of a spin and DRINKING it will live with me for a long, long time. Ironically, there was word that Shy are being dropped by RCA Records. The band played one of the best sets of the entire weekend. Surely someone will break this band.

Jack Berrie, mastermind behind Reading, was concerned about the antics of the friggin’ few, but was in a quandary about exactly what he could do.

"Really, there's nothing we can do" he said. "It is a problem and there is a real chance that somebody will get hurt if it continues next year. If we sent a load of heavies out there to sort them out, it could start a riot."

Hells Angels were out in force too, and took over (and I mean that) security for the Alice Cooper set. NOBODY threw bottles at Alice Cooper.

The looks backstage when a battalion of Angels waltzed into the hospitality area was quite something. They took over the tent that Magnum had used for a party the previous evening and made themselves right at home.

"They’re okay," said Jack, more in hope than in confidence. "As long as they don’t cause any trouble, I’ll be happy."

After a brilliant set on Saturday night, Francis Rossi sat in the dressing room cursing the Reading Festival programme which shows the backs of Rossi and Rick Parfitt, in typical Quo pose, with Alice Cooper learing through the middle. They felt that whoever did the artwork had helped Alice upstage them.

Never mind Francis, if you had turned to the back page, you would have seen your faces!

Other minor highlights: the appearance of Brian May and Bad News, a classy set from FM on Sunday, a fine opening from Chariot and the last performance of the Nightmare Stage Show from Alice Cooper.

Before we go on to the reviews, there was a vicious rumour doing the rounds that this would be the final Reading Festival. The look of disdain on Jack Barrie’s face would have told you that Reading will be back next year again; same time, same place.

Status Quo and Alice Cooper were waging something of a personal battle throughout the weekend. Apparently, the gate on Saturday was slightly lower than expected, while the walk-up gate (i.e. The number of people who bought tickets on the day) set a new record on Sunday for Reading. Promoters generally though, are finding that punters are unwilling anymore to buy expensive tickets too far in advance and are confident enough with open-air festivals that they will gain admittance on the day of the event itself.

The battle between Quo and Alice was waged even on stage, with both acts turning in sets that were probably among their best. Quo’s performance on Saturday evening was remarkable for its freshness. Quo, after all, are one of those bands who could have played at the first festival quarter of a century ago.

The 1987 Status Quo is very much a vehicle for the ambitions of Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, the only remaining remnants from the original power pack, but backed effectively by a solid rhythm section of Rhino Edwards and Jeff Rich, and the tinkling keyboard embellishments of Andy Brown. The set, naturally, is much the same set that has been aired since, it seems, time began, give or take a few little changes that are barely noticeable. The musical stance of uncompromising boogie, with a commercial edge, is still at the core of their approach. You’d have more chance of converting the Pope to protestantism than getting Quo to change their direction at this stage in the game.

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Anyway, if anybody had suggested to this Reading audience that Quo were anything other than the best band in the world on Saturday night, the chances are that they would have become hospital cases within seconds. The revitalised versions of the "Down Downs", "Carolines", etc., etc., proved conclusively that there is still life in the old Dog of Two Head. The performance registered a 9 on the Metal Hammer clapometer.

The reaction to the Alice Cooper set the following night was as euphoric. The Cooper camp had been excited about the event the whole day, and Alice even hosted a pre-gig party. The significance of the day, of course, was that this would be the last performance ever of the Welcome To My Nightmare show, and Alice and band were intent on making it the best.

Arguably, it ranked with his finest performances. It was the same over-the-top show witnessed ay Wembley Arena last year, with the same set and the same threatening personnel. Alice, of course, has spawned many clones, and he was out to show that, even without the booze, he was still king.

In Kane Roberts, he has uncovered a thrilling lead guitarist and we look forward to the fruits of that particular collaboration for years to come. It was a chilling hard rock set that had the audience enthralled from the start, and showed once more that Alice is at his best live. A superlative hard rock exhibitionist.

The Quo and Alice sets were only two of the highlights of the week-end for everybody, from the fans outfront to the guests backstage. It went as smooth as clockwork, marked sporadically by great sets from great bands and surprisingly positive performances from bands that we might have expected to fold in two in front of an intimidating audience.

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Raise Your Fist And Yell

Author: Dave Ling

Rating 6/7

The nightmare returns! Alice Cooper is back and, boy, is he mad. The album kicks off with a real piledriving anthem called 'Freedom', obviously penned with those dickheads at the PMRC in mind. The intensity of this song is almost frightening, and as you can tell when Alice screams the words "This ain't Russia" that he's pointing a two-fingered salute to those who would advocate censorship in rock.

And rock's definitely what this album is. On another song, he's busy proclaiming "If you don't like it you can look me up", while Kane Roberts' guitar slashes like a razor.

This is a heavier album than Alice's last effort, 'Constrictor', but the songs are equally convincing. Kane leads the backing band but he's manfully supported by Fifth Angel's Kenny Mary on drums, and bassist, Kip Winger. Together, they're capable of reaping some serious havoc. Full marks to producer Michael Wagener for making them sound so explosive. The pretenders had better beware. Alice is in top form here, and second best just ain't gonna do.

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Reading '87

Author: Al Simpson

From the minute that the lights go up for the beginning of Alice Cooper's show you know that the man is sick. The distorted and warped intro tape that preceeds the show is the kind that horror movie makers love to use. An innocent child's nursery rhyme type song, leading the listener/viewer into a false sense of security whilst the mad axeman stalks up etc. etc. Alice was using what looked like basically the same set as he did at his Wembley show, but from the distance that I saw stage he could have bitten the head off a chicken and I wouldn't have seen it. Nevertheless, you could tell what was going on as Alice went through his much loved routine.

Treading that thin line between theatrics and vulgar obscenity, Alice proceeded to entertain everyone with knives, swords, dolls and guillotines. What was noticeable at Reading is that Kane Roberts has muscled in a bit more. He started off low key (how low key can a monster like that be?) and then started giving the impression that it's not just the Alice Cooper show, but the Cooper-Roberts spectacle and that is hammered home when you see how closely Kane has written with Alice. Both are splatter movie freaks and that was obvious onstage as Alice generally mutilated anything that came his way. I couldn't see all that much and therefore concentrated on the music. Each number a classic and well worth belting out.

If there was one thing that I wanted to see and marvel at that was Kenny Mary's drumstick routine. It's fascinating to watch that guy throw sticks up to fifteen feet in the air, catch them as they tumble and then get straight back to drumming without losing the pace. I'd go as far as seeing Fifth Angel just to see that.

Alice hasn't lost anything on 'Raise Your Fist And Yell'. It's classic Alice and the crowd loved it as much as they adored all the older Cooper classics.