Memories of Reading Festival

The Reading festival is one of the oldest and most popular music festivals which are still alive and thriving. This annual music festival takes place in Reading during the August bank holiday weekend and feature a variety of genres of music with rock, alternative, indie, punk and metal having a tendency to dominate the entire festival.

The 1970s contained some great memories of change with the line-up of the festival’s acts inclining towards the pattern of progressive rock, heavy metal and the blues. In 1978, the festival did have a brief affair with punk rock as well when bands such as The Jam, Penetration and Sham 69 played. The clashes between fans of traditional rock acts and those of new punk bands would be quite unforgettable.

A decade later, Reading fans were caught off guard when Starship, Bonnie Tyler, Squeeze and Meat Loaf played and were later bottled off stage. Fans certainly weren’t pleased in 1988 when the festival organizers tried to take the festival in a mainstream commercial pop direction.

1991 was a fantastic year for rock fans as the Reading festival started to pick up after the slump of the late 80s. Reading was the location of one of the two maiden performances of Nirvana. It was also the year of entrance for the first Britpop bands such as Suede and Blur.

The year 1992 was one of the most infamous years in the history of the Reading Festival. Nirvana played their ever-famous and last UK concert in this year. Kurt Cobain appeared on stage in a wheelchair as a mocking reply to the rumors about his mental condition. However, he later continued with a variety of old and new numbers. During the show, Cobain told the crowd about the recent birth of his daughter and soon the crowd was chanting “Courtney, we love you!” in unison; a truly memorable year!

The Stone Roses played for the final time at the festival in 1996 and 1998 saw the infamous clash between The Beastie Boys and The Prodigy regarding the song “Smack my Bitch Up.”

The Reading Festival last year gave up some unexpected disappointments. Slipknot pulled out of the festival because of Joey Jordison’s broken ankle. Avenged Sevenfold pulled out of Reading irrespective of the signing event which fans were greatly looking forward to. Unexpectedly The Pigeon Detectives played on the BBC Introducing Stage on the first night!

The event of forcing bands off stage with a barrage of plastic bottles and cans thrown by the audience has been a famous tradition in Reading. Although it has somewhat subsided since the 1970s and 1980s, Steel Pulse probably suffered from the worst of this tradition in 1983. The reggae act disappeared off stage within moments of their appearance! However, in 1988 Bonnie Tyler finished her entire set despite the rain of bottles, litter and turf which came at her. Shockingly 50 Cent was pelted with bottles too in 2004, after which he threw the microphone into the crowd and went off stage.

It’s not only incidents which make it to the newspapers that are the most memorable; attending the festival is a fantastic memory in itself!