Tag: Donington
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The Day UK Rock Fans Took Thrash Metal To Their Hearts
I was there the day Thrash Metal broke into the UK’s metal mainstream…. It seems strange looking back at the divisions that thrash metal caused in the mid eighties. For some, the surprise will be that there’s any discernible difference between, say Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Megadeth and Scorpions. But for the heavy metal…
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Donington ’86 – Monsters of Rock: Ozzy, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Motorhead and More Bad News…
My first Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington (that’s Download for the youngsters) was headlined by Ozzy Osbourne in 1986. Although a Winged Chariot would have been a more appropriate vehicle to take us to this most holy of heavy metal shrines, we settled on taking a National Express coach from outside John Menzies in Chelmsford,…
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Guns n Roses at Donington ’88 – The Triumph and The Tragedy
The Donington Monsters of Rock Festival in 1988 was headlined by Iron Maiden, but Guns n Roses – and a tragedy – stole the headlines. Now known as The Download Festival, the annual pilgrimage of UK Heavy Metal fans to a field outside Nottingham (Castle Donington) is as essential a rite de passage for every…
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Deep Purple at Knebworth – Mud and Bottles in ’85
The comeback concert that Deep Purple played at Knebworth in 1985 went down in history as one of the muddiest rock concerts of all time. As Blackadder once remarked about a girl with the worst personality in Germany – that’s up against some pretty stiff competition. It rained all day. The mud was six inches deep.…
Every record tells a story 