1976 Reading Festival

My first festival, an experience I'll never forget. It was the glorious summer of 1976 and the UK was in the middle of a drought. So rucksack packed, myself and Eric Craig, a good school friend, headed out to hitch-hike our way from Newcastle to Reading, aiming to arrive on the Thursday before the Festival kicked off over the August Bank Holiday weekend. It took us a couple of days to travel to Reading on a pretty uneventful journey apart from a guy throwing a load of porn mags our way while we were stuck on a roundabout outside Leeds somewhere which were duly burnt that evening for a bit warmth!

We arrived at the Festival site in mid afternoon on the Thursday pitched the tent and took it all in, no kids around in those days, festival weren't the family friendly events they've now become and going to the loo was to risk dysentery! It was pretty much a sea of denim, leather jackets and long hair! Pretty soon we'd met up with a few more friends who had traveled down as well as discovering a white van parked nearby selling scrumpy in dodgy plastic containers. Thursday evening was spent drinking scrumpy and burning sausages by way of eats!

Fridays headliners were Gong and according to the list I have Friday also featured Mallard, The Mighty Diamonds, Roy St. John, Stallion, Supercharge and U-Ray. I don't remember anything about the bands that played through out the day, but Gong were a very relaxed pleasant end on a warm summers evening to the first day. This would be Pierre Moerlens Gong who were firmly in the Jazz-rock genre by this time, Steve Hillage and Daevid Allen along with the teapot pixies had long gone.

Saturday brought Festival headliner Rory Gallagher along with Camel, Eddie and the Hot Rods, John Hiseman's Colliseum, Manfred Manns Earthband, Moon, Mick Pickett, Pat Travers Band, Phil Manzanera's 801, The Sadista Sisters and Van der Graaf Generator. Although the festival wasn't a competition to give winners and losers, I remember Manfred Manns Earthband went down an absolute storm as they played through a torrential downpour that pretty much flooded out the Saturday night. I remember plunging 2 large cans of Watneys Red Barrel in to the mud and standing on them late on the Saturday night. It was no great loss losing the two cans as Watneys Red Barrel was pretty much the same as drinking coloured water!

Sundays finale gave us AC/DC on what must have been one of their very first UK appearances. AFT, Back Door, Black Oak Arkansas, Brand X (with Phil Collins on drums), The Enid who were excellent, The Dambusters March never sounded so good, Howard Bragen, Sassafras, Sutherland Brothers and Quiver, Ted Nugent who played with so much distortion he was almost unlistenable. Special guests to finish off the night were Osibisa, but after a couple of songs in we decided it was time for more scrumpy and end the evening around a communal camp fire.

All in all a great 3 days, one nights sleep then the hitch hike home starts!  Roll on Reading '77.