Reading Festival History in my own words

Reading festival began in 1983 when I joined for the first time; the weekend also being my first festival of any kind, ever.

The standout moments for me of that weekend were the friendship in the campsite; the way that so my people with a similar taste in music could meet up for a weekend, once a year and have such great time. We made friends with people in the nearby tents and being a ‘rock’ crowd, there was no trouble or anger of any kind, just a lot of like minded people having great fun at what would be the highlight of their year!

The bands that year were mostly Rock and Metal, but for me the stand out performance was by Hanoi Rocks, at the time, a little known band from Finland, who put in the show of the day on the Friday and gradually built a following after this gig. If they hadn’t imploded in the late 80’s they would have been as big as Guns ‘n’ Roses, who have cited them as a major influence.
As the years have flown by, many performances have stood out, Wonderstuff in ’88, Nirvana in ’91 & ’92, Fishbone in ’93, Ben Folds Five in ’96, Metallica in ’97 & ’03 and My Chemical Romance in ’05. But, of all the bands I have seen and all the comedians I have watched, it all boils down to one thing

It was after 21 years that I decided to write the Official History of the festival (someone had to) and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career so far. Now, halfway through the second volume of the book, I am meeting up with bands and artists who didn’t make the first volume (for whatever reason), from Travis to The Twang, from Saxon to Seasick Steve and many hundreds of others, all keen to talk to me about their experiences at the greatest outdoor show of the summer.