The Friday was definitely an Alternative/Gothic type of day as The Mission headlined with the Fall being second from the top of the bill as Spear of Destiny dropped out. Other key names on the Friday were Fields of the Nephilim; The Icicle Works; and The Godfathers. Quite liked The Mission; The Fall and The Icicle Works, while the others were okay (I've always been more of a Classic Rock man and used to love Tommy Vance's recordings of the Reading Festival from the late 1970s and early 1980s when it was mainly a genuine Rock Festival). Still, there was one massive revelation on that Friday in 1987, the opening act, All About Eve.
The pictures above are of Julianne Regan of All About Eve from the 1987 Reading Festival (I got them from a wonderful Reading nostalgia site, devoted to collecting pictures of the old Reading Festivals). Me and my mates had just woken up and we just sat genuinely spellbound listening to Julianne Regan's angelic-type voice. Went on to see All About Eve five times in the late 1980s including once at Glastonbury in 1989, and last saw them at the wonderful Canterbury Fayre in 2002.
Saturday was much more a day for Classic Rock at Reading 87 as I saw Magnum for the last time on this day. However, the revelation of the day were The Georgia Satellites, second from the top of the bill on the night, and proving that Southern Boogie (-type) bands are always great for jiving up a Festival (remember Blackfoot doing this at Castle Donington in 1981). Sadly, there doesn't seem to be many videos of the 1987 Reading Festival flying around. In fact, the only things I've come across on Youtube are an interview of Alice Cooper the day before he headlined Sunday night; a few tracks of MGM (Bernie Marsden, Mel Galley and Neil Murray from Whitesnake) shot side on, on stage; and a kind of documentary on Vow Wow, a Japanese band who played on the Sunday in 1987.
Just for the record, the Saturday headliners, Status Quo, were great on the day (not my cup of tea usually), although having 10 pints of fresh scrumpy and spinning round to well-known tunes may've had something to do with this.
So what about the Sunday? Well, it was the first time I'd seen or heard The Bolshoi who had the unenviable task of following eccentric Reading favourites The Enid. Yes, you may've already guessed it, The Bolshoi got lots of plastic bottles aimed in their direction. Came to really like The Bolshoi, but, sadly, only ever saw them again once more, supporting All About Eve at Manchester Apollo in the late 1980s. Still, it was amazing that a quirky Prog Rock band like The Enid could've drummed up a 'Last Night of the Proms' atmosphere on a late Sunday afternoon at Reading Festival back in 1987.
My other memories of the Sunday? Well, I remember The Stranglers being second from the top of the bill and coming on with 'No More Heroes', and if my memory serves me right, an ice cream van getting rocked over (or nearly rocked over). The Stranglers played a great set, and thankfully this got played somewhere on Radio 1 a few weeks later, so I was able to record it. As an introduction to 'Always The Sun', Hugh Cornwall announced something like:
"I hear that over 30,000 condoms have been handed out this weekend . . . so some of you have been lucky, and some of you haven't been so lucky! . . . so there's 'Always The Sun'"
Yes, this was back in the day when bands had real character and humour. As for Alice Cooper, he was okay, but it was the third time I'd seen his 'gory' stage show in the past 18 months or so, so it was somewhat predictable (best time, I ever saw Alice Cooper was on the 'Special Forces' tour at Manchester Apollo in 1982, when he was absolutely awesome).
So, there you have it, some of my memories of the 1987 Reading Festival. Hope to get back with posts on the 1989 and 1995 Reading Festivals.
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