DVDs & Books
PLANET ROCK 113MONSTERS OF ROCK
1980-1996
John Tucker
RUFUS PUBLICATIONS++++
“WHAT motivates 50,000 spotty, greasy
young people to don tribal uniform and
bang their heads in pseudo-nihilistic
fashion at these muddy affairs?” mused
music writer Chris Roberts in August 1985,
having been dispatched to Donington Park
to review the sixth annual staging of the
Monsters Of Rock festival for Sounds. At
face value, the answer to this sneering
enquiry was simple – a deep and
unabashed love for Heavy Fuckin’ Metal,
duh! – but on a deeper level, the
world’s first bespoke rock/metal
festival acquired mythic status
worldwide not solely because of the
premier league talent it attracted,
but because it represented an
essential rite of passage for the
most dedicated Headbangers,
Earthdogs, Rivet Heads, Hell Rats
and Metal Maniacs, to borrow a
phrase from Iron Maiden, who drew
a record crowd of 107,000 punters
for their debut headline slot there
on August 20, 1988.
At its core, the Monsters Of
Rock events were about
camaraderie and community, an
annual gathering for the world’s
most dysfunctional family,
providing a rare and cherished
opportunity to salute, en masse,a vibrant outsider culture which the
mainstream music industry, as Roberts’
patronising attitude demonstrated, largely
dismissed, if not actively despised.
Collating hundreds of photographs
from Ross Halfin, Tony Mottram, George
Chin and more, alongside text from
respected rock writer John Tucker, this
weighty (and, at £130 for the ‘standard’
edition, pricey) chronicle of the festival is
absorbing, informative and wonderfully
nostalgic. There are some missteps – a
quote attributed to former promoter Stuart
Galbraith references, apropos of nothing,
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich’s non-
appearance at Download 2004, mistakenly
links it to his own rival Sonisphere event,
and suggests the Danish drummer was
replaced, for the gig, by one “Joey
Lombardo” rather than Slipknot’s Joey
Jordison and Slayer’s Dave Lombardo – but
such glitches, happily, are rare.
Elsewhere, Tucker’s dedication of the
book to Landon Siggers and Alan Dick, two
young men who tragically lost their lives
during the 1988 event, is a gracious touch.
DAV E HARRINGTONThe official illustrated history of the
world’s most famous metal festival.one memorable review in The Village Voice,
New York’s bohemian cultural record,
dismissed the trio as having “a sound like
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enhanced Worldwide Texas Tour in ’76/’77,
some 1.2 million tickets were sold for what
actor Billy Bob Thornton remembers as “a
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into one”. Frank Beard recalls receiving a
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endorsing heroin as “a vacation for the mind.”
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rehab ensured an extended break for his
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men, returning to Texas with a newfound
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tor, which, via a series of striking videos
featuring what we’re contractually obliged to
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Dunn and McFayden chose to end the story,
a shame given some of the bold curveballs the
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Still, as with Beyond The Lighted Stage,
it’s the love and laughs shared by the three
musicians which lingers longest. “With these
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honestly say the same.
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Nudie pics:
ZZ Top in
their youth.Mark me absent:
Lars at MOR ’95.