It was August 22nd 1987. We travelled in the back of a packed Ford Transit van to the Monsters Of Rock music festival at Castle Donington in Derbyshire in England. Incredibly that is 38 years ago. It seems like another life time.
Bonjovi headlined the festival. I remember them flying over the biblical multiple of rockers and revellers waving and out of two white helicopters with Bonjovi emblazoned in red on the sides of the helicopters.
WASP were playing at the time and they seemed annoyed and disgruntled at the helicopter sideshow.
WASP really rocked and played a tight set and played my favourite song of theirs: " I Wanna Be Somebody".
They were a true archetypal hell raising Rock and Roll band with lost of Anglo Saxon expletives and crude jokes thrown in.
Lead singer Blackie Lawless referred to Moses crossing the Red sea and the biblical multitude of the 100,000 plus crowd gathered there that day.
Flash forward to around 2016. My friend who regular emails me and we go on our annual trip to a Blighty Prog festival and English literature tour.
He Informed me that Blackie Lawless had become a Born Again Christian and he recorded an album called Golgotha. Which means: "The place of the skull".
I watched the following amazing video and it brought home the horror of crucifixion and what Jesus went through on this day: Good Friday;
Have a great Easter weekend.
I like the video, I just listened to it. I have just reminded people on my blog about Easter and some of the great art that can be found in churches about the Stations of the Cross. Great post and memories Dave. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rachel. I found the video incredibly disturbing and very well done both visually and with the music and lyrics accompinament. I will pop over and look at your post.
DeleteBlackie Lawless is a great name for a lead singer. Is he a West Indian gentleman? As for Jesus, it has recently been suggested that his surname was Platt.
ReplyDeleteBlackie is a New York white American man YP. Full praise that other Yorkshire man Harry Maguire who some how found the Mufc get out of jail card last night.
ReplyDeleteSuch drama in Old Trafford! Many had already left. Anxious Amorim must have been mightily relieved. At Hull City fans got used to chanting simply, "Harry! Harry! Harry!" What a hero!
DeleteIt was like 1999 revisited. Brian Clough said : " It only takes a second to score a goal". United always do it the hard way. Football is still the most entertaining on it's day.
DeleteWhat a wise man Clough was: " It only takes a second to score a goal"! He was the Confucius of The East Midlands... Actually, he hailed from MIddlesbrough, Yorkshire - util the effing Tories changed the county boundaries.
DeleteHe was. If anyone should have been the England manager is was Cloughie. The boundary changes were stupid. George Formby Lncashire's finest comedian is buried in Warrington in erm, Cheshire.
DeleteLancashire's finest. That's cheap discount supermarket reading glasses for you.
DeleteDid you mean Lincolnshire - where the nice sausages come from?
DeleteNo.
DeleteIt's funny how some hell raisers find religion later in life.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was not a very good person and was never religious at all but suddenly turned to God quite late in her life when she hoped there was some chance of getting into heaven. It didn't change her selfish, spiteful nature much though.
Fair points JayCee. I think we all want to make peace with our maker and think about the life after this. I use to go an Anglican evangelical church and Christian music festivals in my youth and early twenties. Then I drifted away but I still visit old churches when I am on holiday in England or abroad like Portugal.
ReplyDeleteMy husband was at the same festival all those years ago! We're off to see Wasp in July, they're playing at our local Rock City in Nottingham, so should be interesting!!
ReplyDeleteHi Mrs L H. It was a good festival. Cinderella and Dio and Bonjovi were great. I believe Rock City is a great rock venue. I was at Stonedead in 2023 to see Blue Oyster Cult. Fantastic band.
ReplyDeleteAh, the good old Monsters of Rock days! I only went twice, on a day pass as opted out of camping - once to see Metallica (took our daughter) then not so long ago to see Motley Crue, but enjoyedBlackberry Smoke much more!
DeleteP.s. Stonedead isn't very far away from us!!
DeleteIt was a great festival with far better line ups than Download and Bloodstock have Mrs LH. A New Day Festival near Canterbury is well worth a trip. It's only 5000 people, 2 stages and most punters are over 50. I went last year. Stonedead is a good and very reasonably priced one day festival. It reminds me of a miniature Monsters Of Rock. Only thing is they sell out the ticket allocation before they announce the line up. I saw Metallica at Donington once.
ReplyDeleteCastle Donnington, Leicestershire?
ReplyDeleteThanks Anonymous. You are right. It's on the border with Derbyshire. The village is very nice. Thanks!
ReplyDelete