Rock and rolling back to the year
Anton Rippon takes us on a journey to the year that gave us the first Monsters of Rock festival and the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday
THE summer of 1980 was an exciting time for Derbeians – a royal birthday party, a carnival, and, just a few miles away, a major rock music festival. It all added up to a summer of fun.
People probably thought that they deserved it after the most challenging of winters.
The UK had endured several weeks of atrocious weather, and in Derbyshire freezing rain and fog had conspired to turn the county’s roads into virtual skating rinks, with a number of serious multi-vehicle accidents on the M1.
Some drivers and passengers suffered their injuries after they escaped their vehicles only to slip on icy roads. Pedestrians in the city arrived at the DRI’s casualty department after falling on icy pavements. It was certainly a winter to forget.
When the weather finally warmed up, Derbeians were ready to savour every chance to get outside and to have some fun – and there were plenty of opportunities.
A number of events had been planned to celebrate the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, culminating, in August, with an open-air service in Derby’s Market Place.
It was attended by ex-servicemen’s organisations who thanked Her Majesty for showing what the Rev Roy Radley, chaplain to Derby branches of the Royal Naval and Royal Marines Associations, described as “a human face in a very special way which has called out the loyalty and sense of belonging without which a nation can easily lose its heart and disintegrate”.
After the service, a parade took place and the salute was taken by Lt-Col John Stanton, Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, and by the city’s Deputy Mayor, Miss Flo Tunnicliffe.
That summer, the third Derby Caribbean Carnival took place, organised by the local West Indian Association Festival.
The association had been formally founded in December in 1961 and had been organising fund-raising events for some time. In 1975, the first carnival was held, to great success, at the Municipal Sports Ground.
Each year’s event proved more popular than the last and, in 1980, it featured decorated floats, a football tournament and entertainment from steel bands, as well as displays of dancing. It soon became a familiar annual event, its blend of arts, culture, entertainment and recreation drawing interest both regionally and nationally.
For those whose musical tastes were more hard-edged, the summer of 1980 offered something else entirely.
The very first one-day Monsters of Rock music festival took place at Donington Park. It was promoted by Paul Loasby and Maurice Jones and was specifically to showcase hard rock and heavy metal bands.
Although not known for events
outside motor sport, Donington Park racing circuit was considered an ideal location. Maurice Jones knew the track’s owner, Tom Wheatcroft, and its position, beside the M1, the A42 and the A50, and close to the mainline railway stations in Derby, Nottingham and Leicester, offered good access from every corner of the country, while the sloping land gave the audience a better view of the action.
It was anticipated that some 50,000 heavy metal fans would arrive to watch groups like Rainbow, Saxon, and Judas Priest, in the first event of its type in the area.
Yet local residents, who already voiced concerns about noise levels from the racetrack on motor sport days, not to mention from nearby East Midlands Airport, were not looking forward to the event one bit.
Leicestershire Constabulary’s Chief Superintendent Cliff Kendrick reassured them. He was confident that there would be no major problems, and police from three counties – Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire – were mobilised to ensure that things ran smoothly.
A temporary police station was set up at the main gate to the event, and officers from all three forces’ drug squads were in attendance. Traffic issues were minimised by special buses being laid on from Derby and Nottingham railway stations, and a roadblock that was established some distance away from the site.
Only seven arrests were made. Three of those were for drugs offences, two for criminal damage and two for taking vehicles without consent. The event was successful enough that it ran for the next 15 years.