1983 in rock: US Festival

The second US Festival, held in San Bernadino, California in May 1983 is remembered today as the event which brought Metal music to wider public attention. The event was held over the weekend of Memorial Day, 28th/29th/30th May 1983 with each day being given over to a themed genre of music. (A fourth day, held a week later, was devoted to country music)

The first day was designated New Wave day, with British acts such as A Flock of Seagulls, The (English) Beat, and The Clash featured, while the Monday was 'Rock Day', with mainstream rock artists including Stevie Nicks, Joe Walsh and David Bowie appearing. However, the 'Metal Day', held on the Sunday, has gone down in hard rock folklore. With a stellar bill including Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne and headliners Van Halen, the attendance for that single day was a reported 375,000. Crüe vocalist Vince Neil described that day as "the day that new wave died and rock and roll took over" in the band's autobiography 'The Dirt'.

Mötley and Quiet Riot went on to have enormous success that year, the former with their second album 'Shout At The Devil' while Quiet Riot, fronted by the ever-controversial Kevin DuBrow, hit the big time with their album 'Metal Health', featuring a cover of 'Cum On Feel The Noize', which became a smash hit for the band, ten years after Slade had huge success with the same song in their native UK. Meanwhile, the veteran German rockers the Scorpions would enjoy several years of US success off the back of this appearance, as would British Metal stalwarts Judas Priest, while Van Halen were to go on to have a huge hit album with '1984', released at the end of 1983.

Despite the huge attendances, at least half of which were attributed to Metal Day alone, the event, plus the earlier 1982 festival, cost main backer Steve Wozniak (then of Apple Computers)  a reported $20 million. This was put down to the fees commanded by the acts who performed; Van Halen were rumoured to have been paid up to $1.5 million to perform and David Bowie also commanded a $1 million appearance fee.


Here are some clips from the Metal Day of US Festival:

Van Halen 'Running With The Devil':

Mötley Crüe 'Knock Em Dead, Kid':


Ozzy Osbourne 'Mr Crowley':


Judas Priest 'Living After Midnight':
 

Scorpions 'No-One Like You':