The Monsters of Rock festival, held at Donington Park, Leicestershire, England every summer had become a fixture in the rock fans' calendar since its inception in 1980. A one-day event featuring six or seven bands held in the centre of a motor racing circuit, it attracted star names such as Rainbow and AC/DC as headliners in the past. In 1983, the headliners were to be blues-rock stalwarts Whitesnake, topping a bill which aimed to mix old and new rock acts. Special guest was none other than Meat Loaf, who despite having gone on to make more music since his breakthrough album 'Bat Out Of Hell', was still strongly associated with that record. Texan blues-boogie masters ZZ Top were also on the bill, at the request of David Coverdale, along with up-and-coming shock rockers Twisted Sister. Rounding out the bill were Dio (who were making their debut UK appearance, having formed only months before) and openers Diamond Head, who had changed style somewhat with their 'Canterbury' album.
For me personally, this was a big event; only my second Monsters of Rock and the band I was looking forward to seeing the most was Dio. I'd become a big fan of Ronnie James Dio's work over the past year thanks to a friend who was a devotee, so much so he spent months tracking down some of RJD's more obscure work (these being the days when the Internet was a distant dream). With him having launched his own band in fine style that year with the 'Holy Diver' LP, the UK debut for his own band was eagerly anticipated.
My memories of the day are a little hazy now but I do remember only catching the end of Diamond Head, being more concerned with getting a spot to enjoy Dio's set. When they came on after a lengthy keyboard intro, and opened with 'Stand Up And Shout' off that 'Holy Diver' LP, something was immediately amiss. The guitar - where was it? Completely inaudible, the set got off the worst possible start as we could see, but not hear, axeman Vivian Campbell. The sound only began to straighten itself out after the second number, but somehow Ronnie James Dio held the whole thing together and that immense voice of his all but made up for the missing guitar. Once we could hear the whole band, it became a short but sweet run through of the choicest cuts from their album, plus a few oldies from his Rainbow and Black Sabbath days. They were only on stage for about 45 minutes, but arguably stole the day. Following this appearance the band returned to the UK in the autumn for a well-received tour.
Next up were Twisted Sister, a band who divided opinion mainly because of their outrageous appearance. Frontman Dee Snider gave short shrift to the infamous bottle-chuckers and after one rant where he offered to 'meet' anyone who cared to take him on personally, they settled and delivered a strong set. Snider, when not fronting up, was a strong vocalist and had to be, to follow Ronnie James Dio.
Things settled down for ZZ Top who delivered what I remember to be a chilled-out set, the highpoint of which was probably 'Tubesnake Boogie'. They hadn't quite broken through in this country yet, although 'Eliminator' was out by then, and it wasn't until two years later that they were big enough to headline this event themselves.
Meat Loaf was probably a bit too theatrical for this kind of event, though he gave a good performance, it didn't really go down that well with the audience who were by this time lobbing plastic bottles filled with dubious liquids everywhere. His set did lean heavily on 'Bat' despite having a new album 'Midnight At The Lost And Found' out at the time.
I've since become a big fan of Whitesnake, but 30 years ago was the first time I'd seen them at all. They had played here once before as special guests to AC/DC two years earlier, but by this time the classic line-up had splintered. David Coverdale had patched together a new line-up for this show and had been working on the 'Slide It In' album with producer Eddie Kramer. A single, 'Guilty Of Love' was rush-released to coincide with this show, and Coverdale's band comprised guitarist Micky Moody and keyboard player Jon Lord from the 'classic' band, with Cozy Powell coming in on drums, veteran blueser Colin 'Bomber' Hodgkinson on bass and former Trapeze guitarist Mel Galley completing the line-up. The latter had been working as a stagehand at this event 12 months previously; now he was part of the headline act.
Despite these changes to the personnel, it was still 'early' Whitesnake; the band adopted a quasi-military image for the occasion, styling themselves as 'Whitesnake Commandos', dressing in combats for the publicity photos and issuing T-shirts in khaki green with 'IV Donington Campaign '83' written in stencil-type lettering on the back. On stage however, it was jeans and T-shirts as usual. The set featured some of the older songs being played for the last time, including 'Lovehunter' and the Deep Purple classic 'Mistreated', and Coverdale is on record as having almost become overcome when the crowd took over 'Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City'.
The set went over well, and was filmed for a later video release. Behind the scenes however, things were still tempestuous. Moody quit shortly after this show after a backstage dispute with Coverdale, and soon afterward 'Bomber' Hodgkinson followed suit. The album sessions they'd been working on with Eddie Kramer were completely discarded and Coverdale started afresh, recalling bassist Neil Murray to the ranks and recruiting hotshot guitarist John Sykes from Thin Lizzy. He also brought Martin Birch back to the producer's chair, but the turbulence caused a planned run of UK dates at the end of 1983 to be cancelled, and rescheduled for spring 1984.
It was only the beginning of a tempestuous period for Coverdale and his troops of course, which ultimately would lead to huge success across the pond, but that is something for a completely different article!
Here is Whitesnake with 'Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City' from Donington 1983:
Whitesnake - Ain't no love in the heart of the... by trashking
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