Please try to make it to the end of this. I’m sorry it’s so long.
This is another of my end of August, end of summer memories, from 40 years ago, August 23, 1980 when I was 17 years old.
This is one of my fondest memories of the time.
I mentioned the other day that my cousins had been visiting from England but had to return home when my uncle was killed in an airline tragedy in Saudi Arabia.
We had bought tickets and were very excited to be going to Heatwave Festival at Mosport Park in Bowmanville.
So I ended up going with my friends Mark Downing and Winston Medford.
Heatwave was labelled to be the "Punk Woodstock ", the “New Wave Woodstock", or "The 1980s Big Beat Rock and Roll Party".
We headed out the evening prior to the festival to the site and planned to sleep in the car. I had borrowed my mother’s Mustang.
When we arrived at the parking area there were thousands of people and cars everywhere.
It soon became clear that there would not be much sleeping going on that night with the huge wild party going on.
We met a couple of guys who had come over from the US and were mainly there to see The Clash play at the festival. Unfortunately, no one had told them that The Clash had some problems at the border and had to back out of the show. They were not happy to hear that.
At the time the price of gas was considerably lower in Canada and the US dollar was doing much better than ours. I asked them if they often zipped across the border for the cheap gas since they lived so close. He said “Man, I would but I can’t go anywhere without at least an ounce of grass on me!”
The parking area was just a huge farmer’s field.
At some point in the night someone decided to set fire to the big barn in the field several hundred metres away. The orange glow lasted for a little while until it burned out. I don’t remember if fire trucks came or not.
I think we did end up sleeping for an hour or so. All we had with us was some warm beer and baloney sandwiches that I had thought to bring along.
What a healthy nutritious breakfast.
A couple of weeks prior to the show I was working on a road construction crew in the Queen/Spadina area in Toronto. I spotted the bass player from Teenage Head coming out of a bar just after lunch time. I recognized him because they had played at my high school AY Jackson.
He was a little drunk but gave me an autograph he signed Steve Head. His name is Steve Marshall. Lol.
He told me that they were set to play at Heatwave. I had no information stating this thought perhaps it was the alcohol talking.
I was pleasantly surprised when sure enough, Teenage Head came blasting out to wake up the sleepy folks still trying to get focused after the night before. Their set was great.
When we entered the concert area the security had set up huge dumpsters for people that hoped to bring in bottles or other undesirable things. They were filled to the brim.
I remember one guy with a large watermelon in a plastic bag. It looked innocent enough to me. The security guy pulled the watermelon out of the bag, jiggled the top of the watermelon and opened it to take a large bottle of booze out. They had hollowed it out to try and hide the bottle.
It was brilliant but didn’t work.
We were smart enough to leave things back at the car.
Now, I don’t personally remember all of the sets these bands did but Wikipedia is kind enough to refresh my memory. Thanks very much Wikipedia!
Look at this lineup!
Don’t get me wrong. I always have and always will love RUSH as the greatest band in the world.
However, when the B-52s call themselves “The World’s Greatest Party Band” there is a reason for it and when I was 17, I wanted to be a part of it. I was a huge fan of almost every one of these acts.
In some cases this was the last time I would see some of them play live.
There are many people in this list who are no longer with us.
Who would have known that on this day the Talking Heads had Adrian Belew playing with them who would go on to join another of my favourite bands of all time King Crimson!
I took this information from Wikipedia.
The groups that played were:
• Vladymir Rogov (opening artist) with his band ARKITEX
• Teenage Head
• BB Gabor
• Holly and the Italians
• Rockpile featuring Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe
• The Rumour without Graham Parker (just after he had gone solo)
• The B-52's
• Talking Heads (at sundown)
• The Pretenders
• Elvis Costello and the Attractions
• The Kings
Teenage Head set list
The reviewer saw "two scraggly guys playing guitar and bass, and a crop-haired singer in long-tailed livery coat and eyeliner. ... good ol' head-banging ramalama punk rock. A large and vocal following cheers them on, and they play with confidence, as if they belong up front of all those people." A year or so later, Teenage Head's live album had a picture from their Heatwave set on the cover. Their set included "Wild One" (from the Frantic City album).
1. Top Down
2. Wild One
3. Picture My Face
4. Some Kinda Fun
5. Little Boxes (Alimony)
6. Fist to Face (Everybody's Growin' Old)
7. Let's Shake
8. Lucy Potato
9. Brand New Cadillac
10. You're Tearing Me Apart
11. Somethin' Else
12. Kissin' The Carpet
13. Disgusteen
14. C'mon Everybody
The Pretenders set list
1. Precious
2. The Adultress
3. Kid
4. Space Invader
5. Private Life
6. Brass in Pocket
7. Stop Your Sobbing
8. The Wait
9. Louie Louie
10. Porcelain
11. Tattooed Love Boys
12. Up the Neck
13. Audience
14. Mystery Achievement
The B-52's set list
Performing the strongest material from their first album and debuting much of the Wild Planet material before the largest live audience they had experienced up to this point.
1. Planet Claire
2. 6060-842
3. Devil In My Car
4. 52 Girls
5. Quiche Lorraine
6. Dirty Back Road
7. Lava
8. Give Me Back My Man
9. Strobe Light
10. Private Idaho
11. Runnin' Around
12. Rock Lobster
13. Dance This Mess Around
14. Party Out of Bounds
Talking Heads set list
The band that toured for the Remain in Light album, including Adrian Belew, performed for the first time at Heatwave as the sun was setting. Their segment began with the four original members and then as the songs progressed, they added musicians and vocalists, including Nona Hendryx (vocals), Busta Jones, Steve Scales, Dolette McDonald, and Bernie Worrell (keyboards).
1. Take Me to the River
2. Psycho Killer
3. Warning Sign
4. Stay Hungry
5. Cities
6. I Zimbra
7. Once in a Lifetime
8. Houses in Motion
9. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
10. Crosseyed and Painless
11. Life During Wartime
Elvis Costello set list
The Heatwave festival was the only 1980 live concert in North America by Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
1. Shot With His Own Gun (sometimes listed as "How does it Feel"), accompanied only by Steve on piano *
2. Accidents Will Happen
3. The Beat
4. Temptation
5. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding
6. Mystery Dance
7. Green Shirt
8. You'll Never Be a Man
9. (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea
10. Secondary Modern
11. Pump It Up
12. Lover's Walk
13. Less Than Zero
14. Big Tears
15. High Fidelity *
16. Lipstick Vogue *
17. Radio Radio
18. I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down
19. Alison
20. Clubland
21. Oliver's Army
22. Watching the Detectives
23. You Belong to Me *
The Kings
Their set started about midnight, and they played for an hour.
1. Borrowing Time
2. Don't Let Me Know
3. Run Shoes Running
4. My Habit
5. This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide
6. Partyitis
7. California Girls
8. One Day Off
9. Go Away
From what I remember the acts that I was most looking forward to seeing live for the first time were the B-52s, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and Rockpile.
I liked the other bands of course but I had already seen some of them.
I recall that the B-52s and Talking Heads were the best acts of the day and did not disappoint.
Teenage Head did pretty dang well playing for thousands when they were mainly playing high schools and bars at the time.
When the show finally ended we dragged ourselves back to the car and made our way out. I’m sure it must have taken a while to get out but I really don’t recall.
I DO recall though that I tried to drive home but was so dang tired I had to pull over and let Mark drive. He was in better shape than I was.
This has always been one of the fondest memories of this period in my life.
**Of highly particular note, this day would be the last time that I would drink alcohol or consume/smoke any substances such as weed, hash etc.
40 years ago.
True story.
Check these fantastic links. Great videos here.
New Music coverage of the festival. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCOuaHEGXYc
Talking Heads - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL228SiyUTw
https://www.festivival.com/history/heatwave-festival-1980
B-52's! https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=194&v=3o7MZWs-fT0&feature=emb_logo
Take care,
Tim
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