89 replies to this topic

[Frank Verplanken]

Did any of you attend one of the Music Festivals held on racing tracks in the 60s/70s ? Road Atlanta hosted at least a couple of those Woodstock like gatherings (1970-71). Watkins Glen also had one I think later in the decade. Didn't Donington Park have big concerts too ? Was the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival held on the Laguna Seca Raceway ground (still rent from the army at the time I believe) ? Thanks.

[Darren Galpin]

Donington Park still does - known as the Download Festival. There is also the Rock am Ring at the Nurburgring each year.

[philippe7]

I'm pretty sure at least one big concert was held at Ontario Motor Speedway in California in the late 70's.

[Gary C]

that would be Deep Purple in 1974

[Gary C]

known as the 'California Jam', ELP were also on the bill I think. There's a video out of Purple's performance, it's the one where Ritchie Blackmore destroys a TV camera with guitar--good stuff!!

[philippe7]

Well, this means there were at least two, because I was thinking about another one and I just found it (unsurprisingly, in one of the books I have about my favourite artist Neil Young ) .

August 3rd, 1974 : Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Beach Boys, Joe Walsh and Barnstorm, Jesse Colin Young and The Band ......Tickets: $ 12,50 !!!!!

[Jim Thurman]

There definitely were two "California Jam" concerts at Ontario Motor Speedway. The latter in Spring of 1978. OMS likely hosted a few other concerts as well.

Riverside had the occasional concert in the infield on the Saturday night of a race weekend. OMS had at least one or two Saturday night concerts as well.

The '67 Monterey Pop Festival was held at the County Fairgrounds in Monterey.

And, I guess we don't even need to get into Altamont :

I think there were some other tracks that hosted "festivals", but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

I never made one of these outdoor "festival" style shows, be they stadium or race track. The concerts I saw generally were in airplane hangars (sports arenas)

Good thread Frank

[WGD706]

The Pocono International Raceway was considered, but when the promoters heard of the
availability of the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway, they immediately made plans
to talk with raceway officials there. Both the town of Watkins Glen and the
racetrack management were accustomed to handling large crowds, and since the
event was to be a one-day affair, few obstacles prevented a contract from being
signed. The promotors promised to limit ticket sales to 150,000. Privately,
raceway officials doubted whether the rock promoters could sell even 100,000
tickets. But more power to them. They had certainly paid a considerable sum to
rent the facilities for the day.

The largest crowd that ever gathered for a rock festival did so at Watkins Glen,
New York, in July of 1973. Outdrawing the previous high at Woodstock almost two
to one, more than 600,000 young people sardined themselves into Watkins Glen
Grand Prix Raceway for a single-day festival known as the Summer Jam. Featured
groups were the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and the Band.

Many historians claimed that the Watkins Glen even was the largest gathering of
people in the history of the United States. In essence, that meant that on July
28, one out of every 350 people living in America at the time was listening to
the sounds of rock at the New York state racetrack. Considering that most of
those who attended the even hailed from the Northeast, and that the average age
of those present was approximately seventeen to twenty-four, close to one out of
every three young people from Boston to New York was at the festival.

And yet, aside from the stupendous attendance figures, the musical and social
significance of the even was minimal compared to, say, Woodstock or even
Altamont. Watkins Glen is more important for what it *wasn't*.
http://www.superseve...atkinsglen.html

[P 4 Staff]

Originally posted by philippe7
Well, this means there were at least two, because I was thinking about another one and I just found it (unsurprisingly, in one of the books I have about my favourite artist Neil Young ) .

August 3rd, 1974 : Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Beach Boys, Joe Walsh and Barnstorm, Jesse Colin Young and The Band ......Tickets: $ 12,50 !!!!!

Well Philippe...My favourite guitarman of all time..JOE WALSH...I have all his records.
Staffan.

[WDH74]

Apparently Canned Heat did a gig at Meadowdale International Raceway, in about 1970, a couple years after racing ceased there. Heard about it on WXRT, during a Saturday Morning Flashback show.

-Wm.

[Gerr]

Mosport,
The Strawberry Fields Motorcycle Races and Rock Concert. Just about 35 years ago.
Procol Harum
Mountain
Grand Funk Railroad
Sly and the Family Stone
Melanie
Alice Cooper
Ten Years After
Crowbar
Jethro Tull

[Hieronymus]

Originally posted by P 4 Staff


Well Philippe...My favourite guitarman of all time..JOE WALSH...I have all his records.

Staffan

Joe Walsh. He is the chap from THE EAGLES...? How is he doing lately? He looked pretty worned out on the HELL FREEZES OVER DVD from a couple of years ago. Nothing wrong, though, with his musical talents.

[P 4 Staff]

Originally posted by Hieronymus


Staffan

Joe Walsh. He is the chap from THE EAGLES...? How is he doing lately? He looked pretty worned out on the HELL FREEZES OVER DVD from a couple of years ago. Nothing wrong, though, with his musical talents.

Hi Marius.
I guess Joe is doing allright. He´s on tour with The Eagles and plays at Santa Barbara Bowl today.

Best: Staffan.

[ggnagy]

Joe was also appearing as a recurring character on "The Drew Carey Show" in the later seasons of the show. Basically, he played a "regular joe" version of himself (ie, not a rock star).

ObTNFContent: Which Maserati could Joe have been singing about in "Life's been good"

[P 4 Staff]

Originally posted by ggnagy
Joe was also appearing as a recurring character on "The Drew Carey Show" in the later seasons of the show. Basically, he played a "regular joe" version of himself (ie, not a rock star).

ObTNFContent: Which Maserati could Joe have been singing about in "Life's been good"

I pulled out the record and played the song.
Joe just sings "my Maserati"...but he obviously drove too fast (185)...cause he lost his licence
Just kidding. He is my guitar hero anyway.

Best: Staffan

[P 4 Staff]

Joe has also played with "Ringo"...whitch I actually met and talked to in 1964.
And believe me..."Ringo" is one of the most entertaining and talkative man I have ever met.
He´s simply "The Greatest".
Staffan.

[HistoricMustang]

Sorry, somewhat off topic but still interesting events at Watkins Glen:

http://www.autoweek....rticleId=101074

Henry

[Frank Verplanken]

Thanks for the feedback freaks . Nice to learn about the Ontario, Meadowdale and Mosport things. This last one must have been great - Mountain, Sly Stone, Jethro Tull : lovely (and the Alice Cooper gig would have given me the oppotunity to go see the bike races ). ELP at Ontario would have make my day too !
Thanks for clarifying the Monterey question Jim
Henry : thanks for the link, but I seem to remember some cars still being sacrified in The Bog as late as 1980 (pics in the relevant GPI I think ?) ? Did they really bulldozed the Bog as early as 1974 ?
Anyone on Road Atlanta ?

[LittleChris]

I went to the first Donington ' Monsters of Rock Festival in August 1980. Line up was:

Rainbow - Richie Blackmore seems to like playing at race tracks !
Scorpions
April wine
Saxon
Riot
Touch

I know this cos I have a record of the gig !

I also went a couple of years later and can remember the following playing:

Whitesnake
Meat Loaf
ZZ Top - Very Very Very loud !!
Twisted Sister

Gutted that I missed the year that the mighty Slade played !

[JohnS]

There's a festival at the new Nurburgring every year, isn't there? I think REM headlined this year.

John

[JohnS]

Originally posted by LittleChris
I went to the first Donington ' Monsters of Rock Festival in August 1980. Line up was:

Rainbow - Richie Blackmore seems to like playing at race tracks !
Scorpions
April wine
Saxon
Riot
Touch

I know this cos I have a record of the gig !

The mighty Rainbow! My favourite band of my teenage years!!

And Judas Priest appeared too, I seem to recall, although they weren't on the record.

John

[LittleChris]

Blimey, I forgot about Rob Halford & friends poncing about the stage that year.

[Andrew Kitson]

Not a festival, but Pink Floyd and David Bowie both played at Brands Hatch in June 1967 at a Radio London sponsored club meeting.

[Mallory Dan]

Radio 1 Roadshows in the mid-late 70s here. There was certainly a gig of some sort at the 78 July Mallory meeting, Darts I think. And did Indylantic ever put on any shows, they were definitely connected to the 'Pop-world', or liked to think they were anyway !

[James Page]

The infamous Rolling Stones concert where the Hell's Angels got carried away was at Altamont Speedway in 1969. Think it was supposed to be at Sears Point, but they pulled out.

[Gary C]

you're not THE James Page are you???? lol

[James Page]

Legendary rock guitarist and Nostalgia Forum regular...

Sadly not.

[Graham Clayton]

The Eastern Creek circuit in Sydney was the venue in the 1990's for a number of rock concerts and festivals including Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam, the Alternative Nation Festival in 1995 which featured Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More and Lou Reed as well as the Colossus 2 dance festival in 1997 which featured Italian group Cappella.

[Frank S]

Semi-parallel thread here:

http://forums.autosp...a...t&p=2544326

[Glengavel]

I went to the first Donington ' Monsters of Rock Festival in August 1980. Line up was:

Rainbow - Richie Blackmore seems to like playing at race tracks !
Scorpions
April wine
Saxon
Riot
Touch

I know this cos I have a record of the gig !

I was there too. Put me off festivals for life! Judas Priest were there as well; probably left off the recordings due to arguments over performing rights. Sadly, Rainbow were by that time past their best, and were fronted by the screeching Graham Bonnet.

[Glengavel]

Joe was also appearing as a recurring character on "The Drew Carey Show" in the later seasons of the show. Basically, he played a "regular joe" version of himself (ie, not a rock star).

ObTNFContent: Which Maserati could Joe have been singing about in "Life's been good"

"Classic and Sportscar" had an article about Joe's Maserati some months ago, IIRC.

[Fabio Kart15]

The great post punk band The Cure did a show in the Nurburgring Nordschleife at 1986:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAhrVR2x8r0

[La Sarthe]

Bringing things up to date, they've started doing concerts at Le Mans on the Friday and Saturday nights (the latter when the race is on ). They're located on the outfield next to the Dunlop bridge. Normally I've ignored them (unknown French popstars) but thoroughly enjoyed The Stranglers this year. Surprisingly you couldn't hear the cars, apart from between songs (blame the diesels )

No more heroes any more............

Peter

[Steve O'Brien]

I went to see Michael Jackson at Aintree in the 80's it was his (BAD) tour.

[Arjan de Roos]

Bringing things up to date, they've started doing concerts at Le Mans on the Friday and Saturday nights (the latter when the race is on ). They're located on the outfield next to the Dunlop bridge. Normally I've ignored them (unknown French popstars) but thoroughly enjoyed The Stranglers this year. Surprisingly you couldn't hear the cars, apart from between songs (blame the diesels )

No more heroes any more............

Peter

Indeed I heard them in the back ground. The stage is where the ferry wheel used to be some 10 years ago. It is a strange combination. I do like a good concert, but when I am at a track, racing has my priority. It is a bit like eating meat and fish at the same time.

At the Hockenheimring as well as the Nurburgring so call Freiluftkonzerte have been organised for years. I recall visiting the German GP at HH in the late eighties when they advertised Tina Turner.

[Ian Smith - Diz]

I went to see Michael Jackson at Aintree in the 80's it was his (BAD) tour.

I didn't, but I was there regularly at the Peacock Racing Drivers' School in those days.
The first motor sport event after Michael Jackson's gig was a motor bike race meeting,
or more to the point would have been if it wasn't for the burger and chip wagons at the concert.
They were set up around the Club Corner Hairpin to cater for the 100 to 125 thousand crowd.
Once they had left, there was so much fat and grease on the track, it was impossible to stand up on the tarmac,
let alone race a motor cycle. This race meeting was cancelled as a result.

[Phil Rainford]

Bringing things up to date, they've started doing concerts at Le Mans on the Friday and Saturday nights (the latter when the race is on ). They're located on the outfield next to the Dunlop bridge. Normally I've ignored them (unknown French popstars) but thoroughly enjoyed The Stranglers this year. Surprisingly you couldn't hear the cars, apart from between songs (blame the diesels )

No more heroes any more............

Peter

I agree thought they were fantastic

PAR

[Phil Rainford]

Once they had left, there was so much fat and grease on the track, it was impossible to stand up on the tarmac,
let alone race a motor cycle. This race meeting was cancelled as a result.

Bet Gehard Berger would have raced !!

PAR

[Frank Verplanken]

Last Grand Prix I went to was Magny-Cours three years ago. The Centennary race. Was there for the Roger Waters concert. Syd Barrett had died a few weeks before and Nick Mason came on stage for the last part of the show (as he was here for the historical cars parade). A nice outdoor show with a big stage about outside the last turn of the track.

[Steve O'Brien]

I didn't, but I was there regularly at the Peacock Racing Drivers' School in those days.
The first motor sport event after Michael Jackson's gig was a motor bike race meeting,
or more to the point would have been if it wasn't for the burger and chip wagons at the concert.
They were set up around the Club Corner Hairpin to cater for the 100 to 125 thousand crowd.
Once they had left, there was so much fat and grease on the track, it was impossible to stand up on the tarmac,
let alone race a motor cycle. This race meeting was cancelled as a result.

I should have been racing there that day myself the track should have been cleaned before we all arrived at the circuit total waste of everybody's time and money.

[Graham Clayton]

The Liverpool Speedway in south-west Sydney hosted the "Amco Supershow" on the 9th of December 1973, according to a photo on the following web page:

http://www.milesago....tists/69ers.htm

No other information about other performers has been discovered.

Edited by Graham Clayton, 04 September 2009 - 03:45.

[Graham Clayton]

known as the 'California Jam', ELP were also on the bill I think. There's a video out of Purple's performance, it's the one where Ritchie Blackmore destroys a TV camera with guitar--good stuff!!

Gary C,

6th April 1974 to be exact.

Here are Deep Purple performing "Smoke on the Water"

[pete53]

Not a festival, but Pink Floyd and David Bowie both played at Brands Hatch in June 1967 at a Radio London sponsored club meeting.

A belated correction to this. Both Bowie and the Floyd were at Brands that day but neither performed, they were just paraded around the circuit in an open top car. After the racing finished Episode Six (who included Ian Gillan and Roger Glover who would later join Deep Purple) and Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds played live on a stage set up by the finish line control tower. A shame Floyd weren't performing as I never saw them play live with Syd Barrett as one of their number.

[dolomite]

known as the 'California Jam', ELP were also on the bill I think. There's a video out of Purple's performance, it's the one where Ritchie Blackmore destroys a TV camera with guitar--good stuff!!

ELP

Deep Purple

[Amphicar]

Silverstone has had its (allegedly) musical moments - generally the post-Grand Prix concert. This is the 2009 version with Eddie Jordan and co murdering "The Chain":

[Thundersports]

Sliverstone Classic is good for music i've seen a great set by Santana. Last year 10cc and Suzi Quattro played and this year Adam Ant....more my era!

[Lee Nicolle]

The AGP at Adelaide had concerts every year, as does I believe Melbourne now.
And the V8 thupercar event has continued the tradition.
More people go for the concerts than the motoracing, and they can see far more. Though the sound is only average because of the locality, it seems to get lost through the parklands.
They have had some very good acts at various times.

[droopsnoot]

Bringing things up to date, they've started doing concerts at Le Mans on the Friday and Saturday nights (the latter when the race is on ). They're located on the outfield next to the Dunlop bridge. Normally I've ignored them (unknown French popstars) but thoroughly enjoyed The Stranglers this year. Surprisingly you couldn't hear the cars, apart from between songs (blame the diesels )

No more heroes any more............

Peter

This is one of my favourite Stranglers live videos - not very good sound quality or video for that matter, but so much atmosphere, start of the gig at Le Mans in 2009:

They've just played at "Rock am Ring" a few weeks ago with Metallica and a few others, also apparently played at the Silverstone Grand Prix Ball a few years back, with one of the Eddies (Jordan I think) standing in on drums.

Edited by droopsnoot, 22 June 2012 - 09:42.

[Stephen W]

Classical music concert & fireworks every year at the Cholmondley Pageant of Power.

[Ristin]

German newspapers report that the organizer of "Rock am Ring", big rock festival held at Nürburgring, thinks about moving to Finthen airfield for next year's event. The reason seems to be that the owner of the Ring won't sign any contracts for 2013 due to the inextricable situaion with the lessees. I can't imagine this means good news for motorsport events!

By the way: Finthen airfield, located near Mainz, of course has a rich motorsport history in itself.
Ristin