Episode #18 - Donington 1987
Saturday August 22, 1987.
Like all the summers in one’s youth, it was hot. Mark and Steve were up early to begin an annual pilgrimage to the outdoor cathedral of heavy metal. From all four corners of the British Isles and beyond, thousands of others were beginning their own journeys, a wave of denim and leather converging on an unassuming racetrack in the heart of the East Midlands.
As Mark’s 1978 Ford Capri hauled ass and howled out of leafy Knebworth - itself an altar of musical worship - Steve slammed the specially prepared cassette into the deck. Windows were wound down in spite of the early hour and the cool summer air. Tickets were checked, elbows were thrust into onrushing wind, shades slid into place, Marlboros were lit, Medusa thundered from the speakers.
A hard 25-mile slog through all the challenges that rural Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire had to offer lay between the two mates and a rite-of-passage breakfast of champions fry-up at Newport Pagnell Services. Sausage, eggs, chips, bacon, beans and toast. All the major food groups.
Beyond that, in the shadow of East Midlands International Airport, Blackie Lawless sharpened the blades of his chainsaw codpiece. Ronnie James Dio stood on tippy-toe to meet the venue’s minimum height restrictions. James Hetfield practised his trademark woof! in front of the hotel mirror while, in the room next door, Jon Bon Jovi practised not tripping on the Stars and Stripes flag-turned-cape around his shoulders.
The Monsters were back, and all was right with the world.
Fast forward 33 years to a day of reckoning for albums from three of the bands on that bill as the Sadmen sat in judgment. The rules? Just one. Each of the albums they picked had to have been released closest to the date of the festival. None of the Sadmen could have known at the time just how divisive life was about to become …
W.A.S.P. - Inside The Electric Circus (1986)
Having grabbed the world’s attention in the most spectacular of ways with the 12” single release of Animal (F**k Like A Beast) in 1984, W.A.S.P. followed up with a self-titled debut that dialled down the shock and gore without compromising Blackie Lawless’ happy knack for writing a winning anthemic vocal hook.
The Last Command followed a year later, cementing the band’s growing commercial status, but it was still an album rich on innuendo and sleaze and one which rarely strayed far from the tried and trusted formulae that had worked so well on its predecessor.
It would be an exaggeration to say the band had strayed very much further than that when 1986 rolled around and Blackie, Chris Holmes and co. re-entered the studio for album number three; but the Lawless-produced Inside The Electric Circus did betray the hint of a desire to write songs of greater substance.
But if the lads were fearful that the ever-dependable W.A.S.P. were about to abandon the misogyny that had served them so well in the first year or so of worldwide acclaim, Shoot From the Hip would quickly provide reassurance to the contrary before Side 1 was done.
A greater problem perhaps, the boys mused, was that in taking on production duties, Blackie appeared to have completely overlooked the fact there was a guitarist in the band - one who, when he wasn’t sweating 100% proof vodka, could shred with the best of them …
Anthrax - Among The Living (1987)
As third albums go, it’s a challenge to find one that was more different to W.A.S.P.’s. It’s also a challenge to consider that at the point of its release Anthrax were just another thrashy guitar band from America’s East Coast, eking out a living playing bars and clubs up and down the blue collar seaboard between New Jersey and Philly.
And where Inside The Electric Circus offered a snatched glimpse of more accomplished - dare we say mature? - songwriting, the chasm between what had appeared on the ‘Thrax’s 1985 sophomore effort Spreading The Disease and this release rivalled the Grand Canyon itself.
As Scott ‘Not’ Ian, Joey Belladonna and company stepped out into the Donington sunshine that August day, they were newly initiated but deserving members of what has become known - to Steve’s enduring chagrin - as The Big Four. Reprising the role they had played on the Master Of Puppets UK tour the previous year as undercard players for Metallica, the 60,000 Monsters of Rock fans were among the first to be treated to the full delights of Among The Living in a live show.
Anthrax had arrived. The question was - who was responsible for that success? The band? Or a gentleman by the name of Eddie Kramer … ?
Cinderella - Long Cold Winter (1988)
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away called Philadelphia, there lived a boy called Tom Kiefer. For the purposes of this story, Tom had some twisted sisters living in nearby New York who liked to play with guitars and drums and things. Tom also liked to play music with his poor friends, Eric, Jeff and Fred, and together they went by the name of Cinderella.
But Tom remained envious of the beautiful life his more successful twisted siblings were able to live, thanks to their hideous make-up and irksomely catchy songs.
It made Cinders so depressed that they felt compelled to sing the blues. But one day, they were visited by their Fairy Godjovi, who promised them a record deal with Mercury. The first noises that Cinderella recorded were very good indeed - so good that they called them their ‘night songs’. Lots and lots of people bought them and Tom was finally able to buy new clothes and mascara and hairspray and beads.
Success was intoxicating, and it wasn’t long before Cinderella wanted to make more noises for even more people. Their Fairy Godjovi granted this wish, too, but cautioned them to stay on the path of gold that their collection of night songs had revealed to them so they might find their way to the Castle of Commercial Stardom.
Did Cinders make it to the ball? Or did they get distracted by goblin balladry? Did the future promise a long cold winter or the warm embrace of Prince Charming? Whatever the answers, deciding whether this sophomore album was more pumpkin than crystal carriage led to an unseemly contretemps between Mark and Richard …