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Monsters of Rock was an annual rock music festival held every August at the Castle Donington racetrack from 1980 - 1996 . Monsters of Rock festivals have also been organized in other cities around the world. MONSTERS OF ROCK AT CASTLE DONINGTON History Attendance at the first festival in 1980 was 35,000, and this continued to grow until the 1988 show when 2 fans died in a crowd surge during the Guns N' Roses slot. The festival was cancelled in 1989 because of this. When it was held in 1990 , the attendance was capped at 72,500. In 1997, as the event had always been a one-day festival, organisers would add on a second day only to have the event cancelled shortly after. In 2003 the year after the Ozzfest festival took place at the same venue after two visits at the Milton Keynes Bowl ( 1998 and 2001 ) and a Stereophonics concert at the same venue in 2001 , Download Festival took over where Ozzfest had left off and is seen by some as a successor to Monsters of Rock. In 2006 another festival by the name of Monsters of rock is to be held at Milton Keynes Bowl it is to be headlined by classic rockstars Deep Purple and Alice Cooper as a special guest. Festival Lineups 1980 16th August 1980: First "Monsters Of Rock" Festival Rumour has it that a member of Touch swallowed a bee while performing onstage. The whole event was recorded and later released as an LP and cassette 1981 22nd August 1981 Blue Oyster Cult had only recently parted company with drummer Albert Bouchard, and his place was taken by a roadie. One lacklustre set later, singer Eric Bloom was presented with a memorial plaque which he proceeded to jump on and smash 1982 21st August 1982 1983 20th August 1983 1984 18th August 1984 1985 17th August 1985 1986 16th August 1986 This concert is notable for Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen's return to live performance after the 1984 car accident that severed his left arm. The main event belonged to German-rockers Scorpions, who were still riding on the tail of their successful 1985 World Wide Live Tour (promoting their 1984 album Love At First Sting ) during the heigh of the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal rock style. That was the era referred as "innocent yet skillful" hard rock, where live performances used to rule over studio over-producing. Scorpions delivered an enchanting 14-song set list that cemented the teutonic band's status as Rock and Roll hall of fame-bound. This is considered by critics and fans as the most successful Monsters of Rock tour ever. The Bad News set was filmed for the "More Bad News" episode of the Comic Strip Presents. Many fans thought this was a waste of a slot, as Bad News were a 'joke' band made up of Comic Strip actors. Motörhead's set was interupted mid way through when someone threw a firecracker on stage. 1987 22nd August 1987 The show ended with a jam session with Bon Jovi being joined on stage by Paul Stanley ( Kiss ), Bruce Dickinson ( Iron Maiden ) and Dee Snider ( Twisted Sister ). They performed Creedence Clearwater Revivals 'Travelling Band' and Grand Funk Railroad's 'We're an American Band'. Bruce Dickinson didn't actually join in, he just prowled around the stage in Union Jack shorts and asked the crowd if they'd like Maiden to appear next year. Metallica were also invited but they refused because Bon Jovi had been flying with helicopters over the audience while they were performing. 1988 20th August 1988
Largest crowd ever, approx 100,000. This was the year 2 people were crushed to death during the Guns 'N' Roses set. 1989 No festival this year Monsters of Rock was canceled in 1989 because of the deaths of two fans during the Guns N' Roses performance in 1988. This was widely reported to have been due to fighting in the crowd, however, in reality it was nothing more than people at the front of a 35,000 crowd moshing and slipping in the mud (it had rained heavily). Unfortunately this was followed by the crowd pushing forward, which led to the two fans being crushed {Link without Title} . Nevertheless, it was replaced with another gigantic rock festival which took place in Milton Keynes with Bon Jovi headlining. 1990 18th August 1990 1991 17th August 1991 AC/DC's set was recorded and released as a live DVD. 1992 22nd August 1992 Iron Maiden released their set as a video and live CD. A lot of this was filmed and shown on MTV Headbanger's Ball. 1993 No festival this year 1994 4th June 1994 Main stage: Second Stage: After just performing two songs, Biohazard was ejected from the second stage at the Monsters Of Rock festival by the organisers for allowing crowd invasion on stage, then proceeded to vent their frustration by smashing up their dressing room and was removed from the venue as a result. The band would be allowed to perform again two years later on the Main Stage with the obligatory tighter security. 1995 26th August 1995
The event was called 'Escape From The Studio '95', as Metallica were taking a break from recording their Load album. 1996 17th August 1996 Main stage:
Kerrang! Stage: Donington's only joint-headline date was widely regarded at the time as being more of a "special guest" slot for a pre- Ozzfest Ozzy Osbourne. KISS, who performed last, had returned to the make-up and theatrics of their early days. However, the day was regarded as being most significant for two major events in the history of Nu-metal . Sepultura were forced to perform as a three-piece after the death of the adopted son of vocalist Max Cavalera . Guitarist Andreas Kisser filled in for the absent singer, who had returned to Brazil for the funeral, but this was seen as the start of events that lead to the collapse of the band. The second major event was the first UK festival appearance of Korn . The second stage was sponsored by Kerrang magazine, who had prepared a short list of five bands to be voted in preferance order by the readership. Korn was not on this list, and the general expectation was that Type O Negative would become headliners on this stage. However, the magazine had included a write-in slot on the ballot, expecting to be able to find a popular but minor UK band to open up on the stage. When the numbers came in, Korn had received more write-in votes than Type O Negative had first votes. The hugely over-crowded bowl that housed the second stage was further proof that the underground Korn were becoming a major act. MONSTERS OF ROCK FESTIVALS IN OTHER LOCATIONS Monsters of Rock in other locations include: Argentina 1998
2005
Brazil 1996
Bulgaria =2006 03 August - 07 August Varna, Bulgaria A Monsters of Rock festival is to be held up in Varna, Bulgaria in the summer of 2006. Unlike other festivals with the same name, this one has been planned to take place in five consecutive nights. The bands list up to this date includes:
If conducted as planned, the festival is going to be the biggest Monsters of Rock festival to date and by far the largest heavy metal event ever to be held in Eastern Europe. France 1988
Germany 1983
1984
1988
1991
Italy 1988
1992
The Netherlands 1988
Spain 1988
Sweden 1984
1986
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