|
The US Festivals were two early 1980s music and culture festivals sponsored by Steve Wozniak of Apple Computer, and broadcast live on Pay Per View TV. The first was held Labor Day weekend in September 1982 and the second was Memorial Day weekend in May 1983. Wozniak paid for the bulldozing and construction of a new open-air field venue as well as the construction of an enormous state-of-the-art temporary stage at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California. (This site was later to become home to Blockbuster Pavilion—now Hyundai Pavilion—the largest amphitheatre in the United States as of 2007.) Stephan Gary Woz Wozniak (b. ...
Apple Inc. ...
This does not cite its references or sources. ...
Labour Day (or Labor Day) is an annual holiday that resulted from efforts of the labour union movement, to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers. ...
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May (observed this year on 2007-05-28). ...
The San Bernardino skyline viewed from Grand Terrace, California San Bernardino is the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. ...
Hyundai Pavilion (formerly Blockbuster Glen Helen Pavilion) is a 65,000-seat amphitheater located at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore, California, near San Bernardino. ...
The Colosseum in Rome, Italy. ...
2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
History In the years after the confusion of the Woodstock Festival and the crowd-control debacle of the Altamont Free Concert in 1969, most festivals attempted in the United States were small-scale affairs, usually centered around a humanitarian cause, such as the 1979 Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. The 1982 US Festival was the first major festival since that time that was not a charity concert—it was intended to be celebration of evolving technologies; a marriage of music, computers, television and people. It was the first large concert to include video screens to bring the action on stage closer to the audience at the rear of the amphitheater, as well as to Pay per view viewers at home. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was an event held at Max Yasgurs 600 acre (2. ...
Promotional poster for concert. ...
Concerts for the People of Kampuchea was a series of concert and also is a double album from Wings, The Who, Queen, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, The Clash and many more artists of the higlights from series of concerts in Hammersmith Odeon to raise money for the victims of Pol...
The two festivals also included large air-conditioned tents featuring the US Festival Technology Exposition—a dazzling display of then-cutting edge computers, software, and electronic music devices. (See the Softalk article linked below for a walk back in the history of computing.)
Each of the two festivals had hundreds of thousands of people in attendance, but were resounding commercial failures. It is estimated that sponsor Wozniak lost nearly $20 million over two years.
Van Halen received an upfront sum of $1,000,000 to headline the 1983 US Festival. In contrast, The Clash refused to play unless some donations were made to charities or other such noble causes by Wozniak and some of the other major bands. After The Clash performed the DJ began speaking right away and Clash guitarist Mick Jones attacked the DJ believing he was trying to prevent an encore. Van Halen is an American rock band formed in the 1970s. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Mick Jones on stage with The Clash Michael Geoffrey Jones (born June 26, 1955) is an English guitarist and singer best known for his work as lead guitarist with The Clash. ...
This and The Clash's ironic criticism of the festival in the press conferences and in interviews prior to the event caused an argument backstage between Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth and The Clash singer Joe Strummer. This may have also been kickstarted by a comment guitarist Eddie Van Halen made in Rolling Stone magazine one month prior regarding the punk movement ("...that's like what I played in my garage when I was a kid, man."). A clearly intoxicated Roth compounded this rivalry by insulting The Clash onstage early during Van Halen's headlining set with his comment, "I wanna take this time to say that this is real whiskey here... the only people who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is The Clash, baby!" Roth's comment, however, was one of his fairly common and often-used on-stage lines, and in this case it was directed at The Clash. This was Roth's only mention of The Clash on stage that night. David Lee Roth (sometimes referred to as Diamond Dave) (born 10 October 1954, in Bloomington, Indiana) is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality, best known for his work with the band Van Halen. ...
John Graham Mellor (August 21, 1952 – December 22, 2002) better known as Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead singer of the English punk rock band The Clash, The Mescaleros and (temporarily) The Pogues. ...
This article is about the drink. ...
Statue of Jack Daniel at the Distillery in November 2004. ...
"It was the day new wave died and rock n' roll took over" - Vince Neil, in a famous quote regarding the overwhelming attendance on Sunday, "Heavy Metal Day", at the '83 US Festival. It set the single day concert attendance record for the US with an estimated 375,000 people.
Lessons learned at the US Festival contributed to the much greater success of the enormous Live Aid charity benefit shows in 1985. Ethiopia, as its borders were in 1985. ...
Labor Day Weekend, 1982 Three days, 34 hours of music, 400,000 in attendance, 105°F (40.5°C) weather; 36 arrests, 12 drug overdoses, $12.5 million lost. (Bands are listed in the order they appeared.)
Friday, September 3 Gang of Four is an English post-punk group from Leeds. ...
The Ramones (L-R, Johnny, Tommy, Joey, Dee Dee) on the cover of their debut self-titled album (1976), cementing their place at the dawn of the punk movement. ...
The Beat (known in the US as The English Beat) were an essential two-tone/ska revival and pop music group who formed in the Birmingham, UK in 1978 and disbanded in 1983. ...
Oingo Boingo was a critically acclaimed American New Wave rock band better known for their influence, soundtrack contributions, and high energy Halloween concerts rather than their chart successes. ...
The B-52s are a New Wave rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, an important center of alternative rock. ...
Talking Heads were an American rock band existing between 1974 and 1991, composed of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison. ...
The Police are a three-piece rock band consisting of singer/bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers, and drummer Stewart Copeland. ...
Saturday, September 4 Dave Edmunds (born April 15, 1944) is a singer, guitarist and producer from Cardiff, Wales. ...
Eddie Money (born Edward Joseph Mahoney, March 2, 1949) is an American rock musician and singer who found success in the 1970s and 1980s with a string of Top 40 hits and platinum albums. ...
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947), known simply as Carlos Santana or Santana, is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-born American Latin rock musician and guitarist. ...
The Cars were an American Rock band, fronted by Ric Ocasek, that emerged from the early punk scene in the late 1970s. ...
The Kinks were an English rock group formed in 1963 by lead singer-songwriter Ray Davies, his brother, lead guitarist and vocalist Dave Davies, and bassist Pete Quaife. ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (born October 20, 1953 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician. ...
Sunday, September 5 Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco, California. ...
Jerry Jeff Walker, 2002 Jerry Jeff Walker (born March 16, 1942) is a country music singer. ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist, whose introspective lyrics made him one of the standouts in Southern Californias confessional singer-songwriter movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. ...
This article is about the band. ...
Memorial Day Weekend, 1983 Three days (plus a fourth Country Day a week later), 670,000 in attendance, $7-8 million lost.
Saturday, May 28(NEW WAVE DAY) Divinyls (often incorrectly referred to as The Divinyls) are an Australian rock music band. ...
INXS (pronounced In Excess) are an Australian rock group. ...
Wall of Voodoo is a New Wave art - punk group from Los Angeles best known for the 1983 hit Mexican Radio. ...
Multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Stanard Q. Stan Ridgway (born April 5, 1954 in Barstow, California) was the original lead singer for the band Wall of Voodoo, singing on their debut EP and first two albums, including the hit song Mexican Radio. Ridgway left the band in 1983, shortly after the...
Oingo Boingo was a critically acclaimed American New Wave rock band better known for their influence, soundtrack contributions, and high energy Halloween concerts rather than their chart successes. ...
The Beat (known in the US as The English Beat) were an essential two-tone/ska revival and pop music group who formed in the Birmingham, UK in 1978 and disbanded in 1983. ...
A Flock of Seagulls was a British New Wave band that found success in the U.S. in the early 1980s. ...
Stray Cats is a rockabilly band first formed in 1979 by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer (Bloodless Pharaohs/Brian Setzer Orchestra) with school friends Lee Rocker (born Leon Drucker) and Slim Jim Phantom (born James McDonnell) in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. ...
Men at Work Men at Work were an Australian reggae-influenced rock band of the early 1980s. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Mick Jones on stage with The Clash Michael Geoffrey Jones (born June 26, 1955) is an English guitarist and singer best known for his work as lead guitarist with The Clash. ...
Sunday, May 29 (Heavy Metal Day) Quiet Riot is an American heavy metal band, whose 1983 & 1984 success contributed to launching the 1980s glam metal scene. ...
Mötley Crüe (IPA pronunciation: ) is a popular American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. ...
Ozzy Osbourne (born John Michael Osbourne, December 3, 1948 in Aston, Birmingham, England) is the lead vocalist of the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, a popular solo artist, and the star of the reality show, The Osbournes. ...
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in 1968 in Birmingham. ...
Triumph is a Canadian rock band that was popular in the late 1970s through the 1980s. ...
The Scorpions were a beat goup, originally from Manchester in Engeland, but they have become popular notably in the Netherlands. ...
Van Halen is an American rock band formed in the 1970s. ...
Monday, May 30 (ROCK DAY) Los Lobos is an American rock band, heavily influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country music, folk, R&B, blues, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as boleros and norteños. ...
Steven van Zandt (born November 22, 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts) is one of the founding members of Bruce Springsteens E-Street Band and plays guitar and mandolin. ...
Not to be confused with the band Anberlin. ...
Quarterflash is a pop-rock group formed in Portland, Orgon in 1980. ...
U2 are a rock band from Dublin, Ireland. ...
This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
The Pretenders are an Anglo-American rock band. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
Stephanie Lynn Stevie Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer and songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and a long solo career, which collectively have produced over twenty Top 40 hits. ...
David Bowie (IPA: []) (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and audio engineer. ...
Saturday June 4th (Country Day) Riders in the Sky are Joey the Cowpolka King, Woody Paul, Ranger Doug and Too Slim (January 2007) Riders in the Sky is a Western music and comedy group which began performing 1977. ...
Ricky Skaggs, April 1988 Ricky Skaggs1st off Skaggs was known to hate everyone he met. ...
Hank Williams, Jr. ...
Emmylou Harris (b. ...
In 1974 Warner Brothers records agreed to sign Emmylou Harris to a recording deal and asked her to get a hot band, which she did by persuading James Burton, Glen Hardin, John Ware, Rodney Crowell, Hank de Vito and Emory Gordy to form The Hot Band. ...
Waylon Jennings in the 1960s. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Willie Nelson (born William Hugh Nelson, 30 April 1933) is an American entertainer and songwriter, born and raised in Abbott, Texas. ...
Trivia The US Festival stage has resided at the Disneyland theme park in California since 1985 and has operated under various names and functions as the Videopolis dance club, the Videopolis Theatre, and the Fantasyland Theatre.
The US Festival was mentioned in The Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza", where Homer says, "There can only be one truly great festival a lifetime and it's the US Festival!" Simpsons redirects here. ...
Homerpalooza is the twenty-fourth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. ...
External links |
Feeds |
Contact