Reminiscing by the Older Bear

Funny how, sometimes, a conversation can trigger memories of a long forgotten event.  This evening, Mrs B was telling me about the son of an ex work colleague of hers (long and convoluted link alert) who fronts a band called JS and the Lockerbillies. This band have secured a set at this year's Glastonbury. Admittedly, on one of the minor stages, but no mean feat none the less. The conversation then turned to the variety of bands that get an airing at this festival. At this point, the old synapses fired up and I recalled seeing Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band at a Reading Festival. Around 1987, I thought. No! It was 1979, as I discovered here after a search for a line up that rang some distant bells.
My memories of the trip are a little hazy, not totally due to the passage of time, I'm afraid. There were four of us on the trip, the bass player from the band I was with at the time. I shall refer to him as Martin, because that is his name. There was also a friend of ours called Eamon and, I think, some bloke called Nick. Nick came along because he had a cousin who was working at the festival on security (more on this later).
We travelled to Reading in Martin's Moskvich . This was a vehicle of  Russian origin and was.........quirky. The steering wheel appeared to be only loosely attached to the front wheels causing it to wander gently from side to side at speed. Well, when I say, "speed" I am using the word advisedly. It was also prone stall at inopportune intervals requiring judicious application of a hammer to the carburettor in order to free the sticking float. However, my Bedford CF van was off the road, so it was the Moskvich or nothing. After work on Friday, we chucked an old canvas bell tent and sleeping bags into the boot and headed off into the sunset. I don't recall taking food or changes of clothes.There was a tin of Irish stew that appeared over the weekend and ended up on the ground instead of being eaten, so I suppose we did not travel completely unprepared. We did take some vegetable matter along, so we were well ahead of the "5 a day" thing. We arrived late Friday evening, paid (I think) £7 to camp for the weekend and set the tent up. I do not recall seeing any bands that night, so I guess it was over for the evening by the time had got sorted.
Saturday morning (ish), we left the campsite and headed for the arena. This is the bit where Nick and his cousin came into their own. Nick's cousin was down to man the trade gate for the weekend. All we had to do was go and find him, wait for the coast to be clear and he would let us in. You are expecting some tale of discovery, retribution and flight are you not? Sorry to disappoint - it worked like a dream both days. We just had to keep our sleeves rolled down so no one would notice the lack of wrist bands. We saw most of the bands, but I only really remember Root Boy Slim (odd), The Gillan Band (brilliant) and Steve Hackett (excellent - "Clocks" is a great track). The Scorpions were on instead of Thin Lizzy, but I do not remember anything of their set. I do remember the vegetable curry that I bought for lunch that day, but probably for the wrong reasons. After the last set, we headed back to the tent. It was standing in six inches of water in the middle of a swamp, so we slept in the car.
Sunday was in in a similar vein. Sneak in the trade gate and catch the bands. Again, I only remember Whitesnake and Peter Gabriel (I am sure that Chester Thompson was playing drums, but can find nothing to confirm this). Phil Collins also made an appearance during the set. I do recall being disappointed that The Ramones were replaced by Nils Lofgren.
That was the only festival that I have attended. I apologise for my sketchy memories of the weekend. I do recall some of the less popular bands being deluged by a tsunami of beer cans (both empty and full - not necessarily with beer).
 I am now quite happy to confine myself to watching footage of Glasto on the telly.