I did post this story before but it seems it's been archived and doesn't get picked on the search thing on here.
Bingley Hall sounds so grand, and I'm sure it is, but the gig took place elsewhere on the estate in what I can only describe as a very large cattle-shed/warehouse thing. I'm suprised it had electricty and it smelt bad. The only other facilities were some porter-loos and a little club-house pavilion thing bar that wouldn't have been out of place beside a village cricket green. We also had the draconian licensing laws in 81 so it only opened 12-2pm and 7-10pm. Nowhere else to buy food/drink and we were probably about six miles outside Stafford but there was an infrequent bus service back into town.
I don't remember The Sisters playing, but a mate who was also there has assured me we did. All I can say is that the set-list wouldn't have rocked my boat plus their sound was somewhat eclectic in those days. Maybe Floorshow would have had me swinging my pants but that's about it. Plus as Mr Marx said, broad daylight, no lights, no smoke and a very small opening crowd.
Everyone was kicked out of the shed at the end of the night as we were'nt even allowed to sleep with the beer cans. However there was a cattle parade ring outside and they did allow us to sleep in the little grandstand that overlooked it. The organisers even handed out black bin liners to kip in. A thoughtful gesture.
Next day was a trip into Stafford to get fed and back for the second day. From my hazy memory half the bands on the flyers never appeared and others took their place which was par for the course in them days.
Highlights in no particular order were Gang Of Four, The Passions, Simple Minds (with Jim Kerr throwing up behind the amp stacks between songs and being rushed to hospital straight after the main set with food poisoning. Anything to avoid an encore), Bow wow wow (with every other crowd shout being 'Annabel get yer tits out!'), a strange Bauhaus performance (far too gothy/zodiacy/black magic for me) and a god awful performance from a band who shall remain nameless and who staged a 20min sit-in on stage and had to be forcibly removed. The mere mention of their name is enough to send me back into therapy.
So after 48 hours of sleeping in the same clothes we trudged home grimy but happy. Much like a modern two day festival but as kids we weren't rich enough to own a tent to be burgled.
@ HO - As I said behind the scenes, top buy on ebay with the identickets and thanks for making me prise mine out of their album to discover the photo of an 19 year old JB staring back at me.
Here endeth Grandad's story-time ...
