The day heavy metal ruled the world — video footage and setlist from Day Two of US Festival 83

The day heavy metal ruled the world — video footage and setlist from Day Two of US Festival 83

Thirty seven years ago, one of the most ambitious rock n’ roll festivals took place at the Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California, USA over four days although the event was marketed as a three day event during Memorial Day Weekend. The three main days for the festival were split as the “New Wave” Day, “Heavy Metal” Day and “Rock” Day with heavy metal as the clear winner since “Heavy Metal” Day set a new single day concert attendance record with reportedly 375,000 tickets sold out of a total of 670,000 for the entire four days of the festival. The bands that ended up playing on “Heavy Metal” Day at the US Festival 1983 were Quiet Riot, Mötley Crüe, Triumph, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions and Van Halen with the latter getting paid $1.5 million for their performance.

Wikipedia provides the following background for the US Festival (with slight edits):

“Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple and creator of the Apple I and Apple II personal computers, believed that the 1970s were the “Me” generation. He intended the US Festivals, with Bill Graham‘s participation, to encourage the 1980s to be more community-oriented and combine technology with rock music. The first was held Labor Day weekend in September 1982, and the second was less than nine months later, over 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 near Devore, San Bernardino, California, just south of the junction of Interstates 15 and 215. (This site was later to become home to Blockbuster Pavilion—now Glen Helen Amphitheater—the largest amphitheatre in the United States as of 2007.) The festival stage has resided at Disneyland in Anaheim since 1985, and has operated under various names and functions as the Videopolis dance club, the Videopolis Theatre, and the Fantasyland Theater.”

The reprise of the US Festival on Memorial Day Weekend in 1983 is described as follows (with slight edits): “The reprise festival ran for three days, this time at the helm was Colorado-based promoter Barry Fey, who with Wozniak added a fourth Country Day a week later. In late May, its first day weather was slightly cooler at 95 °F (35 °C), but air quality conditions in the region were the worst in four years. The total attendance was reported at 670,000; the festival still lost $12 million. There were two reported deaths.”

Quiet Riot’s setlist on May 29, 1983 (as per setlist.fm):
01. Danger Zone
02. Run For Cover
03. Love’s A Bitch
04. Cum On Feel The Noize
05. Slick Black Cadillac
06. Let’s Get Crazy
07. Battle Axe / Guitar Solo
08. Let’s Get Crazy
09. Metal Health (Bang Your Head)

Quiet Riot‘s set at the US Festival 83 in San Bernardino, California, USA on May 29, 1983:

Mötley Crüe’s setlist on May 29, 1983 (as per setlist.fm):
01. Take Me To The Top
02. Looks That Kill
03. Bastard
04. Shout at The Devil
05. Merry-Go-Round
06. Knock ‘Em Dead Kid
07. Piece of Your Action
08. Live Wire
09. Helter Skelter

Mötley Crüe‘s set at the US Festival 83 in San Bernardino, California, USA on May 29, 1983:

Ozzy Osbourne’s setlist on May 29, 1983 (as per setlist.fm):
01. Over The Mountain
02. Mr. Crowley
03. Crazy Train
04. Suicide Solution
05. Revelation (Mother Earth)
06. Steal Away (The Night)
07. Drum Solo
08. I Don’t Know
09. Flying High Again
10. Fairies Wear Boots
11. Iron Man
12. Children of The Grave
Encore:
13. Paranoid

Ozzy Osbourne‘s partial set at the US Festival 83 in San Bernardino, California, USA on May 29, 1983:

Judas Priest’s setlist on May 29, 1983 (as per setlist.fm):
01. Electric Eye
02. Riding On The Wind
03. Heading Out To The Highway
04. Metal Gods
05. Breaking The Law
06. Diamonds & Rust
07. Victim of Changes
08. Living After Midnight
09. The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Clown)
10. Screaming For Vengeance
11. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
12. Hell Bent For Leather

Judas Priest‘s set at the US Festival 83 in San Bernardino, California, USA on May 29, 1983:

Triumph’s setlist on May 29, 1983 (as per setlist.fm):
01. Too Much Thinking
02. Allied Forces
03. Lay It On The Line
04. Never Surrender
05. Magic Power
06. World of Fantasy
07. Rock & Roll Machine
08. When The Lights Go Down
09. Fight The Good Fight

Triumph‘s set at the US Festival 83 in San Bernardino, California, USA on May 29, 1983:

Scorpions’ setlist on May 29, 1983 (as per setlist.fm):
01. Blackout
02. Don’t Make No Promises (Your Body Can’t Keep)
03. Loving You Sunday Morning
04. Make It Real
05. Lovedrive
06. Coast To Coast
07. Always Somewhere
08. No One Like You
09. Can’t Live Without You
10. Holiday
11. Another Piece of Meat
12. Dynamite
13. The Zoo
14. Can’t Get Enough

Scorpions performing “No One Like You” live at the US Festival 83 in San Bernardino, California, USA on May 29, 1983:

Van Halen’s setlist on May 29, 1983 (as per setlist.fm):
01. Romeo Delight
02. Unchained
03. Drum Solo
04. The Full Bug
05. Runnin’ With The Devil
06. Jamie’s Cryin’
07. So This Is Love?
08. Little Guitars
09. Bass Solo
10. Dancing in The Street
11. Somebody Get Me A Doctor
12. Dance The Night Away
13. Cathedral
14. Secrets
15. Everybody Wants Some!
16. Ice Cream Man
17. Intruder
18. Oh, Pretty Woman
19. Guitar Solo
20. Ain’t Talkin’ About Love
21. Growth
22. Bottoms Up!
Encores:
23. You Really Got Me
24. Happy Trails

Van Halen‘s set at the US Festival 83 in San Bernardino, California, USA on May 29, 1983: