Remembering the Heatwave Festival on its 40th anniversary
On August 23, 1980, more than 50,000 people showed up at Mosport, the racecourse near Bowmanville, Ontario, for a punk-and-New-Wave festival called Heatwave. On the bill were Talking Heads, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Teenage Head, The B52s, and more. (The Clash was on the posted but didn’t appear. The Ramones were rumoured to be on the bill but didn’t perform.)
The night was closed by The Kings from Oakville, Ontario, who had just released their debut album, The Kings Are Here, which was the first thing Bob Ezrin produced after finishing The Wall with Pink Floyd. They were also about to have a big international hit with “The Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide.” Their only hit, sadly.
Some new footage has emerged from that day 40 years ago. Cool!
Here’s a link to 40 minutes of audio from Elvis Costello’s set at Heatwave. His comment to the audience after the first song: “Hello, we’re The Clash.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qna3zSEQ-to
Remember it fondly.Drove up from Buffalo,camped the night before.I took pictures,and still have my stub.
We did the same. If we were in the same camping field (farm?), we were the ones with our home made speaker boxes on our car roof connected to a powerful (for that time) stereo in our car, playing music from our punk and new wave home made cassettes (we called them party tapes, now called “mix tapes”), and drew a very large crowd around our car, all dancing and moshing. We even picked up all the remnant beer bottles and cans the next morning before heading in to the concert.
This concert initiated me into the world of live punk-new wave at 16, when me, my best gal pal and 2 older guys from highschool me up at 4am to drive to Mosport. I was p****d that the Clash weren’t going to show because of some BS with Elvis Costello, so didn’t give him much love, opting to rev up for Teenage Head, the Pretenders, the B52s and Talking Head. I kept my poster til it fell apart, but still have my ticket, now a badge of a new decade of new music! What a hoot!
Remember it like yesterday. I was invited to be part of KID security and was given a post backstage at the artist compound where they had a heliopad. There I was at the post closest to the stage. I didn’t meet many performers or celebs because they were chauffeuring them with a limo through the main gatte.
Chrissy Hynde didn’t bother with the limo and walked through my gate but later a big time producer( Bob Ezrin) and two with him went through. Later on Bob Segarini RIP and future MuchMusic producer John Martin RIP were hanging out with me giving me rye and cokes. I worked 36 hrs straight with a 2hr break so I managed to catch some of the show when the Talking Heads were on. Lots of stories more of you want.