Steve Tyler (vocals) / Joe Perry (guitars) / Brad Whitford (guitars) / Tom Hamilton (bass) / Joey Kramer (drums)
Now, you’re going to hate me for this, but… I really did not like Aerosmith when they played Reading. It was quite simply not the type of music that I wanted to listen to. Not even with the gift of a free 45 (Draw The Line promo) could I be converted. Instead I took the single home and eventually chucked it out; it’s probably quite valuable now. I just felt that Steven Tyler’s shouting drawl was not really the way that I wanted to spend my sixty minutes right then. Fortunately, my ear has changed a lot since then but so has the direction of the band which has helped. Now I have two or three Aerosmith albums and play them regularly, but my growing appreciation of the band has been a slow process. The music press at the time also slagged off this performance so I clearly wasn’t that bad a judge on the day! And apparently lead singer Steven Tyler hated playing Reading so much that he refused to come back to Britain until some twelve years later.
The 3rd September Melody Maker write-up for the weekend had this to say: “Aerosmith were on a hiding to nothing at Reading. So big in the States, so tiny in Britain. Though they did nothing at the festival to merit breaking through here, I was surprised at their firm grasp of r&b, particularly on the encore, ‘Toys’. But that doesn’t hide the fact that they are mere imitators of The Stones, and who needs imitators? America, obviously. I mean, Aerosmith were forgotten as soon as Graham Parker and The Rumour played one song…”
Setlist: Mama Kin; S.O.S. (Too Bad); Big Ten Inch Record; Lord of the Thighs; Lick and a Promise; Dream On; Walking the Dog; Sweet Emotion; Walk This Way; Draw the Line; Same Old Song and Dance; The Train Kept A-Rollin’; Toys in the Attic.
There are videos out there of the performance that day.
Here’s what the official newspaper programme had to say about the band…
And here’s a sew-on patch that I bought long after the gig…
Gigs'n'Stuff 