The Pretenders- Heatwave Festival 1980

Wow! Where I live right now we're in the middle of a heatwave, +30 degrees temperatures with extremely humid conditions. I'm sitting in my non-air conditioned house sweating as I write this and it reminded me I should post something from the Heatwave Festival, 30 years ago today.

I don't know where you were 30 years ago, but I definitely was not near Toronto where the festival took place. Instead I was clearing tables at a restaurant for my summer job (I was in high school around this time). I vaguely remember this festival, there was a lot of pre-event hype as it was promoted as the "New Wave Woodstock" and "1980 Big Beat Rock and Roll Party". The festival was plagued by the cancellation of one of it's headliners (The Clash) and the money accusations between the backers and the park management. The event reportedly lost millions of dollars. Over 100,000 people attended the event which was noteworthy because of the importance of the bands that did play, as you can see from the poster, there was some great talent.

I have some recordings by some of the bands from that day, appropriately I'll post them all today to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Heatwave Festival. First up, The Pretenders with the great original line-up of Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott, Pete Farndon and Martin Chambers. The band had released their debut album earlier in the year, so their performance was highly anticipated...and it was excellent!

THE PRETENDERS
Heatwave Festival
Mosport Park
Bowmanville, Ontario
August 23, 1980

01 Precious
02 The Adultress
03 Kid
04 Space Invader
05 Private Life
06 Brass In Pocket
07 Stop Your Sobbing
08 The Wait
09 Louie Louie
10 Porcelain
11 Tattooed Love Boys
12 Up The Neck
13 Audience
14 Mystery Achievement

PRETENDERS- Heatwave Festival 1980. rar