Elvis Costello And The Attractions @ Heatwave Festival 1980

Elvis Costello And The Attractions @ Heatwave Festival 1980

This is what happens when I’m “forced” to go looking through my negatives and slides. History jumps up and bites me! Grrrr! Woof! Chomp! But hey … love bites are a good thing! Especially when they involve a group of bands culled to put on the first “punk/new wave festival” in 1980. Yeah okay. First off … I’ve always hated musical descriptors like “new wave”. Make me want to puke, and or jump up and bite someone … with love of course. The Heatwave Festival was a “first of its kind”, a show that brought together bands like, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds & Rockpile, The B-52s and others for a long day of amazingly vibrant music. The Clash were supposed to play but pulled out a few weeks prior to the show.

I went to the show with my then girlfriend Dorothy, and my cousin Martin. We drove the almost 9 hour drive from Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey all the way to Gosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada for the show on August 23rd 1980. Though I’m sure we might have traveled the day before and camped out up there. And by camped out I mean—slept in the car! Camp? Me camp? That would have been one hell of a day, and one hell of a 550 mile ride to do all in one day … watch all those bands and then traveling back to NJ! Oi! I’m sure it was just one long and insanely crazy weekend!

And I must be honest … I really don’t remember a lot from the show other than, I went, I had fun, I took photos, I survived, and I returned home. Past that … I got nothing! Well … except photos of most of the big acts … including Elvis Costello. It wasn’t the first time I saw Elvis & it certainly wasn’t my last.

There are others who have blogged about the event and I’ll link to those sites, rather than bore you with any more sketchy recollections of a weekend long gone by. But via the wonder that is the Interwebs, there are many videos (some below) and news reports on YouTube (also below) than can be had.

Hope you enjoy the photos & videos. Thanks for stopping by.