Talking Heads @ Heatwave Festival 1980
Dusk was falling when they hit the stage. The sun setting, and a full moon rising. This is not the author waxing poetic. It’s just the facts, Jack! We were here to see Talking Heads @ Heatwave Festival 1980. The sun was setting in Mosport Park , Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada that warm summer night when Talking Heads hit the stage. It was an incredibly beautiful Saturday night—August 23rd, 1980. We had already seen a host of bands, including The B-52s, The Pretenders, Nick Lowe & Dave Edmonds with Rockpile. Was it worth the then whopping $20.00 per ticket price and the six hour drive? Oh yeah! For Talking Heads alone!
I had not seen Talking Heads since 1978, when they played the auditorium at CW Post Center of Long Island University … where I also photographed them. It was one of the first shows I saw, while attending CW Post. So when Talking Heads hit the stage, the band had grown considerably from the original four members. But for the new Afro/Funk sound the Heads were pumping out these days … I was sure happy they were all there!
The show was nothing short of magical. With dusk falling, on this amazing summer night, the moon rising—which you can see in a few of my photos of Tina Weymouth—and the expanded, funked up, Talking Heads sound pumping through the PA. Yeah … pretty amazing!
Since doing some searching on the Interwebs … I found the entire Talking Heads set for that entire show on YouTube.
I probably haven’t really “looked” at these photos since I took them. I do remember having prints of them, but lord knows where they are thirty-five years later. Though looking at the negatives I do know some were cut horribly, which also leads me to belive they were just Kodak processed and printed. I say that because the machines always had difficulty cutting thin live photo negatives. But I did the best with what I had, and have. I literally had to tape some negative strips together to get a full frame and I also retouched as many of the scratches I could in Photoshop.
It’s funny, I don’t remember a whole lot about the circumstances surrounding getting to the show. But having to scan and “touch” each negative, there are things that start coming back—because each photo has recorded a moment in time. Even though I was in the crowd, and had pushed my way to the stage, I had forgotten there were other photographers above me on “press scaffolding” in front of the stage. You can clearly see other photographers crouching above in some of my shots. Also just seeing the blues of dusk, as the sky loses light, and seeing the full moon rise … just added to the magic—then and now. With these strong visual cues, I am transported back to that moment. And what an incredible moment it was!
Hope you enjoy the photos! If you were there … please leave a comment.
