Death and violence mar US Festival

News

Liam Lacey
The Globe and Mail

May 31, 1983

San Bernardino, Calif. -- The US Festival lost its innocence Sunday when an awesome 300,000 people jammed into the Glen Helen Regional Park, closing highways in the surrounding area for hours. The occasion was Metal Day, featuring a lineup of rock music's most hard-core macho acts, including Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Triumph, The Scorpions and headliners Van Halen. Not surprisingly, it was also the occasion for the first eruption of violence in the two-year history of the Festival.

Few fans knew about the ugliest incident; a 23-year-old California man was clubbed to death in the parking lot early Sunday morning. The victim, James Dean Estel, was struck on the head with a tire iron after an argument over a drug deal. Local police arrested 22-year-old David Planton and an unnamed 17-year-old girl in connection with the incident.

Early yesterday morning, the crowd breaking up from a concert by Van Halen tore down fences, tossed objects at each other and at sheriff's deputies, and crashed their cars into police cars. By yesterday afternoon there had been 102 arrests since the beginning of the Festival on Saturday.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Floyd Tidwell said on Sunday that the more than 800 deputy sheriffs on the site "were on pins and needles. What's going on out there is an absolute zoo." Steve Wozniak, the Apple computer inventor who is financing the Festival, expressed fear when told the size of the crowd. "I'm worried," he said. "I don't like it." But he later challenged the Sheriff's contention that the show was oversold.

The worst area was a 300-yard-long pit directly in front of the stage, an area that one official described as "like the fall of Saigon." Because the stage is at the bottom of a slope, the effect was like a glacier of human flesh crushing against the four-foot-high barriers in front of the stage. Security guards were kept busy lifting out people (including some in wheelchairs) who were crushed against the barriers. The audience, which was predominantly long-haired, white and male, was much rowdier than the Saturday's opening-day crowd. Women who ventured near the front of the stage complained of being sexually mauled.

Some of the people lifted over the front wall were bloody on their faces and chests, though the director of medical services, Dr. Dean Gross, said he was surprised how few injuries there were. In all, 1,600 people were treated for minor injuries.

Drunkenness was common, and the fenced-off beer area was like a bike gang's summer picnic, with bodies passed out or sleeping amid piles of empty plastic beer glasses and other trash.

Apart from the slope in front of the stage, though, it was possible to move about relatively easily, and for a hard-core metal crowd, particularly for the largest heavy metal crowd ever assembled, the mood was almost relaxed. As on the first day, the crowd was tranquillized by the combination of constant video entertainment on the giant screens, and the stupefying effects of 31-degree heat, smog and swirling dust.

Things weren't much easier for the performers. Michael Levine, bass player for the only Canadian act on the bill, Triumph, said the conditions were " pretty oppressive. You couldn't seem to really catch your breath too well because of the smog. My hands were filthy after 15 minutes of playing. "

He was less than enthusiastic about the crowd in front of the stage: " They've taken every drug they had, drunk all the liquor they could grab and are busy frying in the sun. I guess they're having a good time. "

Levine said Triumph took the date in lieu of a four-day run at California's Long Beach arena. " It wasn't money. We could have made more by doing the Long Beach gig. Obviously, though, this is a once-in- a-lifetime thing, with a lot of national exposure. "

" It's just like any other show really, but because it's outdoors you get a little less communication with the audience. If you get the evening slot, that means you get to use the light show, and then whatever band is on looks terrific. But that's what rock and roll is about - the kids want that bigger-than-life show. "

The day turned into a marathon battle-of-the-bands contest as each act tried to top the previous band's ability to excite the crowd. Former Black Sabbath member and infamous bat-biter Ozzy Osbourne won the morning set, edging the tough British band Judas Priest. (Later, when Osbourne attempted to hold a press conference, he was mobbed by the rock press. He became visibly upset, and he and his bodyguards were forced to flee.)

In the evening, the German heavy metal band The Scorpions, dressed in black-and-yellow outfits that made them look like wasps, put on a powerful light show, warming things up for the local favorites, the Los Angeles-based Van Halen.

Before Van Halen hit the stage, the audience was either treated or subjected to another Ray Bradbury-scripted video story that just about perfectly captures Steve Wozniak's hippy-dippy intentions behind the Festival.

A " flying saucer " (suspended from a hovering helicopter lost high in the smog) came winging in over the site, and a picture of a man dressed as an extra-terrestrial appeared on the screen in a tin-foil suit, with an accent that suggested he came from the same part of the galaxy as E.T. There is a good deal of conversation about how beautiful earth is (replete with shots of swans, flowers opening, waterfalls and other Hallmark Card images). The extra-terrestrial says he has come to collect earth's dreams, at which point the camera cuts to various people from the Festival saying their dreams: universal peace, harmony and such. The show inspired The Clash's Joe Strummer to call Wozniak " a Moonie. " The heavy metal crowd was more enthusiastic about the peace, love and understanding approach than the first day's new wave audience.

No one understands better than Van Halen how much heavy metal audiences like things marked out in big, bright cartoon vividness. Van Halen's singer, David Lee Roth, called a press conference before his show, apparently for the sole purpose of trying to one-up The Clash, who had called a press conference the night before. Roth's conference was even more crowded than The Clash's had been, for the Van Halen group has been the backstage talk of the Festival. It's evident the Van Halen camp has crew members who are better-looking, more muscular and more beachboy handsome than even the stars of most of the other bands.

The Van Halen Compound, which is separated from the rest of the backstage area, has been described as a " rock and roll Disneyland. " It has four full-time bartenders working round the clock for the band and its large contingent of hangers-on.

Roth finally emerged, only half an hour late, wearing a revealing fringed top and tiger-striped, clinging pants. He promptly lay down on a table for cheesecake-style poses. The encounter was bizarre: Roth comes across as something that might have been dreamed up on The Muppets show - an odd combination of jive talk, Mae West come-ons, Rod Serling impressions and stand-up comedy. Asked about The Clash, Roth said it " is too serious. I mean, no one gets out of here alive anyway, do they sugar? The Clash is trying to overthrow the social order, create a better world and break in a new drummer all at the same time. That's a heavy load. "

Roth also said " life is a game with winners and losers. But it doesn't matter if you win or lose, as long as you look good, " and he disappeared shortly after asking a photographer: " Is that a camera you're holding or are you just happy to see me? "

Van Halen's performance was also a masterpiece of vulgar showmanship on Roth's part, and of some devastatingly good guitar work by Eddie Van Halen, who confirmed his position as the most innovative guitarist in mainstream rock today with some brilliant, sputtering leads. As impressive as Eddie Van Halen's show was, the band never forgot the primary concerns of its massive audience. " We all know what we're here for, don't we? " asked Roth, and the press listened in disbelief as he recited the hackneyed holy trinity of heavy metal: " It's sex (wild cheers) . . . drugs (wilder cheers) . . . and rock and roll . . . "

The collective groan of the press corps was easily swamped by the tumultuous response of the audience.