Memories Slane

I remember my first trip to Slane. The year was 1981, it was the inaugural concert at Slane Castle, Thin Lizzy were top of the bill and they were supported by a young Dublin band called U2. There were no CDs, mobile phones or laptop computers, and no Britpop, hip-hop or drum'n'bass. I didn't have a VIP laminate, an Access All Areas badge, or a backstage pass. In fact, I didn't even have a ticket. So myself and a friend crawled under a barbed wire fence, dodged into the woods, and came out somewhere along the back wall of the Castle. After some deft footwork, we found ourselves smack dab in the VIP area, which was something like Rodney and Del Boy ending up at a reception in Buckingham Palace. We grabbed a glass of champagne, and were just about to tuck into the hors d'oeuvres when we were spotted by a security guard, who shouted, "Oi! How did you get in here?". Abandoning our expensive plonk, we bolted towards the main area and managed to lose our pursuer in the crowd. We arrived near the stage just as a youthful U2 were going on to play tracks from their debut album, Boy, and we thought to ourselves, sure isn't it a great oul' rock'n'roll world. Nowadays it's much more boring - I just flash my lammo at the gate and I'm ushered through to the inner sanctum, where I'm force-fed caviar and Dom Pee while Denise Van Outen chatters in my ear. But sometimes I long for those days of my youth, when cheap thrills like cider, soggy sandwiches and sneaking into Slane were all I needed.

Eyewitness: Dave Fanning

Broadcaster Dave Fanning has been at every Slane event since 1981. This year, he will be introducing the acts on stage, along with No Disco presenter Uaneen Fitzsimons

`I Remember the first Slane, standing backstage and watching Phil Lynnott arrive by helicopter. There wasn't such a big vibe about hanging around the castle - everyone was either in the crowd or backstage. 1987 was memorable because I was seeing one of my favourite people fail miserably - David Bowie. That was also the year I got my binoculars nicked. The Rolling Stones in 1982 was like a great big circus, and the stage had these two big catwalks that spread right out into the crowd like a pair of wings. When Keith Richards walked down one of the catwalks, he was standing just 50 yards from us, and that was cool. Bruce was the biggest thing going in 1985, but Slane was the biggest crowd he had played to up till then. Bob Dylan did a solid enough gig in '84, but he played as if he was in the Baggot. Queen was the first Slane where it rained, and there was a bad vibe with the crowd down the front, because there were so many people there.

Eyewitness: Leslie Dowdall

Leslie Dowdall was the singer with In Tua Nua, who opened for Bob Dylan in 1984. In Tua Nua's lineup also featured Steve Wickham on violin, who later joined The Waterboys. Leslie is now a solo artist, and her debut album, No Guilt No Guile, features the hit single, Wonderful Thing. Her second album, Out There, is released at the end of the month

`I have a huge recollection of playing Slane. We couldn't believe our luck - it was one of our first outdoor concerts, and it was an amazing day. We were young, not very well known, and so we were thrilled to be playing Slane in front of 50,000 people. We had just one single out at the time, Coming Through. "After we played, Bob Dylan invited me and Steve Wickham backstage to meet him. We were thrilled - Dylan was a legend to us. He asked us to come on stage and sing with him - I was up there with Dylan, Bono, Van Morrison and Carlos Santana. I didn't own many Dylan records, so I didn't even know the song he was doing, Leopardskin Pillbox Hat. I said to Bono, `what'll I do?' and he said, `just sing la la la!'

"The most embarrassing thing about the day was the dodgy outfit I wore. It was designed by someone who is now famous - I won't mention who - and it looked like a cross between a Venezuelan wedding dress and something out of Dallas. It had massive shoulder pads, an ostrich feather, pencil skirt, big high heels and earrings that looked like CDs. I don't know what I was thinking - I suppose I wanted to get dressed up because it was our big gig. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out, and we thought we'd landed."

Eyewitness: B.P. Fallon

B.P. Fallon was conducting his own radio show, The B.P. Fallon Orchestra, in the year Dylan rolled into Slane. As befits Fallon's status as a friend to the stars, he was spotted having dinner with Dylan in a city centre restaurant after the gig

`Dylan was the most memorable one for me - he had a great band which included Mick Taylor (ex-Rolling Stones) and Ian McLagan (ex-Faces). I watched from the side of the stage, and Dylan was rocking. The best moment was when he and Van Morrison sang It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.

"The worst Slane was definitely David Bowie - all that Glass Spider rubbish and those dancers. Terrible. I didn't go to Queen on principle, because they had played in South Africa during the apartheid regime. I saw The Rolling Stones gig, but it wasn't a patch on their current tour, which is a great show."

Eyewitness: Eamonn McCann

Journalist Eamonn McCann was writing a music column for The Sunday World at the time Bruce Springsteen performed at Slane with no support act

`I've been to practically every Slane, and they've all had their moments, but I would probably say that the most exciting for me was seeing Bruce Springsteen for the first time. Springsteen had the ability to handle a huge crowd, and this was the biggest crowd I'd ever seen. Absolutely gigantic. He played a four-hour set, but there wasn't one dull moment. You really felt at one mind with the crowd, and when he played an acoustic set in the middle of the concert, the entire crowd was completely entranced. Rock'n'roll doesn't get much better than that. I was moving between the main crowd and the VIP area, what I call `the white people's section' where the elite were hanging out, and the class distinction was very pronounced at Slane that year - after all, it is a lord's castle. It was better to be in the crowd and among the people. That's the real test of a performer's authenticity, and Springsteen passed the test, of course. "Another memorable gig for me was Bob Dylan's, because I was standing at the side of the stage, with Bono and Paul Brady, and thinking this was one of those great moments. That was also the year I was passed a joint by a leading member of the Fine Gael party."

Eyewitness: Billy McGuinness

Billy McGuinness plays guitar with Aslan, and when the band played Slane in 1987, as support to David Bowie, they were being hotly tipped to follow U2 into international stardom. It all went a bit awry for them, however, and their many ups and downs have been charted in a recent no-holds-barred biography by Damien Corless, entitled Aslan's Crazy World. The band has just released a Best of . . . compilation, and will soon be releasing a remixed version of their best-known song, Crazy World, in the UK.

`It was all a bit of a blur, because we only had a half-hour set. I said to the crowd, `it's great to be playing in Lord Mount Charles's back garden', and that quote was picked up by the media. We had just done our debut album with EMI, the same company Bowie was on, and that's how we got the gig. Now we're back with the same company after 10 years - it's amazing how things come around! Slane was the biggest crowd we'd ever played - we've played Feile since then, and supported Bryan Adams at the RDS, but that Slane gig was still the biggest. It was a great vibe, mingling backstage with people like Peter Frampton, and the sun even shone. We tried to meet Bowie backstage, because he was our biggest hero, but we couldn't get near him. We didn't mind, though - it was just wonderful to be there, playing in front of all those people. "There's no Irish band playing Slane this year, and I think that's sad. There should always be an Irish band opening Slane. It doesn't matter who it is, I just think someone from home should get a chance. We go on about helping young bands, but we haven't even got one Irish band playing. It'll be the first big gig I've seen where there's no Irish bands - even the Big Day Out had Junkster. "I remember we watched Big Country, who were supporting Bowie as well that day, but really we were just caught up in the whole vibe of playing Slane. We thought, `this is our big break, and we're gonna take on the world'. There were international scouts over from the UK to watch us, and we thought we were going to go all the way to the top.