The end of what seemed to be like another era of SAMSON, the one that was pre-Bruce Dickinson and the one with the soon to be IRON MAIDEN's vocalist. At the famous Reading Festival of 1981, Bruce Dickinson performed for the very last time with SAMSON right before his future changed forever. SAMSON was quite high on the bill for the second day of the festival, just a few steps from ROSE TATTOO, TRUST and GILLIAN. In general, the festival saw some of the bigger names of Rock and NWOBHM such as KINKS / WISHBONE ASH / GIRLSCHOOL / BUDGIE / 38 SPECIAL / SAGA and you might even notice GENESIS's Steve Hackett as one of the special guests. In 1990, a decade after that special concert, the "Live At Reading 81" was released. Dissonance Productions reissued that chapter in Metal history along with a few bits of a rehearsal for SAMSON's "Shock Tactics" album, which was just recently reviewed by yours truly.

I heard and read all that I could find about SAMSON's Reading Festival show, and after listening to it, I understood its importance. Yes, there were very few mistakes of the new drummer, Mel Gaynor, but in general, the show was outstanding, enthusiastic and filled with energy. Furthermore, the engineering work on the sound of the show made it even better than some of the band's studio albums, thanks to Chris Tsangarides remixing, even with a few feedbacks here and there that couldn't be scratched off.

I caught an immensely strong vibe out of Bruce Dickinson and Paul Samson. The former showed his signature captivating hold of the audience, utmost charisma as a frontman and those pipes, good lord, like a giant shout out from down under and off to the skies. Truth be told, Dickinson has always been my idol as a vocalist, but that show sealed in stone one of his finest moments before joining IRON MAIDEN. As for the latter, Mr. Samson, R.I.P, the energies that swarmed the stage took his guitar playing into new heights. Other than the riffing, which can be deemed as your average Hard Rock meets Heavy Metal of the time; Samson displayed such a massive lead guitar ability, which in a live version was beyond expected, especially after listening to the studio albums. I cannot say that I noticed anything out of the ordinary from Chris Aylmer, R.I.P, yet the guy knew how to keep the band in check. As for Mel Gaynor, which became better known after his stint with SAMSON, becoming the drummer of the British Pop act, SIMPLE MINDS, he added those wicked double kicks to the older material and took it a level up.

The chosen list for the show crossed the first three albums discography. In overall, it was a good set, less of the past obscurity and more into the tough Hard Rock / NWOBHM edge; most of the songs were from "Head On" and "Shock Tactics" albums. However, I would have added "Tomorrow Or Yesterday" in the middle of the set, which could have served like a mild balladry right before kicking in with "Bright Lights" that is a Hard Rock piece. The performances of "Earth Mother", "Riding With The Angels", "Big Brother", "Bright Lights" and the final clincher "Gravy Train" took me away, letting me relive one of the best and frenzy moments of the surging British Metal.

As mentioned, the reissued version of Dissonance includes three tracks out of the sessions of the SAMSON's third album "Shock Tactics". These trio songs were remastered in a rather good quality, presenting three tokens, which only two, "Red Skies" and "Turn Out The Lights", will reappear in the later SAMSON discography as official. Not too shabby, yet not overly impressive. However, another piece of history that matters.

The Reading Festival of 1981 was an iconic show for SAMSON, its release in 1990 reserved the SAMSON name as the band went from top to bottom and vice versa.