WinterStorm unveils full line up for Saturday 29th November 2025

The Spirit of ’80 – Forty Five Years of Memories

A limited number of weekend and single day tickets are available from www.winterstorm.co.uk 

What does The Spirit of ’80 mean? Well depending on where you come from it means different things but maybe it’s The Reading Festival with Whitesnake, Iron Maiden, UFO, Praying Mantis, Tygers of Pantang, Rory Gallagher, Gillan, Grand Prix, Magnum and Gary Moore’s G Force.

Or perhaps the very first Donnington? Rainbow, Judas Priest, Scorpions, April Wine, Saxon, and Riot? Loch Lomond in the mud with Wishbone Ash, Saxon, Gillan and Krokus?

Maybe it means the old school venues? Glasgow Apollo, Ayr Pavilion, Edinburgh Playhouse? Or the other iconic names on the back of those tour shirts that we never visited – Hammersmith Odeon, Preston Guild Hall, Newcastle City Hall, Sheffield City Hall, Manchester Apollo, Gaumont Southampton or the De Montfort Leicester and dozens more of iconic spots such as The Marquee in Soho and club nights such as The Soundhouse.

Or just go through your collection to view 1980 rock album releases and see why we think that year was just so special and why each time November comes around there’s more than a little bit of its history stitched into the virtual combat jacket of WinterStorm. The vinyl we all bought at our own favourite record stores that year alone – Iron Maiden, British Steel, Ace of Spades, On through the Night, Heaven and Hell, Wheels of Steel, Glory Road, Back in Black, Permanent Waves; the list goes on

And of course the initials NWOBHM started to mean something; alongside Maiden and Leppard and Saxon we all had our own favourites from Tygers, Mantis, Girlschool, Diamond head, Angel Witch, Witchfynde, Vardis, Demon and more.

WinterStorm 2025 – 45 years on..

Just scroll through the list of live performances on the WinterStorm YouTube channel and you’ll see tat from the very first booking, The Spirit of 1980 has always been around WinterStorm.

Like so many who come every year, it was the teenage live music experiences (shared by the organisers 45 years ago that sowed seeds that eventually grew into WinterStorm in 2016. The Ayr Pavilion and The Apollo in Glasgow provided the introduction to, and the seduction by, live rock and metal music, for so many of us in the west of Scotland, and WinterStorm has in some ways tried to re-enact or at least pay homage to over the years.

The Saturday on both the main Steve Strange and Sessions stages will dive deep, deep, deep into that Spirit of ’80 and provide the closest we’ve ever had to an individually themed day WinterStorm has ever put on! If you were about in 1980 and can only do a day then this is certainly the ticket for you!

The festival has slowly ticked off many of the heroes of that era since its beginnings and this year will tick another one of those “Spirit of ‘80” boxes when it welcomes Iron maiden founder and legend Steve Harris back to Ayrshire and the Troon stage with his band British Lion. 1980 saw Maiden perform with Praying Mantis in support at The Piv in Ayr and Harris’ British Lion will bring their straightforward rock n roll approach to WinterStorm on the same Saturday evening as those perennial crowd favourites and Soundhouse stablemates Praying Mantis who toured with Maiden on that first 1980 UK tour.

WinterStorm has always prided itself in the list of legends on the Steve Strange mainstage and that’s why it’s been so important for us to finally be able to welcome Steve Harris to Troon but The Spirit of ‘80 theme (and indeed the essence of the 1980 Reading Festival) will play a strong part of the Saturday proceedings with NWOBHM alumni DEMON joining Praying Mantis on the main stage. The early sounds of Magnum will be kept alive by the superb Kingdom of Madness and in between, the memories of the Irish metal, blues and rock influence of 1980 will be paid tribute to by the amazing Pat McManus Band who will celebrate the sounds of Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher, Bernie Torme and perhaps even a wee bit of Mama’s Boys – all of who performed at Reading 45 years ago!

The Raven Age are hailed as one of the finest bands in modern British metal and their sound is unashamedly influenced by Maiden and the melodic influences are there. Kerrang put it thus, “What The Raven Age do is straight-up metal. No bells and whistles, no hard turning into TikTok trends, but a collision of “trad metal… with modern metal nuance.”

The Saturday, will be kicked off by another band promoted from the 2024 Sessions Stage with the welcome return of Scottish hard rocking’ band Victory or Die – with the band name inspired by a visit to Lemmy’s haunt Whisky a Go Go!

The Sessions Stage bar is raised yet further throughout Saturday with a host of early eighty reference points including three bands with a strong link to Steve Harris – Gypsy’s Kiss (Harris’ first band back in ’74) Tony Moore’s Awaken, (a member of pre album Maiden) and the classic metal sound of AirForce (with Doug Sampson also early Maiden drummer). Kev Riddles’ Baphomet will tie the 80’s knot even tighter with an early Angelwitch set. The after show party will stay on message with a set by locally based AC/DC tribute High Voltage.