•
The Rolling Stones played in front of an estimated 200,000 at Knebworth in August 1976. • In 1979,
Led Zeppelin performed at Knebworth for two concerts, their first concerts in the United Kingdom since 1975. The band reportedly played to record crowds in excess of 200,000 people, even though official admission records only list 109,000 people.
The New Barbarians,
Ron Wood's solo outfit with
Keith Richards played at the second show on 11 August. Support bands included
Fairport Convention and
Chas and Dave. •
The Beach Boys headlined the 1980 Knebworth concert, which would prove to be the last UK performance of the band's original lineup. Drummer
Dennis Wilson would die in 1983 from drowning. Part of their set was released on CD and DVD in 2002 as ''
Good Timin': Live at Knebworth England 1980''. • The 1985 event was the first UK concert by the re-formed
Deep Purple. • On 9 August 1986,
Queen performed their last concert with their original lineup (
Freddie Mercury,
Brian May,
Roger Taylor and
John Deacon) in what was Freddie Mercury's final show with the band. Biographer
Mark Blake writes, "the official attendance was 120,000, but in reality the audience was closer to 200,000." Queen roadie Peter Hince states, "At Knebworth, I somehow felt it was going to be the last for all of us", while May recalled Mercury saying "I'm not going to be doing this forever. This is probably the last time." Queen did not perform live again until after Mercury's death, at
his tribute concert at
Wembley Stadium in April 1992. • On 30 June 1990, the park was the location for The
Silver Clef Award Winners Concert which was recorded with highlights released on LP and compact disc, along with home video on VHS and laserdisc later that year, with a newly remixed edition released on DVD in 2002. A Blu-ray edition with upscaled SD video and high resolution audio (LPCM stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1) was released in Europe in 2015. It included the performances of artists including
Pink Floyd,
Cliff Richard and
the Shadows,
Tears for Fears,
Eric Clapton,
Dire Straits,
Elton John,
Paul McCartney,
Robert Plant (with
Jimmy Page),
Phil Collins,
Status Quo and
Genesis. Pink Floyd's complete set was released with newly remixed audio on multiple formats (180-gram 45 r.p.m. double LP, compact disc and digital platforms) on 30 April 2021. • In 1996,
Oasis, who were supported by
the Charlatans,
Kula Shaker,
Manic Street Preachers,
the Bootleg Beatles,
the Chemical Brothers,
Ocean Colour Scene and
the Prodigy, played two shows with an audience of 125,000 per night. • In 2003,
Robbie Williams headlined at the main stage in Knebworth over a three-day period, drawing crowds of over 375,000, and a further 3.5 million who watched live on television and online. Other acts to perform on the same stage were
the Darkness,
Ash,
Moby,
Basement Jaxx and
Kelly Osbourne. This concert caused a huge traffic jam on the
A1(M) as thousands of cars tried to reach the venue during Friday evening rush hour. A subsequent album, entitled
Robbie Williams – Live at Knebworth, was released, and reached number two in the UK charts. A DVD entitled
What We Did Last Summer, was released afterwards. • In 2009,
Metallica and
Linkin Park headlined the first ever UK
Sonisphere Festival. Other bands included
Nine Inch Nails,
Heaven & Hell, and
Avenged Sevenfold, whose late drummer
The Rev would play his final show during the festival. The festival took place again in 2010 with
Rammstein and
Iron Maiden headlining plus performances from other acts such as
Alice Cooper,
Iggy and the Stooges and
Mötley Crüe. ==Concert history==