Judas Priest - Reading Festival, August 22 1975 (Ultra-Rare 8mm Footage) 

Rob Halford's biography brought me here to this exact 8MM cine film as he mentions! 😎

These guys were the pioneers of true Heavy Metal. They were doing this fifteen years before all the hair bands appeared. Zep gets too much credit for creating the genre. I always say Priest, Sabbath & Purple were the true progenitors of Metal.

as a fan of this band for 33 years....seeing this footage almost brings a tear to my eyes...knowing they were this good, tight, heavy and original....even getting the burnt out hippies headbanging....what a band

This is propably the oldest gig I've ever seen from priest and it's pure gold to me That's why I love RU-vid so much, please more of it

AWESOME!

I'm reading (and translating) "Confess", Rob's memoirs, and in chapter 5 he talks about this video! Quote: "Again, the wonders of RU-vid mean this Priest performance is preserved for posterity. Now, forty-five years on, it looks bonkers. A guy in the crowd shot it on Super 8, and the cine film is so jumpy that I am jerking around stage like a pantomime dame on crack. Which was about right." Good job, Emmit ☺

Best part is the old guy headbanging at 2:02

is very special to watch the hippie-metalheads of that time. No black clothes, no biker costumes, no studs...

Awesome.I saw Priest in 1977 for the first time.Those were the days !

I was there!! JP came on after a dreadful act by the name of Stella...the crowd were lacking enthusiasm until Rob Halford fired us all up again with a yell of "GET ON YOUR F***ING FEET!!" (we did 🙂)

Can you imagine going back in time with professional video and audio capabilities and getting this whole concert in HD?

Holy shit this is awesome! Thanks for uploading man :)

First time i ever saw and heard of Judas Priest. I was 16, and this was my first ever festival ... i travelled from the North East especially to see Hawkwind on the Friday night! This set was a bonus and was brilliant! I was right at the front of the stage and took a few pics on my 1970's camera! Seeing this is exactly how i remember it! Amazing!

1975 was a rocking year

I’m reading Rob’s book Confess right now and he is documenting what led up to this performance and referenced this RU-vid for readers to see. I love it!

You have no idea how lucky we are that this has sound. Most 8mm films were silent.

I love finding rare footage that I've never seen before and this is definitely it. They're playing stuff from Sad Wings before it even came out, now that's vintage.

They didn’t know how big they would become, ahead of their time, big time raw talent!

As a deaf old musician, I can't help but notice that none of the guitar or bass amps have a mic in front of them. Back in the day when you really needed to have a couple of 100 Watt Marshall stacks pumping sound off of the stage. Aeyoh!

Pre-leather era! Love this!!! Thank you, what a gem.

From memory , this was the turning point of their career , rocked Reading and went onto conquer the world !

I was 5. Reading Halford's book Confess got me here. Simply amazing stuff.

Absolutely awesome..I have owned this bootleg live album for years but never dreamed I would ever see this video footage!!!! Incredible!! I wish the whole show was available!

Simply astounding footage!!!! One of the clearest sounding versions of this show I've heard (I'd love to have a copy of this show in it's entirety with this good of sound quality!!!). The video is a montage of short clips of "Victim Of Changes", the solo of "Deceiver", a few seconds of the rare tune "Father Mother Son", a rad chunk of "Island Of Domination" (w/alternate lyrics), and the very, very end of "Genocide". This footage is so historically important it should be placed in one of the world's most secure archives...

Man, this is so worth it just for a live version of "Island of Domination." Such a wicked song. I wish this was the entire set and not just snippets.

Extremely significant find, well done. I'm moved, look at them, so heavy even on hippy dressing!

Thank you so much for uploading this video for all the Judas Priest fans, like you said I'm pretty sure it's the oldest known video footage of them playing and you can see and hear how they already had their foundation which they have built on over 50 years, I think Black Sabbath were dark and heavy but more gothic where Judas Priest were the first to take hard rock into true metal when they went with the leather & studs and Halford wearing mirror sun glasses using a whip like a S&M Dom and riding a motorcycle on stage, I've seen them many times and I'm thankful they are now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I grew up listening to Priest and Sabbath in High School. This is so cool!

Thank you for posting this piece of music history!!

Hey everyone, For those who keep asking if there is a full version of Judas Priest's Reading Festival set - take a close look at the screen's far-right corner at the very beginning of the video. At the front row you can clearly see a man in a dark red shirt filming the show with a large movie camera. That means there's a chance that a full-length concert video does exist. Assuming that the footage has not been lost or destroyed, this Reading Festival show may well be preserved in its entirety and the video is out there...somewhere. Perhaps one day it will surface? The cameraman or his family might sell or license the footage to Judas Priest for a public release. If they still have it, that is. That cameraman was much closer to the stage, and at a favorable angle, his camera has a much better view of the band as well. So any video from a professional 16 mm camera would be much better than this fan-filmed current video. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for a miracle. If they can rediscover the lost Beatles and Bob Dylan concert videos from 1960s, surely something can be done for the early Judas Priest shows from the 1970s.

Now this was way cool! To see more stuff from JP's formative years is always a welcome treat!

Much love and thanks for sharing this with the world! I'd give anything to travel back in time to see them live in their early days.

This is awesome! Thanks for uploading. 😊

Wow, truly amazing footage. I didn't think I'd ever see them live and in living color from this period. Thank you so much for loading this gem!!!

Amazing that you shared this

Thank you for posting !! ......Amazing Footage.

Super 8mm rare footage - - - - AWESOME !!!! I have never seen anything like that before, talking about the history of the British "Judas Priest". Unbelievable !!!! In 70's I was filming in the format 2x8mm Standard, without the magnetic strip for the synchronized sound recording.

What a treasure this is! Thanks so much for putting this out there.

BLOODY BRILLIANT! THANKS for giving us such a gem,mate!

OUTSTANDING find !🤟 Many thanks for posting

Wow. Great footage of them!!! Just found this out the other day and this just proves that they have evolved dramatically. What a concert this must have been too!!!

Wow!! this is a really great footage, first time I've seen them play live at this era, the quality is really good too!

Thank you!!!! thi is amazing!!!!! I love Sad Wings Of Destiny, is my favourite album.

Oh my God!!!!This is so beautiful!!!What a document!!!Great Great Great!!Thanx for sharing!

thanks a lot for this masterpiece man!!

Wow absolutely amazing, what a performance. Priest was rocking from the start. Really cool to see old footage of a truly Iconic band.

This is so awesome! Love Judas Priest forever💜

I've never seen anything this early sounds badass!!!

Thank you for this video! Ultra-rare indeed! Just imagine how proud momen this must've been for the band back in 1975!

WOW!!!! this is historic! the 70's films of Judas Priest are very rare! Thank you!

Thanks for the upload! Truly an historical piece you have here. Back in the day when KK was still wearing those huuuuge hats ^^

I love this kind of material, Ty.

Absolutely incredible !!! So awesome to see this footage of the Priest prior to their leather makeover. Wish we could see the whole set. Thanks for sharing this piece of Priest history !!

Awesome, I have never seen this footage before. Thanks for uploading

holy shit, this video is a treasure! thank you sooo much for uploading this! :)

Fantastic ! So glad this film survived and you shared it with us !

Thanks for this!

wow awesome. glad this is uploaded

W-O-W... thank you for posting this. Fantastic and almost unbelievable.

Was there and still got photos of different bands including Priest and Kokomo. Met Rob Halford a few months later at a gig they did at Cromer Links Pavilion and showed him my pics.

Amazing! Thanks for sharing!

WOW!!!! Man, I'd never see this without YOU! BADASS!!

Thanks for sharing. Listen to Metal since 30 years. And this is my Birthday ...this Concert..born to late

Wow, that's awesome, that's for sharing! If you have more, please post it, if not - big thanks for it! That's a piece of history!

Thanks for uploading this video !!!

Wow, that was nice. I really love these 70s Priest's songs. I love the 80s era as well but these 70s songs are so amazing. And they don't play them very often too, this makes these old live footages vary interesting.

Thank you for this awesome upload. I live in San Diego, CA. I’m very fortunate to have met the legendary vocalist and musician Rob Halford while shopping at RALPHS. He is very cool 😎 and down to earth.

WOW, I was at this gig, THANK YOU SO MUCH for uploading it.

Filmed 9 days after my 7th birthday...thank You for shareing...

I've Seen Judas Priest Many Times In Concert And I'm 60. Thanks For Sharing!!

THANKS FOR SHARING SIR 😆❤️🔥🔥🔥

Fantastic. Thank you for posting this. I’m reading Halfords autobiography now

many many many thanks for uploading

the influence of early queen is flagrant here!!! great footage

Thank you for your UPLOAD!

omg, priceless, thanks so much

Great video thanks mate...

Incredible! Thanks for sharing it.

great! thanks for uploading!

This is incredible! I was 14

I've long been a fan of Judas Priest, and I love all three eras (blues, rock, thrash) and walked away when Turbo dropped. This raw footage is great, and while they are clearly still finding their way, it's wonderful to behold, these early songs done live. P.S. Those cattle fences, lol

Thank you - rare footage indeed. Wish whole gig had been filmed

Fucking awesome! Thanks a lot for sharing this recording. Emmitt,you rock!

Unfreaking believable, too bad the camera wasn't constantly running.. Thank you so much!!!!

Thanks a lot, Emmit :) very rare

Awesome! I'm just Reading 🙂 Rob Halford's book "Confess" and so Great to see this! Thank You for sharing! And Thanks Rob for your book ("The Book of Rob", as I call it) and Thanks Judas Priest for so great songs!

Its a pleasure to see them so young 🤘🎸just started heading for the Metal road

OMG love it, there's that little Halford scream right at the end that he perfected. It looks like they did an extended ending as well.

Great footage

Thanx a lot for sharing it! It's so, so interesting! By the way, you wrote a very good description, dude ;-)

Great stuff! Thanks 👍🇨🇦

Wow, loved that. Thanks for sharing...

This MADE MY DAY! I just wish I could see the full footage! That would be beyond awesome. The 8mm speeds up the video, that's kinda weird. So the full 8mm footage of the show survives???? I'd pay serious money for this entire show video!

Insanely good! Best early heavy metal footage i’ve seen so far. More so because a lot of the crowd was filmed. Which gives you an idea of the atmosphere at the time. You can really see some hippies sitting down not understanding the music, and others not minding the type of music and being convinced and going nuts. The birth of heavy metal captured!!! Black Sabbath’s Jazz Bilzen footage is also a nice video on YT

Awesome, Thank you.

1975 AND 4 years later you have the best live album "Unleashed In The East"

Brilliant! Thanks!🤘☀️🤘

This is amazing! I was 4 in 1975, but by 1983 I had the Metal bug. Thanks for this!

This is so beautiful...

Reading Rob’s memoir and he mentioned this clip. Outstanding!!