By Greg Prato
In my 2026 book, Down Under: The Men at Work & Colin Hay Story, the band’s appearance at the 1983 US Festival stands out as one of the defining live moments of their early-’80s ascent. By that point, Men at Work had evolved from breakout MTV-era newcomers into a chart-dominating international act, propelled by the success of Business as Usual, and the momentum of its follow-up, Cargo.
That rapid rise made them a natural fit for the US Festival, the ambitious multi-day event that brought together a wide spectrum of major acts and divided performances into genre-themed days, turning it into one of the most high-profile live music gatherings of the decade.
In this excerpt, we dig a bit deeper into what was going on behind the scenes on May 28, 1983, at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California, and Men at Work’s actual performance that evening.
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With Men at Work still a major presence on the charts, radio, and MTV, it was time for the group to hit the road to support two hot-selling LP’s — starting in May (shortly after the release of Cargo) and running right up through the end of October. And as it turned out, the undoubtedly biggest gig of the entire tour occurred early on — when Men at Work was booked to perform as part of the massive US Festival. Organized and financed by Steve Wozniak (the co-founder of Apple Computers), the US Festival was first held in 1982 at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California (a slightly less than an hour car ride west of Los Angeles).
First taking place on September 3rd, 4th, and 5th 1982, some of the biggest rock acts of the era appeared during that three-day span — the Police, Talking Heads, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, etc. And despite it being reported that the festival did not make much of a profit (a chap named Screamin’ Scott from the radio station WCSX once listed that it cost $12.5 million to organize the festival, but wound up losing roughly $12 million overall), Wozniak opted to put together a second edition — less than a year later.
But by ’83, it was now stretched over four days — three over Memorial Day weekend (May 28, 29, 30) and one date a few days later (June 4). Also different this time around, each day would include artists categorized according to specific genre “days”: New Wave Day, Heavy Metal Day, Rock Day, and Country Day. And once more, Wozniak enlisted some of the biggest names of the era: The Clash, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen (who was paid $1.5 million), David Bowie (paid $1 million), Willie Nelson, etc.
With the Clash already confirmed as the headliner of “New Wave Day” (in case you were wondering, they got paid a cool $500k to perform), Men at Work was awarded the spot right before them that evening. And who else performed that day? In order of performance would have been: Divinyls, INXS, Wall of Voodoo, Oingo Boingo, The Beat, A Flock of Seagulls, Stray Cats, Men at Work, and finally, the Clash.
I once had the opportunity to ask Hay about his memories of the event, and he offered the following recollections. “I remember a lot of people arguing — agents arguing — who was going to get paid the most, which was a little distressing…and not particularly with the right spirit of things, since they called it the ‘US Festival.’ But it was great. We were on with the Stray Cats, who were really great, and I can’t remember who else was on our night…it might have been the Clash. But it was an extraordinary event, huge. I think it was the first time they had simulcast to the Soviet Union. It was a blur by then. I think that was probably the peak for us, and also, the beginning of the end, really.” [Laughs]
For the show, Hay premiered a new look: a freshly cropped haircut with a slight mullet that appeared to be dyed red, with tinted glasses and a white outfit, while the other chaps opted to not get dressed up particularly snazzy for the event (instead, going with the “regular guy look”).
The performance? Enjoyable but a bit business-like — except for a high-energy set-closing rendition of “Be Good Johnny.” One clear faux pas was the setlist’s construction – instead of walloping the crowd over the coconut with a hit as the set opener, “I Can See It In Your Eyes” and “No Restrictions” started things off. And then…two tunes that I’d bet my bottom dollar the vast majority of the crowd had never heard before, as neither ever appeared on any studio albums (“Mr. Entertainer” and “The Longest Night”). Although admittedly, Mr. Hay’s dance moves during “Mr. Entertainer” are indeed, entertaining.
In fact, the setlist was far too “backloaded” — the first well-known tune to get a real reaction from the crowd didn’t occur until midway through the set, “Who Can It Be Now?” And the final four tunes performed were “Overkill,” “Down Under,” “It’s a Mistake,” and the aforementioned set-closing “Be Good Johnny.” It probably would have made more sense to “spread the wealth” throughout the set, rather than make the crowd wait patiently until the very end for the hits. And one final factoid about the US Festival you may not have realized — the Clash’s performance afterwards turned out to be their last-ever with guitarist Mick Jones.
Down Under: The Men at Work and Colin Hay Story is available for purchase as a paperback, hardcover and Kindle.
