In 1983, the Scottish rock band Big Country played the opening day of Reading Festival as "special guests", a booking their frontman Stuart Adamson initially refused to honour before being persuaded to fly back from holiday to perform. During their encore of "Fields of Fire", a pyrotechnic effect borrowed from headliners The Stranglers misfired dramatically, engulfing the stage and band members in flames far beyond what had been planned, in an incident guitarist Bruce Watson later likened to a "napalm attack".

The band had shared The Stranglers' pyro setup for the finale, with the plan being to trigger it as Adamson sang the song's title line, but the blast far exceeded expectations, scorching equipment, band members and even nearby crew and audience. Watson recalled band members fleeing behind amplifiers and lighting crew jumping from trusses to escape the heat, before the group retreated to the medical tent with singed eyebrows, treating their burns with yoghurt instead of watching The Stranglers' headline set.