Download Festival 2010
Posted by diego on Fri, 23 Jul 2010.
Once again, it is that time of year when festivals return to English soil. I myself have been reporting from the legendary Download Festival held at Donnington Race Track for the 6th year running. However it was the 30th anniversary of rock music at Donnington, starting with monsters of rock, before moving to Ozzfest and finally Download. This year’s festival was held on the 11th,12th and 13th June, with gates opening on Wednesday 9th for the happy campers.
Download is the UK’s biggest and best rock festival, with fans coming from all over the country, and in some cases, Europe. With well over 100,000 rock and metal fans of all ages flooding through the gates, both campers and non-campers, you can hardly be surprised that it is possibly one of the most popular events held over here. Nothing ever happens during the days before the first music day (on Friday) so I shall not bore you with details.
Friday
After what I can only describe as, well, no sleep, I was camped close enough to the main arena to hear everything from my tent. This was a treat. At approximately 10:45 the first signs of life started happening as a few final sound checks were being carried out before the first band at approximately 12:00. So all i heard at this stage was the *BOOM BOOM BOOM THUDD PING* of the drums, the first 10 seconds of AC/DC’s Back in black on the guitar and the soft “1..2...2...2...1...check check” of the microphone checks. Which certainly got me ready, and made me realise “oh my gosh, I am actually at DOWNLOAD”
I didn’t really pay attention to any of the bands today, and just chilled walking around the arena seeing what was what, but finally after an afternoon of wandering around I decided it was now time to see a band which turned out to be the headliner on the second stage, Bullet for my Valentine, who are one of my all time favourites. So off I went to get a decent space (in front of the barriers) which in its self was a bad idea. As about 20 minutes into the set the barrier I was at toppled over taking my friends and what seemed like half the crowd with it. We then realised we should probably get to a slightly safer spot. This unfortunately had its consequences, because as I climbed through the barrier to get a bit of space the stewards pushed it back up trapping my leg, fortunately I was able to break free and re-join my friends. Some of the songs they performed included “Scream Aim Fire” “Last Fight” and “Tears Don’t Fall” which turn out to be some of my favourite songs.
After surviving Bullet, I then headed off to the main stage to see the legendary AC/DC, luckily the organisers had stopped every band before AC/DC came on, which meant that every single person was stood in front of the AC/DC stage (not the main stage because they wanted their own stage). I really can’t explain how good AC/DC were. The band came out on a massive 40 foot high train which rolled out onto the stage where the band started playing their hits. In the middle of the performance a huge blow up doll the size of the stage appeared from within the train and guitarist Angus Young decided to start stripping off, until he was left with just shorts on, before eventually pulling them down to reveal black underwear with the AC/DC logo on the back, before continuing playing. Some of the songs played included “Rock and Roll Train” “Thunderstruck” “Shoot to Thrill” and of course the two classics “Back in Black” and “Highway to Hell” which was the final song. The performance ended in a 15 minute guitar solo from Angus, and then a half hour firework display.
Saturday
After what was a great show the previous night, I knew nothing could live up to it. During Saturday it was another chill out day in which I saw a small amount of bands, and 1 band twice (they played on two different stages). The first band I saw was The Blackout, who first performed on the Jagermeister stage for 20 minutes, but who had played the acoustic stage earlier. That was fun, because I actually had a chance to meet front man Sean Smith briefly after the performance.
After that brief performance on the acoustic stage I decided to queue for an hour and a half at the Kerrang signing tent, for the signatures of 30 Seconds to Mars. Luckily I managed to get them, taking two hours from joining the queue to walking away with the autographs, well worth the wait in my opinion.
Finally I was off to the second stage to see The Blackout again performing their actual slot. Their performance was much better than the one on the acoustic stage which was dare I say, slightly lacking energy. The band was a lot more energetic and had a far bigger crowd. Like the previous year, Sean Smith got everyone in the crowd to kneel on the floor and then jump up as high as they could on his word, which was rather fun, and still as amusing as in 2009. A song performed was one of my favourite Blackout songs “Children of the Night”
I then stayed at the second stage to see HIM who really got the crowd going with a few mosh pits on the go. There’s not really a lot I can say about HIM, but some songs that were played included “Buried Alive by Love” “Heart Killer” and “The Funeral of Hearts”
Finally it was the turn of the second stage headliners, 30 Seconds to Mars. Again there were plenty of mosh pits, and crowd surfers going around. Once more I got slightly injured whilst getting crushed against the barriers. Will I ever learn to not to go to the barriers during a big band? Probably not. The band was actually filming part of their new video at download, which was awesome, because the camera actually went over my part of the crowd, however it missed me unfortunately. Some of the songs performed included “Beautiful Lie” “The Kill” “kings and Queens” and “From Yesterday”
Sunday
This was quite a good day in general, not just for music. I stayed around the main stage all morning, just chilling listening to whoever was on stage at the time, unfortunately I didn’t pay much attention until the legendary Slash appeared on stage.
Slash put on a great performance with Myles Kennedy standing in as the singer, with a surprise appearance from Motorhead’s “Lemmy” standing in for one song. The songs that were played was a mixture of Guns n Roses, Velvet Revolver and of course Slash’s band. They included, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” “Paradise City” “Night Train” (Guns n Roses) “Slither” (Velvet Revolver) and “By the Sword” (Slash)
As I walked around the arena the heavens opened, but that didn’t put me off one bit. Although it was highly amusing seeing everyone rush into the tent stages and hide under dustbin lids for shelter. After about an hour of walking around I decided to make a trip to the second stage to watch Steel Panther. The band is one of my favourites at this moment, and they ran on stage, starting off with “Death to all but Metal” This American band is completely sex obsessed. Some songs that they performed included “Death to all but Metal” (as mentioned above) “Community Property” “Party all day(£%^! All night) and even “I Want it That Way” which is in fact a Boyzone cover.
Airbourne was next to appear on stage, who put up an absolutely amazing and yet terrifying performance. As I mentioned earlier the heavens had opened, leaving everyone soaked and was even raining a little during this performance. The lead singer and lead guitarist, Joel O’Keeffe is completely crazy, and literally climbs anything. In this performance he climbed right to the top of the stage gave a quick guitar solo whilst head banging, and then climbed on top of the stage and did the same. Bear in mind he was stood on wet slippery metal scaffolding, this got all stewards, medics and health and safety officials to stop and watch his every move. It was truly breathtaking, with everyone un ble to stop watching an extremely frightening scene. Finally after 5 minutes he clambered back down to safety. Some songs played were “Too Much, Too Young Too Fast” “Diamond in the Rough” and “Blonde, Bad and Beautiful”
Finally the second stage headliners were Stone Sour, who put up a brave and yet sad performance. This was due to the death of Paul Gray who was the bassist for Corey Taylors other band Slipknot earlier this year. Corey Taylor even broke down during one song which had not been played since the death of his long lost friend. Everyone in the crowd shouted the name “Paul Gray” throughout the whole song, just to support Corey who was clearly struggling. Songs performed included “30/30-150” “Through the Glass” and “Bother” which was the song Corey struggled to sing.
After watching the whole of Stone Sour’s performance I then decided to stay and watch the rest of Aerosmith. Unfortunately I only managed to see the last 25 minutes of the set. So there is very little to say. Luckily for me I managed to catch a few of my favourite songs. These were “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk this way”.
Overall
Overall this year’s Download was truly amazing. The atmosphere was just immense, everyone was so friendly, and the bands were amazing. I will definitely be returning for next year’s festival. My highlights have got to be AC/DC, Stone Sour, Airbourne, Steel Panther, Slash and Bullet For My Valentine. Fingers crossed that next year’s line-up is either better or as good as this year was.
Stone Sour - Bother
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