Live Review

Download Review 1 – Donnington Park

• 17th Jun 2010

Our first of two Download reviews sees Glasswerker Liz soak up the atmosphere (and rain) at this years Download

Day 1

We woke up at the devil’s hour of 5.30am in order to get to the mighty Download festival at a reasonable time. The tiredness was easily outweighed by excitement as we, two Download virgins, zoomed up the M1. When we arrived, the excitement wasn’t even too beaten down by the excruciatingly long walk to the campsite where we set ourselves up in the radiant sunshine.

One beer down, I headed to the Pepsi Max stage for openers Year Long Disaster who did a good job of getting the crowd in the mood for the weekend of rock that was to come. The heavily bearded drummer thumped out foot-stomping beats as a backing to heavy, rolling riffs and some great vocals tinged with a ‘70s stoner rock influence. I enjoyed the classic rock guitar sounds and clearly well-practised guitar posing. They possibly weren’t the most original sound of the weekend, but very pleasing nonetheless.

I dashed over to the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage – which fast became a favourite due to random bands, smaller food queues and the proximity of the Hobgoblin and Jagermeister stands – to check out Imicus. They were a bit too metalcore for me, but the crowd that was there seemed to be enjoying them.

I meandered past 36 Crazyfists who were definitely getting the main stage warmed up and headed back to the Pepsi Max stage for Lawnmower Death. Amusing name, very amusing band. Highlights have to be one of the band members having a crowd surfing race across the audience with a fan, a sumo rabbit and the singer instigating a giant conga round a packed out tent.

Next up was Them Crooked Vultures on the main stage, a supergroup containing Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) on drums, John Paul Jones (formerly of Led Zeppelin) on bass and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stonge Age) on slurry vocals, in my opinion the sexiest ginger haired man in rock. The sun shone and they sounded great, loud and dark, and the musicality of the band was evident as they rocked out psychedelic bluesy guitar solos and powerful tunes. Scumbag Blues was elongated into a ten minute jam during which I suspect some of the crowd may have dozed off a little. To be honest there wasn’t the excitement I was expecting. However, I thoroughly enjoyed their discordant, low-slung, trailer park meets dirty blues rock. It is a difficult choice for me between the Vultures and Josh’s other side project, Eagles of Death Metal, and their filthy, trashy tunes, but Vultures kept my feet tapping throughout their set, especially during ‘Mind Eraser, no Chaser’ and ‘Bandoliers’.

By the end of the set I was beginning to feel the cold. Having not realised quite how epically far away the arena is from the campsite (any chance of moving it closer next year??) and how impossible it would be to return to the tent (ie our rum and clothes), I had failed to bring a jumper. After a long-anticipated, showy and energetic set from AC/DC during which I entirely forgave them for demanding their own stage and which my comrade will be reviewing, we joined a huge crowd of equally shivering metallers, voices hoarse from singing, and stomped back to the Village area which was open late with a fairground, bar and food stalls, comedy tent, cinema and some random Mexican wrestling. Too much ale was drunk considering the aforementioned 5.30am start and we fell asleep remarkably quickly considering the Jager-fuelled plastic horn-blowing noises of our neighbours.

Day 2

We were awoken by mild hangovers and a feeling of immense discomfort caused by our tent transforming itself into a sauna. Hurling ourselves into the fresh air, we headed down to the arena (more prepared this time).

First on the agenda were Finnish glam-metallers Reckless Love on the Pepsi Max stage. They were a shiny lycra package of glam rock clichés and there is nothing wrong with that. The singer, Olli Herman, strutted around the stage in ridiculously tight trousers, grabbing his crotch, occasionally throwing in a few high kicks and repeatedly stripping off then putting on new outfits. The band all seemed genuinely excited to be playing Download which was refreshing when some older, bigger bands can seem to take these shows for granted. The music was glam-metal by numbers, but with some great tunes like ‘Badass’ getting even the more butch metallers among the crowd screaming like girls, who cares?

Next up was Lamb of God on the main stage who were a fantastic assault on the senses and powerful as ever. Singer Randy Blythe announced it was their biggest gig ever and certainly seemed happy to take up the challenge of stirring the crowd into a circle-pit related frenzy as he strolled up and down the stage. ‘Laid to Rest’ and ‘Walk With Me In Hell’ were my highlights, proving once again the enduring strength of this band.

After stocking up on some over-priced but delicious food, it was over to the second stage (named the Ronnie James Dio stage) to see Finnish love-metallers HIM. There was a massive crowd, all happily bouncing away to tracks such as ‘Wicked Game’ and ‘Rip Out the Wings of a Butterfly’. It has to be said singer Ville Valo has never really got the hang of his crowd speeches and tended to mumble and giggle into the microphone, but if you give in to the cheese, the tunes are still great.

I reluctantly tore myself away half-way through HIM to check out Breed 77 in the Red Bull tent. However, the reluctance was soon swept aside as charismatic singer Paul Isola roused the crowd into one of the most excited states I had seen so far. Breed 77 have an energetic, tight sound, punctuated by very tight guitar solos and Mediterranean influences. Songs such as the title track of the latest album ‘Insects’ and the antehmic ‘La Ultima Hora’ went down very well, as did a stonking cover of The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’. They possibly also win best quote of the festival with, “We’re not that popular in the press because I don’t comb my hair to the side and haven’t fallen into my mum’s make-up drawer”, which prompted a very loud and excitable “Fuck emo” chant from the crowd.

After sampling the delights of the Jagermeister tent (again), we headed off to Rage Against the Machine on the main stage. The cooling air was full of excitement and anticipation and there was a real sense that everyone had been waiting a long time for this gig – if you weren’t lucky enough to get a ticket to the celebratory gig at Finsbury Park of course, a legendary Facebook campaign that I hope will be repeated. When the band took to the stage 20 minutes late, the excitement had built up so much that the crowd’s limbs and minds were completely taken over by the pounding energy of the tunes. They opened with ‘Testify’ and by the time we had reached ‘Bombtrack’ and ‘Know Your Enemy’ this reviewer, along with the majority, was lost in a headbanging orgy, full of nostalgia for the days of going mad to these tunes in rock clubs in my late teens. Seeing RATM has been a long-held ambition and they certainly lived up to my expectations, despite some interruptions after concerns over crowd safety. Let’s hope some of their political fervour lingered on long after they closed with an incredible ‘Killing in the Name’.

Voices again rather hoarse, we slunk back to the Village for more fairground and comedy action before a well-deserved rest in the tent, which had now converted itself back to ice-box status.

Day 3

Today saw drunk-man abuse in the campsite. He had apparently been found wandering among the tents and was drawn out by a lad with a megaphone and his friends, who then followed him around commentating on his shambolic behaviour, finally putting him in a wheelbarrow and wheeling him at break-neck speed down the hill. One of the best things about festivals is the hilarity my fellow festival-goers cause me.

We headed back to the arena to the strains of White Wizard warming up the second stage with some classic heavy metal. At this point the weather could have gone either way.

We caught a bit of Taking Dawn at the Jager acoustic stage who were good fun and provided an enthusiastic start to the day. Next up was The Virgin Marys in the Red Bull tent who gave us some ‘70s influenced raw vintage rock with great riffs and thumping drums, which was perfect for a sunny day. The singer belted out the tracks and overall I’d say this is Brit rock as it’s supposed to be played.

Then it was over to the main stage to see rock legend Slash touring his new collaboration album. As I had expected, it was an great show. New tracks ‘Ghost’, ‘Back from Cali’ and ‘Doctor Alibi’, including an anticipated cameo from Lemmy, went down very well and singer Myles Kennedy did an amazingly confident job at engaging the crowd and screeching out the Guns N’ Roses songs. Talking of which, hearing ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Paradise City’ is always a treat and both are guaranteed crowd pleasers. We were also treated to a Velvet Revolver song, ‘Slither’, so all in all it was a pretty good, if brief, history lesson of what Slash has been up to over the years.

Slash had started late (taking tips from Axl?) and so we missed most of Esoterica, but the five minutes we heard lived up to their description as the English answer to Tool and they are definitely somebody I will be checking out.

Then the heaven’s opened and God showed his disapproval for all this devil-loving metal mayhem and horn-throwing behaviour. We were not deterred from catching Billy Idol though who, despite the downpour, seemed very excited to be on stage and really engaged with the crowd, frequently heading down to the front row. Yes, there was strutting and punk-style grimacing. ‘Eyes Without a Face’, ‘White Wedding’ and the fantastic ‘Rebel Yell’ were my highlights and we danced in the increasingly muddy field with a large number of other determined music lovers. He also threw in a good cover of ‘LA Woman’.

By this point my comrade had somehow managed to get quite drunk without me noticing, so we retreated to the Red Bull tent to shelter from the rain and take stock. Sadly by this point the rain was really pelting down and we were forced to sacrifice Motorhead for a roof over our heads, bad rock fans that we are. Shortly, however, T-34, a covers band formed by comedian Al Murray, failed to wow us and we decided to brave the rain.

Luckily for us, a lot of people had been driven away from the main stage by the rain and we managed to get pretty close for Stone Temple Pilots. Seeing Stone Temple Pilots was another of my unfulfilled gig ambitions and while the tunes were still real corkers, the general opinion of those around me was that singer Scott Weiland was probably not all there, which is not really surprising, but sad nonetheless. But maybe we were just too swayed by years of gossip. Anyway, Scott’s mental state aside, I enjoyed the set and the chance to hear many of their new tunes as well as some classics like ‘Sex Type Thing’, ‘Vasoline’ and ‘Dead and ‘Bloated’.

By the time Aerosmith were due on the rain had stopped and there was even a tiny glimpse of blue sky above us. To say I was excited about this set would be an understatement. Aerosmith are a band I have wanted to see for years and a 1970s Aerosmith gig is definitely one of my imaginary time-travel destinations. The crowd around us seemed to feel exactly the same and some friendly banter was had before they came on to a gigantic cheer. The band looked fit as fiddles and Steve Tyler strode around the stage in characteristically glittery stage gear, belting out a powerful set of anthems that included ‘Love in an Elevator’, ‘Mama Kin’, my personal favourite ‘Sweet Emotion’ and numerous others, ending the encore with ‘Toys in the Attic’. These were interspersed with homages to their blues-rock roots. Truly a great set from this legendary rock band.

Slightly damp, exhausted and yet again hoarse, with aching dancing legs, we trudged back to the Village to flop down in the Shisha Tent were we enjoyed some vodka we probably didn’t need and went over the last few days with our fellow headbangers. It was a festival of fulfilled gig ambitions, of some truly great performances and great energies, of friendly crowds, Jager-fuelled madness and yes, I’ll be going next year. My only complaint would be the slightly nanny-state, rule crazy staff, the hidden drinking water places in the arena (leading to a few occasions on the first day when extortionate bottles of water were purchased at £2.20 each!) and a few more toilets would be good, although it has to be said they were pretty damn clean most of the time. Great line-up, great festival, great people, almost great weather. Let’s do it again!