Slither - Download 2010 – Day 3

Day 3 dawned with a cloud. Peter and I had cooked breakfast for James and Chris on the previous 2 days, and because they were in a different camping area, I needed to meet them at the entrance to our campsite, and get them past security. On day 3 this didn’t work, security wouldn’t let them in.

<Rant>

I know its securities job to stop people going in the wrong area, but not allowing my son into “Family camping” for 1 hour was bloody outrageous, I don’t get it, I don’t like it, and it was part of an occasionally overzealous approach to something that had nothing to do with safety or security. Bad job.

</Rant>

Day 3 boded well. Slash, Motorhead, Stone Temple Pilots and Aerosmith were all goodies to be savoured.

The first act we watched was Slash – bloody brilliant!

Not only was Slash the brilliant player that we all know he is, but he had Myles Kennedy as his vocalist, and he was just stunning. I can quite see why Myles was feted to be the Robert Plant replacement on the aborted Led Zep tour.

 

Peter stayed on to watch Billy Idol whilst I got ready for Lemme and Motorhead-then the heavens opened.Non stop rain for the next 6 hours. I did have a cagoule –but it was in the tent – which, you might remember was a 45 minute walk away, and by the time I had resolved to call it a day, the whole area had been turned into a Glastonbury-like mud bath.

So, I dragged my cold, wet body back to the tent(Which took over an hour because of the crowds all doing the same thing and the slippery conditions), was met by Peter, changed into dry clothes and I got into my sleeping bag to warm up.

At that point we resolved to leave early the next day as the thought of attempting to drag our camping gear up a slippery slope that had been walked by 1000’s of others did not appeal. So like good rock ‘n rollers, we had a nice cup of tea, and went to bed at 11:00

The next day dawned at 6, and even though it was still drizzling, we managed to decamp and get out of the carpark by 7 – a good result as the hill out was already getting treacherous.

So, a bit of a damp ending, but we all had such a brilliant time watching acts that I had only dreamed of seeing previously that we’ve already made a pact to do Download 2011.

Can’t wait

Testify – Download 2010 – day 2

Rock festivals are, as much as anything, about planning what you want to get, and then doing it. This is particularly true of the Donnington site where everything -The campsites, “The Village”, the Arena, the Car park, - are all at least 30 minutes walk away from each other Leave something in the wrong place and you waste an hour. The same is true about your tactics whilst watching the bands. Do you want to be laid back near the beer tents and food, but can’t see what’s going on on the stage, in the mosh pit getting your teeth knocked out , or somewhere in between?

Peter and I decided that the best plan was for us to be next to the aluminium crowd control barriers, a third of the way back. No one is in front of you, you can lean on them whilst standing up, and slump with your back to them when there is an intermission. Also, the walk to the bars was only 15 minutes, so beer re-fills were easy. Because of this strategy we were able to see band after band without the normal back/foot ache. This worked out really well as excellent band after band did their stuff on the main stage.

Cinderella were just a good, old fashioned rock act that had energy, verve, melody, and skill. Five Finger Death punch were, umm, OK. I don’t like formulaic growling, that’s what they did. Lamb of God and Megadeath, however, were really good.

But, of course, the stars of the show were the recipients of the most unlikely award ever – the Christmas number 1 single. Rage Against the Machine, were superb. They made lots of mistakes(But covered them up well), and to be honest, I don’t agree with their politics and their rants, but Tom Morello (who isn’t political) did an amazing job getting sounds out of his guitar that I never knew you could. He really can play inventively, with passion and with great skill.

You’ll notice from the pictures that the skies were clouding over – more on that in day 3’s write-up

Back in Black – Download 2010 – day 1

Going to Download has become an essential part of my Summer. Each year Peter Aird and I set up camp at this huge(120,000 people) event and meet up with James, Chris C and their posse for good music, good beer and good conversation.

 

James,Chris C and Peter

Because the festival only attracts people who like Metal rock, there is no fighting that you get at other festivals as various factions fight, and in fact the number of “Excuse me’s”, “Please’s”, “Thankyou’s”, “Sorry mate’s” is way more than you would get in a high street.The other thing that tied the crowd together – as always – was black t-shirts. Everyone wears black, grey or grunge colour shirts – end of chat. We were all back in black.

Any event of this size needing policing and this is generally done by wristbands. Depending on where you want to go or do, you have a wristband. So within a few moments of being there you accumulate quite a collection.

So, I’m allowed to see the bands, camp in the orange area,buy beer(Yep, someone actually thought that I might be mistaken for being under 18-what a nice person!),and pick up my phone after charging. Peter and I also had “Comfy Crappers” wristbands for a superior pooing experience!

But, of course the reason that we were there was the music. The line-up was immense!

I can only cover the highlights, with 4 stages and music that was non-stop from around mid-day to 11 there was just too much to cover. These are some of my thoughts from Day 1

Killswitch Engage

were superb. Great stage presence, great music, Howard Jones ability to go from growling to melody was superb

Adam Dutkiewicz in superman stylee and Howard Jones belting it out

What doesn’t come over in any of my shots was just how big the stages were – they are HUGE, and the sound systems are equivalently ENORMOUS. To make sure that everyone could see they also had incredibly large, very hi-res screens

AC/DC

Were just absolutely amazing! They had there own stage – even bigger and louder than the main stage. and there is nothing that I can say that gives any real indication about how brilliant they were – there aren’t enough superlatives!

 

The main stage and the AC/DC stage on the left

The opening

The band made the crowd go mental as they went through all the good ‘ol favourites. Brian Johnson’s voice cut through Malcolm and Angus’ amazing guitar work. Angus was a complete and utter nutter, and Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams were beat and note perfect in the backline.

Angus before he strips off and Rosie sitting on the train – her tits alone were at least 50ft across – big girl – big set!

A brilliant start to day 1

Big Smile!

Black Rock

Last night was my annual homage to Joe Bonamassa. Shaun and Michael Jackson (No, not the dead one), had kindly got tickets for the Hammersmith Apollo, and off we went. The evening started in classical style with a Thai meal on Hammersmith Broadway with, of course, copious beer, and then we sallied forth to the Apollo.

That was where the first shock happened, there was a HUGE queue. When I first heard Bonamassa 3 years ago, he was a niche blues player that no-one had heard of. This was clearly not the case now as the Apollo was sold out to it’s capacity of 5,250

The support act was Sandi Thom, She was very good, but it wasn’t my style as it was Country Blues, nevertheless, well performed.

 

I’d managed to get pretty close to the front and when Sandi was on, it was very comfortable.

Set complete, roadies did their bit and in less than 20 minutes a roar went up from the crowd as Joe got on the stage, and started the gig with “John Henry”

The gig continued with tracks old and new, and by about 30 minutes in the band was really rocking, and the atmosphere was great.

As I mentioned earlier, I was right at the front, next to the bass stack, and was becoming aware of the combination of gut thumping bass, heat, and crushing bodies was make me feel a bit odd. However, it was sooooo good that I let those feelings pass

Bonamassa did a great job as he went through his current and back catalogue, with hardly a seconds gap as he went from perfectly executed song to another.

The only time that he really spoke was to comment on the fact that almost exactly 10 years ago he was supporting Jethro Tull, and thought that Ian Anderson was a nice guy. This, of course, was just a lead up to Ian joining him on stage for 3 numbers

      

An audible laugh went up when Anderson’s leg started to come up and do this weird circling motion. I remember him doing it during the “Aqualung” period, he still does it now.

By this point, the crushing sensation was starting to get to me, so I forced my way to the back of the hall to try a get away from the heat, the bass bins and the bodies. This alone must have taken 5-10 minutes.

I listened to a few more tracks from the entrance hall, but just couldn’t face more crushing, so decided to leave 25 minutes from the end..

It was a great evening, Bonamassa continues his meteoric rise, Shaun and Mike were great company – all in all a really good evening.

Party all Day

Steel Panther and ZZ Top were playing Wembley Arena – a gig not to be missed! Whilst ZZ Top are one of the most recognisable bands, you might not have heard of Steel Panther. They are a 80’s tribute hair metal band that enjoy writing songs with the most disgusting/funny lyrics which are then delivered in the most over-the-top way. You won’t have your life enlightened by the band, you will have a good laugh as they strut their stuff.

See why it’s called “Hair metal”? The bassist loved looking at himself in a mirror

This song was concerning the moral difficulty of whether the light should be left on whilst procreating in less than optimum circumstances(If you want the actual words…  link )

ZZ Top were their usual cool selves. James commented on the fact that these shots look sharper than the Panther ones – that’s because ZZ Top don’t move one muscle more than is needed to maintain their Southern cool

 

Classic, and not so classic guitars

Only ZZ Top would have “technicians” in high heels deliver their 10 gallon hats

(We are) The Roadcrew

The UK music festival season is in full swing with at least one festival happening every weekend. James and I decided to visit Guilfest(err, at Guildford, hence the name....)

Over this festival season, James and I had fine tuned our festival logistics, and one of the best investments that we had made was to purchase a 4-wheel gardening truck from eBay (Type

Garden Trolley Hand Utility Truck Wheelbarrow Innerbag into eBay, and you'll see the type I bought) So, rather than struggling with all the stuff that you need for a 3 day camping trip by using wheelbarrows, sack trolleys and backpacks, we were able to roadcrew our kit without the usual pain.

Guilfest is delightfully British affair. Aimed at kids and families, it is an odd sight to see smartly dressed middle aged taxpayers sitting on expensive fold up seats reading the Sunday Times, whilst the bands crack out lyrics where every other word starts with F, C, B or A (You go figure!)
Guilfest has more than the usual 3 stages, and, whilst this means that there are opportunities to see lots of bands, there is also a high chance of seeing complete dross as any band with a GU postcode seems to have a right to play there.

Whinge over, here are some of my highlights.

Friday was a lovely day, no rain and just the right temperature to watch one of the funniest acts this year. Tragedy, are an American band that do Bee Gee’s songs with an odd combination of 70's glitz and a very heavy metal style. The combination sounds awful, but was in fact so totally over-the-top that it really put a smile on my face - and, at least the guys could play!



Tragedy, being camp, loud, and over the top all at once

Just before Tragedy , Ginger did a good job with his particular mix of Punk and Rock
Ginger (ex- Wildhearts and Quireboys) doing his bit

Friday night headline band were Motorhead.
Lemmy and the boys did a stunning job in getting the crowd going. Even middle England managed to rattle their jewellery and stomp their Hunters in time

Lemmy doing “Ace of Spades”
Saturday was a bit more miserable with drizzle coming down most of the day, but that didn’t matter when my hero Joe Bonamassa got up and headlined on stage 2.

Joe doing Sloe Gin
Joe, as always was stunning! And even though by this time we were soaked to the skin, we really enjoyed him and his style of timeless blues given a new twist

Rock 'n Roll all nite

I was slightly aprehensive as I booked my tickets for the Download festival. Would there be fights?, would my stuff get nicked from the camping site?, would I be the oldest person there?

55,000 people all getting on at Download

I really wanted to see some old favourites, and get to see some new bands - but what would it be like?

I shouldn't have been worried-Download at Donnington Park was superb! Not only was the music great, but the atmosphere was really good, the weather was great, nothing got nicked and the beer was cold! Not only that, but the mix was eclectic, every age, style, interest (Apart from people who wear pastel colours - Black, grey brown tee-shirts were the uniform worn by all)

The day did start with a "Bit of a challenge". What makes Donnington such a great venue for concerts is that it is situated on rolling hills - put the stages at the bottom of dips, and everyone can see. The downside of this arrangement is that when you are dragging all the food, booze, water, tents, cooking stuff that is needed for a 3 day sojourn, 2 miles from the car park to the campsite up and down dale, it bloody hurts!

Stage 2 - showing the angle of the terrain

I met up with Peter 2/3 rds of the way to the campsite. The temperature by this time was in the mid 80's, and we both looked more dead than alive, but we finally found the campsite("Turn left just after the toilets", "Where are the toilets?", "You'll know when you get there!")

Chris, James and Peter at the Campsite

James and Chris had already put up our tents, but it still took a couple of hours to get our life organised. At last - time to go look at some bands on the 3 stages!

The sound systems were superb, lighting great, and most of the bands were superb.

The band that first attracted me to part with a weekend ticket was an ol' favourite ZZ Top, and they, of course did their Southern cool brilliantly. But there were other bands that I didn't "Get" such as Slipknot, that did such a good job, that I'm a convert.

ZZ Top doing what they do best - being Cool

I guess if I had to call out my favourites, Marilyn Manson, Dragonforce, ZZ Top, Slipknot and Faith no more have to be at the top of the list. I found Whitesnake a bit formulaic, but what do I know!

The weather was superb, and I failed to put on enough sun block, so rather than coming backed bronzed, I came back bright red and peeling - more Rock lobster than Rockjunky!

The Campsite at dusk

And will we be going next year - Oh yes, but this time with some other method of dragging my Food and Booze from the car park,

Many Thanks to Chris and James for setting up the campsite and looking after us, as well as thanks to Peter for being a good mate as we both felt like dying as we dragged our life up yet another hill.