The Download festival is always three full days of music (bad and good), drinking too much and generally
living the rock'n'roll lifestyle. With an impressive list of bands performing this year promised to be
no different. Although (for me) the headliners weren't bands I am huge fans of no one can make this
annual pilgrimage to Castle Donington and not have a fantastic time.
One downer this year was a stupid site layout this year that meant that it took about 40 minutes
to get from the car park to the camping, then about the same to get from the campsite to the arena.
I mean seriously guys, sort that out. This meant that although technically on site, we missed the
start of the festivities arriving just in time to catch the end of 36 Crazyfists on the main stage.
Luckily I didn't miss one of the most hotly anticipated bands of this years lineup, last minute
replacements for Wolfmother in the form of Killswitch Engage. By god they didn't let us down, blowing
us all away from the storming opener "A Bid Farewell". KSE showed why so many people were excited about
this late and brilliant addition to the festival.
Through their entire 9 song set which included arguably their best known tracks including "My Last
Serenade" the band never let up, and when they finished up with their cover of Dio's "Holy Diver" we all
knew we'd seen something a bit special.
After that, it was time for a breather and I set off to find some shade and something else to assault
our ears with. As I Lay Dying in the Pepsi Max tent fitted these requirements rather splendidly.
Next up I had a choice to make. Go see Bullet for my Valentine headlining the Ronnie James Dio
stage or be bored to death watching Them Crooked Vultures on the Main Stage.
So we went to see Bullet. Not really a difficult decision.
And you know what, for all their unfashionable contempt from the cool kids Bullet put on a fine
show. Gone is Puck's "We are a rock band with metal influences" nonsense. Here BFMV gave us an hour
and a bit of what they described as "British heavy metal", and they delivered it with style.
This was undeniably the best performance I have ever seen these guys deliver and hopefully this new
live ability will creep through into their next record. Fever certainly sounded a million times better
here than it does on the rather lacklustre CD.
I didn't catch all of the Bullet set as I left to see the last 10 minutes of Them Crooked Vultures.
I'm glad I did this as it showed I had made the right decision by not standing through all of their
show. Dave Grohl has such a fantastic body of work behind him that this latest project adds nothing to.
Hopefully we'll get the Foo Fighters next year.
Usually at Download there are 4 or more bands on the go at any one time, but not this year.
Everything else finished and you were left with the choice of watching some 50-odd and 60-odd year
old blokes running about. Yep, your choice was AC/DC or, erm, AC/DC.
And you know what, they've still got it.
AC/DC brought their own stage to download and treated us to their full, un-compromised, stadium
show. The cheer that the huge inflatable horned school caps got when they started to inflate was
bigger than some of the bands had managed and as it got closer to their start time the buzz in the crowd
began to grow.
And it soon became clear why they had brought their own stage, it must have been specially reinforced
to take the weight of the Heavy Metal that AC/DC delivered. A brilliant intro video ended with the Rock
'n' Roll train crashing through the screen and onto the stage and the band got ripped into the song.
There was nothing new or surprising here and AC/DC have been doing this for way to long to slip up.
Angus is still in constant motion as he runs around the stage like he always has, and it's all songs that you
know and can't help loving. As they worked through their greatest hits you got the impression this band
could go on for a few years more. You simply couldn't not enjoy this show.....
