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Godsized's Download Festival

Well, the Download Festival has been and gone for another year. The campsites are empty and most people have managed to get most of the mud off and head reluctantly back to their normal lives, although behind the scenes preparations are already being made for next years event. Festival director Andy Copping tweeted "Believe it or not I'm busy working on headliners for next year! Got to strike whilst the iron is hot!" within a couple of days of the end of this year's event. I wonder who he has in mind ??

The great thing about events like this is that although you have no chance to see all the bands playing there in the time you have, you do sometimes stumble upon something unexpected that you just know is going to define the festival for you. At Download 2 years ago it was Testament's comeback performance headlining the tent. At Sonisphere last year it was Buckcherry opening the Main stage, and this year it was an amazing performance at an ungodly hour in the morning by the awesome Godsized. Godsized have been together for a couple of years now, and in that time they have built up a reputation for rocking, high energy live shows. This reputation made it as far as the Download organisers and at the stupidly early hour of 11am the band took to the Pepsi Max stage and proceeded to blow away any hangovers with a blast of riffing, hook laden high voltage hard rock.

Although they were the first band on (and given the revelries of the night before not all of the crowd were in the best of shape) the tent was surprisingly full before the guys took to the stage and a real buzz was starting to build. We were all intrigued to see if Godsized could live up to their reputation as a great live band. After all competition for places at the festival is fierce, some really good bands have never played in this hallowed place, and to be fair some terrible ones have. As Godsized ripped into their opener 'Walking Away' the crowd roared their approval and even the most delicate of heads were banged. No videos for this have appeared on youTube yet which is a shame, but you really had to be there. The title track from the new EP 'The Phoney Tough & The Crazy Brave' followed, and you know what, it's a belter. The rest of the set consisted of tracks from their debut release, 'Fight & Survive', the title track 'Brothers in Arms', 'The Last Goodbye' and to finish off a rousing 'Head-heavy'. Although time only permitted them to squeeze these 6 tracks in an all too short set Godsized certainly showed the appreciative crowd what they were capable of.

Everything we had heard about the power of this band was true and they set a benchmark that few "bigger" bands managed to beat that day. We needed to know more about this amazing band, so we caught up with guitarist Neil to get the lowdown on Godsized, their Download experience and their plans for the future.

The band have had a fairly rapid rise to prominence, built on the back of hard work and great songs. It's a work ethic that has clearly paid dividends, from coming together in 2008 to playing Download in 2010 is some journey. We asked if it has it taken the band by surprise, and they were unequivocal. "Yeah man it's been incredible - from the get go we've tried to play live as much as possible and regard ourselves as a live band first and foremost, playing Download is definitely the highlight so far". And what a highlight it was. For any band to go from playing smal-ish crowds in pubs and clubs to playing to thousands in a packed tent must be amazing ? Although the band clearly enjoyed their set at Download they still enjoy the smaller gigs. "The buzz you can feel from a massive audience is incredible but there's nothing like a good intimate venue with 150 people who are really up for it too!".

The gods of Download start putting the bill together for the next years festival almost as soon as the dust (or more likely mud) has settled on this years. The priority is to tie up attention grabbing headliners, but these big bands are used to it and it's often more of a business discussion than a musical one. So how does it feel for a smaller band to get the confirmation that they're on the bill?

For Godsized it started when the band's management had got in touch with the festival organisers to try and secure a slot. After this initial approach all they could do was sit with their fingers crossed and hope for success. Even the lower positions on the bill are filled fairly early on and from a provisional confirmation that they had the gig in March there were a nervous few weeks until the final booking came through in mid April.

Is it exciting or scary? Neil reckons it's both, "Every rock / metal band in the UK and beyond wants a slot at Download - when the confirmation came through we we're ecstatic...and then the panic set in!"

The band were also told where and when they would be playing at this early stage, and the build up can begin. Godsized were stoked to be playing the Pepsi Max tent, although probably a little apprehensive about their chances of filling the 5000 capacity at 11 in the morning.

It must be an amazing feeling turning up at the site as a performer, something most of us will never experience. For Godsized it was a chance to hang out with the other bands backstage and do some star spotting. Neil reckons that all of the bands are treated equally, "Everyone has a shared area behind the main stage and you get a small green portacabin to hang out in regardless of band stature. Ours was actually behind our stage and was rammed with beer, whiskey, ice and the obligatory clean towels so we couldn't complain!" Godsized didn't get a chance to meet any of the headliners, but saw John Paul Jones, Josh Homme, Vinnie Paul and various others loitering about backstage. There are other advantages to being there as a performer too, "The restaurant area was awesome too, it had some tattoo guys in there giving free tattoos - it was great."

Although the temptation must be to party to excess, Godsized never lost sight of the fact that they were there with an important, and potentially career defining, job to do. No late night partying for them on Friday, unlike the majority of their crowd. "We knew we had to be on top form Saturday morning so we had some beers while AC/DC were on then headed back to camp Godsized for some rest" they do have an excuse for this very un Rock'n'Roll behaviour, "We had to be backstage at 9am so we couldn't still be up drinking at 3am like usual".

So the morning arrives and the stage time approaches. I was surprised to see how much the tent was filling up. I have no idea how many people were actually there when the band started, but they drew people in throughout their set and the place was rammed by the time they finished. Any worries about no one coming to see them soon vanished when the band saw the size of the assembled crowd from the backstage area. "The minute we saw there were so many people to play to we knew we were gonna have a good time. Playing live is the only thing us guys do well. A lot of time goes into structuring a live set's song order so you have the right energy straight away. And we couldn't of asked for a cooler crowd."

The band get on do their thing to an unbelievable response, and all too soon it's over and the magnitude of what they have just achieved starts to sink in. The major emotion has to be relief, many of the bands who followed Godsize onto the Download stage would have killed for the reaction these unassuming guys got. Neil sums it up perfectly "It's great to know an audience really digs what you are doing. We went on so early we genuinely thought they'd be 200 people there at best". And as quickly as the tent had filled up, it emptied as we all headed off in search of food and more beer. Crowd figures would be interesting as I am sure that Godsized drew in more than some of the acts several places above them on the bill. And with the job successfully done, the band can relax and enjoy the rest of the festival, before joining the soaking wet, muddy, hungover exodus on the Sunday afternoon. And a last message to the fans, old and new, who made this such a special occasion ? "We couldn't have asked for a better audience so if you were there to see us, thanks very much from Godsized!"

Godsized are keen to build on the momentum they are carrying coming out of this amazing weekend. Although keeping their cards very close to their chests, Neil would tell us "We've got a couple of touring plans in the pipeline, one for the end of the year and one really exciting thing for early next year. Can't say anything else at the moment but if it comes off then it'll be amazing!. We just want to get busier and tour more".

So, surely a major recording contract awaits ?. Neil is realistic about the state of the world. "The music industry is in a weird situation at the moment where not many labels have much of a budget for new bands and the ones that do don't want to spend it. We're just gonna keep pushing the band and playing live as much as possible".

New technology plays its part too. Godsized are one of a wave of bands who are using social networking, in particular Twitter, to connect with their fans. In fact it was via Twitter that 20 or so of us arranged to meet up for their Download set. "I love Twitter" enthuses Neil, "I think it's a great way of keeping in touch with the fan base and it's so basic it forces you to be to the point and (hopefully) interesting at all times. It's cool that it lets you know what your favourite bands are doing backstage, etc. I love hearing about stupid stuff like that from the bands I love".

The future for Godsized is looking bright. They're putting out a 3 track EP in July to be followed by the full album in the winter/early next year. After their showing at Download it may just catapult the band to the next level.

Dizzy