Download 2013

Download 2013

Donnington Park

June 13th to 16th, 2013

For those who have never been lucky enough to make the yearly pilgrimage to Donnington Park for Download Festival it may appear to be just another festival but in reality it is 3 days of hard rock and metal with the occasional bit of punk thrown in for luck.  It is usually muddy and wet, but this year it held more surprises than just the weather!

This is a not so brief run down of my Download experience this year.

Download's arena gates opened at 12pm on Friday the 14th June and the first bands kicked off at 1pm.  As I missed them last year due to the weather I made a bee line for the main stage to catch Rise to Remain.

Rise to Remain opened the day in style with a high energy set and got everyone in the mood for the rest of the weekend.  Judging by their performance it won't be long before Austin Dickinson is challenging his dad for the headlining spot!

As a huge fan of Download virgins Patent Pending I headed to the Pepsi Max Tent early in the hope of finding a spot where I would be able to see. 

Palm Reader were on the stage prior to them so I took in their set while I was there.  Palm Reader are a metal band with screaming lyrics and good guitar riffs.  They are not the best band I have ever seen, and certainly not the worst, but their place on the running order suggests that they have not been around very long and are still finding their feet.  I would certainly check them out if they are there again next year to see how they have progressed.

In their usual style Patent Pending brought the sunshine to an otherwise gloomy and rainy day.  Before their set, lead singer Joe Ragosta came on stage and announced that he had just managed to break their equipment and had the whole audience telling him off for being naughty.

Taking the stage to the theme tune from kids TV show 'Chucklevision', the Long Island lads burst into 'I Already Know (She Don't Give A Shit About Me)'.  Singing all of the high energy favourites Patent Pending had more bounce than a box of springs!  The only slower song in their set was 'One Less Heart to Break', which any Patent Pending fan knows means a lot to the quintet as well as being a favourite amongst fans.

During 'Psycho in Love', Joe had the whole crowd waving their pirate hooks (hooked fingers) in the air and performing a 'wall of crawls' as they had been told they were not allowed to do the wall of death.

As usual Joe spent as much time at the barrier with the audience as he did on the stage and even guitarist Marc Kantar played his solo on 'Anti Everything' at the barrier.

It was obvious that Joe, Anthony, Rob, Corey and Marc were enjoying every moment of the performance as they bounced and smiled the whole time, and even treated us to a bit of on stage mischief as Marc and Rob flicked guitar picks at each other.

Finishing with 'Douchebag' they finished their set in style and as usual after their set Joe came down to the barrier to chat to the crowd, where he was also joined by Rob for a while.

It was nice to see some familiar faces in the crowd as a few members of the 'UK Second Family' had travelled to Download for the day specially see them.

Next on the agenda were nu metal band Papa Roach on the main stage.  Papa Roach delivered an energy packed set singing favourites and hits including 'Last Resort' and 'Still Swinging'

As Download attract so many great bands I quite often find that the ones I want to see clash so I either have to choose my favourite or see half sets while running between stages.

Unfortunately one of these clashes was Papa Roach and DragonForce, so I watched part of Papa Roach before hitting the Zippo stage for part of DragonForce's performance.  I only really got to hear two songs by DragonForce , but the two songs I did hear really impressed me, especially as one was my favourite of theirs, 'Cry Thunder'.  The songs I heard were catchy and fast paced with great guitar riffs that made great listening for any rock or metal fan.

Making my way back to the main stage for nu metallers Korn, I caught a glimpse of Jamie Nicholls from Fort Hope, who were not playing at the festival this year but obviously still wanted to be there.

I have seen Korn numerous times before and they have never failed to impress me so I was really looking forward to their set especially as it marked the first UK show since the return of Brian 'Head' Welch.  Korn unleashed hits from across their career including 'Blind',' Falling Away From Me' and 'Freak On A Leash'.  Jonathan Davies even brought his bagpipes with him!

Korn packed the area in front of the main stage and gave an excellent performance.

Next band on the main stage were welsh rockers Bullet For My Valentine, who like Korn commanded a large crowd.  Singing songs such as 'The Last Fight', 'Your Betrayal', 'Temper Temper' and 'Scream Aim fire!', they showed why they are still going strong so many years on.

After the Bullet set I was lucky enough to get the chance to have a quick catch up with Rob from Patent Pending who was on his way to watch Him on the Pepsi stage.

Unfortunately another clash came at 9pm when headliners of the main stage clashed with Fearless Vampire Killers who were headlining the Red Bull Stage.  I love Fearless Vampire Killers but as I had seen them three times already this year I opted for Slipknot.

It was obvious how many people where there to see Friday's headliners by the number of Slipknot shirts you could see around the arena, as people waited with anticipation for the  first show at Download since 2009 for Iowa's finest.

Having seen Slipknot before I had a fair idea of the chaos that I was about to witness and as usual they did not let us down.

Singing songs from all of their albums they treated us to 'Wait And Bleed', 'Dead Memories', 'Left Behind' and 'Eyeless', as well as treating the Maggot Army to their anthem 'Pulse Of The Maggots'.  Add to this hydraulic powered drums and enough pyrotechnics to warm up the now cold and wet crowd and you have a real recipe for fun!

The audience were taken by surprise halfway through 'Left Behind' as Slipknot suddenly stopped playing  and announced to the crowd that everyone need to take a step back as people at the front were being squashed against the barrier and it had broken.  Once the barrier was fixed and they were happy that everyone was safe they continued where they left off.

Finishing their set with 'Spit It Out' they had the 90,000 strong crowd crouched on the damp floor waiting for the command from masked front man Corey Taylor.  Hearing Corey say those words that won them the Golden God award following their 2009 set brings a major case of goosebumps.  As Corey sang the final verse and shouted the immortal words 'jump da f#@k up!' the whole crowd bounced up in unison.  Getting 90,000 people to jump up at exactly the same time really takes some doing but Corey manages it every time.

Slipknot did return for an encore finishing with 'Surfacing' and a whole load more pyrotechnics.

For a UK Slipknot fan it was the perfect end to a fantastic day!

On Saturday morning we set off to the arena with the intention of seeing I Divide, but unfortunately we misjudged and missed them.  However, we did manage to catch the end of UFO, who although they have been going for years still sound great.

Heavens Basement caught my eye on Scuzz TV a couple of months ago with their song 'Fire Fire', so we went to check them out.  Heavens Basement are a four piece rock/metal band from England and they were the best Saturday wakeup call I have ever had.  They had far too much energy for so early on a Saturday and extremely catchy riffs and choruses.  They knocked my socks off and I can honestly say that I would happily go to see them again.

Young Guns have been around for a few years now but this is the first chance I have had to see them live.  Singing all their hits from 'Bones' to 'Dearly Departed' the men in white took over the main stage and showed Donnington why they were worthy of main stage status.

Next up were the Black Star Riders, the reformation of Thin Lizzy.  I've seen Thin Lizzy on numerous occasions before and they have never failed to blow me away and today was no different.  Singing classics such as 'Jailbreak', 'Whiskey In The Jar' and 'The Boys Are Back In Town', even the heavy rain shower didn't disperse the crowd.

Following them were Mastodon, a metal band from Atlanta.  We only stayed for a couple of songs before heading off to explore.  Not because they were no good because they are, but because I had seen them before and wanted to check out Walking Papers.  Unfortunately I didn't get chance to as the Pepsi Max tent was overflowing,  however I'm not sure if this was down to the draw of former Guns n' Roses bassist, Duff McKagen or the heavy shower of rain.

Next up was Lit, a pop punk band from the US.  Lit had a good energy and sang their well known hit 'My Own Worst Enemy'.  Although a side wind distorted the sound quality slightly they were still very enjoyable and I even spotted Rob Damiani of Don Broco watching from the crowd.

Being a Terrorvision fan for the last 20 years I had to go and check out Acoustic TV, which comprised of Tony Wright and Milton Evans.  They did a short set of their well known  hits such as 'Middleman', 'Alice What's the Matter' and 'Babylon'.

As a devoted fan who has seen them many times it is with a heavy heart that I write this, but for me it was just not as good as usual.  There was something missing and that something that was Mark, Leigh and Cameron.  They did not have the usual chemistry and it reflected in their performance. Hopefully next year they will be back again but as the whole package.

Unfortunately I was also disappointed with QOTSA.  Firstly because of the unexplained absence of Dave Grohl and secondly because of the their lack of energy and presence.  They played all of their hits including 'No One Knows' and 'Even Flow' but something was missing and I didn't enjoy their performance.

Enter Shikari headlined the second stage and had a great energy and crowd pleasing set.  The drum and bass band headed by Rou Reynolds had the crowds dancing and bouncing in the mud. Unfortunately there was still a bit of a problem with the wind distorting the sound if you were not directly in front of the stage but it did not stop them from giving a great performance.  Their set included 'Quelle Surprise' and 'Destabilise' and they proved why they had been chosen as a worthy headliner.

At ten to nine 90,000 people gathered in front of the main stage to see tonight's headliners Iron Maiden.

We heard the aeroplane before we saw it as a Spitfire flew through the clouds and preceded to fly over the crowd.  It circled above and flew as low as it possibly could without getting caught in the zip wire that stretched across the arena before disappearing back into the grey clouds above the main stage.

A short video build up followed and maiden sprang to life.

My initial intention had been to listen to them from my tent as I was very disappointed when I saw them at Sonisphere in 2010, but I decided to give them a chance to redeem themselves.  When I saw them at Sonisphere they were promoting their latest album 'The Final Frontier' and did an entire set of songs that had not yet been released so there was no atmosphere and they had lost half of their audience within the first five songs.  As they went off before the encore I remember saying to my husband that I had never seen a band play a full set and not play any of the songs that they were famous for.  Luckily this time they did.  I didn't stay for the whole set but I did get to hear classics such as 'Two Minutes To Midnight', 'Can I Play With Madness' and 'Number of the Beast'.  For me Iron Maiden were a pleasant surprise this time around, and it proves that new songs can be good but the old ones are always the best!

Talking of surprises, I'm sure Slipknot front man Corey Taylor got a shock when he went to his book signing in the Kerrang! signing tent, as the queue to see him reached right up to the top of the hill and around the corner.  Unfortunately he had only been granted an hour slot so a lot of fans went away disappointed, me included.

The highlight of my Saturday came in the form of two bands who were not on this year's line up.   As I made my way across to the main stage for Queens of the Stone Age I was lucky enough to bump into Harry Radford and Connor Macleod from the Yashin and 'Tiger' Si Atkinson, Andy 'Ozzy' Lister and Mark Thomas from the Black Spiders, who were enjoying a weekend of music and fun.  All five of the guys were lovely to talk to and more than happy to chat and pose for pictures, making me one very happy fangirl.

The last day of Download this year has some really big names, all of which I really wanted to see, and  Download had a wake up alarm like no other.....

Starting the day with Cancer Bats, (as I missed the Blitz Kids), meant the day started at top volume, energy and madness.  Liam Cromier lead the madness and certainly gave me a good start to the day.

Next up was sneaky peak at Hellyeah as I had never had the pleasure of seeing them until now.  Mixing strong guitar riffs with loud vocals they made sure that I was wide awake for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately Coal Chamber clashed with the Graveltones, so in order to get the best of both worlds I watched the first two songs of Coal Chamber before running to the Jagermeister stage to catch the Graveltones' set, and then running back to the main stage for the end of Coal Chamber.

Coal Chamber started their set with my favourite 'Loco', which Dez Fafara sang through a loud hailer and had the mosh pits going crazy.  They kept the craziness going throughout the parts of their set that I saw and made sure that no one got a Sunday lie in!

The Graveltones set however was a little more placid although it still packed one hell of a punch.  Singing their blues rock, the Graveltones commanded quite a large audience for the small stage that they were playing.  Their enthusiasm and enjoyment showed throughout the performance and they were an absolute pleasure to watch.  It would not surprise me if we saw them on the Zippo stage in the next couple of years.

 Next on my wish list was Five Finger Death Punch.  Whilst waiting for 5FDP to hit the stage I was fortunate enough to run into Kier Kemp from the Fearless Vampire Killers who was also waiting for the set to start. Kier was absolutely lovely and chatted to us until 5FDP came on stage.

Five finger death punch are a sextet of guys who if you met them in a dark alley you would run as fast as you could in the opposite direction.  Lead by Ivan L Moody they started as they meant to continue by whipping the audience up  into a frenzy.  Ivan announced that he was not allowed to encourage people to crowd surf but he did however want to meet us all. 

Moody also got all of the children from the front of the pits on stage with him (obviously so they would be out of harm's way) as he encouraged the crowd to open the pits up and go crazy.

It also showed that Moody is not a big fan of security as he threatened to break the nose of one of the security staff if he saw him man handle a kid badly again, as the crowd surfers (and there were lots) were getting high fives from Moody as they got to the stage, much to the annoyance of security.

The 5FDP set consisted of favourites such as 'Bad Company', 'Never Enough' and 'Hard To See'.  The kids on stage got to head bang along with the band and got an experience that they will never forget!

Next up were Aussie metal band Parkway Drive, who kept the audience bouncing.  Whether they were playing catchy riffs, melting your face with their lyrics or unleashing their crowd surfing dingo, they certainly produced a set to remember.

It was obvious that the Stone Sour set was getting closer at this point as the crowd pretty much doubled in size.  Corey and crew burst onto the stage in a way that only Taylor can and proceeded to show Download how it was done!  Singing songs from all of their albums including 'Mission Statement', 'Say You'll Haunt Me', 'Absolute Zero' and '30/30 150' they had the whole audience on a high.

Mid way through the set Taylor slowed things down a little when he played 'Bother' and 'Through Glass' which had the whole audience singing along with him.

Not many people have done a double shift on the main stage at Download but if anyone was going to do it, it would be Corey Taylor!  

Next on my list were another Aussie group, Airbourne.  Airbourne brought their usual brand of craziness .  Lead singer Joel O'Keefe was on his top game and sounded great.  They brought a real energy to the Zippo stage but unfortunately if he did his usual stunt of climbing up the side of the stage to play from the top I did not see it as I wanted to catch the next set on the main stage.  I did however get to enjoy 'Live It Up' and 'Too Much Too Young Too Fast'.

30 Seconds to Mars are a band like no other.  Headed by film star Jared Leto they not only treat the crowd to some of the catchiest songs in history but you also get treated to masses of giant balloons and blow up animals.  Leto is every security officials nightmare as he spends as much time in the crowd as he does on the stage, and when he is on the stage he has a habit of getting as many members of his audience on stage as is physically possible. 30 Seconds to Mars gave a great performance and I would love to see them again.

The last three bands I wanted to see all clashed, so to make sure I saw all of them I had to compromise and worked out that I would be able to see a couple of songs from each band, starting with Glamour of the Kill in the Red Bull tent. 

 Glamour of the Kill are a four piece band from York and once they start playing you know about it! They have a good strong vibe and sound great but I couldn't understand why they were playing the Red Bull tent and not one of the bigger stages. Again, these are a band I would love to see play again.

Headlining the Zippo stage was Limp Bizkit.  Fred durst and crew attracted a large audience at the second stage and entertained the audience with not only their songs but a cover version of Rage Against The Machines, 'Killing In The Name'.  Durst is yet another security nightmare as he too spent time stood down at the barrier interacting with the crowd while he sang.

Sporting a beard and his trade mark track suit Durst kept the party going even though headliners Rammstein had taken to the main stage for the closing set.  He even quipped that we had better go 'check out Rammstein as we may miss something', but even the explosions from the next stage did not deter him and it was easy to see why they are still going strong.

Last band of Download 2013 were German metallers Rammstein, who are famous for 'setting things on fire'.  It is safe to say that wherever you were stood at the main stage you could feel the heat from their pyrotechnics and I'm sure those stood at the front would have left with no eyebrows!

They had flames shooting from everywhere! They had a keyboardist who was constantly walking on a treadmill whilst playing.  they had wearable flamethrowers and a large cannon that shot foam into the audience.  Whether they were setting fire to the stage, themselves or just making pretty explosions above the stage it is safe to say that health and safety were probably quaking in their boots.

As someone who doesn't speak German I could not tell you what any of the songs were about but I am pretty sure that they are professional arsonists.  Whether I understood them or not they put on one hell of a show!

Rammstein certainly ended Download with a bang..............  I just hope they left enough of the stage unscorched for next year!