Download

[Guest PeteR Richards]

Did anyone else go to Download yesterday (Saturday)? If so what did you think?

 

Maiden obviously stole the show and had the crowd singing every word to every song, basically everyone at the gig was watching and enjoying them.

 

Manson was pretty entertaining but didn't have nearly as big a pit as I thought he would have had, was still a damn good performance though with mOBSCENE being the most outstanding song.

 

Murderdolls looked and sounded great and put on probably the best show behind Maiden.

 

InMe were very good ... there was no pit at the start though so my friends and myself started one and it just got bigger and bigger. Very surprisingly, it was the most violent pit all day! We all got our asses kicked by the Manson fans who were pissed off that other people were enjoying different types of music to them ... Still very fun though.

 

Funeral For A Friend were alright but were way too quiet to display the brutal intro to This Year's Most Open Heartbreak well enough.

 

Stamping Ground and Amen were kinda er, "nothing special-ish" but I'm still glad I saw them.

 

Unfortunately we only got to see one song from Chimaira's set. :(

 

Shadows Fall were absolutely insane, hair all over the place, brutal riffs and deadly screaming through the whole set. They're the future!

 

It was an excellent show, but I missed my bus home back and had to wait about 2 hours for a lift from my friends dad, haha.

 

Thoughts please...if you went.

[Guest The Crippler]

I wasn't at it, by the sounds of your report I'm glad I wasn't. Sounds too aggressive for me. :)

 

Glad you enjoyed yourself Pete. :xyx

[Guest Nicole]

Originally posted by PeteR Richards

Did anyone else go to Download yesterday (Saturday)? If so what did you think?

 

Maiden obviously stole the show and had the crowd singing every word to every song, basically everyone at the gig was watching and enjoying them.

 

Manson was pretty entertaining but didn't have nearly as big a pit as I thought he would have had, was still a damn good performance though with mOBSCENE being the most outstanding song.

 

Murderdolls looked and sounded great and put on probably the best show behind Maiden.

 

InMe were very good ... there was no pit at the start though so my friends and myself started one and it just got bigger and bigger. Very surprisingly, it was the most violent pit all day! We all got our asses kicked by the Manson fans who were pissed off that other people were enjoying different types of music to them ... Still very fun though.

 

Funeral For A Friend were alright but were way too quiet to display the brutal intro to This Year's Most Open Heartbreak well enough.

 

Stamping Ground and Amen were kinda er, "nothing special-ish" but I'm still glad I saw them.

 

Unfortunately we only got to see one song from Chimaira's set. :(

 

Shadows Fall were absolutely insane, hair all over the place, brutal riffs and deadly screaming through the whole set. They're the future!

 

It was an excellent show, but I missed my bus home back and had to wait about 2 hours for a lift from my friends dad, haha.

 

Thoughts please...if you went.

 

Sounds great. Could of gone, but nobody would go with me. Sounds like a kickass day out, hopefully they'll do it again next year so I can go.

[Kam 243]

From BBC News:

 

Metallica surprise festival fans

 

Rock superstars Metallica made a surprise appearance at the Download music festival in Derbyshire on Sunday.

 

The US band were not part of the published bill, but appeared unannounced on the festival's second stage on Sunday afternoon.

 

Just 8,000 people at the 40,000 at the festival were able to see the show by the veteran band, with many more queueing to catch a gimpse of them.

 

"They went down a storm, it was the best thing that could have happened to the festival," Steve Guest, a spokesman for promoter Clear Channel, told BBC News Online.

 

"News got around by word of mouth, and the overspill from the Scuzz stage was amazing.

 

"Everyone was enjoying it, we've had kids of six and seven holding onto their dads' shoulders giving out rock signs."

 

Festival-goers at its Donington Park site enjoyed hot sunshine on Saturday, and while the sky clouded over on Sunday, "everyone's still having a great time," Mr Guest said.

 

The event had been hit by the withdrawal of US band Limp Bizkit last month, and organisers had to deny reports that Metallica were appearing because of contractual reasons.

 

Metallica are headlining the Reading and Leeds festivals in August, which are promoted by Clear Channel's rival Mean Fiddler.

 

It is usual for bands at the top of a festival's bill to have it written into their contracts that they can only be associated with that event - so appearances at any other shows would have to be kept secret.

 

Download festival-goers are allowed to obtain free performances by bands appearing at the event from the internet.

 

Ironically, Metallica blocked 300,000 of their fans from using unlicensed download service Napster in 2000 because of copyright concerns.

 

Other acts appearing across the weekend included Marilyn Manson, Iron Maiden, Deftones, Evanesence, 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Instruction.

 

NOFX, Less Than Jake, Zwan and Audioslave closed the show on Sunday night.