Current mood:	sick
Current music:	AC/DC: For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Download!
So. Back from Download. Well, we've been back since Monday, but first I was too knackered to write it up and then I got floored by the cold of doom so have been too sick. Am now both too sick and too knackered, but sod it, if I don't do it soon I'll have lost all momentum. I know what I'm like.

So. On with the show.



We showed up on the Thursday evening - me, Mark and Mark's boss Dave (who is our age and very cool). Pitched camp and went to investigate the 'village' - stalls and bar, mostly. There was a 'Guitar Hero' competition going on on the smallest stage which was quite entertaining...and I found the perfect cowboy hat but failed to buy it because I am useless.

Friday 8 June

...well, we ambled into the arena pretty much just after it opened (I'd been to try on the cowboy hat again but decided it didn't suit me as much this time) and settled down with some beer in the main field, where we stayed all day. Bands as follows:

Zico Chain: all right. Catchy, rocky, and better than they were on Rockworld.tv's battle of the bands (although they were busy being overshadowed by the gloriousness that is the Deathstars on that occasion...). They're not really doing anything that's not been done before, but they're not letting that stop them, so good for them. Good fun, and would see them again at this sort of thing.

Buckcherry: Ohmygod. Disappointing. Really, *really* disappointing. This really isn't the sort of show where you can get away with turning your biggest hit into an extended jam session, and that's what they did with Crazy Bitch. Next To You was good, but that's about all, the rest was just noise. Sorry, guys...but you really let yourselves down.

Hinder: surprisingly good; I'd had low expectations due to the hype on Kerrang!TV, and the fact that despite them selling themselves as hellraising, wild living types, their singles seemed pretty downbeat and shoegazing. But I was proved wrong - they *do* know how to do upbeat, they do know how to rock, and I'll be interested to hear more from them, especially if their next single is something more upbeat please.

Megadeth: Well. Godlike, of course. So good to see them again, and to see Dave still looking fucking amazing and completely, righteously pissed off. Much love.

Dragonforce: possibly the fastest band in the world, apparently. I'm not sure, but...well. Relentless, terrible muso showoffs, but still good. Just a bit much after a couple of songs...

Wolfmother: very Sabbath, very stoner. All right with a pint in a field on a sunny day but wouldn't buy the albums.

Velvet Revolver: Well. Highlight of the day, really. Godlike and then some. Slash and his 'I eat sushi' shirt (complete with...um...diagram), Duff looking great...even Scott was looking pretty healthy...or healthier, anyway. And Mark and I were sat there with coffee and doughnuts and thinking of getting camping chairs for tomorrow because we'd been sat on the ground all day and everything ached. How rock n' roll are we?! Think we're getting old...

My Chemical Romance: did not get bottled nearly as much as I feared they would. They are sweet boys and they don't deserve it. Loved the singles...but sadly the album tracks are a bit of a racket to these ageing ears, and much as I love Gerard, he just doesn't have the vocal strength the songs require. But the singles...triumphant. Bless 'em.

And back to the campsite and to bed. Aching. Ouch.


Saturday 9 June

Much wandering, mostly, finding cool t-shirts in the market, including one with an evil kitty on it who is the image of my Jamiekitten, so I had to buy it. We bought chairs - well, two stools and one leopard-print chair...no prizes for guessing who chose that... *eyedart*

Missed Elliot Minor - had wanted to see them as I'd had Parallel World stuck in my head and was hoping that seeing them would solve that, but never mind.

Shadows Fall: very noisy. Not my thing.

Glorious weather, though, and my hay fever was out in force, dammit. There was a text-message facility throughout the weekend by which people could send messages and pictures to display on the big screens either side of the stage; couldn't help being amused at the drama that unfolded after one message on the Friday from 'Carolyn' declaring her love for 'Grant' was followed on the Saturday by one (in all caps) going 'Grant what the fuck are you doing with my wife Carolyn??'. I would *love* to know what was going on there...I would also like to know what on earth 'ftw' stands for. Anyone out there know? (all right, I admit it, I'm old. Most of this txtspk stuff has me totally confused.)

Lots of Backyard Babies fans around, including two lads with Swedish flags as capes and Nicke's 'Rocker' tattoo across their stomachs, and one boy with a leopardprint armband tattoo à la Dregen. \m/

Aiden: all right. Singerboy has learned his lesson from Warped and is not wearing whiteface (it melted off him in the heat, hahahaha). They are much heavier live. Bless them, I just want to pat their little heads and give them tea. Which I'm sure is not the intention.

30 Seconds to Mars: were on the wrong stage. Midway down the main stage on a Saturday afternoon is not the right place for them, they don't have enough upbeat noisy stuff (or if they do, they didn't play it)...they should've been headlining the little stage. Still, points for trying...catchy as they are, they're not quite my cup of tea. And Jared wants to be Davey Havok...*whistles*

Bowling for Soup: omg. I love these boys so very very much. They have a sense of humour! In rock music! So much love for them! Silly banter, reproducing inflatable sheep (I kid you not), all fucking wonderful. Jaret: 'are you showing me the finger because you want to have sex with me? I don't do dudes...but show me both fingers and I'll make an exception. But keep in mind, I'm pitching, you're catching...' - now there's a good way to put down an asshole in the audience. As for the comment about being glad that planes don't take dumps...*dies* (Donington is next door to East Midlands Airport, and planes were going over all very low all weekend. Some bands drowned them out...)

Machine Head: Well. Pleased to be here. Very noisy. Not my thing. So I went off to...

Bowling for Soup Q&A in the Nokia tent: well, I just wanted to thank them for having a sense of humour and being utter dudes, but didn't get chance to. However, they did a very good acoustic set, and they're touring over here in October. Can't wait. Bought a pair of pink leopardprint flipflops on the way as it was hot and my New Rocks were killing me...

Slayer: I was in BFS's Q&A at the time, but they sounded okay in the distance. Very noisy. Of course.

Marilyn Manson: has stopped trying to look like Cat from the Deathstars, which is a good thing given the 20-odd year age difference (check the video for Heart Shaped Glasses...). He has a mic with a knife blade for a handle...and is a little less than brilliant, really. Bit disappointing, though Sweet Dreams and Beautiful People are okay. Who's in the band these days, anyway, is that still Twiggy up there?

We then decamped to the second stage (though I'd have liked to see Linkin Park, but never mind, maybe another time) to see...

Mötley Crüe: Well. Um. Disappointing, actually. Musically they were as good as ever, but Vince has gotten lazy - he can't get through a line without mumbling and running his words together. He is trading on the band's (well-deserved) legendary status and it's just fucking disappointing, quite frankly. I know I have my issues with him, but...he needs to shape up. Mick is still a fucking legend (Voodoo Chile! \m/ ) and Nikki and Tommy are just stars, but...yeah. Heh. Oh, and Private Line blow them away on Live Wire. (*giggles* Nikki says Mötley, the crowd says Crüe. He says Mötley, they say Crüe...and I say Private Line...)

Aaaaaand back to the tents. The Crüe overran a bit so we didn't get to catch the end of Linkin Park, but never mind. Bugger all sleep really due to the campsite being full of wankers running around and shouting, but that's just par for the course really.

Sunday 10 June

Not much to say about the bands today as mostly they were very noisy and Not My Thing. What was going to be My Thing was Hardcore Superstar on the small stage - we got there a little early and I spied that I could get down the front so I nabbed the camera from Mark and headed off to do so. And then there was an announcement saying that Hardcore Superstar had cancelled (no reason given) and the next band would be coming on a little early. Fucker! I was less than pleased, as HCSS were the main band that I really *really* wanted to see. Like...desperately. Missed them last year as they played inaccessible places, and I'd seen most everyone else on the bill before, or wasn't that fussed. Absolutely gutted, and at the same time hoping that nothing was wrong. (It turned out that their tour bus had broken down in Germany and they couldn't get it repaired, get a replacement bus or get flights in time, as I found out when I messaged them on Myspace)

Still, the DJ in the tent did play Lips Like Morphine by Kill Hannah as everyone was dispersing, which was more than cool, especially as it's not out over here (but omg, it should be. Come on, boys!)

So. Main stage. Didn't really pay much attention to Lamb of God, Stone Sour, or Killswitch Engage, and Mark and I went for a wander round the stalls during Evanescence (from which I returned wearing a very natty pair of bright pink trousers with black stars on them), cashed in our beer cups (collect five and they give you a pound - we collected 35 and got £7 which was a bit of a result), and went to spend our last two beer tokens on a pint each to watch Iron Maiden with.

And oh boy. Maiden. Fucking spectacular. Godlike. I'd never seen them before - or rather, I'd seen them with Blaze Bailey, so...may as well never have seen them - and ohgod. Utterly utterly wonderful. Can't wait for them to tour again so we can go. Donington belongs to them, I think. Can't really think of any other band you could say that about, of all the bands who've headlined there over the years. Donington and Maiden...just go together. Wonderful.

We missed Paradise Lost, Within Temptation and Dream Theater cos we just couldn't be arsed walking over to the second stage (told you we were old and knackered), and I missed Billy Talent cos they clashed with Maiden - though I did catch a snippet of Reel Big Fish on my way to the loos; they sound like fun, bouncy ska stuff and the lyrics 'fuck everything but fuck you most of all, fuck everyone but fuck you most of all'...gotta love that. :D

Finally bought the cowboy hat on the way back to the tents...Mark haggled the guy down to £8, gave him £20 and got £17 in change...oops, don't think he meant to hand that fiver over...still. Result. And it is a dude of a hat, though I didn't *really* need it as I was wearing the top hat (with Kristian-Buff) all weekend, but never mind...had to be done...

So. That was it really. Shit night's sleep again on Sunday, even worse than Saturday, due to more wankers shouting and setting things on fire (not our tents, thankfully), and we staggered our weary way home on the Monday morning, utterly utterly exhausted.


Just one thing really disturbed me about the weekend, though, and that was the metalheads vs emo kids thing. It seems to be far worse than the metalheads vs glammies and goths thing that I remember. Kids going round with 'say no to emo' t-shirts, with 'death to emo' written all over them - going to that sort of trouble. It really really worried me. Given that the emo kids in general are the quiet, sensitive ones who're probably being bullied at school for being different - this is just another form of bullying and the metal kids should be fucking ashamed of themselves. The emo kids aren't doing anyone any harm, (they're too busy snogging each other, as __undertherose_ will confirm). All they need is a hug and a pat on the back and to be told that everything's going to be all right. Is that too fucking much to ask, you ignorant assholes?

*breathes*

Okay. So. Rant over. But really. Hug an emo kid. They're cute, and they'll love you for it. (and really, emo is goth's little brother. Look at it, all black hair and eyeliner and melodrama and poetry and misunderstoodness. Isn't it cute? *pets emo*)

Anyway. We ran into lots of people, including dmh and Ant and the rest of the Coventry Massive, and Gary and his little gaggle of girlies, and generally had a fabulous time. So. Who's up for next year? *bank account groans*

Actually I want to go to Ruisrock next year, or one of the other Finnish festivals, if anyone's up for it - should work out about the same as Download, even with the flights, as the tickets are so much cheaper.

Speaking of Finland, blackdogdark, jayce47 and I are going to Berlin in September, yay! What does that have to do with Finland? I hear you cry. Well, the main reason we're going (apart from having a nice cultural weekend, of course) is that Finland's prettiest sons since Michael Monroe grew up, otherwise known as the very very lovely Negative, are playing a gig in Berlin on 23 September, and we're going. Huzzah! Given that they don't play over here, Berlin was a) closest and b) a damn good excuse for a weekend away. And lots of our other friends are coming too, so it's going to be bloody brilliant. Can't wait.


and finally...*dies* is it just me or does Ozzy Osbourne sound exactly like Ali G when he goes 'Aiii!' at the beginning of Crazy Train?? Just a little random thing for you there...

...and with that, I'm off. This is stupidly long and I'm still sick.