The Day The Innocence Died

It was a regular Monday afternoon for me at work today. Slightly shorter day than usual, wedged nicely in between 2 days off. But it was still a Monday and there is still that psychological 'Monday' factor that always wears you down if you're working.

As I carried on about my business who should turn the corner and start walking up the aisle? Only Norwich cult icon The Puppet Man! Whoa yeah the fucking Puppet Man! He who stands outside Primark with a rubbish puppet (I don't even know of what) dancing to whatever he's taped off the radio. It makes him an integral part of Norwich as the Partridge.

But back to the shop. Here he comes, I'm thinking - this is going to be awesome. What's he going to do? Will he do a little dance? Is the puppet with him- will he crack that out? Who cares this is going to be fucking OFF THE CHART.

So here he comes. Oh he's going to grab a pie first. Erm why is he crouching down - oh god he's on his knees. Just rummaging through the pies like they are being outlawed by some sadistic Orwellian regime. Oh wait, he's talking to himself now. That would be slightly acceptable if the puppet was here. But it's not. I can't even understand what he is saying.

It was bad. He eventually got up, sans pie and wandered off still talking to himself.

It was a crushing moment. A cult figure in my life reduced to a fucking joke. This is worse than when I heard about Pee Wee Herman wanking in the cinema.

So now all that is left for me to do is remove myself from the Facebook Puppet Man fan group, and try to be strong the next time I walk past Primark - just looking forward as tears well in my eyes and sting my cheeks.

Turns out - like most cult heroes of mine - he's just a fucking tramp.

The Big Four

The mere fact that Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer actually got together for a tour is pretty incredible. Sure there was the 'Clash Of The Titans' tour in 1991 but that was missing Metallica - a key ingredient I'm sure you agree.

So it was pretty disappointing that it was not to hit U.K. shores (at the moment, we may get it in 2011 or 2012) but fear not! Some enterprising bod in the music business decided to get in shown in cinemas across the world - live from Sofia in Bulgaria.

Not the most tropical location, but a result. See Metallica play in your local multiplex - good shit right? Well that kinda depends...

My friend Andrew and I discovered that the Cinema City in Norwich was showing it for just £8 a ticket so we snapped them up and headed down there. We had no idea what was waiting for us.

For a starter - and this is so 'by the way' to the main story I had actually forgotten and remembered again about 3 paragraphs down - it wasn't live. The best way to put it was extended highlights although Anthrax and Slayer may have had their full sets shown.

We really should have been worried when 2 people walked in with cardboard Ozzy Osbourne masks (perfect for sitting in a blacked out room and not watching Ozzy Osbourne).

For the first 3 bands (Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer who all for the record weren't brilliant) all seemed fine. Then we had a brief break where tribute was paid to the late Ronnie James Dio then it all started to go a bit south.

Now when I say cheering broke out when Metallica took the stage I don't mean a hearty "RAAAAY" or applause or anything like that. It sounded like Charlie Says and this clapping which sounded like people were missing 3 out of 4 strikes.

It continued throughout with fruitless attempts to try and clap in rhythm fall on their arse. For the duration it was just pretty annoying. Don't mind applause and that but at the end of the day you're in a cinema. Dial it down a notch.

Throughout there was a woman sat next to Andrew who had a notebook out and was writing something. Fair enough. Even though again - you're in a cinema. Bit hard to write anything. Metallica start playing 'Enter Sandman' and I feel a slight rocking sensation. So I turn to Andrew and ask "Is that you?" to see the woman rocking violently back and forth. We were legitimately worried she had Parkinson's.

Then it started to get worse. As the band carried on playing someone behind us shouted "Seek & Destroy!". Yep. They shouted a song request. To the cinema screen. That was showing pre-taped highlights. Of a show in Bulgaria.

The requests were to continue. "Enter Sandman!" another voice at the back shouted. About 12 minutes after they had played 'Enter Sandman'.

And worst yet. Someone actually shouted out "She Sells Sanctuary!" A song by The Cult.

Now I know what you may be thinking - "Ahh they had a few beers and were just pissing around". No. I can tell when there is that sort of wacky humour whether it be in the tone of their voice or maybe some sneaky laughing between themselves after the 'joke'. There was none of this. These people were being deadly serious.

The worst moment of all was to come right after the historic moment when all 4 bands took to the stage and performed Diamond Head's 'Am I Evil?' together. After the historic moment they all gathered for a photo in front of the drumkit. Obviously the photo was being taken on a digital camera as we never saw the camera angle they were looking at. Then someone in our audience shouted this:

"THEY CAN SEE US!"

Let me just recap. Using bullet points.

• Digital Camera
• Cinema Screen in Norwich, UK
• Concert in Sofia, Bulgaria
• 90 -120 minute time delay
• No form of camera or recording equipment in the room in Norwich

Again, no detection of any humour in their voices.

We soon left. Just as they started 'Seek And Destroy' as it goes. The collected noise in the room sounded like a room full of monkeys having a wank.

I can only assume either one of the following -

• The room had been double booked with a Yellow Bus outing, but instead of postponing either event they decided to show the Metallica show making a change from scrawling in crayon on the wall.
• Heavy Metal fans really are as dense as the rest of the world thinks.

It could really go either way.

Download Festival 2010. Day Three - Sunday 13th June

Sunday is fast becoming the busiest day at Download, and this year was no exception. Lots of bands on two different stages to jam in and the bands we wanted to see started pretty early. But sadly this year the weather finally caught up with us after years of sun...

A last minute replacement for Ratt as vocalist Stephen Pearcy had to pull out due to needing emergency back surgery, F.M. (****) were a quality start to the day. And there smooth AOR sound must have made hundreds of new fans. I've been listening to them for a while and it was great to finally see them live. Lets hope it's not the last time. A short set, they played...

1. Wildside
2. That Girl
3. Don't Stop
4. Bad Luck
5. Burning
6. I Heard It Through The Grapevine

A huge crowd then gathered for the mighty Saxon (****1/2) who, as promised, played their 1980 album 'Wheels Of Steel' in its entirety. And a few more songs for extra measure. Which is where I actually docked on the half point. I personally thought it was one song too many. There's no need to improve on a amazing set by chucking another song in there. Although don't ask me what song they could have dropped!

But the positives - Saxon were made to play the mainstage at Donington - they looked truly at home there, and frontman Biff Byford is one of the best in the business. A memorable performance for sure. They played...

1. Motorcycle Man
2. Stand Up And Be Counted
3. 747 (Strangers In The Night)
4. Freeway Mad
5. See The Light Shining
6. Street Fighting Gang
7. Suzie Hold On
8. Machine Gun
9. Wheels Of Steel
10. And The Bands Played On
11. Denim And Leather
12. Princess Of The Night

So Cinderella (***) - you haven't played in the U.K. since 1991 - top that! While Tom Keifer and company put on a solid set of hard rock (and spine tingling ballad in one case) goodness it was really all there was. Couldn't help but detect a slight waft of disinterest in the air - not E'Nuff Z'nuff standard, but based on what I have heard of the band in live recordings...they weren't that chatty. But they played...

1. Somebody Save Me
2. Push Push
3. Night Songs
4. Coming Home
5. Shelter Me
6. Don't Know What You've Got (Till It's Gone)
7. Nobody's Fool
8. Gypsy Road
9. Shake Me

Holy smokes Slash & Myles Kennedy (*****) were good. Possibly the band of the festival. The original guitar hero mixed with Alter Bridge vocalist Kennedy's amazing voice, it was a match made in rock heaven. So much so this writer may have a hard time listening to old school G'N'R without thinking how much better a singer Kennedy is. Probably the best singer in the genre at the moment. Hell, the new Slash solo album would have been better with just Kennedy on!

Actual goosebump sensation to the intro of 'Sweet Child O' Mine' - an amazing performance, and a brilliantly memorable moment when fellow rock legend Lemmy came out for 'Doctor Alibi'. I didn't want them to leave, but they did but not before...

1. Ghost
2. Back From Cali
3. Nightrain
4. Rocket Queen
5. Starlight
6. By The Sword
7. Sweet Child O' Mine
8. Doctor Alibi (featuring Lemmy)
9. Slither
10. Paradise City

So that was over. But - fear not- it was time for the man who stole the festival back in 2005 with his blistering performance. It had started raining but who cares? It was time for Billy Idol (**)! Oh dear. We caught about half of his performance as we had to leave for the second stage (which we wouldn't have to do if the bands had kept to their times) but what we heard was pretty dull. A couple of highlights being 'Dancing With Myself' and 'Scream' but everything else was the slower 80s tunes and some truly insipid new material. The last we heard as we headed away was - god help us- an acoustic start to 'White Wedding'. They played...

1. Ready Steady Go
2. Dancing With Myself
3. Love Is Strange
4. Flesh For Fantasy
5. Scream
6. Eyes Without A Face
7. Kings And Queens
8. White Wedding
9. LA Woman
10. King Rocker
11. Blue Highway
12. Rebel Yell

By the time we had started the trek over to the Ronnie James Dio Stage it was pissing it down. Huddled an umbrella, leaning on the D barrier it was not the kind of weather to appreciate much but Porcupine Tree (***1/2) were on hand, and were great as always. Main problem with Steven Wilson and co. was that they played songs from latest concept album 'The Incident' which is meant to be a 70 minute 'song cycle' interspersed with older material. I know they couldn't play it all live, but it seemed a bit strange putting it down and picking it back up again. They played...

1. Occam's Razor
2. The Blind House
3. Anesthetize (Edit)
4. Degree Zero Of Liberty
5. Octane Twisted
6. The Seance
7. Circle Of Manias
8. Bonnie The Cat
9. Blackest Eyes

You couldn't get further removed from PT than you could with Steel Panther (****1/2) who, even though it was still lashing down with rain, cheered everyone up.

Unlike most 'comedy' bands (Tenacious D I am looking directly at you) Steel Panthers material has been out way over a year now and hasn't gotten any less funny. The songs are solid is the key to it all. And they were every bit as brilliant as before, as was the between song banter. Highlights included the relatively straight-faced cover of the Backstreet Boys 'I Want It That Way' and a special appearance from Anthrax's Scott Ian for the excellent 'Asian Hooker'. Hell - there was even a bloke in the crowd as 'The Shocker'! (Google it...or don't!)

Hilarious, weather defying stuff...Steel Panther played...

1. Death To All But Metal
2. Turn Out The Lights
3. I Want It That Way
4. Asian Hooker (featuring Scott Ian)
5. Community Property
6. Oklahoma Girl
7. The Shocker
8. Party All Day

Sadly after that the weather got the better of us. We just HAD to return to the campsite to change out of our soaked through clothing, thus depriving us of the chance to see Ginger's acoustic performance of Wildhearts songs at the Jagermeister stage.

We got back to the arena, dry as the rain was finally ceasing to see Stone Temple Pilots (who I hear were amazing) leave the stage. And just like when I first saw Aerosmith (*****) at Hyde Park in 2007 the moment the band hit the stage...rain stops. Weird.

There was a lot of build up to Aerosmith this time. The widely publicized bust-up between Steven Tyler and Joe Perry involved Tyler falling off a stage, reportedly falling off the wagon and out of the band. Then came the announcement they were headlining Download. Was it all a publicity stunt? Are they even possible these days? Would there be friction? We would find out.

Tyler hit the stage as only he could- in a gold sequined hat, jacket and trousers to the timeless 'Love In An Elevator' and I was certainly watching for discord between 'The Toxic Twins'...but struggled to find any. Tyler always throws himself around the stage and on his bandmates whilst they carry on playing...it was hard to tell.

After a a brilliant trawl through their extensive back catalogue from early hits like 'Mama Kin' all the way through to the epic tear-jerking power ballad 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing', it was all fantastic- and that includes the blues jamming section of the set. A personal highlight for me was 'What It Takes' from the Pump album. I love that song.

Unlike others, I never saw Tyler snort anything from the drumkit. Have heard he went to, but...come on, knowing him it was a joke. Any questions about the relationship with band members came at the end when Perry took the microphone and heaped praise upon Tyler. It felt good to know that it seems they have patched things up again, but who knows if we will see them again? They played...

1. Love In An Elevator
2. Back In The Saddle
3. Mama Kin
4. Eat The Rich
5. Livin' On The Edge
6. What It Takes
7. Train Kept A Rollin'
8. Cryin'
9. Lord Of The Thighs
10. Stop Messin' Around
11. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
12. Sweet Emotion
13. Baby, Please Don't Go
14. Draw The Line
15. Dream On
16. Walk This Way
17. Toys In The Attic

The relief of a pretty easy walk back to the campsite was sadly short-lived though.

The next day heading to the coach departure area (now no longer in Donington Park, but over the road in one of East Midlands Airport's car parks) we found ourselves in a massive pointless queue just to be allowed to cross the road. It wasn't even just for coaches - it was for taxis and shuttle buses too! So if your coach was leaving in ten minutes you had to queue behind 70 people who were getting a shuttle bus or taxi. Brilliant.

I honestly don't know what happened to Download this year from an organization point of view. Last year the arena was in the same location and we had no problems with getting back to the campsite, and we also had no issues getting the coach. If it ain't broke, don't fix it as the old adage goes.

But, as usual, the bands were (mostly) great and thats why we all go in the end. Here's to festivals at Donington for the next 30 years.

Download Festival 2010. Day Two - Saturday 12th June

The second day of music of the festival started earlier than the Friday as AC/DC's dominance was finally relinquished, although the huge AC/DC stage (which I am sure I read somewhere was going to be dismantled overnight) remained, which must have got in the way for some people, especially during the more popular bands on mainstage.

Most of the mainstage boasted lots of more current metal bands such as Five Finger Death Punch, Hellyeah and Deftones, but apart from the last band of the day, we spent our time in the Pepsi Max tent, which was a good move as the sun was blazing. Here's what we saw...

We thought we had arrived early for Reckless Love (***) but they came on stage just as we entered the tent. An entertaining enough set followed but the sense for me remains is that the band is Steel Panther but they are being serious. The set was coated in cheddar, but was an entertaining enough way to start the day. They played...

1. One More Time
2. Badass
3. Love Machine
4. Romance
5. Beautiful Bomb

A band we had no real plans to see were Genitorturers (**) and they pretty much freaked us all out. A generic industrial sort of sound buoyed by half naked female singer and masked bikini clad dancers. A lot of songs about bondage by the sounds too (Take It, Strip Doll and thankfully they neglected to play the charming sounding Cum Junkie...well I think they did) only the Rob Zombie-esque 'Devil In A Bottle' really stood out.

Suprise of the festival had to be Rock Sugar (*****) who, essentially, are a covers band but with a mash-up twist. Generally splicing together a rock song and a pop song from the 80s with tremendous effect they hit the stage to the chords of Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' but with the lyrics of Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. A mass singalong ensued, helped by the hilarious frontman Jess Harnell (who's impressions of Paul Stanley are superb). Hits from Ozzy, Queen, Motley Crue, Paula Abdul and Rick Springfield all followed. These guys came very close to stealing the festival. They played...

1. Don't Stop The Sandman (Metallica - Enter Sandman and Journey - Don't Stop Believin')
2. Crazy Girl (Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train and Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl)
3. Voices In The Jungle (Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle and 'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry)
4. Straight To Rock City (KISS - Detroit Rock City and Paula Abdul - Straight Up)
5. We Will Kickstart Your Rhapsody (Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody/We Will Rock You and Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart)

Sadly the same praise cannot be heaped upon E'Nuff Z'Nuff (*) who redefined the term 'phoning it in'. Playing half the time preceding band Halestorm played for, singer Donnie Vie looked bored witless most of the time, even checking his watch 2 or 3 times throughout their set. A song I had been waiting a long time to hear - the epic ballad 'Fly High Michelle' was sung with the same vigour as someone reading out of the phone book. Truly one of the poorest performances I have seen in my 7 years of attending the festival.

Luckily the same cannot be said for Y&T (***1/2) who, while not dropping any jaws, put in a solid 40 minutes of hard rock goodness, even acquiescing to the demand of a drunken biker fan who they met earlier in the day and played cheese rock classic 'Summertime Girls'. Went down a treat.

Sadly, due to stage clashes we were only able to see 3 or 4 songs from Skin (****) (That mark based on what we heard), but they seemed as tight as ever and drew a great crowd. We left for the mainstage to the strains of new song 'Stronger'.

So, for the second time in the week, it was time for Rage Against The Machine (*****). Hard to say what the better show was when I compare it to the show at Finsbury Park the Sunday before. The show at Finsbury had more of an 'event' feel about it, a true one-off thing. But the Donington had a bit of drama as the band kicked into 'People Of The Sun', as Zack De La Rocha was suddenly halted by security and informed that people were getting seriously hurt right near the front. After he instructed everyone to take a couple steps back, they restarted the song.

Another plus was the setlist at Donington was two songs longer and included 'Wake Up', a song I had kinda missed when they played in London.

Again, Rage were on fire and proved what an outstanding live band they were. Only fault was where I was stood the crowd weren't quite as hyper as they had been at Finsbury Park. Rage played...

1. Testify
2. Bombtrack
3. People Of The Sun
4. Know Your Enemy
5. Bulls On Parade
6. Township Rebellion
7. White Riot
8. Bullet In The Head
9. Calm Like A Bomb
10. Guerrilla Radio
11. Sleep Now In The Fire
12. Wake Up
13. Freedom
14. Killing In The Name

Again, leaving was horrific. The three tiny gate scenario came into play again as we were slowly herded through the park, places we had never been before in almost pitch darkness. By the time we got back to the campsite it was well past midnight, again rendering the after band entertainment useless. Crazily, this wasn't the last of the poor organizing...

Download Festival 2010. Day One - Friday 11th June

In a move that suprised many this year, Download Festival organizer Andy Copping managed to secure AC/DC to be the headliners for the first night of this years festival. Notorious for never doing festivals, the band seemed to be wanting to play by their own rules as the days music time got shorter, and eventually as the festival drew closer the compromising seemed to intensify, going so far that the announcement was made that AC/DC would be having their own stage which would be sat next to the mainstage where Them Crooked Vultures would now 'headline'.

So how did this all play out?

We arrived in the main arena in time for Anathema (****) who seemed to be totally at odds with the rest of the Ronnie James Dio stage that day (for a start they were a decent band) and did seem to make a good impression on the crowd who had formed to watch. An amazing performance of 'A Natural Disaster' seemed to definitely find the band some new fans.

After that we made a stop in at the Red Bull tent for Taylor Hawkins And The Coattail Riders (**) mainly for the off-chance that Dave Grohl may put in an appearance. That didn't happen but we did watch the whole set, and even though Foo Fighters drummer Hawkins makes a great frontman in his own right but the songs (with the exception of final track 'It's Over') just did not cut the mustard. They played...

1. Not Bad Luck
2. Louise
3. Get Up I Wanna Get Down
4. Sunshine
5. Way Down
6. It's Over

Swapping one tent for another we moved over to the Pepsi Max tent for a suprisingly brilliant set from AOR Gods Tyketto (****1/2) who rolled back the years with an amazing greatest hits set which also must have created some new fans in the crowd. In fact, it did. I was stood next to one of them. They were superb and the only reason it didn't get the full five stars is that it wasn't long enough! They played (I think, may be a song missing here)...

1. Lay Your Body Down
2. Wings
3. Strength In Numbers
4. Burning Down Inside
5. Seasons
6. Forever Young

Next we moved over to the mainstage that didn't house AC/DC and were met with a slew of people. We found a spot sort of in the middle of the two stages but as time went on we discovered we had to move in front of the empty stage to watch Them Crooked Vultures (**) - a band whose album I really dig, and as it was to see the legends that are Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones live, and as well as they played the outdoor scenario and the endless noodling, unintelligible lyrics and jamming the band did rendered them very boring, and we grew increasingly restless during their set. Shame really. They played...

1. Elephants
2. Gunman
3. Scumbag Blues
4. Dead End Friends
5. No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
6. New Fang
7. Bandoliers
8. Spinning In Daffodils
9. Mind Eraser, No Chaser
10. Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up

Throughout the day it seemed that the AC/DC dominance over the festival was getting a bit silly. Apparently the band opted out of appearing on ANY festival merchandise which meant if you wanted a lineup shirt this year it wouldn't have AC/DC on it so you would have to buy another shirt. They also didn't appear on the programme or the lanyard stating band times.

What really left a bad taste in my mouth was this. Due to the sad loss of so many people in the music business this year, Andy Copping came out to introduce a short video package that would be followed by a few minutes of applause for Mike Alexander (Evile), The Rev (Avenged Sevenfold), Paul Gray (Slipknot), Peter Steele (Type O Negative), Stuart Cable (Stereophonics and Killing For Company), Ronnie James Dio and the man whose idea it was to run a rock festival at Donington Park back in 1980 - Maurice Jones.

But by this point the AC/DC's crew had started piping the blues music they have pre-gig over their P.A. system totally drowning out what should have been a respectful moment. I hope words were had.

From a music standpoint though AC/DC (*****) were brilliant, faultless. The rumored full run through of the Back In Black album never materialized and, in fact, they played almost the exact same setlist they played when I saw them at the 02 in the April of last year. But it's AC/DC and they are just brilliant! We got the giant bell for 'Hell's Bells', the inflatable woman for 'Whole Lotta Rosie' and the cannons for 'For Those About To Rock'...what more could you want (apart from what I've mentioned already...) They played...

1. Rock N' Roll Train
2. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
3. Back In Black
4. Big Jack
5. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
6. Shot Down In Flames
7. Thunderstruck
8. Black Ice
9. The Jack
10. Hells Bells
11. Shoot To Thrill
12. War Machine
13. High Voltage
14. You Shook Me All Night Long
15. T.N.T.
16. Whole Lotta Rosie
17. Let There Be Rock
18. Highway To Hell
19. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Also worth mentioning was the poor organizing that pervaded the entire festival. I have never seen as many people as I have seen watching AC/DC (I have probably been to outdoor shows where there have been more, but it never looked like it) and the exits to get out were a joke. Hundreds of us had to clamber over 2 very tall barriers just to get forward and the gates to let people out were tiny holes in fences. It was a longer walk back to campsite than some of the bands played. This bad organization was to continue...

The Rage Factor - Finsbury Park, London. June 6th, 2010

After successfully upending last years X Factor effort to become Christmas number one with their 1992 song 'Killing In The Name' Rage Against The Machine promised a free outdoor show in London in the Summer to celebrate and yesterday's 'Rage Factor' event at Finsbury Park in London was the result.

The tickets were assigned by lottery. Well it was more refreshing the SeeTickets website for about 3 hours if I recall correctly, but I managed to secure a pair and Andrew and I traveled on down.

After the support bill was revealed to be less than stellar, we opted to go and get some food first and finally arrived as opening band Gallows were finishing up. Second act Roots Manuva was also largely missed what with shirt buying and that.

We found a nice spot however for 'gypsy punks' Gogol Bordello who were an absolute riot. Always good to see an accordion player in a band! They had the entire place jumping and dancing like idiots which can only be a good thing.

A short time passed after Gogol, and you could just feel the crowd heaving...a sign of things to come! Just after 9pm, after a hilarious animated Simon Cowell parody, Rage Against The Machine hit the stage and the entire park came unglued. I've been to a lot of gigs in the past but can't remember anything as crazy as that!

Before they came on I was very much in the mindset that I was just going to step back and be an observer, not wanting to get caught up in all the jumping around and pits and all that but the moment Rage hit the stage and launched into 'Testify' it was like a switch had been flipped - I just totally went for it, losing Andrew almost immediately! And carried on for the entirety of their 80 minute set.

I had been told by a friend beforehand that they were an amazing live act and they weren't wrong - the setlist for the night was superb starting with the opening tracks from their first 3 albums and carrying on into a 'best of' set and even included a cover of The Clash's 'White Riot'.

Halfway through the show frontman Zach De La Rocha introduced the couple that made it all possible - the campaign organizers Jon and Tracey Morter to a huge response and presented them with a cheque which was the combined total of the amount made from the downloads of the single and the separate amount donated to SHELTER by people when downloading. I couldn't see the amount on the cheque but I know the latter amount was £70,000 at Christmas time last year and the single shifted over 500,000 copies so you do the math!

Continuing after that (they also played my favorite Rage song 'Sleep Now In The Fire') it all started to build to the inevitable final song of the evening.

After a brief break, a video played mentioning all the quotes in the media about how unlikely it was that Rage would secure the number one, hilariously with Joe McElderry's (the kid who won X Factor if anyone has forgotten already) 'The Climb' - which, quite pathetically is a Miley Cyrus cover (!) , which swiftly was cut off by the final sales tallies and Rage launching into a victorious 'Killing In The Name' to end the night. And this caused even me to get involved in a circle pit...and I never do them!

The show was great, as was quite unexpectedly the atmosphere (for a free gig I thought the place would be teeming with douchebags and bandwagon jumpers who only knew 'Killing In The Name') but everyone seemed to be on the same page, having a laugh with and looking out for each other - in fact I saw a guy pass out and a complete stranger carry him out of the crowd!

It's a shame I cannot extend the same praise for the organization of the show. I've been to a few outdoor shows in London on a Sunday now and have never experienced such a shambles in trying to get home. After leaving the park itself thousands of people took to the roads walking to the tube station, and at one point a couple of people climbed on top of a moving bus as it drove off!

Getting to a tunnel just near the tube station hundreds of us were stopped by police on horseback for about quarter of an hour then let past where we were stopped again by more police at the other side and then we were eventually allowed to move towards the tube station where by some complete fluke we just got on the final tube night heading through Bourne where we needed to change.

I have never been on a tube so packed in my life. There was no room to move, people were being crushed and people were still trying to get on at the stops it made (this caused people on the train to start physically preventing people from getting on!) We finally got to Bourne and arrived at the next platform with a minute to spare for the next train (which was also the last of the evening) to take us to Stratford.

We got to Stratford at quarter past midnight, almost 2 hours after Rage had left the stage.

But looking past the terrible organization it was a great day and has raised a bit of a quandary for me. I was going to see Michael Monroe on the third stage at Download on Saturday...but Rage are headlining the main stage at the same time. I think I may have to see them again!

And if you get a chance this weekend or in the future - you must see them. As good as their albums are even they don't represent what a amazing live band they are ...and jumping around like a crazy person at a Rage gig is something for everyone's 'Bucket List'

Rage Against The Machine destroyed Finsbury Park with...

1. Testify
2. Bombtrack
3. People Of The Sun
4. Know Your Enemy
5. Bulls On Parade
6. Township Rebellion
7. Bullet In The Head
8. White Riot
9. Guerrilla Radio
10. Sleep Now In The Fire
11. Freedom
12. Killing In The Name

*photo above not mine, but from the BBC.