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...
- Not Bad Luck
- Louise
- Get Up I Wanna Get Down
- Sunshine
- Way Down
- 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)...
- Lay Your Body Down
- Wings
- Strength In Numbers
- Burning Down Inside
- Seasons
- 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...
- Elephants
- Gunman
- Scumbag Blues
- Dead End Friends
- No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
- New Fang
- Bandoliers
- Spinning In Daffodils
- Mind Eraser, No Chaser
- 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...
- Rock N' Roll Train
- Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
- Back In Black
- Big Jack
- Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
- Shot Down In Flames
- Thunderstruck
- Black Ice
- The Jack
- Hells Bells
- Shoot To Thrill
- War Machine
- High Voltage
- You Shook Me All Night Long
- T.N.T.
- Whole Lotta Rosie
- Let There Be Rock
- Highway To Hell
- 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...
No comments:
Post a Comment