Crikey Mel!

Just as the dust was starting to set on the infamous anti-semitic 'sugartits' rant from a few years ago (Sugartitsgate?) foul mouthed bigot Mel Gibson has done it again! And got taped doing so. Check this out...but not at work seriously there is some totally fruity language.

And also...

I think we need to send Gazza round for a little chat.

Till next time...YOU SHOULD JUST SMILE AND BLOW MEEEEE!

Thom's Tangents III

It's back! A forum for me to mouth off about various subjects. Quite a lot has caught my ear and eyes (that's all the orifices, mind) the last week or so, and rather do blogs of various shapes and sizes I thought I would resurrect the Tangents.

And apologies to my Facebook acolytes - I will be reusing 2 jokes I made in statuses in the last week. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. If not - fuck off. There's about a 20% chance I don't like you and am friends with you for the sake of things not being awkward anyway...

The big news story this week was Rothbury gunman Raoul Moat, who after evading capture after shooting his ex, killing her boyfriend AND shooting a policeman, was finally tracked down. And he ended up shooting himself after a 6 hour standoff (apparently involving John Locke from Lost - see here > http://bit.ly/bw4oe6).

Not to make light of what happened at all. It seems like a pretty fucked up situation and it's never good when someone gets shot and killed for no real reason.

BUT.

Paul Gascoigne showed up at the scene of the stand off.

He brought lager, KFC, a dressing gown and a fishing rod for Raoul Moat.

Then he gave a radio interview. This radio interview...

Hard to follow that up really. Just brilliant. How much better was the whole situation after Gazza showed up? Yeah Moatie shot himself but a pissed out of his head Gazza showed up with some chicken and a fishing rod for him!

That's it for news stories now. They need to be of a lighter tone. We need Paul Gascoigne to show up when things are looking their darkest. With props where appropriate.

Middle East conflict looking a bit grim? Gazza In Gaza.

Staying with Moatie for a moment - the saturation coverage that the news channels gave this was unbelievable! I'm not saying a tense stand off is an everyday occurrence but it happens a fair bit, I'm sure. Why was this one given the full treatment by the media?

Prime time Friday night we had 6 hours of a bloke lying on the grass, while the news commentators desperately tried to fill the boredom talking about anything from Moat's hat to the drainage system. It just wasn't THAT newsworthy. Well, except the Gazza thing- that was fucking priceless.

Talking of dragging things out for a fucking eternity - the World Cup finally ended last night with (SPOILER ALERT) Spain winning, beating the Netherlands. Germany - who you may remember handed England their arses a few weeks ago - came third.

Whilst on break at work on the Sunday of the final (or yesterday as some people may prefer to put it) Sky Sports News anchor Sam Matterface (yes...Matterface) asked the question "What would you have been doing today if England had made it though to the World Cup finals?"

Having thought about it, I offer this as what I would have been doing if England had made the World Cup finals...

Having kicked Christina Ricci out of bed for farting, I'd have nipped into the kitchen and made some breakfast. After that I'd make a few phone calls and sorted out the Israeli - Palestine conflict. After lunch, I would pop down to the lab and cure AIDs. And seeing as I would have a few hours to kill at the end of the day, I'd fuck Scarlett Johansson on the back of a bright green unicorn.

Bringing things back to a more local scale - check out these dickheads > http://bit.ly/de6HVq

Yes I work at the branch in question, but the question has to be asked...would you really go running to the local paper because you got I.D'd in a shop? I have been I.D.'d when I haven't had any on me before - the first thought that crossed my mind was "Crap - forgot it!" not "I wonder how much the Mirror will give me for this gem?"

Not sure if the Evening News would pay money for that story though. It must have been a hell of a slow news day when they decided to run the 'Girl Gets I.D'd In Shop' story.

Not to turn into Worky McWorkington but if you work on a checkout and you suspect someone is buying alcohol for a minor you don't allow the sale. Simple as. The girl in question looks younger than 25 and that's the way the cookie crumbles!

And crying about it in the car park? Get a grip love, you got I.D.'d. That shit happens. I think that bit was made up to try and get some sympathy anyway. Obviously that died on it's arse when it gets to me...

One of my friends this week spent the day doing one of the most pointless activities I have ever heard. A cake decorating course. No, really. I'm pretty sure that once you know how to decorate a cake...well that is pretty much it. There's nowhere else to go. It's kind of like learning to ride a bike. That's it. You can't like...ride a bike upside down.

And so it was. A bit of cake decorating was followed by a healthy dose (or unhealthy dose I'd wager) of box decorating. For the cakes to go in. I would want my money back and I'd want my time back.

Well that's about it for the third collection of tangents. Sure there will be more soon. Very soon in fact - I'm pretty convinced I have forgotten something I was going to write about. PRO.

Gig Review: Ozzy Osbourne at The Roundhouse. July 3rd 2010.

My recent spate of good luck with gigs that began with snagging a pair of tickets for Rage Against The Machine's historic Finsbury Park last month continued with managing to win another pair of this tickets - this time for Day 3 of the itunes Festival, taking place at the Roundhouse in Camden.

Stepping inside the Roundhouse, the main space where the bands play that is rather than the lush and rather nice looking exterior built around it is like stepping into the past.

In the late sixties and early seventies a 'who's who' of bands played there - David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Clash and the only UK appearance of The Doors. The venue closed it doors in 1983 until 1996 where it re-opened as an arts venue. Then it closed again in 2004 for the refit and expansion we see today. It is truly dripping with history. But strangely as Ozzy himself later pointed out - neither he or Black Sabbath ever played there!

Promoting his new album 'Scream', Ozzy seemed a weird choice for the generally 'scene' lineup of the rest of the days (which promises the likes of many 'here today, forgotten next month' acts like Foals, Ellie Goulding, Mumford And Sons etc. - the only exception to that rule being Foreigner and Europe) but here he was in all his glory!

First though was a band who had won a competition on Ozzy's MySpace (yes, MySpace still exists) Black Spiders who I have actually seen before, supporting The Wildhearts last year at The Waterfront. And they helped in assisting getting us backstage that night, so I will always have a lot of time for them.

The sound system in The Roundhouse is fantastic, probably the best I have heard in a small venue, and the Spider's sounded great. Hopefully this will lead to bigger gigs for them in the next couple of years.

Next up were The Sword who were a odd lot. Sort of sounding like Clutch with the big riffing but with more fantasy - based lyrics. I really don't think they went down to well. Musically they were tight and the riffs sounded spectacular but the vocalist couldn't be made out at all when singing which was pretty bad considering how good the sound was in the venue.

But all that was kind of superfluous to what was next. The Prince of Darkness himself - Ozzy Osbourne. I last saw Ozzy back in 2005 at Download when he was playing with Black Sabbath. While liking Sabbath, I have always preferred Ozzy's solo material so was busting with excitement. And with fresh new guitarist Gus G with him, the band should be sounding good. Just as long as Ozzy was on form!

Was he ever! Granted he doesn't move around the stage as much as did when I saw him running from one end of the stage to another with Sabbath at Download 2005, but for a guy who has been through what he has it's a miracle he is here at all! Of course that may have been because the stage was a lot smaller. Taking to the stage and kicking straight into 'Bark At The Moon' was a hell of a good start.

After that he played the only new song of the evening 'Let Me Hear You Scream', but after that it was a trawl through the greatest hits of his solo career - mainly focusing on the Blizzard Of Ozz and No More Tears albums (arguably the best albums of his solo career) - and some Sabbath songs thrown in for good measure.

Ozzy seemed to be getting a lot of pleasure chucking buckets of water at everyone (and he got us a good one too, we were soaked through!) which he did throughout the show, and at one point actually threw one of the recently emptied buckets into the crowd for good measure. Security did try and reclaim the bucket but to no avail.

A great thing was that after all these years the voice remains the same, pretty much. No one ever accused Ozzy of being a great singer (a great frontman yes) but his inimitable voice still sounded the same.

At various points during the evening it kept on occurring me as to how damn lucky we were to be seeing a legend (and yes, I know that word is thrown about way too much but in this case it's true) like Ozzy in such an intimate venue. The place wasn't even full. After the ticket winners had been admitted (and given a wristband and lanyard) others were let in to sit in the seating area upstairs - but that wasn't even full.

So if you wanted to see Ozzy Osbourne for free...you totally missed out!

The band, which also included former Rob Zombie bassist Blasko, were on top form too and did a great, extended version of Sabbath instrumental number 'Rat Salad'.

Coming back on stage for an encore, we were teased with each song being the last before Ozzy got a "one more song!" chanted and launched into another. Obviously all set up but great fun nonetheless.

Business finally wrapped up with the obvious 'Paranoid' which ended a great show. One that proved that for now at least Ozzy has still got it. But for how much longer? You to have to question that anytime an artist in their 60's are still performing.

Here is 'Shot In The Dark' from last night...

Ozzy played...

1. Bark At The Moon
2. Let Me Hear You Scream
3. Mr. Crowley
4. I Don't Know
5. Fairies Wear Boots
6. Suicide Solution
7. Road To Nowhere
8. Shot In The Dark
9. Rat Salad
10. Iron Man
11. Crazy Train
12. Mama, I'm Coming Home
13. I Don't Want To Change The World
14. War Pigs
15. Paranoid

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...