From Donington To Download

by Ian Carroll

  It was an anti climactic end to the festival where the headliner had pulled out, it was miserable weather and everyone was feeling down. Tool took to the stage as the replacement headliner and I managed to blag myself to the side of the stage and it made up for everything as it was an amazing gig that I will never forget”

  Justin Schlosberg (Hell Is For Heroes – Vocals)

  “Our Donington started the day before with sound check. Since we were first

  on the main stage, we got to sound check after Ozzys guys. BLS were there

  too. It was great to get an idea of the stage and sort our sound out the

  day before.

  We were the first band on the main stage that day and there were 43,000

  people through the gate when we came one...it was a big crowd! In his usual

  quest to push the boundaries of decency, A. Product came on dressed up as

  the Queen Mother...she had recently died...with the hat and everything...the

  crowd loved it...then we all followed him on and started our set.

  Life is all a valuable learning experience and that day we learnt not to

  play a pop set at a metal festival! Our insidiously catchy, hook laden

  PopMetal Rock certainly got a reaction, and a number of bottles hurled in

  our direction. This incited A. to demand that they throw more but to fill

  them with urine too. Fortunately it was still so early in the day that

  there was not much urine on hand.

  I thought my guitar was wireless, but a problem with it just before we went

  on meant I was on a lead. My tech swears he told be I was on a lead, but I

  didn’t hear it. I was looking at the crowd thinking come on...lets 'ave it!

  So at one point in the show when I went to run across the stage to go and

  pull an Angus type shape in front of the huge PA stacks, just as I'm really

  picking up speed the lead runs out and I get whip lashed back, only by the

  grace of god not falling on my arse. 300 or so of the people stood in front

  of me let out a massive cheer and raised their arms...I always check now if

  I am on a lead or not...that will never happen again...but my one and only

  time was at Donington in front of 43,000 people...I shall always remember

  Donington fondly for that!

  The bottles kept coming and A. kept demanding more and complaining about the lack of urine. One of the bottles was filled with brown shit that looked like soil so A.Product poured it into his mouth (he said after that it was pleasantly

  actually crumbled up chocolate muffin).

  In the accapella section of Arms around the World (our Bohemian Rhapsody) a chant of FUCK OFF started...it was cool though. We aim to make people react and that day the people of Donington did...not necessarily in the way we

  would have chosen, but oftentimes a hostile crowd will make you dig in that

  bit further...after a point you have nothing to lose so you give it all...

  so making it a better performance. I have spoken to many people in the

  ensuing years who were there and loved it....as I did...it was one of those

  you had to be there times in the AntiProduct story!

  We were lucky with the weather, it was dry and even a little bit of

  sunshine. It got progressively worse throughout the day with torrential

  downpours while Cradle of Filth were on stage. The Lost Prophets,

  Millencolin and Cradle of Filth all got more bottles thrown at them than we

  did and there was plenty of urine flowing by then too.

  I got to see a bit of System of a Down (one of the best bands in the world

  today) before we had to leave for the next Ozzfest show in Ireland, they

  were awesome. There was problems with high winds and lighting rigs though

  and everyone was cleared off the side of the stage as we were leaving.

  All in all an awesome day!”

  Clare Pproduct (AntiProduct – Guitar)

  “To say I was chuffed when they announced Ozzfest 2002 would be an understatement, having attended the previous event at Milton Keynes Bowl I was sure that it would be well worth attending, and what’s more, this time it was going to be held at Donington – perfect. This had all the makings of being one of the best fests ever held at Donington, fantastic line-up held in the spiritual home of Hard Rock, unfortunately this was nearly all undone by possibly the worst organisation ever witnessed at this venue. Early after entering the arena it was evident that whoever thought up the layout did not have their brain fully engaged, the main stage area was as it had always been, however, the second stage had been placed in the conference centre which was not an ideal location and suffered from poor access and egress. Throughout the day we attempted to get into this area several times but the queues were ridiculous and we only managed to get in once as Mushroomhead were finishing their set, we started to queue twenty minutes before they came on. What made it worse was that they had placed the rear exit to the main stage in the same location as people were trying to get into second stage, and even worse had placed the toilets beyond the point that these two queues met which meant that there were three lots of people trying to move about and all meeting at the same place creating a huge bottle neck. On one occasion when I was trying to get back to main stage I was caught up in this bottle neck and it became so tightly packed that the weight pushed the surrounding barriers down, this was a relief as someone may have been hurt if these fences had not given way. Security was in plentiful supply in this area but all stood around seemingly clueless as to how to handle the situation. As it was virtually impossible to get anywhere without encountering a mass of bodies trying to move in the opposite direction we quickly decided to remain in the main stage area for the rest of the day, this was a shame as there were several bands playing second stage that we really wanted to see. It also became apparent that the weather would not be as kind to us as it had been on some of the previous MOR’s but luckily the showers did not last too long each time until, that is, near the end when it rained constantly. May is not the ideal month to hold an outdoor event. The line-up was probably the most diverse in the venues history of holding events in this genre, we had Punk, Thrash, Nu-Metal, Black Metal, Pop Metal, Prog Metal, Reggae Metal, in fact, something for everyone plus we had good old dependable Ozzy to finish off the proceedings. We joined the queue for the now fashionable beer tokens just as Black Label Society came on, Zack and his crew were suitably impressive and churned out their biker metal, Sabbath enthused tunes to an appreciative busy early day crowd. I did not know any of BLS’s songs at that point but enjoyed what I heard and saw from my vantage point in the painfully slow queue. After procuring a pocketful of tokens so as to avoid enduring the queue for the rest of the day, beers in hand we made our way to our old haunt, main stage left to check out Japanese nut jobs, Mad Capsule Markets. Not long into their set we established that this lot were not our cup of tea; however, since it would prove fruitless trying to move elsewhere we stayed put and tolerated whatever they were shrieking about in their native tongue? Whatever it was we were glad when they stopped. Drowning pool were a welcome relief after the shriek fest of Mad Capsule Markets, I had recently picked up a copy of the ‘Pools’ debut album, so for the first time in the day could sing/ mumble along with the set especially the very familiar (as in sticks in your head for days) ‘Bodies’. I do not think the other three with me knew any of Drowning Pools ditties but they seemed to enjoy them regardless, but then again, they would have probably been happy with a skiffle set by the Chuckle Brothers after MCM’s. Millencolin were obviously not as popular or as well known with the crowd when they came on, the crowd thinned along with the atmosphere which was a shame as I thought that they played a nice tight set with plenty of energy. I was back in unknown material territory again and apart from something that had been played constantly on Kerr
ang! TV, this did not detract from my enjoyment of their set and I vowed to myself to pick up something from them on my next venture into Virgin Megastore. Most drinks containers had now been banned at festivals, you could usually get bottles of water in but that was it, this of course meant the death of the legendary Donington bottle fights where you would witness a mass of containers in the air that threatened to block out the sun. Bottle/anything else throwable fights continued as they did on this very day but they now looked wimpy in comparison as empty waxed paper cups just do not have the same effect as 2 or even 5 litre bottles. It was rain coat time again during Cradle Of Filth’s set, a set that was partially enjoyable and partially shite. Musically COF are a tight, talented set of musicians who unfortunately are fronted by Dani Filth who can not sing for toffee and seems to consider himself a bit of a stand up comedian. The sound they generated was impressively doomy but it is impossible to take them seriously when the front man comes across as about as threatening as an Ewok. Thankfully they did not try to play it too straight with Filth making wise cracks at their expense between each satanically titled track. The bizarre inclusion of people in odd costumes wondering the stage added to visual entertainment but I remained a non-fan after the band exited stage left. We missed Lostprophets set due to the unwise decision to give it another go at the second stage; this again proved a fruitless and frustrating expedition which required some liquid refreshment to get over. Despite the now frequent downpours, Slayer were never going to disappoint us, it had been at least six years since we last encountered them live so we were expecting to enjoy this. If nothing else, Slayer are consistent, they play their ferociously paced music and there is rarely any talking between songs. On this occasion, not unlike any other time I have witnessed them, they played a couple of tracks from whatever new album they had just released and the rest of the set was made up mostly of classics from ‘Reign in Blood’, ‘Hell Awaits’ and ‘South of Heaven’. My favourites on this occasion were ‘Angel of Death’ and ‘Raining Blood’, hey! What am I saying? These are always my favourites. They came they played, they did not talk to us as usual; but they left the majority of the crowd happy. I had recently got heavily into 'Toxicity' so was awaiting System Of a Down with eager anticipation but not quite sure what to expect, the other three with me had only heard 'Chop Suey' so were grilling me on what their stuff was like, I could not really give a definite answer so just stuck to weird. Weird was correct but entertaining and brilliant sprang to mind half way through their set. They seemed to play most of 'Toxicity' along with some debut album tracks that I only semi knew but it was all immensely enjoyable. It was obvious that guitarist Daron Malakian was mad as a hat stand as he talked absolute cobblers between songs and calmed the crowd with a rendition of some strange song about raining whilst a technical fault (that cut the set short) was being sorted out. I was quite surprised as I did not recall Serj Tankian actually speaking to the crowd which is odd for a vocalist. As the early evening drew in the rain continued to annoy us with shower and at one point hail which did not particularly amuse. Of course with rain comes mud and there were plenty of inebriated folks wondering about absolutely covered in it; I suspect that some people deliberately covered themselves in it, maybe to provide some warmth as it was getting colder and colder as night came.

  I had enjoyed most of Tool’s set at the previous Ozzfest but about half way through I started to get bored as they are a peculiar band to try to watch especially as Maynard had just stood in one spot standing sideways on at the back of the stage. This year I think that they managed to keep my attention for about 10 minutes longer but it was the same type of show as before, Maynard complete with black stripe on face stood still and the video screens showed weird animated images (the same as the music videos to tracks such as 'Schism'). Musically they were as tight as a gnats chuff and I particularly enjoyed the earlier tracks such as 'Stinkfist' and overall I would say that they went down well generally but it is hard to remember because you find that you become drawn in by the weirdness on the video screens and do not notice anything else. Ozzy came on after another bunch of piss take clips that he had made played on the video screens, I do not remember for sure, but I think that some of them were the same as had been played in ‘96. Practically as soon as Ozzy hit the stage the rain decided to up the ante and my weather proof rain coat was now deciding that it was not entirely weather proof.

  Ozzy was as animated as ever and was running and jumping around the stage as frantically as ever sporting very fetching black Benny hat. I do not remember the set list exactly but it included all of the usual suspects and was enjoyable. Unfortunately when you are getting soaked even the best of shows can become a chore to watch and this was starting to be the case here, I was not too upset when the set came to an end so that we could go and find some shelter for a few minutes before trying to find the taxi we had booked. In 2002 we decided to take the cosy option and book a B&B, unfortunately the nearest one that we could get at short notice was in Hathern which is approximately 6 miles from Donington Park, not too bad we thought we shall get a taxi back. We took a taxi from the digs to Dony and booked the same driver for the return leg agreeing with him the pick up location and time. After the show we made our way in the rain to the agreed pick up point to find that there was no cab waiting, no problem I thought, I shall ring the firm which I did and was told that he was nearly there. 20 mins passed along with more heavy rain and still no show so I rang again to be told the same thing? By this time we were trying to flag down other cabs to no avail. I believe I rang this firm about 12 times and was bullshitted to on every occasion, at one point I was informed that the driver had been held up because there was an accident at the DHL roundabout, I quickly explained to the chap on the end of the phone that this was not exactly the case as I was standing on the DHL roundabout. Enough was enough, we were cold and ###### off, it was now nearly 2 hours after Ozzy had finished and we needed to get back to the B&B to recuperate. By this time one of our party had decided that he was going to warm himself up by way of a full work out which included jogging up and down the street and middle of the road push ups and sit ups, I could tell that he had lost it. After a lengthy stroll to East Midlands airport for some well earned shelter we managed to secure another cab which was a relief, and as a special treat many bewildered holiday makers were subjected to my crazed colleague minus most clothes continuing his exercise regime in the check in area. We vowed never to stay outside of walking distance ever again. Ozzfest was the final one day festival to be held at Donington and arguably one of the worst festivals in terms of the general organisation. Despite that, we still had a great time and although we had plenty to moan about it leaves you with plenty of memories.”

  Roger Moore (Glinton, Peterborough)

  “Ozzfest 2002 was my first music festival. I went with one of my friends from school and around halfway through the day my friend insisted on seeing a band I’d never heard of and I wanted to see Drowning Pool.

  We split up to see the bands we both wanted and agreed to meet up later, as Drowning Pool were my favourite band at the time. They played up to my expectations and the chaos during ‘Bodies’ was insane when I was 14.

  Even though that day I saw System Of A Down, Slayer and Ozzy they were the band of the day for me.

  What makes it even more special was that it was Dave Williams’s last UK show before he passed away.”

  Adam Curson (Hinckley)

  2003

  Iron Maiden, Audioslave

  Rising like a metal phoenix from the ashes of the destroyed Monsters Of Rock festivals, Download was a shot in the arm for events at Donington and the start of the successful Download brand. Initially devised as a two day festival, with the option to grow into a three day festival if proving popular, the first year was a great success and so the seeds for developing into a fully fledged festival were starting to be sown, over the two stages.

  Headlined by Iron Maiden, making their third headline appearance at D
onington on the Saturday and Limp Bizkit on Sunday, all was set for a fantastic start to the new event. However, close to the time of the festival Limp Bizkit, who were huge at the time, dropped out and their slot was filled by Audioslave who were originally the 'special guests'. Metallica had wanted to take the

  top spot in the absence of Limp Bizkit, but already had a commitment to headline the Reading & Leeds festivals so were not allowed to headline another festival due to the clause in their contract with the Mean Fiddler organisation; Metallica couldn't be stopped though from playing a mid-afternoon 'secret slot' in the tent. Possibly one of the worst kept secrets in the festivals history, the tent was packed with fans and other bands all ready to catch a small, intimate show with the 'Mighty Metallica' and that's just what they got. From the taped out Metallica logos on all the gear, to the rumours flying around the site, anticipation was high for one of those rare and special festival moments; an 'I was there moment' and every year Download is full of those moments. From seeing small bands developing on a small stage to classic headline

  slots by major artists, Download had arrived and it was going to be here to stay.

  The mainstage featured a supporting bill which looked like the 'shape of things to come', The Darkness, Evanescence, Funeral For A Friend and Stone Sour all would go on to greater things and greater festival billings, both at Download and elsewhere. The mainstage also featured some Download stalwarts in Marilyn Manson and Deftones.

  The second stage was headlined by A on the Saturday, who would come back to the mainstage on 'Ozzfest Day' in 2005 and by NoFx on the Sunday who have never returned; the Sunday bill was filled with punk bands from the 'Deconstruction Tour' but none of them have returned since.

  So the festival had laid its roots and would definitely return again, the rock was back at Donington and it was there to stay.