From Donington To Download

by Ian Carroll

  All-American Rejects have been a fave band of mine for a while, so I was really stoked to get to meet Mike and Tyson from the band for the interviews. I was even more stoked to discover that not only are they an ace band, but they are extremely friendly, candid and grounded people. We got on really well, and joked about the so-called 'hardships' of life on the road in a band, before they wished me luck for our set, and disappeared off to get ready for their set. They were headlining the Snickers stage that night.

  After a few hours in the press area, I was done with band interviews for the day, so Carl and I strolled out into the park and met a few people in the park and interviewed them for our 'Download special' podcast. We also hooked up with our legend tech and roadie, 'Mustard', who emerged, unfazed and gnarly-looking, as only roadies can emerge, from the seething masses of the main stage. After dolling out a truckload of getAmped shoelaces, we finally took in our first bands of the day. We watched 'InMe' at the Snickers stage, and then checked out the All-American Rejects. AAR were really great live, with Tyson working the crowd up into a frenzy like a dervish. The place went off for their song 'Swing Swing' and they deservedly got an encore from the appreciative crowd. The energy and buzz of the place made me even more excited to play the next day. As the crowd swept over to the vast fields of the main stage to watch 'Tool', I decided to head back to the hotel for an early night and some rest. I would need all my energy for the performance on Saturday.

  Another hot, sticky, restless night was interspersed with crazy, non-sensical, skittish dreams about rock lineups, soundchecks and interviews. Before I knew it, the big day had arrived. getAmped would play the biggest hard rock and metal festival in the UK before the sun was down. We got on the road early, so we could meet up with Tim who was bringing up the wolfshark with all our gear, and Jase. We plonked our tiny van amongst the macking great tour buses with their power hook-ups, satellite dishes and blacked-out windows, and started to unload our gear. I wandered around the bus paddock taking in the names of the bands that were stuck in the official parking passes in the bus windows: 'Trivium', 'Atreyu', 'Soil', 'Clutch'. We were mixing it with the big names and I felt really proud to be there. We piled our gear into the special shuttle bus that would take us to the Snickers Bowl, and were whisked in true rock-star style to the stage.

  At the gates to the bowl, I was mistaken by one of the security ladies there as being one of the guys from Motorhead. I wasn't sure I was entirely flattered by this, especially given that Motorhead weren't on the bill for the weekend, but hey, at least she thought I was a rock star! We were welcomed to the Bowl by our stage manager and quickly settled in to the VIP area, which was really cool - a decked out area with garden furniture, water coolers, sun loungers, a great view of the bowl and most importantly, a freezer full of free Snickers Ice Cream! We watched Scottish all-girl punkers, 'the Hedrons', rock out before it was our turn to hit the stage. We set up our gear, and got everything ready for our set. We would have no soundcheck, so it was really important to make sure everything was working and sounding like it should. With Channel 4 filming the action in the bowl, and indeed our set, we would need to hit the ground running. After hurriedly scribbling some set lists down backstage (it's amazing the stupid things you forget to do when the pressure's on) it was 1pm, time for getAmped to rock the place out. I took a deep breath and...Bang, we were away blasting into the first angry chords of 'Down To Us' our opening number. It was really hot in the midday sun, and I could feel my throat drying up almost instantly as I belted the vocals out, but we play our first 2 songs of every show back to back, so there would be no chance to grab water before we were straight in to 'Phoney Society'. We played fast and furiously, trying extra hard to compensate for the distance between us and the audience that the bowl was imposing. I finally got my much-needed glug of water before we burnt into T-Rex, which went down a storm. By now I could see a crowd gathering outside the bowl gazing in at us which was a really nice feeling. With so much to look at - TV cameras pointing at us, photographers on stage, media types in the front, skaters ripping up the bowl, the crowd in the stands, and then mayhem going on outside the bowl - it felt like a dream up there and before I knew what had hit me we were playing our single 'Reject & Sterilise'. In spite of the distance between us and the crowd I could see people mouthing the words back! I was loving it and it was going to be over in 1 song! We stormed through our final track 'Black Clouds' and that was it, our first Download performance was over. 30 minutes has never gone so quickly. I was hot, sweaty, gasping for air and water, but I felt proud, exhilarated, relieved and sad all at the same time - it was all over too soon and it will be a whole year before we get to play it again.

  There were loads of familiar faces in the bowl from all over the country and I really would like to say a massive thanks to all the fans who showed up at Download to support us - it was a huge day for us and it really meant the world to see you there. Carl and the team gave out getAmped shoelaces and bags to people in the audience, so everyone left amped up to the max!

  But in many ways the weekend had only just started for us. Tim managed to collar skate legends, and long time heroes of his, Bucky Lasek and Tony Alva, for a quick chat for the podcast. I sat listening to these legends chat away to Tim, glugging ice cold water and stuffing ice cream down my face in the VIP area in gorgeous sunshine with my first Download performance under my belt. Life couldn't get better...or could it? As soon as Tim had wrapped up his chat with Bucky, it was back to the press area for interviews, but this time the mic was pointing the other way! We caught a few of the unmistakably dirty riffs of a re-issued 'Alice In Chains' blasting out of the main stage PA, but again couldn't stay to watch more - our lovely PR team at Hero had scheduled in a string of interviews for TV, press and radio as long as your arm. We were there for 3 hours talking to everyone about our show and the new record. We bumped in to Emma Scott, the ex-Power FM DJ who played our records ages ago on her 'Incoming' show and did an interview with her for Kerrang! Radio. We also talked to Maximum FM, Juice FM, and Total Rock. We also did a stint on the Redemption TV couch with the lovely Julia, and some comedy 'You're watching Scuzz TV' one liners which you'll have to keep an eye and an ear out for! If any of you see or hear them, let us know.

  It was then back to my interviewing and podcasting duties, so Tim and I had a quick chat with Matt from 'Bullet For My Valentine' and the guys from 'Reuben' who are both Download veterans. We talked about how they'd worked their way up the stages and how much of blast it was for them to come back play it again and see the audiences getting bigger and bigger. I found it really inspiring, and vowed I'd work as hard as possible with the band to make sure that would happen for getAmped. The press area was mad, and absolutely buzzing again - Metallica had just arrived for their evening set, and I was just turning round to get my stuff and go and watch Jase play in 'This Is Menace' when Lars Ulrich walks in munching a bowl of fruit salad, minders hustling people out of his way. This was a full-on rock daydream!

  Jase absolutely killed it with 'Menace', and I was amazed at how much energy he had given he had already played a full set with us! He was bashing the drums like a man possessed, and it was great seeing all the vocalists in action. They are starting work on their next album soon and I'll be helping Jase with the production duties, so I can't wait! When I was backstage on the Myspace stage talking to Jase, I clocked the Lordi dressing room, and all their monster gear was lined up outside. It was mad - a full on thick rubber construction supported by mad metal struts - I had a new found respect for how they perform live in that gear, especially in the heat. I'd have passed out!

  After 'Menace', we chilled for the first time in ages, grabbed a few beers and burger and settled in to watch Korn, minus frontman Jonathan Davies who was ill, and then the mighty Metallica. The sun went down and Metallica echoed out over the biggest crowd of the festival yet. It was a massively impressive sight, reminding me of the CGI scenes of the Coliseum in the film Gladiator. Again the mosh pit f
rothed away, spewing dust and plastic bottles - people were going nuts. But in spite of the awesome grandeur of the setting and the vastness of the crowd I couldn't help but feel a little flat. As impressive and fun as festivals are, I felt that the gig was so impersonal, so disconnected, that I might as well have been watching them on TV. Sure I wasn't in the bowels of the mosh pit but thousands and thousands of people weren't, and I couldn't help but feel that you lost a bit of the atmosphere of the other, smaller stages. Nevertheless, I was watching Metallica headline a bill that my band's name was on (we're even on the official T-Shirts for heaven's sake!), and I was seriously happy and immensely satisfied! It was back to the hotel for the first good night's sleep of the weekend.

  The weather was still glorious on Sunday, and I woke feeling happy and relaxed and ready to enjoy my final day of the festival. The pace was quick from the off, though - I had loads of interviews lined up. I caught the end of the 'Breed 77' set on the main stage, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and then trundled back to the press area to interview them. They were super laid back guys, and were really fun to talk to. I could hardly believe they'd been thrashing the shit out of their instruments on stage a few minutes earlier! I had my photo taken for the official Download 2006 press release, and signed the massive poster alongside the other artists - I was really getting in to this rock star malarkey! Carl, the crew and I went down to the Snickers Bowl again to catch up with weird and wonderful goth punk 'Betty Curse', who was warming up for her set. She was a really lovely girl, has an amazing image and it was a heap of fun chatting to her. Her music rocks too, but we could only catch the beginning of her set, as we wanted to catch 'Fightstar', meet some fans and get them on the podcast and give out some free getAmped stuff after the 'Fightstar' show. People outside the tent were hurling abuse about Charlie, and he got bottles thrown at him on stage, which I thought was really off. I really respect the guy for having the guts to follow his heart and pursue a career making the kind of music that he loves in spite of the haters and doubters. To turn up at a show with the sole purpose of throwing things at the band is just really low. People lapped up the shoelaces after the show, and we had a real scrum around us giving them out, we also talked to some really nice people for the podcast, so subscribe to it and check all that out!

  It was about this time that I got a text message saying I had just co-produced my first number one album. The 'Sandi Thom' record I recorded in January was this week’s number one album and my very first gold disc is on its way! Could the day get better? Hell yeah!

  Back up to the press tent, and I did a quick interview about getAmped for Canadian extreme sports lifestyle channel Much Music, before settling in for a mad bout of interviews with other bands. I met Peter from 'Winterville', Kieran from 'The Prodigy', chatted to Chris and Gareth from 'Funeral For A Friend' outside the Kerrang! tent, before questioning legendary 'Skid Row' singer Sebastian Bach, the 'Hundred Reasons' dudes, old touring buddies, 'The Zico Chain', and Swedish metallers 'In Flames'. These interviews will all appear in 'Burn' and feature on the getAmped podcast very soon. Right now, I'm almost home from a fantastic and magical weekend, I'm tired and sunburnt, and I have a LOT of editing to do for the podcast, but by god what a fun weekend! I can't wait until next year!”

  Rick Parkhouse (getAmped – Vocals/Bass)

  “We were travelling from Oslo, Norway and as we were a quite small band were playing quite early and we had to drive from the airport directly.

  There was an accident on the ‘freeway’, so we had to travel around, which was a three hour longer drive.

  I was for the first time driving on the wrong side of the road; so we had a rental car and we had to drive SO fast, about 150 mph, on the road side of the road for me!

  We got there and didn’t know where to come off the highway and we had ten minutes until we had to come on.

  So I phoned a guy and said that we could take a left turn or a right turn and if we took the wrong one, we wouldn’t have been able to be on; so we tried left and it was the right one.

  When we got there, we were thrown into a cab and Agnete was doing her make-up in there and we had some passes thrown in the window on the way. When we got on stage five minutes late and had to throw all the gear up there; it was a really tough gig.”

  Christian Wibe (Animal Alpha – Guitar)

  “Our first experience of performing at the Download Festival was at 11.45am at the Snickers Bowl Stage on Saturday 10th June 2006.

  It was the warmest day of the year so far, and the seating area was packed out. We found out after the gig that lots of our Myspace fans couldn’t even get in!!!! In The Hedrons short life, it has to be our best gig to date.

  We opened with ‘Stop, look and Listen’, which is a real punk 2min 10sec song, and the place was jumping. We played nine songs in total, which really wasn’t enough; we would have played all day if we’d been allowed!

  Highlights of the gig have got to be seeing the audience in the arena getting into our music, watching all the people standing outside the arena trying to get in, and putting on a great show and playing a real rocking set! Every one of us had a ball!!

  My personal highlight was when I bravely jumped off the stage into the audience. I did rip my t-shirt and hurt my back, but it was worth it. I decided to run around the bowl, which I soon found out is actually a very BIG bowl, and then jumped up to the seating area to sing to audience, it was such a buzz. When I came off stage I felt as if I had run a marathon!!

  The best story of the weekend was when Soup – drummer Hedron, was back stage at the warm up area. She was playing around on the kit when Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains put his guitar on, plugged in and started jamming with her! What a great pre-gig warm up! Until next year…”

  Tippi (The Hedrons – Vocals)

  “Playing Download probably meant the most to me out of the band because I’m into a lot of the ‘heavier’ type of music; I feel that’s what I bring to the music.

  It was unfortunate that we didn’t get to see as many bands as we would’ve liked, with the way things were working out. But, we did manage to catch Korn with the multiple singers; they were doing a ‘Metallica’, if you want, with the ‘Korn Karaoke’. But seeing Corey was great as I’m a big Slipknot fan which was fantastic. We a caught a wee bit of Alice In Chains as we had supported them at the Astoria.

  I wanted to go and see Guns ‘n’ Roses on the Sunday, because I had ticket years ago when they had Buckethead, but he fell ill and then they cancelled on me. But when I read the review it was disappointing, but it still is Axel Rose. Sometimes I think he should just do something else.

  I’d love to go back and do one of the bigger stages, but just to be a part of it was great.”

  Chi (The Hedrons – Bass)

  “My memories of Download are very good memories actually. It was quite an achievement to be invited along and to play in amongst so many well established rock acts; it was quite something for us.

  The Snickers Bowl stage was brilliant and the crowd was all up for it and we actually had guys on BMX’s and skateboards doing tricks in front of us.

  It was a strange set up but we’ve made some new friends through Download, it was brilliant”

  Soup (The Hedrons – Drums)

  “Thinking back to Download, it was a great day for us, to be in amongst so many great bands, Donington is the home of rock! Considering we have only been together for just over a year.

  We saw a bit of Alice And Chains, who we had supported at the Astoria and we got to jam backstage with Jerry Cantrell”

  Rosie (The Hedrons – Guitar)

  “Playing Download was a dream I’d always had, but I never thought that I would actually do it. It was great fun and the crowd loved it. We’d had a few fans come down to the Underworld gigs and I could see them in the crowd in their Voodoo Six shirts.”

  Henry (Voodoo Six – Vocals)

  “It was a dream come true, it is the place for rock bands, a year ago I would never h
ave thought that I would have played here in this band, but now it’s happened. Me and Henry are the new boys, the other three had been together for a couple of years writing the songs and we came in last summer and finished the album and then started gigging, it’s all just come together.

  I watched Metallica and it was just amazing, it was just lovely to see that many people, loving that kind of music and apparently there’s a Gun ‘N’ Roses Tribute band playing later that we might watch”

  Matt (Voodoo Six- Guitar)

  “The stage and set-up was amazing and so un believably professional to

  point that I was slightly intimidated by it all, having 4 techs on stage when

  usually with only one was a bit over whelming.

  The performance was the best we have ever done as a band, it sucked

  that we had to play our first 3 songs to a handful of people due to the gates being closed, but as soon as they opened it was such a rush to people running in to see us, we filled up the tent with people still trying to cram in by the time we started our last song.

  The crowd reaction was amazing, so many people screaming and just enjoying our music!

  I met my idol, the bassist for A7X backstage which was pretty mind blowing

  because he’s been my idol since I started playing.

  The sound of the main stage could have been better because it was swaying from side to side because of the wind. The sound on our stage (Snickers Bowl) was fantastic and by far the best of all the stages (maybe due to the fact that it isn’t as big as the others); we sounded as though it was cd quality.