by Ian Carroll
Carl Dawkins (Sintuition – Bass)
“Download’s online community was now a virtual juggernaught steaming ahead on its own momentum, lovingly cared-for by its more-than-capable new foster parents Phil and Carrie, both motivated by passion over money, as it should be. The organisers decided, quite sensibly, that the festival had grown to such an extent that they felt more comfortable bringing the website’s content and communications in-house. They did still keep us on-board for a couple more years, however, to produce the official coverage (“The Dog’s Blogs”) of the event and we had some really great times doing it. As our role at Download was diminishing, Virtual Festivals was expanding rapidly as a business (undoubtedly boosted by experience I picked up from my Download days) and commanding more and more of my time and energy. Where one adventure comes to an end, I find you don’t usually have to look far for the next one. But that’s a book (or two) for another day.
What’s important here is the rich legacy that those three incredible, pioneering years have left behind. The fantastic spirit of open co-operation between promoters and fans that we helped to nurture back then is still prevalent today with the promoters now communicating directly via forum posts and twitter messages, and even meeting up with groups of boardies at regular ‘fan forum’ events (life imitating web).
Beyond that, though, the seeds we planted together have since blossomed and spread out into the wider marketplace to revolutionise the way all festivals market to and interact with their fans. It's not a complete coincidence that once our template started to get replicated and the process propagated the whole festival marketplace underwent an explosive growth spurt. In the case of the boutique events that started sprouting up all over the country, innovative audience engagement would go so far as to overtake line-up as the main draw. Download has a lot more to answer for than just the rock.
Axl Rose's unpredictability on and off-stage is the stuff of legend, and one of the characteristics that has made him such a popular and enduring star. Yet one thing you can pretty much always rely on is that he will take to the stage late. Sometimes, as in his most recent (at the time) performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, two hours late. Don't ever plan to catch the last train home after a GNR show. So, there was a ‘degree’ of anxiety backstage at Download before the show. Festival licenses being as delicate and restrictive as they are (god forbid Doris next door should be disturbed by any noise after 10.30pm other than aircraft landing every two minutes), a late show would be a no-show which could be (and has been before) a riot. I heard an unsubstantiated claim that the promoters had arranged a contingency, in such an eventuality, whereby the Second Stage headliners (The Prodigy) would step up to the main stage if Axl missed his cue.
Suffice to say it came as a great surprise to the crowd and much relief backstage when the opening chimes of ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ erupted from the PA, 5 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time. Like I said, nothing but unpredictable, that man.
In fact, the set got off to a storming start and I managed to secure the best seat in the house, right next to the mixing desk operator who, I discovered, had one of the most stressful jobs in the world. He had a kind of intercom device on his desk, which appeared to be a hotlink to Adolf Hitler. A demented voice would frequently bark abusive orders out of it, like "Turn the f**king drums up, asshole!" and I realised that these coincided with the singer’s regular jaunts off to the side of the stage. It was his voice, controlling the sound like a maniac! Amazing. Although there was a set-list taped to the wall, Rose seemed utterly oblivious to it, announcing each new upcoming song through the intercom, forcing the poor sound guy to frantically re-set all the levels for the eight piece band in the few seconds before it kicked off.
Four songs in, however, during Sweet Child Of Mine, it all went tits up at the front-end, literally, as Axl Rose's leather-soled shoes slipped on the water/ piss/beer-soaked stage and he fell on his bum. He then stormed off the stage, to the promoters' horror. Backstage, it was chaos, as Wild West style showdown kicked off between the promoters (threatening that Axl would never get a gig on this planet ever again if he didn’t get back out there) - I may have embellished that - and Guns’ management demanding the entire stage be carpeted first (that was true). While all this was taking place, new guitarist Bumblefoot was despatched to the lions to ‘entertain’ the crowd. His choice of delivery was inspired – an instrumental rendition of ‘Don’t Cry’. But the tears were flowing behind the scenes for a good, tense twenty minutes until a compromise was eventually settled on which met with Axl’s approval – he would have to borrow a pair of rubber-soled trainers for the rest of the set. In a bizarre Cinderella-style ritual, every member of the festival and stage crew in the vicinity was asked to remove their shoes until Rose selected a pair that met with his approval (and fitted his demure size 5 ½ feet). One shoeless stage-hand then went back to work, as did Guns N’ Roses. It’s fair to say that the set did not go down as one of their best, but it was certainly one of their most memorable – especially from my vantage point.”
Steve Jenner (Founder of Virtual Festivals.com & UK Festival Awards)
“Another year and more innovations. This year saw the Boardie BBQ follow the five-a-side matches. Held in the third stage tent, 400 board members got to chit-chat with Live Nation before the festival got going. OOFA Hill, home of the Official Old Farts Alliance was firmly planted on the slopes and the sheer number of people that I knew by now made it a part supreme. The hospitality bar was now in the Exhibition Centre, and this was the main entrance for those of us RIP’ers. A pint on the way into the arena, and the first thing you got when you walked into the Arena was that "Donington moment".
A friend of mine was doing the sound for Soil on the mainstage, so I got my first taste of watching a band from the sound desk this year. As I was led up the gap in the T-Barrier from the front I was recognised by a few boardies who started yelling out to me. Mark Yovich seemed quite amused that I was getting my own cheer from the Donington masses!
Later on I watched Tool from OOFA hill, which was a bit distracting - Tool are one of those bands you need to listen too, having young boardies (aka HOOFA's - Honarary Official Old Farts) running around all giddy doesn't help! But it's all part of the festival atmosphere.
Metallica headlined the Saturday night, playing ‘Master Of Puppets’ in its entirety. I never got to see this as Killing Joke were headlining the third stage. I love Metallica, but I love Killing Joke too, and I figured Metallica would be back one day, whereas Killing Joke might not.
The booking of The Prodigy in the tent on the Saturday night was quite controversial. That a non-rock band managed to pack it out (and in fact 25,000 people tried to cram into a 15,000 capacity tent) showed a broadening of horizons. Despite headlining the second stage, they finished in time to catch Guns ‘N’ Roses. A bit of a funny one this, with Axl Rose threatening to strop off the stage for the first half of the show (due to slippery leather soled hand made shoes - fixed by a pair of £5 trainers and matting!). I gave up when the guitarist was noodling through Christine Aguilera’s "Beautiful" to cover for one of Mr Roses off stage excursions, though by all accounts the rest of the show was good once his shoes were sorted.
This was also the year of the "riots" - can't really say much about that due to being over in RIP having a nice chill-out.”
Phil Hull (Download Forum Administrator)
“Guns N’ Roses played a really good set but what ruined it for me was seeing Axl’s almost unrecognisable plastic face amongst his entourage of a about a dozen people who hurried him through an almost empty backstage area earlier in the day.”
Mike Horton (Plymouth)
“My first Download experience was the Saturday of 2006, I was 15 at the time and I went along with 5 of my friends as well as my dad and my friends dad who drove us up there.
The reason I wanted to go so badly was to see Metallica for the first time so I persuaded my dad to take us. I was so excited. I'
d been to a few gigs before but nothing anywhere near as big as the Download Festival.
I woke up early in the morning and couldn’t wait to leave. I remember arriving at the Donington services, walking in and seeing it completely packed with rockers and metalheads everywhere. It was strange to see but just got me all the more psyched up about actually getting to the festival.
When we got there and walked in to see right in front of us all of the stalls of the market I couldn't believe how awesome this place was, it was a dream come true.
I saw quite a lot of the bands playing the main stage during the day including Stone Sour and Korn.
Korn was a really memorable performance due to all the different vocalists helping them out in Jonathon Davis' absence but by this time I was so excited about Metallica that that was all I could think about.
When the ‘Ecstasy Of Gold’ started playing I just started beaming, I couldn’t stop myself. My friends and I had made our way right to the front of the crowd and it was one of the best moments of my life. What made it even better was seeing Metallica play ‘Master of Puppets’ in its entirety. I will never forget that day.”
Matt Percy (Hemel Hempstead)
“I’ve been to Download for 3 years and I’ve not experienced a festival like it! The classic surroundings of Donington Park and being absolutely ‘Muller Cornered’ with about 80000 fans who share a similar taste in music coming together in a scene of unity I love it.
My fondest memory would be seeing Alice in Chains in ’06; they absolutely blew the stage apart. Brilliant!”
Matthew Alexander (Shipston On Stour)
“What a weekend.
Most memorable moment for me was on the Saturday night.
After watching an amazing set by Metallica, me and my mate Presh headed to the Aftershock Tent for a few more beers. Anyhow, after having an amazing time in there we stumble out of the tent about 2 in the morning. On our drunken way back to our tent we spotted a game of rugby going on, on the 5 aside footie pitch. In my drunken stupor it looked like a fantastic idea to join in and have a laugh.
Presh tried to talk me out of it saying "You'll get battered ya daft cunt, don't do it Fozzy",
"Nah, I'll be alright, I used to play rugby,”
"Yeah when you was sober and you’re 20 years older now daft lad"
"Ahh bollocks, Fuck it", I thought, "I'm havin' a go"
And with that I ran onto the pitch. There was pissed up blokes staggering all over the place with everyone barging into each other and running around like headless chickens I couldn't even see who had the ball.
Then suddenly I saw him, the lad with the ball, "He's mine” I thought as I charged towards him ready to take him out good 'n proper.
As I drunkenly launched myself at him things didn't really go to plan. I got my arms around his waist ready to bring him down but he basically shrugged me off like a fly, straight into the path of some other lad’s knee, straight on the end of my nose "Crack"
Well fuck me; I didn't know what had hit me.
Meanwhile Presh was pissing himself on the touchline; unable to speak he was laughing that much.
"I told ya you'd get battered, but I didn't think it'd be in less than 10 seconds after going on" He took great delight in telling me.
By then blood was pouring out of my smashed nose and my face just felt numb, but I couldn’t feel nowt, thankfully. I even thought it was quite funny at first.
As we made our way back to the tent I started feeling sorry for myself with blood going everywhere, and I began to think maybe it wasn’t such a great idea after all.
The next day, Jesus Christ, was I suffering.
Not only did I have the mother of all hangovers but my head felt like a brick and my face felt I'd been hit by a truck.
Never again!
I ain't touched a rugby ball since.”
Gary ‘Fozzy’ Forrester (Hull)
2006
Monsters of Rock
Deep Purple
Alice Cooper, Journey, Thunder, Queensryche, Ted Nugent, Roadstar
Returning after a 10 year break with a move to a new location, Monsters Of Rock was back. The festival was now based at Milton Keynes Bowl, the site of other massive rock gigs such as Metallica's 'Big Day Out' and
the Bon Jovi 'New Jersey' gig.
Blessed with a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the high 80's, the Gods Of Rock were certainly shining down on the festival; an abundance of red faces were in attendance all day.
First band on were Roadstar (now Heavens Basement), managed by Laurie Mansfield one time guitarist of the band More who had played in 1981 at Donington, they fitted the 'Classic Rock' style perfectly and went
down well with the early afternoon crowd.
Next up, making a rare UK appearance was the 'Motor City Madman', the man who brought us 'Wango Tango', the Nuge himself, Ted Nugent. Trail blazing his way through his extensive back catalogue, Nugent was a big success on the day, with more guitar licks than you could shake a hunting rifle at. The applause was well deserved and Nugent could have played much higher on the bill, perhaps another time at Download?
Queensryche played next and as with their previous appearance at Donington, some of their atmosphere and grandiose stylings were lost in the open air, in the middle of a hot and sunny afternoon. Definitely better in a hot and sweaty club, Queensryche put in a career spanning set with many tracks from the classic 'Operation Mindcrime' album, which has always been a crowd pleaser.
British classic rock on a sunny afternoon in late June, what could be better? And Thunder was the band to fill that gap. Always a good band live and Danny Bowes had a voice that could belt them out with the best. A band that also featured two amazing rock guitarists in Ben Matthews and Luke Morley, a great bass player in Chris Childs and Harry James, a drummer who was splitting his career between Thunder and Magnum, keeping time at the back; what a perfect combination and a winning formula.
This was the 3rd appearance at Monsters Of Rock for Thunder and on the day it was only them and Queensryche that had actually played at Donington before; Thunder would return to Donington for their final
appearance at Download 2009 as part of their final tour.
Next on the line-up was the much anticipated return to the UK for Journey, the 'Kings Of AOR'. Having rarely performed in the UK, in recent years, it was great to see a band as polished as Journey, with Steve Augeri on lead vocals, playing one of his final shows with the band. Journey would search on Youtube and find their next singer Arnel Pineda, in a Journey tribute band in the Philippines; this would be the line-up that would make their Donington debut at Download 2009.
Having never, surprisingly, played at Monsters Of Rock before, Alice Cooper was always going to be a very popular choice for the 'special guest' slot. Featuring all the stage props, from guillotines, to straight jackets, to swords and Alice Cooper Dollar bills, entertainment was the name of the game and Alice was at the top of his. Having played live for nearly 40 years, his show was perfectly executed, as was Alice with the
guillotine. His daughter also took part in the stage show and was stabbed through with a sword, a befitting way for Alice to treat his offspring.
After the theatrical performance of Mr Cooper anything that followed had a lot to live up to, but with classic tunes and a superstar band, Deep Purple filled the headline slot with plenty of energy, passion and great
entertainment.
The crowd did 'thin out' a bit after Alice Cooper's set, but that was understandable due to the young crowd in attendance, but what could beat classics like 'Black Knight' and of course 'Smoke On The Water'
playing in a field on a balmy summers evening.
Monsters Of Rock was back and with a vengeance, less of a capacity than in previous years at Donington, but popular all the same. MOR would come back amalgamated into the Download bill on the Sunday.
"Monsters of Rock at Milton Keynes, the atmosphere was exciting, I felt this 'buzz' all day
long and it was one of the best vibes; EVER."
Ian Gillan (Deep Purple - Vocals)
"The good thing about playing these festivals is you're always getting to play with old friends. When you've been round for thirty five to forty years, everybody on the bill is someone you know or someone you've played with before. Whether it's Deep Purple or some of the older bands it's fun for us.
We never change our show ever; it's always going to be the same show. So we get up and look at the bill and say 'Who's on tonight'. I remember one night we played with Arthur Brown who I hadn't seen since 1968 and he came back and he looked better than he did in '68!! It's great to see bands like that, bands that we learned from and that is the coolest thing, playing with old friends.
We do have total respect for any band that we play with, but it's kinda unfair for the band that comes on after us, because of all the production. We went out on a twin bill with Deep Purple, in Europe and I wasn't sure how they were going to fare after the guillotines and the confetti, but I have to say that they are better now than they were then.”
Alice Cooper (Alice Cooper - Vocals)
“It was a message from God himself, he turned the lights on and this was the first nice day of the year really.
I thought about a week before, no it’s not going to happen, but it’s terrific and I think you need good weather for a festival and I think that it went well.”
Luke Morley (Thunder - Guitar)
“We played at Milton Keynes Bowl with Deep Purple and the weather on that day was spectacular and it just makes everybody happy.
There were quite a few lobsters on the way home, people getting caught in the field and going bright red.”
Ben Matthews (Thunder - Guitar)
“The weather was good; I don’t remember anything that stood out about the day, but I guess nothing went horribly wrong, it’s hard to remember details.