From Donington To Download

by Ian Carroll

  It’s not the best situation, like your own show. In the States we don’t have festivals like that, or the longevity, going on for years and years.”

  Geoff Tate (Queensrÿche – Vocals)

  “The energy and piss and vinegar factors were off the charts, and I heard joyful tales of appreciation for our 1976 Reading rockout every year I return, including when we rocked their brains out again in 2006. The human and musical bond is timeless.”

  Ted Nugent (Ted Nugent – Guitar / Vocals)

  “Well, an interesting thing about our show at M.O.R was that it was only the

  2nd show for Syd (our new guitarist).

  He made his debut the night before at the Pitz when we opened for Diamond

  Head in a warm up show for the festival. Now the rest of the guys (myself,

  Jonny, Rob and Richie) had some big stage experience from our supports to

  Meat Loaf, The Darkness, and Nickelback etc...But Syd had none!

  The warm up gig playing to around 300 people was actually the biggest gig he had ever done, until the day after of course when we opened the festival to around 10,000 ha-ha!

  We were very happy with our performance, we had a few onstage problems but I guess that’s to be expected at a festival! The crowd was great before we went on and the response as we left the stage, we couldn’t have asked for better!

  The day in a whole was something we will never forget, we have joined an

  elite club of bands that have played 'Monsters of Rock' unfortunately we

  couldn’t stick around for ‘Purples’ set as we had to head up to Manchester to

  open for Queensryche the following night..

  As for Crazyness, hangin’ around with the likes of Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper

  etc was pretty crazy ha-ha!

  Chris Rivers (Roadstar – Drums)

  “This was our first Monsters Of Rock event and what a line up?

  Travelled from Plymouth to Milton Keynes, straight to the hotel then taxi to the venue. Arrived at the Bowl and the music had already started by Roadstar.

  After checking out the merchandise and sinking a few beers it was on with the music. Waiting to see the great man himself Ted Nugent and he did not let us or the crowd down, with classics like 'Cat Scratch Fever' and 'Wango Tango'.

  Followed by Queensrÿche, then Thunder......what great sounds from groups that we never had in our record collection. A top up of more beer then some noodles and we were then ready for Journey.

  Journey played all the classic tracks like 'Don't Stop Believin', 'Any Way You Want It' and 'Separate Ways' with singer Steve Augeri. Not the same vocal range as Steve Perry, but a great show.

  Alice Cooper followed, with all the great on stage show antics. He still rocks!

  After some late supper, it was on to Deep Purple. This was the second time of seeing Deep Purple and they still rocked, with classic songs like 'Smoke On The Water' and songs from 'Rapture Of The Deep' album. The crowd had reached about 20,000 and the bowl was shaking.

  Deep Purple was a great finale to a great event and venue. We were hoping for a follow up seeing this was the first Monsters of Rock for 10 years but this never followed at Milton Keynes Bowl.”

  Mark & Jane Jewitt (Plymouth)

  2007

  My Chemical Romance,

  Linkin Park

  & Iron Maiden

  With the announcement that My Chemical Romance were to headline the first day of the festival, the uproar on the boards was rife; you would have thought that Girls Aloud playing the hits of Metallica had been announced, as the anger and hatred at the choice of headliner was on an unbelievably furious level.

  The least favourite headliner in Donington history, if the forums were anything to go by, came to the festival and played a set which consisted mostly of their recent album 'Welcome To The Black Parade' and all the people who weren't interested drifted off to watch Korn headline the 2nd stage.

  Linkin Park returned to headline the Saturday and Iron Maiden made their record breaking 4th headline appearance at Donington (twice at MOR and Twice at Download) on the mainstage on the Sunday.

  Motley Crue headlined the Saturday on the 2nd stage, making there 3rd appearance at Donington and proving that they were as popular as ever.

  Billy Talent, huge in Canada and now making inroads into Europe with the release of their album 'Billy Talent II', closed the 2nd stage on the Sunday and had the unenviable task of competing with Iron Maiden who were performing on the mainstage.

  The line-up was questioned as many of the bands were returning to play the festival quite soon after they had previously played, these included Bowling For Soup, Machine Head, Slayer, Marilyn Manson and Lamb Of God; the return of many of these artists was due to increased tour revenue/popularity and so their profiles had been raised considerably since their last appearance, warranting an appearance at the festival.

  Mastodon made a big impression with their mainstage debut on the Sunday and due to their increased fan base would play as one of the support bands to Metallica at Wembley Stadium a month later.

  The weather for the 5th year in a row was good and very unlike the Monsters Of Rock mud baths from previous years; the last bad weather had been Ozzfest in 2002, since the start of Download, the Gods Of Metal had been shining down on Donington Park and all was good. With June being an unpredictable month weather-wise, Glastonbury, 2 weeks later, still continued to receive torrential rain, flooding and mud slides; Donington was just lucky.

  This would be the last time that Download would be held within the Donington racetrack with it moving outside

  the track in the following year, due to the bid to hold the British Grand Prix at Donington; in 2009 it would be revealed that the bid to hold the GP at Donington had failed and that the company had gone into receivership, but by then the festival site would have moved again to an even better, more permanent site also outside the track. The future of Download Festival at Donington Park was safe.

  “It’s an amazing festival. I’ve seen the look of elation on kids’ faces and this is what they’ve been waiting for all year, saved their money up. It’s huge." Duff McKagan (Velvet Revolver – Bass)

  “I was here was with Stonesour and Iron Maiden headlined so I went out in the audience and watched. It was incredible – moment after moment after moment and it was incredible. I was 14 again.” Corey Taylor (Stonesour – Vocals)

  “We did the tent as we chose to do that. I didn’t like the way the press was going and they were trying to make it more of an alternative festival; I think My Chemical Romance were headlining the mainstage when we were on.

  I saw it in a lot of the metal magazines that they were bringing in so many alternative bands to the mainstage that we thought we’d prove a point and play the tent. I’m all for change but why change things when they are ‘pure’? I talked to a lot of kids and they were pissed off about it.

  I should have played the year before, but I got sick, so we thought that we would play the 2nd and then all the hardcore Korn fans would come and it kind of proved a point; everyone came to see us. The tent almost collapsed, we had to stop the show a few times.

  The people know what they are doing, but I had been coming here for 15 years and I just lost it. Just drifting away from the original festival, it’s sad. I don’t know if it’s lack of bands or not, I don’t know. What do you do?

  Things get lost in the cracks; I enjoyed coming here, not that I think Korn is a traditional metal band, but there are so many metal bands that played here that I love; Sepultura, Ozzy, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Machine Head, those are the bands that I look forward to seeing every year.”

  Jonathan Davis (Korn - Vocals)

  “We always like playing Donington, it’s a good time. I liked the tent that we played in and all the bands that were on.”

  Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue – Bass)

  “Donington was magic. We (Evanescence) were playing in front of Iron Maiden. IRON MAIDEN! I knew about the Europ
ean Festivals from when I was a kid dreaming of being Eddie Van Halen playing the Monsters of Rock Festival. This was my first trip to England, or Europe for that matter. Tens of thousands of people all there to listen to the music that they love, that we, the musicians in the bands, make and want to share with them. It was an amazing experience, although, I narrowly escaped being blasted in the face with a plastic bottle...that being the only ego-threatening incident during the set. The crowd was good to us that day. We arrived a day early and Will Hunt, our drummer, knows Tommy Lee from Motley Crue. So, we went to see them Saturday. We watched from behind Tommy’s kit. It was awesome! After their show I went back to the dressing room area and it was just a big party. I met up with my friends in Bloodsimple and we drank some beers and watched the spectacle. People were getting tattoos; there was a disco and bars everywhere and celebrities wherever you looked. It is definitely something that I will never forget and every serious musician should experience. I was floored by some of the things that I saw backstage but it’s like Las Vegas. What happens there stays there!!!!” Troy McLawhorn (Evanescence – Guitar)

  “It’s really strange because we were ‘super young’, I don’t know if there were any other bands of our age at the show?

  I don’t think we could even fathom how much history there was behind this festival, but we feel honoured to have been a part of it and to have been asked is just such a great opportunity.

  Even if we had nothing to do with the other bands, it was just great to be a part of Download.”

  Hayley Williams (Paramore – Vocals)

  “There are so many bands that we really don’t sound like and we were the ‘poppy’ band of the day, but it’s all good as we love rock music and we were just there to rock”

  Zac Farro (Paramore – Drums)

  “It was an amazing show! To be honest we didn’t expect to have much of a crowd there, because there was more metal bands than we’ve ever played with. Not to mention the fact that we played right before Korn.

  The crowd was really accepting and it was a great show. I’m glad they liked us; because we thought we were going to get bottled.

  We were so stoked to see DragonForce play. They are an amazing band. We definitely had to watch them play coz we didn’t know if we were ever going to get to play with them again.

  There were 2 bands in particular that we both watched and got to hang out with at the download festival. My Chemical Romance are an amazing band and they are always really nice to us. Lost Alone is one of our favourite UK bands. We really spent a lot of time hanging out with those guys.

  It’s really an honour to play with all of those bands, because we really look up to them and love metal music A LOT! Plus, I saw Slash and I said ‘Hey’, it was amazing.”

  Jeremy Davis (Paramore – Bass)

  “Then we headline the tent and it was wild, we didn’t know what to expect. We thought that we were going to play in front of 800 people, or something like that, but it was completely packed. We killed it and it was awesome.

  We played after Wicked Wisdom, Will Smith’s wife’s band and he was standing at the side of the stage watching, which was cool.”

  Jon Gallant (Billy Talent – Bass)

  “Dream Theater had the honor of playing Download twice so far...2007 and 2009. In 2007 we played on one of the side stages and it was an awesome experience...however a bit of a cock tease if I'm being honest....it was like being with a really hot chick but not getting to close the deal....” Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater - Drums)

  “The crowd was chanting and going crazy, but we were told ‘nope it’s over’. People then started booing and going crazy and throwing stuff at the stage. We went out there on stage with our hands out and we pointed at the side of the stage, as if to say ‘they won’t let us’ and everyone started going ‘booooooo!!’ Maybe they were booing at the authorities and not us?

  But people tend to think ‘the band doesn’t want to play anymore, what a bunch of fuckin’ assholes’, they’ve got their million dollars and are taking off in their limos to their mansions; that’s what people think.

  I felt so bad; because the crowd were so amazing and I wanted to go out and play some more and they wanted it SO bad. It was kind of a bummer ending for such an amazing night, day and a show.”

  Aaron Barrett (Reel Big Fish – Vocals / Guitar)

  “I remember the Donington festival for a couple of reasons, part of it’s because it’s on that world famous race track and I am a motorcycle fan and I love super bikes and we got to cruise around the track in the Spritzer van, which was totally awesome; the other thing was that we did an autograph signing right after Dimmu Borgir. We got to hang out with some of those guys and for a band who play music like they do, they are the sweetest bunch of guys that you could ever meet, they were really, really cool.

  We played our show and the crowd were spilling outside our tent and we had to play at the same time as Iron Maiden played; it was overflowing, a fountain of people. Not only were the crowd electric, but they were absolutely fabulous.

  The festival wouldn’t let us play an encore. We had a set amount of time and we thought that we would get to do an encore, because we were the last on. So we went off the stage and wanted to come back on.

  I think that it was one of the favourite shows that I had ever played. They also had a free tattoo booth backstage.”

  Johnny Christmas (Reel Big Fish – Trumpet)

  “I was technically still a ‘fill in’ and I was wondering what I was going to do when I got home as I had quit my job to ‘fill in’ on that month long tour. But I got a new job though, lucky me!

  The day before flying home it all became official.”

  Derek Gibbs (Reel Big Fish – Bass)

  “We played the second stage and we were the main support to Korn, which was interesting.

  It was absolutely rammed again and another ‘step up’ for us. I think that Download has been a very good indication of where we are, always stepping up; it’s been great every time.

  For me as a kid Reading and Download were my two festivals that I went to, so every time we play we try to stick around for the weekend as well. We watched the Prodigy in the tent and there were people climbing the stanchions and it was all kicking off.”

  Roughton "Rou" Reynolds (Enter Shikari – Vocals / Synthesizer)

  “We were lucky enough to be asked to play the mainstage in a very good timeslot and in the company of some amazing bands. I watched several of the bands before us and it was amazing to see the crowd and the massive amount of talent that was coming to the stage.

  Something magic happened when we took the stage and not to take anything away from the bands that played before us, but there was an energy, some kind of connection that happened where the place erupted. The amount of shared energy and power that was coming from both the stage and the fans, I know will be something that I will never forget.

  I know now that this was the biggest and most memorable show that Lamb Of God has ever played.”

  Chris Adler (Lamb Of God – Drums)

  “Once I looked out and saw the crowd, I was in awe of how many people we were going to be playing to. Once I saw the banners go up and heard the Lamb Of God chant, the hairs were raising on my body and it was the most memorable event in our career, as far as Lamb Of God goes. To have played to that many people and to get the response that we did, to be welcome there, it’s unbelievable.

  Everyone was waiting to see Iron Maiden, I had wanted to see Stone Sour but we were doing press at the same time.”

  Willie Adler (Lamb Of God – Guitar)

  “I thought it went really well, we had a great response, it was my second time at Donington and it was friggin’ awesome. I couldn’t have asked for a better friggin’ show, with a better bunch of guys.

  We had a great response and I was watching the faces and they were really into it. We had a couple of ‘pits’ going during our set and it was awesome.

  When we played with D
amageplan we played a lot later, but this time I think we had more. I was really shocked to see how many people there were out there at noon.

  I looked forward to seeing Slayer and I wish I could have stayed another day to see Iron Maiden, as I am a massive Iron Maiden fan; Steve Harris is a god.”

  Bob Zilla (Hellyeah – Bass)

  “We were second on the mainstage and I was so surprised how many people showed up for our set; there had to be 40,000 people out there, as far back as I could see anyway.

  It was good to see the turn out and the fans were into it. On my side of the stage I could see kids singing the words, so some of them had the record anyway and hoepfully we got some new fans out of it.

  I looked forward to seeing Machine Head, Slayer and Motley Crue.

  It was a great day and a great festival; we travelled 23 hours to get there, but it was worth it.”

  Greg Tribbett (Hellyeah – Guitar)

  “This year we came fully equipped with two eight foot blow up sheep, they were massive.

  I don’t know what it is, but I think that we have found an audience over here that appreciates us and a lot of it crosses into that metal genre and that we are a happy fun band and we are what we are.

  I had got really intoxicated the night before and we watched My Chemical Romance. We had actually missed a whole day of press because we were late getting on the ferry, but it all worked out.

  But we rolled in and hung out with the Dragonforce guys had a great night, and then played a great show.

  I also played an acoustic show at the Nokia tent with Eric, which went really well.”

  Jaret Reddick (Bowling For Soup – Vocals/Guitar)

  “This year was really cool because we invited back to play on the mainstage and we got to play in front of the largest crowd that we have ever played for.