From Donington To Download

by Ian Carroll

  We don’t care where we play. In the tent you get a bit better atmosphere and the sound tends to be better, but being on the mainstage is pretty big deal with huge crowds.”

  Matt Tuck (Bullet For My Valentine - Vocals / Guitar)

  “It was one of several shows in the festival season, but one of THE shows that we were all looking forward to, because it’s the Download Festival and the biggest one that we were on. At some festivals, especially with the amount of acts, everyone gets about 25 minutes, but at Download we had 50 minutes; which is great for a festival.

  Metal festivals can go either way for us, we have some appeal to some of the metal crowd, but we tend to do alright. The crowds in the UK in general have been pretty warm to us and at least they give us the time of day and both times we played Download we had huge crowds.

  The line-up was quite interesting this year as well; In Flames went on before us and Jimmy Eat World went on after us, so we were kind of transitional between the two.

  There really were some vibes on stage, because Download is a festival where we really want to shine when we come out. We had the two backing singers and our keyboardist Wes and it fills up the sound, especially for the arena shows that we were doing in the States opening up for Linkin Park and for something of the magnitude of Donington, it just adds a new dimension to the music.

  I think that it went well; we walked off and people seemed happy.

  I hope that we get more Downloads as we’d love to come back and rock harder and harder each year.”

  Michael Todd (Coheed and Cambria – Bass)

  “The last time we played was two years ago; it’s a cool festival and it always has a great line-up. This time we came a couple of hours before we had to play and we had a lot of press, so I didn’t get to see many bands. Coheed and Cambria played a couple of hours after us on the Sunday afternoon; I had really wanted to see them but missed out.

  Peter Iwers (In Flames – Bass)

  “When we played it was called Download and it was our first experience of playing at the festival and had been our aim for a long time.

  It was pretty cool, to get the opportunity to play there as it was legendary and it was still as big as it used to be.

  I thought our performance was great because we were fired up and ready to go, we had a good time. It was everything that we expected and hopefully we got our foot in the door for next time.

  I got to have a wander around the festival grounds, after I had done some press and it was great.

  It is THE big festival of Europe.”

  Chuck Billy (Testament – Vocals)

  “My memories are of technical difficulties; my guitar had a fault with the wireless system, so it was just squealing all the way through the gig, it was really annoying.

  It was interesting because being a ‘metal festival’ we were worrying about it beforehand, but it went down great actually.

  It was cool because we had already done Donington with the Stereophonics, but we had all grown up listening to Radio One’s broadcasts from the Monsters Of Rock back in the day.

  We came just for the day; I was pretty pissed off because we got to miss Judas Priest and Kiss.”

  Tim Wheeler (Ash – Vocals / Guitar)

  “I do remember that we were hanging out backstage before Pendulum and they got a really crazy crowd. We were up in the car park and all the Pendulum fans kind of disappeared after their set and it was like ‘WOW’.

  A lot of people turned up, which was a bit of a relief. That was our biggest concern, because we were one of the more melodic pop bands on the bill; beforehand I was anxious that we were going to get loads of piss thrown on us, but there wasn’t any which was really good.”

  Mark Hamilton (Ash – Bass)

  “It was one of our best gigs and one of our most memorable as well. We’re really into rock & metal, so just to be asked to be at that festival and not as punters was just fucking amazing.

  We turned up for the whole weekend to see In Flames and a couple of other bands. There are very few bands that we actually get impressed by sound wise, usually you get the CD and it’s great and then you go to the live show and it’s crap, but In Flames completely pulled it off.

  In Flames seem to be one of those bands that play the tiniest little sweatboxes and then the biggest festivals and they seem to be one of those bands that can do both.

  We were just recently playing the States and we played this tiny little rock club called I-Rock in Detroit and In Flames had been there a few weeks before and it was hard to think how they fitted on the stage, it’s tough for us to fit on small stages.

  We didn’t really know where we were playing, we knew that we were at Download, but that was about as much as we knew.

  I remember when we were in the van driving up to the stage, it was quite a while away and I thought we were going to be in one of the tents, as they were quite close to our dressing rooms. But as we were driving up there was this massive fucking stage and a massive audience in front of it. I was going ‘what the fuck?? We can’t play here man, it’s a metal & rock festival and we’re coming with a load of synths; we’re going to get drenched in piss’.

  We were on after Ace Frehley and before Ash

  For us backstage, it wasn’t a case of ‘if’ we were going to get bottled or not, we were just planning for ‘when’ we get bottled! It was just going to be an inevitability, with a crowd like that, but we didn’t get a single thing onstage!

  I remember on the Download website they had a bunch of quotes from different bands and my quote, which I must have said in an interview was ‘bring on the bottles of piss….just kidding, please have mercy’.

  Just looking out over the crowd and seeing people as far as we could see and about 9 circle pits, it was just crazy. In the distance I could see where the fairground was, way past the mixing desk and the crowd was still thick out there. Next to the fairground rides there were circle pits going off it was crazy.”

  Rob Swire (Pendulum - Vocals/Synthesizer)

  Gareth McGrillen (Pendulum - Bass/Secondary Vocals)

  “Download was quite nerve wracking for me the first year we played it as it was a big ‘cross-over’ gig for us and we weren’t too sure how the crowd was actually going to take to it. But as soon as the bass kicked in on the first track, we just destroyed them; we all looked at each other and we all felt very at home on that stage.

  Coming from drum & bass which is primarily heavy, for me it always sounded like a form of rock music with that beat, but an electronic rock beat, so it worked.”

  Kodish (Pendulum – Drums)

  “I played with Apocalyptica and that proved to me that whatever you do, you just have to be up there, be honest and be yourself and people will go crazy.

  Download is definitely one of our favourite festivals.”

  Cristina Scabbia (Apocalyptica – Guest Vocals)

  “It was the first major festival that we had played in the UK and a pretty big festival, so it was a good opportunity for us to present our band to a lot of new fans.

  Donington Park is definitely the classic metal ground and I remember reading about it as a kid in magazines back in Sweden, when it was Monsters Of Rock and now this is as close to it as we can get nowadays.

  We had a good show, it felt great. I did feel that we were a bit rusty as we had just come out of the studio to play the show, but the crowd seemed to be into it and that’s the most important thing.

  We had a lot of stuff to do in London, so we didn’t get to see much. At the festival I was going to watch Saxon play but I drank too much and we also had a lot of interviews to do. Children Of Bodom came by the dressing room and then Kerry King came by and it was just a big party there; everything went into oblivion.”

  Johan Hegg (Amon Amarth – Vocals)

  “Well for Madina it was a bit of a nightmare lol. We discovered 1 minute before we had to play to 50K people that the bass rig was completely out, the vocal mic out, Mateo's wireless system, ou
t. Hah!

  So aside from playing to the biggest crowd we'd ever played to, we had all that to deal with. Mateo ended up using a 6 foot guitar cable meaning on that gigantic stage he had to stay within 3 feet of his rig. Matthew's bass rig simply didn't work the entire show etc. However, we decided we didn't give a shit and we were just gonna go have a blast. And we did.

  The best part, however, was when Matthew got hit in the balls with a plastic yogurt bottle and upon lurching in pain he slipped on the splattered yogurt and ended up on his ass. The backstage, after show party was the best; most fun we'd ever had.

  The crowd reaction was mixed, based mostly on the fact that our equipment didn't work and that we aren't a metal band so our "slot" was a bit difficult. However, we did have our solid crew of Madina kids representing and making it awesome for us. Backstage we saw some cool shit too. We shared a bus with the Dillinger Escape Plan and those dudes are hilarious and amazing. As for shenanigans, I've gotten in way too much trouble for opening my mouth so if it's all the same, just wait for the tell all expose book we're writing!

  Hope to hear from them soon.”

  Nathan Leone (Madina Lake – Vocals)

  “This past summer was our 3rd time at Download and definitely my favorite, we once again played the Main Stage and it was just an amazing day all around.

  We played our set and for me personally after having a dismal previous Download due to my voice, I felt vindicated after the set, crowd was absolutely amazing and we couldn’t of been more thankful for them...

  We partyied pretty hard after the gig, I met One of my all time favorite singers ever, Chuck Billy, And later Phil Demmel (Machine Head) and the rest of the boys drank everything in sight at the after party. I may have talked Chuck Billy's ear off that night as well but I have some great pictures to last a lifetime. All in all Download is an incredible honor to be a part of and if you think of the grand scheme of things and how many bands there are in the world, to be asked to play three times is utterly mind blowing....Can't wait to be asked again.............”

  Brock Lindow (36 Crazyfists – Vocals)

  “Download is a heritage festival and its values are heavily weighted in the metal scene. It’s one of the only festivals that is predominantly rock & metal, most other festivals have a big Indie side to them now; so for us playing the mainstage it was a big honour for us walking out and feeling that we had got this far.

  It was an amazing experience and a great festival to do. People know it the world over; it’s a very famous place for a band to play. You grow up and think that one day you will play that stage and then when you do it’s amazing.

  The site had changed apparently because a racing car had slipped on a hot dog!”

  Charlie Simpson (Fightstar – Guitar/Vocals)

  “We were booked to play Donington and I was really excited, but I wasn’t sure because I looked on the bill and we were booked 2nd at 11:45am. I love playing in England but we always play at ridiculous o’clock. I said to my kid ‘go and check how people are out there’, walked out and then said ‘there’s hardly anybody there’.

  I want to be ones of those bands from Britain that gets a big following; I went into the dressing room, sluggishly got changed, put my jacket and hat on and thought ‘ok, let’s go out there’ and by the time we walked to the stage there were about 40,000 people in front of us.

  It was one of those gigs that just turned around. We went on stage and using the Star Wars intro, we played and I had a blast. I had always watched Donington as a kid on TV, when it was Monsters Of Rock and I had always wanted to play there. I was so buzzed to think that all these guys from all over the UK had just come to see us and it was like ‘YEAH’.

  Being a black guy from Wales I’m not supposed to be into rock, but I’ve always liked going out there and representing British metal all over the world.

  That day at Donington showed me that Skindred has a foundation, maybe not to break through in the media, but I was just blown away.”

  Benji Webbe (Skindred – Vocals / Synthesizer)

  “This was the second Download that I had been to and I have to say that as much as all the branding has changed and that it’s not Monsters Of Rock anymore, I do think that it has retained a certain amount of what made it special and what made it special was a load of people who loved heavy metal and rock music used to gather here every year and watch a lot of great bands and it was awesome.

  Twenty years ago I stood out there as a punter watching Helloween, David Lee Roth, Megadeth and Guns ‘n’ Roses, Kiss and Iron Maiden and twenty years later I am on stage playing the thing. I couldn’t resist, in the last song, saying ‘scream for me Donington’ à la Bruce Dickinson, it was a lot of fun.

  It’s Donington and there’s so much history and to walk out on stage and say ‘I am playing Donington’, which to me will always be Monsters Of Rock, is just awesome.” Richie Edwards (Stone Gods – Vocals/Guitar)

  “This time was great; for a start I can remember this time. It was good and for two in the afternoon there were a lot of people there. It’s always a danger at festivals that you could play to two or three rows of people, you don’t know how it’s going to go. But we could see people as far as the control tower, so it was really good; I was really chuffed actually.”

  Dan Hawkins (Stone Gods – Guitar)

  “I always heard of the Donington rock festival and that it was THE rock thing to do. Listening to the Radio One Rock Show, Tommy Vance was always banging on about the Donington rock festivals.

  It was the rock festival to do and now we’ve done it and I’m over the moon. I came from a more indie background, but it was great to play Donington and seeing a bunch of ‘metal maniacs’ out there.”

  Toby MacFarlaine (Stone Gods – Bass)

  “It was one of those typical shows. What made it palatable, driving in a bus for 30 hours to play 35 minutes, was that it was Donington and it is an historical event. But a couple of years ago we did fly from Australia to Russia to play an hour and a half for Harley-Davidson and we worked out that by the time we got home, we had spent more time in the air travelling than we had on the ground; but because the vodka is so good over there, we hardly suffered jet lag, until about a week afterwards, when it caught up with us.

  One of the things about being involved in these festivals is that at least you are ‘doing it’ and committing yourself to history, which is nice.

  After a few hours we then got a ferry and drove back to Hamburg, but I feel that the ‘moments’ that we have are always worth it as you may get run over by a bus tomorrow; you’ve got to live your ‘moments’ as they are given to you.

  I don’t remember the last time I was at Donington, but then again I don’t remember a lot of those days, it blurs into one. Then there is that wonderful phrase ‘if you can remember it, you weren’t doing it well enough’ or something; a bit like the 50’s ‘if you can remember it, you weren’t really there’. It’s like some of the other great moments that we’ve had, if it wasn’t for the photographs and other folks tales, we wouldn’t know that we had been there.

  We watched Airbourne; they are a bit more ‘edged’ than AC/DC, maybe the way the they used to be, but it’s so long ago I can’t remember, but they haven’t played at Donington for years. AC/DC are in the position at the moment where they could do things ‘not for money’.

  You go full circle in life, you start out in life doing things ‘not for money’ because there’s no money to be had, then you go to this middle period where you do command money so you play for money, not just for money, as there are very few bands that play just for money and then when you make SO much money you can play wherever you fucking like and it doesn’t matter how much they pay you. I can only imagine that if you were that big and didn’t need the money, you could go and play the corner pub!

  But it’s that middle section where you are ruled by economics, record company and band management, so you need to ‘make hay whilst the sun shines’. There’s al
ways that old saying ‘money doesn’t make you happy’ BULLSHIT, it’s your state of mind; if money is the only thing in your life, it probably won’t make you happy.”

  Angry Anderson (Rose Tattoo – Vocals)

  “It was great, Disturbed, Judas Priest, Kiss, it’s a pretty classic rock line up there and we were kind of the ‘new kids’ in the business.

  We had nerves backstage and I was literally shaking.

  We were going to set up this thing where one of our crew threw a bottle from the front of the stage of apple juice and I would pick it up and go ‘oh yeah PEE’ and start drinking it!

  But, the highlight of this tour and my career has been playing this festival; I’ve played some great shows with some great bands, but this is just legendary!

  The British crowd is discerning and definitely a more difficult crowd to impress. I walked to the side of the stage and peered around the corner and everyone was going crazy.

  I’m not sure what we set out to achieve originally but I think all our expectations were met and raised and then superseded, it was a good time.”

  Shaun Morgan (Seether – Vocals/Guitar)

  “This year was a surprise for me, coming into this as a new member of Seether. They hadn’t played here before, but by some chance I had, so I felt like I had some information, ‘Hey guys, check this out, they are going to throw shit everywhere’.

  We went onstage and it was amazing. We played at 2:35pm, which was early in the day and I thought that it was going to be one of those situations where we go onstage and there would obviously be a lot of people by default, but the crowd was ‘way’ into it!

  It’s an iconic festival and it’s HUGE!

  It feels good to walk away from the show at Donington without egg on your face, that’s the bottom line. I saw Maiden get hit with eggs in 2007!”