by Ian Carroll
“There are many stories in recent years of amazing bands such as Lostprophet's pulling off the headline set in 2008, The Blackout's two stand out sets to moderate crowds and Limp Bizkit's stomping comeback in 2009 but one of the more interesting events that I was witness to was the bees.
It was a day of random occurrences. It started with a story from a mate that they'd been stung by a bee on the way to Derby that Saturday morning in 2009 and ended with My Passion's electro-rock stylings in a song about bee's (Day of the Bees).
They couldn't have played on a more appropriate day or at a more appropriate time for while they were playing in the Red Bull Jam tent, the second stage was being closed down due to a swarm of, you guessed it, bees!”
Jenni Wallace (London)
“A first favourite memory of mine is when I woke up at like 5 in the morning and could hear someone snoring really really loud, my friends then woke up and were like ''is that what I think it is?''. We got out of the tent to see where it was coming from and a group of other campers were creeping around the tents going ''We’re getting closer to the snoring beast!'', We actually still don’t know to this day who was snoring! But oh my it was louder than the planes flying over our heads! I really wished I had filmed it!
Another memory is our tent! We had put it up wrong it was barely standing, it had a blow up cock tied to it and a Slipknot flag. Lying in the tent of a night and people going past saying ''Okay there’s the slipCOCK tent, so our tent must be over there!'' It’s nice to know our tent helped a lot off people back to theirs!
My Last favourite memory is when I was watching Trivium and my friends decided to go in the mosh pit. I couldn’t because I had bad sunburn and just got a piercing! (How cool am I?) Ha-ha, and I was just standing there and heard someone shout Titanic Is coming!
I looked around and there were two dudes in a Rubber Dingy! (Blow up boat for the sea!) crowd surfing in it, the effort it took them to get to the barriers and then watching the Stewards pulling the boat down from the people heads! And one guy falling out! was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. I can honestly say I couldn’t breathe after seeing that. Pure genius!”
Laura Philipson (East London)
“For the past few years it has been me and my best mate “Thelma and Louising” it, we make a point of dropping everything just to make sure we go as we have both always been the core of the group who have slowly filtered, got married, had families and found things more important than this festival but to us two girls its one of our highlights of the year. I must admit we do RIP it nowadays but believe me I think we deserve it after this long!! Anyway in 2010 our fella’s are coming with us as we felt a bit mean leaving them behind for AC/DC so this will be a nice new experience for all of us!” Jude Wright (Wallasey, Merseyside)
“Friday night at Download ’09; Limp Bizkit as the sun was going down, police helicopter hovering overhead watching too! Pretty sure I didn't imagine it. Awesome.”
Rose Mills (Derby local)
“Download '09 was my first ever Download, and didn't really know what to expect...
However, the first thing I saw as I walked into the first campsite on Thursday afternoon while looking for a place to pitch my tent, was a man passed out with a tent pitched on top of him.
Obviously, he had had a little bit too much to drink and passed out. His mates then thought it funny to pitch his tent for him, on top of him. Poor guy...
That was my first impression of a Download experience, and one that pretty much sums up Download '09 for me...” Timmy Cochrane (Guilford)
“One of my friends was a 19 year old virgin at Download 2009, he is a large guy but everyone in our group decided it was our mission to get him laid!
This one girl liked the look of him and said that she might be up for taking his virginity until he shouted "I'll cum in 5 seconds!" She then moved on very quickly. Later the same day, another girl was up for it but once again he ruined his second chance by running away scared!
He then had another chance the very same day. The girl told him to wait where he was and she would get everyone out of her tent and then they would go back but he ran off once again even though my mates tried to keep him there!
Hopefully Download 2010 will be his time!” Graham Simmonds (London)
Epilogue
Well, that just about ties it all up, as far as 1980-2009 that is.
There will be another volume that I shall release when I have enough chapters, 2010 to 2020 maybe – to celebrate the full 40 years since the first MOR way back in 1980, who knows it might be out sooner? The addition of more bands means more interviews, a bigger book, a wider fan base etc…
I must say that I love the festival very much from the beginning and forward into the future, though my camping days are gone, I’m still there at the front drinking beers, signing along and watching some awesome bands, long may the festival continue!!
Thanks Section
Andy Copping, John Probyn & Stuart Galbraith from Live Nation
Steve Jenner from Virtual Festivals
Tom Ames – Reel Big Fish TM
Emma Watson – Fifteen To One PR
Kas Mercer – Mercenary Publicity
Adam Lawrence – He likes the ladies & benches with plaques on
Laura McCartney – Full of good ideas and my #1 promoter
Phil & Carrie Hull – Download Forum Gurus
Mike Horton, Karl Woodcock & Mark Jewitt for drinking too much
And all those people that I have forgotten……you know who you are and if you don’t, you shouldn’t drink so much?
Finally my biggest thanks to Raine & Nathan Carroll for putting up with me all the time, love you both (and Rex)