triumphant reunion of Faith No More in the heat of Download

I'm lucky in the fact that Download is almost on my doorstep, so a short drive with the sun shining and the car windows wound down I arrive at Donington. I'm shocked to see a £20 car parking charge, surely after not leaving fans much change from £200 for a weekend camping ticket this is a bit steep, but I guess the alternative of abandoning the car at the side of the road and getting it towed away would work our far more expensive.

First things first lets get the new layout out of the way, Download fans are used to being disorientated as it seems the layout changes every year, but at first glance this seems to be ok, and I've only heard positive comments about the layout of the arena itself. The main Stage sits proudly at the bottom of the hill, the back of the second stage is just visible through the trees, Tuborg stage has it's own lay-by style area, and the Red Bull stage is at the top of the hill over looking the main stage. As I walk round I foresee the only problem being that there is only one way up to the second stage so will be interesting later in the day to see how this works out.

A few people were flaked out on the grass and explained they'd had a 35 minute walk from the campsite, I found myself smiling that I'd driven 16 miles in half the time and was glad I had missed the walk, especially in the heat.

After donning my hat and sun cream (factor 50)...yes, I like to be safe in the sun, I make my way to the main stage to catch Staind, they only have a half hour time slot but manage to squeeze in the hits like 'Outside' and 'Falling' and just before playing 'Mudshovel' front man Aaron Lewis thanked the crowd for "being so f*cking cool" and said "it was an honour to play in front of you", the audience gracefully reciprocated the applause.

I go off in search of bottled water as the sun is relentless, I guess I shouldn't complain as the ground near to the front of the main stage is rather spongy after a downpour Wednesday night, so the first sight of rain will turn it into a mud bath... joy!


I return to watch Billy Talent, I'll be honest I haven't heard much of them so I guess today was a good time to make my mind up, they open their set with 'This is How it Goes', they seem to be faster than usual today but still glide through their set, with front man Ben faultless, he keeps a banter with the crowd, at one point commenting on all the flags "I never knew there was a country called Korn" which got lots of laughter from the Download crowd, from 'Fallen Leaves' they went straight into 'Red Flag', which finished the set off as hot as the sun.

Killswitch Engage and Limp Bizkit were the next two bands to grace the main stage with their presence, during Killswitch Engage the pit at the front got quite frantic, especially during 'Holy Diver' and looking at front man Howard Jones his shirt was by this point soaked through with sweat from the sheer amount of energy he put into his performance, so was hastily removed, before he leapt off the stage and went for a wander up to the sound desk, this was made possible by the divide in the crowd, a safety barrier/pit from the main stage up to the sound desk.

Now the crowd were truly whipped up Limp Bizkit, had a lot to live up to and they sure put on the performance of a life time in my opinion, a lot of people have divided opinions on their music but even their hardest critics could not fault the show they put on.

Korn opened their set with 'Right Now' at 7.15pm and it was still as warm as it was earlier in the day, I do wonder how the people who've been frantically moshing in the pit all day are coping, I kind of feel sorry for the slot they have as the two headliners tonight are pretty strong, but for me they were nothing more than a warm up band for Faith No More, but admittedly a warm up band with the best mic stand I've seen in ages, so shortly into the set I head over to the second stage to catch the legends that are Motley Crue.

I was so looking forward to seeing Motley Crue, I can't tell you, and after a couple of songs and non descript flickering images on the screens either side of the stage I was starting to feel a little disappointed, there were long silent pauses between songs and the set just didn't seem to flow for me, despite that they got a great reception and ending the set with 'Girls, Girls, Girls' and 'Dr.Feelgood'.

As I head back down the hill Faith No More have taken to the stage to a fabulous rendition of 'Reunited' by Peaches and Herb, a good start seeing as they'd be away for such a long time, they also managed to squeeze in the intro to 'Poker Face' by Lady Gaga later in the set. Mike Patton got his vocals spot on as he raced through hits including 'Midlife Crisis', 'From Out of Nowhere' and bringing the set and indeed day one to a close with 'We Care A lot'.

Time to get out the car park... 6 minutes.

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