Well - 2009 - How was it for you?

[originalagepunk]

It was FANTASTIC... got back late last night.

JOURNEY - wow! I thought they were ace! The sing-along to Don't Stop Believin was fantastic! I also REALLY enjoyed Lauren Harris, Acid Drop (the battle of the bands winners) and No Americana!

The new layout is brilliant, though the trek to and from car-park to camping sucked.

The village was almost EXACTLY the same as last year, anyone else notice that?

[fred_flintstone]

Well my first download and one of the best festivals I've ever been to (and I've done a few). Camped beside some really good people and made some new friends, the general vibe was good and minimal twats in attendance, thought the event was very well stewarded, the arean set up was excellent bar the water situation annd I thought the entertainment and facillities in the village were top notch. As for the music heres what I saw.

Friday

Steadlur - OK not brilliant

In this Moment - thought they were very good - got the crowd going

Young Guns - OK but not the finished article

Billy Talent - dissapointing I left mid way through

Lauren Harris - caught the last 3 songs and suprisingly good.

Middle Class Rut - Didnt really 'see' them as I was flagging due to staying up all night drinking but I lay outside in the sun and listened to most of their set which was fairly good

Killswitch Engage - Got up and wandered over for last 2 songs and was impressed.

Limp Bizkit - Wow opening with Break Stuff and never letting up real highlight for me.

Backyard Babies - Pretty good

Motley Crue - Great start (Kickstart, my Heart Wildside and Shout at the Devil) really enjoyed it but could have done with less of the audience with Tommy Lee/Nikki Sixx bits

FNM - Only saw the end and was pretty much knackered by that point left before encores.

Saturday

Facecage - arrived just in time for them starting and they were good

Loverman - enjoyed them and a bit different

Down - Brilliant kickstarted the Saturday for me.

Dragonforce - enjoyable but a bit'widdly' for me.

Manraze - good energetic set.

Pendulum - very, very good

Thunder - got a good spot in the tent and had a great singalong

Chris Cornell - Last half of set and very good black hole sun - thumbs up.

Marilyn Manson - caugh the end - not really blown away

Slipknot - unbeliveable - great show, great set.

Sunday

Tesla - Down the front and thoroughly enjoyed my trip down memory lane modern Day Cowboy has alwas been one of my faves

Million Dollar Reload - obvious potential but not the songs yet.

Journey - never been a huge fan but in the sun with the big Believin singalong tops

Logan - went to support a Scottish band - full tent and good set

Dear Superstart - OK

ZZ Top - a bit dissapointing left early

Steel Panther - got a good spot in tent good laugh

Whitesnake - much better than I was expecing Coverdale in good voice

Def Leppard - storming set - the las 6 or so songs I was singing along word for word - great way to end festival.

All in all I'm an idiot for not having been to Download before.

[bekimo]

1. dream theater - better than i thought

[Bad Girl]

I fell asleep during their set!!

[Lithium05]

Ok. I'm now officially bored enough to write up a review/re-cap of my Download experience...

The Good bits

- The Bands - saw; Billy Talent, KSE, Limp Bizkit, Korn, FNM, Static X, Dragonforce, Pendulum, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Black Stone Cherry, Journey, Dream Theatre, ZZ Topp and Papa Roach. All bar Manson were either good, very good or amazing.

- The Weather - Arrived on Wednesday and the torrential rain waited until after we'd set up our tent to get going. Can't believe, having witnessed the state of the village on Wednesday night how dry everywhere was by the following evening.

- Sitting in the sun for three days and not getting burnt - Thanks factor 50+ sun cream

-Getting some sleep: On arrival we were inexplicably shepherded into a campsite cu-de-sac between yellow and Blue camp, this area stayed pretty quiet at night leading to some well needed rest - particularly with the two pillows, double air bed and duvet that I bought on site!

-The Village - Seriously, they need to get more of this stuff at Reading. There was so much to do, from playing bongos, to jelly shots, to the shi'sha tent (who's lovely staff also provided shots and baloons of laughing gas) and the bell and end tents.

- 2 trips into Ashby De La Zouch for tescos breakfast and toilets - nice to take a break from the site and treat ourselves, particularly with it being so hot.

- The efest meet - erm I was pretty hammered, but I think I had fun!

- Drunken antics - on the night of the meet I went on to drink several shots of Sambuca/Jager in the shi'sha tent, then had a vodka jelly drinking contest with a mate and woke up in my tent, on top of my rucksack, and my camera next to a dominos pizza box at 9am with no memory of how I got back there!

- fixed my camera - sleeping on my camera broke it, but after a day I tries to fix it and succeeded!

- funny stories - my mate woke up early on the Friday morning next to his gf, pulled the covers over him and was shocked when someone at the other end of the tent pulled them back! He sat up to find that some confused drunk guy had got in to their tent thinking it was his and gone to sleep, they kicked him out, but not before he asked "it's cold, can I have one of your jumpers?"

- The general vibe - this is probably the reason that Download is the festival I look forward to most every year. Despite still having Soni and Reading to come, I'm looking forward to Download 2010 more!

Grumbles

- Arena layout - that bottle neck between the second and main stage was daft and a pain in the arse when flitting between stages.

- Car Parks - after our first tescos trip we were ushered way back to the car park by the airport shuttle buses, and on our second we ended up parked where the third stage was last year. The car parks were way too far from the campsite.

-Let down by a mate - one of my oldest friends who I drove up there spent the whole time with his gf who was not camped with us, instead of leaving with me at the time we'd discussed on the Sunday night he opted to stay leaving me to drive back all on my own (as far as he knew, I actually took another mate back with me). He/they also got over sensitive when another of my mates as a joke (he said just kidding straight after) called his gf a slag, and stormed out of the tent we were in at the time

- Hayfever - f*cking sucks

- It's over for another year

Edited June 18, 2009 by Lithium05

[Mamba]

My brief review copied from another forum:

Friday:

Steadlur - SLEAZE rock. Ok. I heard a rating of 8/10. I'd go more with a 5/10.

The Blackout (from a distance) - shit. 0/10

Staind (from a distance) - shit. 0/10

Billy Talent - not bad band, shit singer. 4/10

Middle Class Rut - one of the few unknown (to me) bands I watched. Bit like a 2 piece Janes Addiction. Nice surprise. 7/10

Limp Bizkit - most fun I've had in the pit since 1998. 10/10

Backyard Babies - always great, but was a bit knackered after the Bizkit so watched from the back. 8/10

Motley Crue (first few songs) - lots of talking bullshit between songs. Heard a couple of hits before I left. 5/10

Faith No More - much better than I expected. Awesome end to the first day. 9/10

Saturday:

Hardcore Superstar - more sleaze to start the day. Not bad. 6/10

Hatebreed (from a distance) - angry men. 4/10

Down - awesome. 8/10

The Answer - I like them, but getting a bit bored of them now. 6/10

Pendulum (from the beer garden at the back) - don't really get it. 3/10 (extra marks for being sat in the beer garden)

Marilyn Manson (a little bit) - gets worse every time I see him. 2/10

The Prodigy - first couple of songs. Couldn't hear anything. Went back to the tent. 4/10.

Sunday:

Journey (first few songs) - boring. 3/10

Karma To Burn - got right down the front very easily. Riffs + bees = awesome. 9/10

** interlude to fall asleep in the sun and pour beer all over myself **

ZZ Top - old men and beards. Not as good as I'd hoped. 4/10

Clutch - standard Clutch. Couple of new ones. Rocked it. 8/10

Buckcherry - Also rocked it. 7/10

Whitesnake - Bored me. 4/10

Def Leppard - Also bored me. Probably not helped from where we were sat, but it had been a long weekend. 4/10

[Matticus]

i saw you on guitar hero, right after someone played black sabbath i think? and people were shouting for you to play slayer?

[savestheday]

Did anyone see The Instigators or whatever they were called? Were they Megadeth or just a bunch of little kidlings? I didn't hear anything about it being Megadeth at all over the weekend and've just remembered about them

[SuperSailorman]

Hollywood Undead/The Blackout - Laughable nonsense.

Staind - Generic Rock Music. Boring.

Billy Talent - Unessacary Screaming

Killswitch Engage - Fun

Limp Bizkit - Fantastic

KoRn - 11/10

Faith No More - Now a converted Fan

FFDP - Just Screaming

In Case Of Fire/Fightstar - Meh

Static X - Alright

The Answer - Brilliant

Pendulum - Worst Hour Of My Life

Marilyn Manson - (Was I the only one who enjoyed it?)

Slipknot - Really Good. Spit It Out was insane.

Stone Gods - Decent

Violent Soho - Good

Turbowolf - A Band to look out for. Very Good.

Black Stone Cherry - Enjoyable

Journey - AWESOME

Sabbat - WTF?

Steel Panther - AMAZING

Shinedown - Much better in Camden 2 days later

Papa Roach - OK

Def Leppard - Wonderful

Theres my two cents.

[SuperSailorman]

also, there was one problem that grinded my gears.

i went for a numero 2 on friday in the arena. there was no toilet paper in cubicle. i had to use a tampon box I found on the floor. I don't mind that so much (part of the festival experience and I didnt get papercuts). The thing that annoyed me was when I exited and walked past the cubicles, there were two "volunteers" on the floor with bottles of water, drinking and chatting, with about 150 rolls of toilet paper with them. Surely their job is to put more in these cubicles?!

It can't be that they were waiting for a quiet period, it was in the arena. It will always be busy.

[Lithium05]

Anyone else alarmed by the fact it's already been over for a whole week

On the other hand 2010 is a week closer

Also I'm off to see AC/DC at Wembley on Friday

[the_frame]

Anyone else alarmed by the fact it's already been over for a whole week

On the other hand 2010 is a week closer

Also I'm off to see AC/DC at Wembley on Friday

[Lithium05]

I was stood directly in front of you for FNM lith, but I was so f**koed I dont think you would have appreciated my company!

[LethalLegacy]

i saw you on guitar hero, right after someone played black sabbath i think? and people were shouting for you to play slayer?

[Shinny]

Glad you liked Acid Drop. More than just a punk band eh?

Spread the word and in case you didn't know, here's their myspace.

myspace.com/aciddroppunkrock

Cheers

[Shinny]

Probably for the best then! I was sober having drank anything I could get my hands on the night before, and was feeling a bit rough

Weird how these things pan out in such a vast crowd, I had my camera out and was filming Journey and noticed the familiar curly mop of pogo about 3 metres in front of me!

[Matticus]

yess i recall the scorpions track being played, so i think my memory is just a bit hazy!

[originalagepunk]

That is some SERIOUS hint dropping. Bought the albums while there.

And saying "more than a punk band" to me is a bit pointless. I'm all about the punk honey!

Edited July 18, 2009 by originalagepunk

[thegremlin_1999]

ok, this has taken sometime i realise that but...

review is up here

much appreciate any comments

[deadrobot]

I say BOO! Limp Bizkit were the band of the fest! Then I got bored after that and didn't finish it....

[Bad Girl]

I say BOO! Limp Bizkit were the band of the fest! Then I got bored after that and didn't finish it....

[thegremlin_1999]

reeeeeally? i thought the limp bizkit bit was f**king funny as was the mention of the dullness of journey *yawn*

you don't have to agree with all aspects of a review to read it/appreciate it imo.. i mean, although i agree with a lot of what gremlin wrote, i disagree with the zz top comment and personally thought that prodigy's sound levels were waaaay too low

my only gripe is.. FNM didn't play 'falling to pieces'.. other than that, nice work, gremlin