Def Leppard confirmed

[cornucopia]

Quality, done.

[bekimo]

Tweet the gossip then 2mrw Bex!

[Matticus]

i hope one year ( next year) he decides to make people eat thier words, and book a line up chocka full of bands that havnt played. People would complain still that there isnt enough substance in the line up. ( why are Europe headlining?! and All Shall Perish are way to small to headline the 2nd stage!)

Theres not alot else to book.

[t8yman]

There's f**king loads to book, he's taken the easy route and felt the shitstorm

[6t6o6m]

I'm keeping an on ebay in the next couple of months. Hopefully people get desperate to sell their RIP camping tickets.

[jammy2211]

i hope one year ( next year) he decides to make people eat thier words, and book a line up chocka full of bands that havnt played. People would complain still that there isnt enough substance in the line up. ( why are Europe headlining?! and All Shall Perish are way to small to headline the 2nd stage!)

Theres not alot else to book.

[loscfestivals]

After chatting with mates and looking where else we could go, I actually think all of the heavier festivals have had a really hard job this year.

Look at Rock Am Ring ffs! Coldplay and Kings Of Leon with a similar style undercard to Download. Might work there but he could never do that here.

I don't think there was anything about and obviously they struggled to nail anything down because it is the end of February now and it has only just come out.

Best of a bad job I guess but not worth £200 in my eyes and I won't pay it. Problem is, enough people moaning will so the booking styles will never change!

Going forward, unless some new bands step up to the plate then we are going to get the same bands re-hashed over and over again. There is f**k all coming through that can fill arena's and headline festivals and until that changes then I think we are stuck in this process of rotating headliners every few years.

[6t6o6m]

I would like to see bands like Fightstar, Funeral for a Friend, You Me At Six given a chance higher up on the bill. All of them are superb live.

I would have also liked to seen the Darkness get announced. I don't care if people complained. It would have been something different.

Other bands I would of liked seen announced:

Incubus

Mushroomhead

Anberlin

Ekotren

Andy needs to push some other bands into the limelight.

[t8yman]

I'm keeping an on ebay in the next couple of months. Hopefully people get desperate to sell their RIP camping tickets.

[t8yman]

I would like to see bands like Fightstar, Funeral for a Friend, You Me At Six given a chance higher up on the bill. All of them are superb live.

I would have also liked to seen the Darkness get announced. I don't care if people complained. It would have been something different.

Other bands I would of liked seen announced:

Incubus

Mushroomhead

Anberlin

Ekotren

Andy needs to push some other bands into the limelight.

[gibbydanzig]

I was tempted, but I think we are still gonna go. RIP is f**king awesome, and the undercard still has some great bands on. Even if I was selling mine, I wouldnt be selling at anything other than face value. If you are considering it, be very careful. The checks on the gate at RIP are quite thorough, if they suspect it isnt your ticket - they dont have to let you in.

[WildChildRockChick]

Shall do bud!!

Thanks for the vids. Shame about the lack of fancy dress pics!!!!

[6t6o6m]

I will check a few weeks before the weekend as I am waiting out for Reading now. But I hate the kiddishness of Reading.

[WildChildRockChick]

I will check a few weeks before the weekend as I am waiting out for Reading now. But I hate the kiddishness of Reading.

[LethalLegacy]

I followed that storm on Facebook as I was on holiday last week. After hearing the initial 4 bands, I felt quite positive about Download 2011, but following the confirmation of Def Leppard as headliner again, so soon after 2009, I really felt this was the final straw as far as me going to this year's Download goes. The pretty poor announcement the day after didn't exactly help either. Cheap Trick, Ghost and Bowling For Soup pretty much the only bands I'd wish to go see from that large chunk.

My gripe isn't necessarily that I don't like the bands, although it does seem as though Andy Copping is taking most of his cues from Kerrang and Radio 1 these days. The fact is, as someone who's been to every Download since 2004, the festival has changed considerably. It's got more and more mainstream, which in some ways was necessarily - but it seems to have saturated the actual nature of the festival itself. It's hard to explain without coming across like I'm simply hating, but it really doesn't have that old Monsters of Rock feel that it used to replicate so well, particularly 2006 and indeed 2009.

During 2010's festival I definitely felt as though as was going through the motions on occasion, just simply through the same bands appearing again. And I can't help that a higher than necessary proportion of 2011's bands have that 'flavour of the week' feel about them. I seriously worry for the longevity of the festival if they're really the future to look to.

As far as Def Leppard goes, I personally don't mind them, but their sudden reappearance suggests something went very wrong behind the scenes. Andy Copping promised 3 new headliners, but has come up with Linkin Park, SOAD and Def Leppard, all of whom have headlined before. It looks as though as lot of people bought that big sell, which makes him about as trustworthy as Nick Clegg. If you add to that my previous point, all it really adds to is a real feeling of being let down by constant white hype and white lies.

I followed and commented on the Facebook and Twitter storms, and yes, there's always going to be haters, but at the same time, some people made very reasonable points. Unfortunately, AC didn't seem to handle this criticism very well. For that reason, maybe he should resign and hand over the reins to someone who might put a bit of spark and inspiration into this festival.

For me personally, I'll save my £400+ this year. It's not going to another fest - my own personal circumstances are changing and so priorities lie elsewhere. I'm just happy it's not going to end up in his bloody cowboy hat. As a Download veteran, I'm disappointed that the festival has come to this - that he's actually got into a slanging match to defend the festival. But something is obviously not right behind the scenes and maybe something needs to be changed. Download definitely doesn't have the upper hand any more.

[Lithium05]

The way I see it, Def Lepperd WERE the "stellar sub headliner" AC had been boasting about, and whoever was supposed to headline dropped out, it's the only way them headlining again could have come about.

[lharris92]

The way I see it, Def Lepperd WERE the "stellar sub headliner" AC had been boasting about, and whoever was supposed to headline dropped out, it's the only way them headlining again could have come about.

[bekimo]

The way I see it, Def Lepperd WERE the "stellar sub headliner" AC had been boasting about, and whoever was supposed to headline dropped out, it's the only way them headlining again could have come about.

[WildChildRockChick]

I followed that storm on Facebook as I was on holiday last week. After hearing the initial 4 bands, I felt quite positive about Download 2011, but following the confirmation of Def Leppard as headliner again, so soon after 2009, I really felt this was the final straw as far as me going to this year's Download goes. The pretty poor announcement the day after didn't exactly help either. Cheap Trick, Ghost and Bowling For Soup pretty much the only bands I'd wish to go see from that large chunk.

My gripe isn't necessarily that I don't like the bands, although it does seem as though Andy Copping is taking most of his cues from Kerrang and Radio 1 these days. The fact is, as someone who's been to every Download since 2004, the festival has changed considerably. It's got more and more mainstream, which in some ways was necessarily - but it seems to have saturated the actual nature of the festival itself. It's hard to explain without coming across like I'm simply hating, but it really doesn't have that old Monsters of Rock feel that it used to replicate so well, particularly 2006 and indeed 2009.

During 2010's festival I definitely felt as though as was going through the motions on occasion, just simply through the same bands appearing again. And I can't help that a higher than necessary proportion of 2011's bands have that 'flavour of the week' feel about them. I seriously worry for the longevity of the festival if they're really the future to look to.

As far as Def Leppard goes, I personally don't mind them, but their sudden reappearance suggests something went very wrong behind the scenes. Andy Copping promised 3 new headliners, but has come up with Linkin Park, SOAD and Def Leppard, all of whom have headlined before. It looks as though as lot of people bought that big sell, which makes him about as trustworthy as Nick Clegg. If you add to that my previous point, all it really adds to is a real feeling of being let down by constant white hype and white lies.

I followed and commented on the Facebook and Twitter storms, and yes, there's always going to be haters, but at the same time, some people made very reasonable points. Unfortunately, AC didn't seem to handle this criticism very well. For that reason, maybe he should resign and hand over the reins to someone who might put a bit of spark and inspiration into this festival.

For me personally, I'll save my £400+ this year. It's not going to another fest - my own personal circumstances are changing and so priorities lie elsewhere. I'm just happy it's not going to end up in his bloody cowboy hat. As a Download veteran, I'm disappointed that the festival has come to this - that he's actually got into a slanging match to defend the festival. But something is obviously not right behind the scenes and maybe something needs to be changed. Download definitely doesn't have the upper hand any more.

[Spengs Muck]

Thing is with AC he seems to not be able to handle the criticism at all.

Comments like 'looks like the forums are getting like facebook, its sad really'

'theyre supposed to be facebook 'friends' '

He doesnt seem to understand that we're not his mates, we're paying customers shelling out £200 and if someone who has advance paid that is upset with this turd burger of a line up then they have a right to complain.

HOWEVER

there are idiots who just drone on about how its so un-metulz and how they would rather it be like bloodstock and blah, blah, blah. So genuine complainers just seem to get pushed aside because they're deemed as the same sort of thing.

He just needs to remember that these people are his customers and rather than please his own CD collection and musical taste he needs to think about a festival full of people - surely at some point he needs to listen to what people are saying, right?

I dont know.

[bekimo]

I think you have to try and look at it from his perspective as well. Yes, the customers are giving their opinion and from what I have heard from him, he is taking that all on board. He doesn't just book bands he likes, he does try to book bands from a lot of sub genres and listens to feedback on what is popular and what bands the people want, but you have to remember that it's also about what bands are available at the time. If a band is not touring, touring in another country, already booked, under contract elsewhere, etc then he CAN'T book them!!

After listening to John Probyn saying how he stopped twitter, facebook and going on the forums because he was fed up of all of the personal attacks on people he classes as good at their jobs and friends, (and John Probyn is not exactly a push over) then you have to wonder how you would feel if someone came into your work every day, told you were crap, you didn't know what you were doing and you could do a better job, even though they really know nothing about your job at all, how would you feel?

I for one think Andy has a really tough job and he gets a whole load of unnessecary stick and abuse for it, yet he still manages to provide us with a pretty damn good line up year on year. Of course it isn't to everyone's taste. It never will be. If the whole line up is to your taste, there will still be a hundred people out there who hate it and you would be complaining about the clashes.

For example, one of my best mates thinks this line up is the best ever, I know plenty would disagree with her. Every announcement that comes out she likes most of the bands. I know for a fact that in 2 months time Im going to be getting an ear full of "i have soooo many clashes" yet another of my friends keeps bleating on about how crap the line up is and how none of the bands are to his taste and "where is slayer on the lineup" etc. So honestly, how do you win? How do you make everyone happy? Tis impossible!!!

[mrtourette]

I think someone else made a good point before that was akin to "live by the sword, die by the sword" - he seems to be by far the most media-active festival promoter and likes to give his views on other festivals and bands so if he's going to put himself out there then he has to expect that when things don't go his way or people aren't happy that they're going to think it's OK to give it back in the same medium. He seems to like to be approachable and involved with the fans so it isn't surprising that they will turn that around and approach him when they aren't happy. Of course he doesn't book a bad line-up on purpose but if he's going to make claims that he has to go back on and question other festivals for things that he has to then do himself, and do it so publicly, then he can't be surprised at a negative reaction.

[bekimo]

This amused me.... http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/news/dom-lawsons-blogs-of-war-stop-whinging-about-download/

[allan14]

This amused me.... http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/news/dom-lawsons-blogs-of-war-stop-whinging-about-download/

[mrtourette]

"Download Festival's organiser Andy Copping has said he decided not to book Metallica for this year's festival because they have toured the UK too frequently".

http://www.nme.com/news/metallica/55272

It's NME so could be complete bullshit.