Download Festival 2017 - Day Two Review

REMEMBER that big ball of fire I mentioned was in the sky yesterday? Well it is still there and brought with it some real heat to the festival.

After a champion's breakfast of two Cornish pasties and a can of lager, I was out in front of the main stage well in time to see HACKTIVIST open at 11am. Not an easy slot but there was a decent crowd and great energy from the band.

A Day To Remember - Picture by Ben Gibson

CREEPER were up next and were a band I was keen to see - and were excellent. They may not have been around for a long time, but they have a stage presence of old pros - not bad considering the size of the stage.

And next up were some old pros as SIKTH, who turned in another great performance. Not a bad way to start the day at all.

I also enjoyed THE ONE HUNDRED, a band I first saw at Sonisphere a few years back and continue to have great power and aggression in their music. OF MICE AND MEN too were great, if a lot more polished that those Brit upstarts I mentioned before. 

I drifted again for a bit, taking in some PIERCE THE VEIL and KNUCKLE PUCK but not enough to review. I did very much enjoy the set from CROWN THE EMPIRE, however, over on The Avalanche Stage before getting a bit of AFI and then COHEED & CAMBRIA.

Then came another of my favourites and a band that will surely one day be headlining this festival - A DAY TO REMEMBER. Their set was packed with great songs from All I Want and I'm Made Of Wax... as openers, Naivety and Paranoia in the middle and All Signs Point to Lauderdale and then The Downfall of Us All to close. Brilliant stuff.

Biffy Clyro - Picture by Matt Eachus

There was a lot of debate about Saturday's headliners BIFFY CLYRO. They were decried as a pop band by the hardcore and dismissed as some sort of novelty act that didn't belong at Download at all, let alone as headliner. And while ROB ZOMBIE's crowd as the second stage headliner was probably swelled as a result, those who stayed got a treat.

While Biffy do have the odd slower song in their repertoire, they know how to write brilliant rock songs. And it was a performance with energy, movement, enthusiasm, passion and a show - exactly what was missing from SOAD the previous night. They finished and treated the crown to an awesome firework display. A cracking end to the great day.

Nearly 50 acts added to Download 2017 bill

Photo credit:

 

Ross Silcocks

THE organisers of this year's Download Festival are getting serious - as they announce nearly 50 acts to play the Donington rock bonanza in June.

Steel Panther, A Day To Remember, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Suicidal Tendencies, In Flames, Hacktivist, Creeper and Moose Blood are among the dozens of bands headed to the East Midlands.

Northlane, The Devil Wears Prada, State Champs and Touché Amoré are also on the list. System Of A Down, Biffy Clyro and Aerosmith headline the event.

Download Festival's Andy Copping said: "We're committed to delivering the best in rock and metal year on year for the fans, and this year is no exception. 

"Right through from The Dogtooth Stage, all the way to the top, fans are guaranteed to witness an incredible weekend of music from their trusted favourites, and discover new favourite bands."

The festival takes place over the weekend of June 9-11 and for more information on tickets and the full line-up as it stands, visit downloadfestival.co.uk

Download 2015 - Day Two review

WAKING up with a massive rumbling sound in you head is never nice and it takes me longer than it should to work out it's an aeroplane coming into land rather than my hangover.

The other noise I hear is rain. It started the night before and - as I will come to learn - it will not stop all day. At least I'm prepared now with a jacket and wellies rather than the hoodie and Converse that got ruined during last night's torrential downpours.

Faith No More - picture by Scott Salt/Download 2015

But enough of my moaning, today I am enticed into the arena by the harmonious vocals of festival favourites The Lounge Kittens whose pitch-perfect set includes covers of Marilyn Manson's The Beautiful People, Metallica's Sad But True, Slipknot's Duality and a Download megamix.

And now I'm ready to start the day. And first up on the agenda is Funeral For A Friend - a band I think should be bigger than they are. They've produced so many good songs over the years - and play them here. 

Maybe they're victims of "the next young things" knocking them down the ladder, I don't know. But upstarts Chunk! No Captain Chunk! steal some audience from them to the nearby Maverick stage - me, admittedly, for a bit - while Mallory Knox then come on the Main stage and get a much bigger reaction.

That's not to say Mallory Knox or the boys in Chunk don't deserve their plaudits. Each give energetic performances, as do Hands Like Houses, who could be the next pretenders to the radio-friendly alt-rock crown.

Next up came one of the disasters of the weekend. Hollywood Undead. 

Whereas Slipknot's masks can't hide the fact they're a top-class metal band, Hollywood Undead's masks can't hide the fact they're totally crap.

It's like the bastard mongrel offspring of bad Beastie Boys and Papa Roach tribute acts with lyrics by Sean Paul. It was just awful. They may have been saved if there was even the remotest hint that they knew this was all a bit silly and tongues were in cheeks, but I got the impression they think they're the best and coolest band in the world. They ain't.

And it rubs salt into my earlier wound of a band like Funeral For A Friend two spots below them on the Main stage bill.

But every cloud has a silver lining and that was making my way from the car crash of Hollywood Undead up the hill to Jake's stage where I found Crobot. Proper musicians, playing proper rock music.

A Day To Remember - picture by Justine Trickett/Download 2015

Their track Skull Of Geronimo was the highlight with Brandon Yeagley nailing the vocals.

A bit chirpier, I went back down the hill to some real heaviness with Upon A Burning Body in the Maverick tent and Parkway Drive on the Main.

Like yesterday's slight let down when Rob Halford failed to join Five Finger Death Punch for Lift Me Up, I was disappointed that Ice T didn't show for UABB's set-closing Turn Down For What despite his Bodycount playing later in the day.

His recorded vocals were played out though and the track still lifted the tent off the ground.

Rise Against were next for me on the Main stage and then Motionless In White on the Zippo Encore before A Day To Remember made it, well, you know. 

Their powerful and energetic performance began with the duda duda dudahs of The Downfall Of Us All and also included a cover of Oasis's Champagne Supernova. There were a few groans from the metal hardcore when they first began to play it, but they were soon singing along to all the words "...in the skaaaaayyy".

I saw a little bit of Bodycount, but not enough to report on. Then came the biggest let down of the weekend. Faith No More.

Angel Dust is one of my favourite albums and they have made so many other good songs over the years. Yet there was something missing from the performance. Decked out all in white and surrounded by flowers, they didn't look like us. Maybe that was it. Or the smuggish sneer on Mike Patton's face. I don't know. But the performance seemed too routine and the interaction with the crowd forced. 

Marilyn Manson
- picture by Danny North/Download 2015

By now, of course, we're at the business end of the day and I decide to split my "headline" time between two stages.

I start off with Marilyn Manson on the Encore stage and he had what Faith No More lacked. Magnetism. You just have to watch him. He's an enigma. And he's got a hell of a voice too.

He started with new track Deep Six, then hit us with an old favourites Disposable Teens and mOBSCENE. His covers of Sweet Dreams and Personal Jesus were also included and he finished with the superb Beautiful People.

Muse, meanwhile, were showing just why they are one of the world's biggest rock bands. Yes they are a lot more commercial than a lot of the other bands on the bill, but they write amazing songs and perform them in a spectacular show - even if we only got the scaled back version.

Their set included a number of songs from their new album Drones, but plenty of the classics such as Hysteria, Supermassive Black Hole, Time Is Running Out and Stockholm Syndrome before closing their encore with Plug In Baby and Knights Of Cydonia.

So more than 15 bands seen in one day - a day it rained constantly - and my must-see of the weekend early on the bill tomorrow. Time for bed.

Muse the second headliner at Download 2015

Photo by Hans Peter

MUSE have been revealed as the second headliner for Download 2015.

It follows the announcement of Slipknot as Friday headliners yesterday.

Muse will be joined on Saturday's bill by Faith No More, Marilyn Manson and A Day To Remember.

The band said: "We're really looking forward to Download. We've never played the festival before so it's going to be really special."

Shock goth Manson is also looking forward to his return. He said: "It's been a few years since I've been at Download. The Pale Emperor will rise and I was born to cause chaos."

Other bands announced for the festival next June include Judas Priest, Black Stone Cherry and Five Finger Death Punch.

The final headliner will be announced tomorrow and for more details head to downloadfestival.co.uk

Reading Festival - Day Three

OF all the headliners at Reading, Blink-182 was the one I was least bothered with - but they turned out to be the best of the bunch.

Blink-182's Mark Hoppus...pic by Jen O'Neil

But before we get there, I have to moan. 

RealSoundsOK has a bit of a lay in Sunday morning before packing up the tent and gathering all the stuff together ready to take back to the car, which was parked a short boat ride away. This in itself is unusual. At festivals in the past - V Festival and Sonisphere for example - I have never been more than five minutes stroll from the motor. Having to take any sort of transport to get there is alien and impractical.

This is compounded when we get dodgy directions to the boat from a security guard, end up in no man's land between the landing point and car park and it takes us 45 minutes walking with all our stuff to get back to the car. There's a half hour wait for the boat back too.

And so this unhappy blogger missed The Story So Far and Tonight Alive on the Main stage. Grrrr.

Back to the music and it was going to take something special to get me back in a good mood. Young Guns didn't do it. They were alright - and Bones is still a great track - but there wasn't enough there to get me excited.

Papa Roach did perk things up though. The nu-metal survivors - although in frontman Jacoby Shaddix looks like he barely made it - kick things off with Infest and them ramp it up with Between Angels And Insects. They're having fun and even though Shaddix seems a little distracted by the female contingent in the crowd, they're on point. Favourites like Kick In The Teeth and Getting Away With Murder go down well and there was no way they could end with anything other than Last Resort.

And so RealSoundsOK is back on the up and we're taken even higher by our next on the Main stage, A Day To Remember. And if you want some praise, here goes. This may just be my favourite performance in 15 years of covering festivals.

Papa Roach's Jacoby Shaddix meets the crowd...pic by Jen O'Neil

If Papa Roach were having fun, these guys were in ecstasy. The crowd interaction - including singer Jeremy McKinnon climbing into a giant, inflatable ball and running across the crowd - was superb and they delivered their songs with aplomb. Great stufff. I can't wait to watch it back again.

And from the sublime we went to the, well, a bit shit frankly.

You Me At Six were one of my "must-see" bands ahead of the festival, but it just didn't seem to happen. There was something missing. A spark? Charisma? Sincerity? I don't quite put my finger on it. But it seemed others picked up on it too. Yes there were lots of people dancing, cheering and singing along near the front, but even frontman Josh Franceschi seemed overly desperate as he constantly appealed for Reading to "make some noise" and pleaded for crowd surfers.

Maybe the youthful crowd was too tired after two or three days of hardcore partying, but even the band's delivery of Bite My Tongue - a song I think is superb - seemed lacklustre. The whole thing was a real let down.

But the saving grace for Reading for me was Blink-182.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I have to admit I had left before they took to the stage. A three-hour drive home and a return to the day job the next morning meant I couldn't stay.

It really was A Day To Remember...pic by Jen O'Neil

However, I have watched the set on TV since and I'm gutted I wasn't there. Hampered by poor sound to begin with - a recurring problem on the Main stage all weekend - they quickly got into their groove with Feeling This, What's My Age Again? and Rock Show.

Their shtick is so simple. Three guys - guitar, bass, drums - with a puerile sense of humour bashing out three-minute songs. But their act is so polished, they know each other so well, and they are all musically talented beyond their mirth that it is a joy to watch them.

And their charm meant that even when they were sharing in-jokes, you didn't feel out the loop.

They may not be the greatest singers, but they make incredibly good pop-punk songs and deliver them with real fun, verve and vigour. A fitting way to end the festival.