Reviews

Waking up to pouring rain I was not discouraged for the day ahead, driving through the rain I was not discouraged, but sitting in the car park, putting on layers upon layers of waterproofs, waiting hopelessly for the rain to stop I will admit, I was not feeling awfully enthusiastic. Today, Scotland was living up to it's reputation for hideous weather. Prepared with two jumpers, a water proof jacket and the infamous waterproof poncho, I felt I could conquer this rain. Oh how wrong I was.

I'm only grateful that the first act I saw was worth standing in the rain for. Enter Shikari will smash, trample and burn on any genre you place them in. They have a unique sound that intertwines upbeat dance samples and post-hardcore metal breakdowns which leaves you with a sort of happy-hardcore. Front man Rou Reynolds is not only a great vocalist but has a sense of humour when performing by dancing along to the upbeat parts. Their "Sorry you're not a winner" single from their debut studio album Take To The Skies is still a favourite with fans, the song features three claps at the beginning which the crowd took full responsibility for. They then continued to sing along with vocalist Rou Reynolds during their set. Enter Shikari have transformed and improved since their first album, continuing to surprise and impress years on and with live performances like this it is no wonder why they had such an impressive and committed crowd. They give it their all, providing an unforgettable high energy show.

Walking around the arena there was definitely a buzz for Jessie J's performance hours before it had even started and her performance displayed why. Not only did she display her vocal range remarkably but interacting with her band, the crowd and the television cameras made her performance that much more entertaining, she knows exactly how to please an audience whether they be in the crowd or watching from home. Jessie J has such a powerful voice, even when experimenting with different pitches she always stays in tune offering a startling performance. Shouting "I'm going to make you really warm" Jessie with all her smash hits and a rendition of Luther Vandross "Never Too Much" definitely gave the crowd something to dance along to. Closing with "Domino" the crowd certainly made Scotland proud, fighting through the awful weather and enjoying her performance fully.

The Stone Roses were headlining the Main Stage to T in the Park's Saturday evening and rightfully so. Although being in their peek in the early 90's songs from all of their albums have continued to circulate over the years, even after they split up, meaning that the crowd was not just full of Mum and Dad's reminiscing their wild years but contained younger generations there to celebrate their music. This band do not need to have dancers in skimpy outfits or huge laser lights cutting through the night sky, them playing in front of a backdrop showing all their old music videos was enough to capture the attention of the huge crowd. They were chilled, laid back and let their music do the talking. As it should be some may argue? I'll let you decide.

David Guetta returned to T in the Park this year after an explosive set two years ago, now given a larger stage area and more room for the crowd to dance it was already sounding promising. You could see David Guetta's lights from the other side of the arena, drawing crowds in to see him perform. Having seen him two years previous, for me he had set himself a standard bar and the question was, would he surpass it? Unfortunately I would say no, although his set was phenomenal and the atmosphere in the crowd was overwhelming I was let down by the lack of his own material. However I would say, his set is worth a watch on the BBC Highlights.

Leaving David Guetta's set early I stumbled across Sub Focus's set on the Transmissions stage, still of a similar genre to David Guetta, he offered something less commercialised with a lot more bass, and this is how I ended my Saturday T in the Park 2012 experience, with ears pounding, how it should be done.

Check out photos from Friday @ T in the Park
Check out photos from Saturday @ T in the Park
Check out photos from Sunday @ T in the Park
 

Walking in to the main arena the Kaleidoscope Club is the first tent to be seen, inside I found a group of street dancers performing to a small crowd. A crowd of ten men spinning on their heads later joined by the DJ, was definitely not the welcome I was expecting from T in the Park this year. Within five minutes of entering the site I find something new and exciting that had never been done in previous years and with only one reported arresting so far, that too was surprising. It seem T in the park is on the up, I just hope I'm continued to be surprised over the weekend.

I will admit, singing along to "I predict a riot" always made me feel that little bit cool, as if somewhere, deep, deep down I had a dangerous hidden streak but apart from that, I never have been that great a fan of the Kaiser Chiefs, that is until I heard them live. Oh, those boys can play, and can vocalist Ricky Wilson sing (probably why he was offered a coaching job on hit show "The Voice"!). At one point I also thought Ricky Wilson may have been a good contender for the GB team in this years Olympics judging by the amount of running back and forward he was doing. Putting aside the impressive stamina displayed by Ricky Wilson during the band's performance I believe the band's recorded songs play down how good they really are, I was extremely impressed by their live performance.

I did take time to celebrate the T, to the T in the Park (Tennents). Having a wee wander around the arena I saw the usual festival sights; collapsed drunk persons, noodles in mud, 6ft Smurfs, chips in mud, men urinating with poise and delicacy against peeling advertisement boards, all in all Scotland's finest!

Now, it is not because I had a cup of Tennents or because this gentleman is in fact VERY good looking in person, but Labrinth's set was brilliant. In between jumping around the stage and singing I lost count how many instruments he played. Album songs are not usually the highlight to anyone's performance but Labrinth's certainly made his more atmospheric, holding the standard of quality, very high, throughout every song he played. It was refreshing to see that an artist in the charts today, actually has his level of talent.

I did go see Example but well, he really is not worth the time I'm taking to type out this small review of his performance, he already stole precious minutes of my life I will never get back. He's well known for mocking artists that mime, but maybe he should follow in their footsteps because he really was awful.

Now, Florence and the Machine, I'm sure everyone has watched her perform live at some point, therefore there is not much I can say that hasn't already been said. Her angelic voice drew in one of the largest crowds of today so far, and it is no surprise why. She captured the crowd with her stunning voice and put on, as always, a phenomenal show.

Professor Green, having been delayed getting to T in the park apologised profusely to the crowd in his own witty way, the T in the park crowd held no grudges after he followed his apology with "there will be plenty more flights to Glasgow but only one T in the park 2012". He then proceeded to blow the crowd away. You could see when singing his songs, he was singing you the words, his performance seemed more personal than other artists I had seen so far (how you can do "personal" with lyrics like "Saw a chick walk in with a big behind, Now I'm stalking my victim out" I will never know, but he managed it.) An amazing performer, one I would not hesitate to go see again!

Having Tinie Tempah on after Professor Green, on the same stage was awfully nice of the organizers, no trekking to the other side of the arena! You could tell from Tinie's entrance that he was ready to put on a good performance, and that he did. He seemed impressed with the Scottish crowd, grinning as they sang all his songs back to him. His pretty sparkly microphone and cool patchwork leather jacket certainly took no attention away from his performance, he held the stage well with his presence alone, playing hit after hit pleasing the huge crowd that had come to see him.

Finally I sneaked away early to catch the end of The Blackout's set and I'm glad I did. Those Welsh men can put on a performance! Possibly not to everyone's music taste, which is okay but if  you were to see them live you would undoubtedly have to appreciate their showmanship, in between their songs they communicated with the crowd like no other artist I had seen today had done, they thanked the crowd for coming, and it seemed more sincere than the odd "cheers for coming" you seem to get from some of the bigger artists. The two vocalists Sean Smith and Gavin Butler meshed well together, especially when they suggested to the crowd they make the most of the heavy security they were given. Without further hesitation the crowd turned in to a whirlpool of mosh pits and I counted at least 16 of the audience crowd surfing and having to be pulled out by security. Revealing new songs they have been working on over the last few months, The Blackout have the capability to go far, and I really hope they do. Their high energy performance gave the perfect ending to my Friday of T in the Park 2012.

Check out photos from Friday @ T in the Park
Check out photos from Saturday @ T in the Park
Check out photos from Sunday @ T in the Park

Take a trip down the A59 in Sawley, Lancashire, at the beginning of July each year, and you’ll soon come across one of the quaintest and most atmospheric festivals Britain has to offer; The Beat-Herder Festival.  Now in it’s seventh year, Beat-Herder’s organisers have maintained a firm grasp on what has made this festival such a success in such a short time; to simply bring people together to enjoy the beats and barminess that this festival oozes. Despite the rain’s best efforts to put a dampener on the weekend, this year’s Beat-Herder proves to be one of the best yet.

Not only does Beatherder pride itself on bagging some of the best dance/electro/reggae bands around, but it’s sense of community and camaraderie is clear given just how many local bands and Djs perform throughout. Make your way to the Toil Trees at any point in the weekend and there‘ll always be something happening as, from 11am to 4am, the trees are alive with the sound of DJ sets from the likes of D/R/U/G/S, Fake Blood, Utah Saints and a marathon 6 hour set from Mr Scruff on the Sunday.

The Beat-Herder & District Working Men’s Social Club hosts an array of hilarious and entertaining acts over the course of the weekend, from holding a Beat-Herder’s Got Talent contest on the Saturday to stand out performances from up-and-coming comedy musical duo Frisky and Mannish, and the one and only Black Lace bringing the ‘A Ga Do-Do-Do’ to the Club Tropicana themed tent.

Two tone legends The Beat and the godfather of reggae Lee Scratch Perry soothe everyone’s Sunday hangovers with their easy going rock steady tunes, whilst Yorkshire legend and Beat-Herder veteran Captain Hotknives puts the world to rights in the BH&DWMSC tent with his comedic ditties about racist wildlife and the disappointing array of confectionaries available on trains. Bringing the weekend to a close is main stage headliner Kraak & Smaak, who raise the roof and go out with a bang with their own brand of electronic funk.

A first time attendee to this festival would have difficulty finding the time to see all of the delights Beatherder has to offer.  Walk up the path into the woods and you’ll all of  sudden find yourself in the middle of a street; a street adorned with a church, a garage, a bar and a fully functioning tattoo parlour where all across the weekend, people are inked with the iconic Beat-Herder sheep and speaker logo.  Take a closer look at the red telephone box; you’ll see it in fact reads ‘Teleport’ across the top; investigate further and you’ll find a tunnel, leading either to the other Teleport box at the other side of the woods, or peering out from behind bars at the folk meandering through the woods. Stroll up to the stalls, and you’ll be spoilt for choice for.

All too soon, it’s Monday morning and we’re in a queue of muddy cars heading back to reality. My only quibble with The Beat-Herder Festival it always seems to be over far too quickly. Roll on next year and the quirky fun it may bring.

Review by Emma Stone

Click here to view photos from Friday @ Beat Herder

Click here to view photos from Saturday @ Beat Herder

Click here to view photos from Sunday @ Beat Herder

We arrived on the Isle of Wight fearing the worst, news of the chaos, mud and traffic nightmares had bombarded us from every side.  When we finally arrived at the festival we began to see what all the fuss was about, every path was ankle deep in mud for miles.  After a mild disagreement with a gust of wind, we managed to put up our tent successfully then, with some well earned food and a drink in us, we headed down to explore the main festival grounds.  On our way we saw the wreckage that the mud had caused already; tents had been abandoned, covered in mud and the festival area itself wasn't looking any better.  But drawn to the sound of Noah and the Whale we caught the last two songs of their set, and that put us right back in the mood for a great weekend.  Fridays highlights for us were surprisingly Elbow; the four piece band from Manchester who drew us in with the beautiful sweeping melodies from their latest album 'Build a rocket boys', and old time rockers Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who were just great fun to watch. 

Saturday started off slow, Signals a new band from Southampton played the main stage in the morning to an enthusiastic audience, and as the afternoon rolled in excitement began to grow for performances from Jessie J and Tinie Tempah.  Then a complete crowd switch before Biffy Clyro pulled out an amazing set, which not only sounded great but was visually stunning too and after Pearl Jam, we headed down to the very crammed venue Hipshakers to end the night as it always should, with a bit of funk. 

We didn’t think it was possible but, the last day brought with it even more mud, nevertheless we set out to explore the smaller venues on site such as Kashmir Café where we found a ukulele orchestra, performing renditions of Amy Winehouse songs and Life's a Beach where a limbo competition was taking place.  We caught Switchfoot play a solid set in the Big Top and then waded to the Main Stage to catch Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds finish their set with some old school Oasis songs.  Someone didn’t seem to enjoy that as much we did though, because they tried to throw a flare and Noel's head, thankfully it missed.  Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band closed the night with an outstanding three hour long set, which we did not expect to enjoy as much as we did.  His fourteen piece band engaged the crowd like no one else had and left everyone wanting more as they performed their version of, 'Twist and Shout' and fireworks marked the end of yet another successful Isle of Wight Festival.

Overall the weekend had a good atmosphere, some great acts and a few quirky venues.  The mud and the transport issues were unfortunate and more could have been done to resolve the issues quicker but it didn’t stop anyone at the festival from enjoying themselves.  We thought that the main venues were great, but the smaller venues were too few and lacked a little bit of imagination.  If you're looking to discover new bands in quirky venues with a handmade feel, you might leave the island a little let down, but if you're looking to go to a festival with established headliners, and main stream acts, with a relatively chilled out atmosphere then your bound to have a great time at Isle of Wight Festival, but don't forget to bring your wellies…just in case.

Summer Break is not your ordinary festival. It’s advertised as being a 96 hour long party, and that’s  not far from what week 1 delivered. Unlike your average festival, except for the few that have chosen the camping option, there’s no tent pitching to be done, but rather collecting the keys for your static caravan. By festival standards, this is pure luxury living with all the facilities you could want. You can definitely see why the site is referred to as the ‘student village’ with a real feel of uni halls.

After everyone had settled into their new homes for the week, it wasn’t long before the fancy dress started, along with the music and drinking. And of course the drinking games! This was followed by a short walk to the on-site club, known for the week as ‘Sundown Field’.  This first night had a real union club night feel with most people in fancy dress and starting to make new friends among this big group of students.

The following morning, once everyone had soothed their hangovers a little, it was time to head to Fistral Beach. The weather was glorious with bright sunshine – the ideal weather to enjoy Summer Break’s own area of the beach. With DJ sets on the beach throughout the day and many games of football and volleyball and a sandcastle building competition. And of course a trip to Fistral Beach wouldn’t be complete without some surfing, swimming and skimboarding. Most students had signed up to take advantage of the bus transfers on offer, which provided an easy way to travel between the holiday park and the beach.

The buses took on a whole new atmosphere when it came to the evening. The second night took place at Sailors nightclub in Newquay town centre. Having enjoyed pre-drinks and plenty of drinking games in caravans throughout the early evening, everyone on the buses was really excited for the night ahead and there was a lot of singing and chanting! Sailors nightclub was packed and everyone had an amazing night with DJ sets from Urban Knights, Jaymo & Andy George and the week’s special guest DJ, Mr Hudson. The crowd went absolutely wild for Mr Hudson with the dancefloor packed during his set. Everyone had an excellent night partying through to around 3am before getting on the bus back to the campsite.

The next day was another trip on the buses down to Fistral Beach for even wilder beach antics. These included beer can races, pegs on faces competitions, blind sack races and marshmallow eating competitions. And of course, with another day of wonderful sunshine, there was more surfing and splashing around down on the beach as well as rugby, Frisbee and cricket.

That night’s activities took place at another popular Newquay club, Bertie’s. With MC Majestic pumping everyone up all night, the atmosphere was great. The nights DJs were also great including sets from Jakwob, R3wire and Cutline.

On day three, the weather took a bit of a turn and we woke up to rain. This put a bit of a stop to the planned activities on the beach, which should have included bikinis contests, ‘Mr and Mrs Summer Beach’ and a tug-of-war. No-one seemed too bothered by this downturn though, almost welcoming the opportunity to have a slightly more chilled day relaxing in their caravans and soothing their sunburn.

By evening though, everyone was ready to make the most of their final night, which took place on-site at the Sundown Field. The club was roasting hot, but everyone was still pumped up and ready to party. The atmosphere built up more and more with sets from lots of DJs including Urban Knights building up to a highly energetic set from Kissy Sell Out and MC Cobra to finish the night off.

Overall, the first week of Summer Break was filled with lots of crazy antics both on-site at the ‘student village’, at Fistral Beach and at the clubs in town, with many people living up to the ’96 hour party people’ motto! Rather than a traditional festival feel, Summer Break is more like a large scale student holiday with crazy beach days and energetic party evenings!

Click here to view Summer Break 2012 Sunday photos

Click here to view Summer Break 2012 Monday photos 

Friday

So after nearly an 8 hour drive and 420 miles added to the clock, we arrived at a rather pleasant Rockness. The torrential rain of Midlands which had turned Download into a wash out was not present here with the weather being slightly overcast. After finding a space to pitch the tent it was time to make the way into the arenas.

The first couple of hours stayed placid with the Mystery Jets on the main stage slowly building the crowd for the headliners later on, whilst in the GoldenVoice Arena, Wretch 32 with his Grime & Rap hyped up everyone listening for an hour of madness. Golden Boy Ed Sheeran totally stole the show again in the GoldenVoice Arena, packing it out within seconds of starting his very interactive performance, getting everyone to join in and even take over with singing.

The Redbull sound stage playing underground sounds of Drum & Bass and Dubstep, Redbull also had a cocktail bar giving out complementary drinks to Artists and Friends such as Rockberry, Rumbull which of course all contained Redbull.

Mumford and Sons where the last act on the main stage for the evening, drawing a mass of festival goers and played just into the start of Friday night/Saturday morning.

Sub Club Sound system stayed open till gone 3am with the likes of Hudson Mahawke & Eats Everything providing entertainment for the hardcore party people.

Saturday

Saturday morning started with rain, rain and more rain keeping many people in their tents as long as possible before heading over to the arenas, Miraculously 12 O’clock came and rain stopped for the second day of festival festivities.

The early morning stayed quite with the smaller acts taking to the various stages and tents providing a more chilled out atmosphere.

The first big act of the day was Darren Foreman known better as Beardyman. Looking like an employee directly from a call centre he entertained and at times confused the crowd with his beatboxing skills and with the use of a new looping setup he created an entire DJ set just from his voice.

For the second time around (previously at PlayFest) I was able to see the renowned Pigeon defectives, again full of energy from the second they appeared on stage with Matt Bowman nearly losing the microphone on several occasions through swinging the microphone a little too hard.

17 year old Hugo Pierre Leclercq, known by his stage name Madeon also played in the GoldenVoice, His unique twist on Electro and Pop music took allot of people by surprise along with his appearance, looking allot younger than 17.

DeadMau5 or also being talked about by some festival goers as “Dead Mau Five” was defiantly worth the entire day waiting for. He appeared on stage a few minutes before his set, unknown to everyone he was inside a crate that burst open with him inside. Unusually he started without his iconic mau5 head piece on and quickly put this on after a quick hello and wave to everyone.

He set as always was spectacular with lots of visuals including his 900+ full LED mouse head, a very heavy bass which when standing close made it hard to breathe.

Sunday

Sunday morning started with news that The View who I managed to miss yesterday would be playing once again, Due to a massive turnout at the small tent (think 10 deep around the outside) their set had to be postponed due to health and safety.

Jakwob kicked off the dance music in the GoldenVoice tent, known for his remixing of mainstream artists such as Ellie Golding and combines elements of Dubstep, electro, ghetto-tech and breakbeat into these. Even though they only had a small crowd they provided lots of noise and used the entire tent to dance.

The Cuban bothers, who I would say where the most unique act of the weekend, played a mix of Soul, Funk and Disco, also throwing in allot of Comedy and Sensational dancing, they really looked like they were having fun and entertaining the crowd too they ended their show by stripping down to “thongs” and playing a musical rocky homage.

Later in the evening a private helicopter landed at the festival which many of the press and reporters thought was Biffy Clyro which in fact turned out to be Knife Party.  Founded by 2 members of the electronic rock band Pendulum, Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen they packed out the tent before even starting the set, There upbeat mash up of Dubstep & electro styles whipped up everyone into a frenzy with a sea of hands moving in time with the music being the only thing visible in the red glow of the lights.

NME’s and Q’s best live Band, Biffy Clyro provided the finale to weekend of music at Rockness, with an impressive stage setup of huge hanging mirrors, Co2 cannons and pyrotechnics provided a high to end on and showed everyone present to why they are the best live band in the world!

Click here to view photos from Friday at RockNess

Click here to view photos from Saturday at RockNess

Click here to view photos from Sunday at RockNess

Review by Dan Wheatley

As the now decidedly smelly arena fills up with people for the final day of Download, the welcome sight of SUNSHINE nearly brings a tear to the tired moshers eye. Yes it’s true, there’s a little bit of sun and a little bit is clearly enough as we can already see a couple of lobster-coloured faces and it’s only been about half an hour.

A welcome snarl sees DevilDriver’s pit-carnage churning out limp bodies, and August Burns Red do their very best to see that no-one is left un-moshed whilst smashing out popular ‘Back Burner’. NYC metalheads Anthrax are thrash-tastic over on the main stage with a massive crowd going wild to ‘Fight ‘em till you can’t’ and ‘I am the Law’, but in the jam-packed Pepsi Max stage German power-metallers Edguy are giving it all the passion they can muster and a loud, melodic ‘King of Fools’ sees Edguy fans come out grinning all over.

Black Label Society’s mainstage set is heart-thumpingly loud, with the wailing fret-wankery of Zakk Wylde (who comes to the fore wearing a giant Indian headdress) who plays through a gratuitous 10 minute guitar solo and a host of hair-windmilling songs. They’re good solid metal and you can’t fail to enjoy it. Lamb of God draw a similar sized crowd who are already creating a cattle-rodeo-like circle pit before the band even reach the stage. Their guitars are a little bit lost in the wind but the rolling drums are clear as frontman Randy Blythe shrieks “You might be from England but you’re all just a bunch of fuckin’ REDNECKS!” and they drop into ‘Redneck’. The circle pit might have now become some sort of messy conga line, but everyone seems to be having a great time.

Megadeth must be pleased at their ability to still entice the ladies out of their bras, but then again it might just be because the sun is out and the cameras are on. I’m sure those ladies mum’s are going to be awful proud when they see the highlights!  The melodic guitar duets and chants of ‘MEG-A-DETH’ are piercingly loud around the arena and fans go absolutely mental for Guitar-Hero favourite, ‘Symphony of Destruction’.

Soundgarden’s return to English soil was heralded by many when the announcement came, but to be honest they come off a little stale. They’re the Bjork of metal. You know that it’s clever but it’s all a bit too experimental to be something you really enjoy romping in a field to. ‘Black Hole Sun’ goes down a treat as expected, but there’s a tinge of boredom to the rest of the set. On the second stage Dropkick Murphys are nothing of the sort. Despite some pretty shoddy sound at the beginning they punk the hell out of ‘The Irish Rover’ and ‘Take ‘em Down’, sparking jigs galore and more than a few catastrophic attempts at leprechaun style heel clicks. The incredibly drunk and incredibly Irish man in front of us was having the time of his life, as he bellowed along to ‘Sunday Hardcore Matinee’.

The main event, the big one – Black Sabbath at Download, loud and proud. These guys MADE metal, and seeing them live is something you could never forget. They might be sans-Ward in the drums department, but Tony Clufetos is a great replacement choice and Sabbath open their Sunday reign with dark namesake ‘Black Sabbath’. A veritable hit-parade (how could it not be?) of tracks such as ‘Snowblind’, ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ keep the party going, and Tony Iommi “The real Iron Man” according to Ozzy, absolutely demolishes the guitar solos in ‘Iron Man’ and closer ‘Paranoid’. Ozzy is as mad as ever, legging it around stage like a man half his age and half his lifetime drug and alcohol intake. He’s nuts but we love him. Though you couldn’t say that they were at their musical peak anymore, there’s something ethereal about a Black Sabbath show. You know you’re witnessing something great that will stay with you forever, and those guys still rock harder than most of the bands in this world, so we salute them.

Download may be over for another year, but this 10 year anniversary sure is a memorable one. Hideous weather, controversial bookings, arena issues and camping equipment casualties, whatever else you remember this year’s festival for – the moshing good time you had should be top of the list.

After a drier night, the arena is looking decidedly less slippy (good) but quite a lot stickier (gross) and the feeling of being sucked into the depths of hell pervades ones’ thoughts if you stand still for any length of time. A dusting of woodchip and a dumping of hay around site has matted most areas into a lumpy farmyard but hey, it’s a little less perilous than yesterday so we’re not complaining.

Norwegian deathpunk glamsters Turbonegro, wake up the second stage sleepyheads with enigmatic newbie Tony Sylvester emerging in a sparkly Union flag cape and regal crown for a roaring ‘All my friends are Dead’. Over on the main stage Steel Panther steal the hearts of the ladies in the crowd with their 80’s rock personas and hip-thrusting action. The arena is rammed with lookalikes in bouffant wigs and zebra print lycra, screaming along to the likes of ‘Asian Hooker’ and ‘Supersonic Sex Machine’. It’s kitsch, it’s corny, but it’s all good humour and behind the filthily funny lyrics they are actually a fairly talented bunch.

However, it’s the stand out comedy-meets-rock performance of Tenacious D that gains the real respect of the crowd, even if you don’t much favour Jack Black, you’ve got to admire their story telling ability and straight up phallus-worship (in the form of a giant blow up cock and balls, made out to be the head of a colossal firey phoenix – in reference to their new album ‘Rize of the Fenix’). Fan favourites ‘Fuck Her Gently’ and ‘Kickapoo’ are mere warm-ups to the arena-wide exultation of band epic ‘Tribute’ and a chorus of “Nay, we are but men… ROCK”, as the D put it – they “made love to our ear-canals” and gave us “eargasms”. Jack Black declares Download was on their list, the “Last one before the world explodes” referring to the Mayan calendar ending in December and Tenacious D leave the stage to a confetti ejacuation emanating from the head of the ‘phoenix’.

Skindred’s second stage set is met with unfortunate sound problems – largely due to the wind, but once gold-suited Benji Webbe exploded into heavy ‘Doom Riff’ any fears of a failure were well and truly gone, and their skit of ‘All the single ladies’ (with proper bogling) was extremely giggle-worthy. Wild crowd love for ‘Game Over’ and ‘Trouble’ as well as ‘Nobody’ see the band going mental and it’s tshirts off for the Newport Helicopter during ‘Warning’. If you were anywhere else in the world – you were missing out. Even the security guards at the side of the stage had their phones out videoing the mania.

Biffy Clyro go off with thousands of dedicated fans, and the return of Killswitch Engage provides raw power with ‘Life to Lifeless’ (circle pits galore) and an extremely memorable cover of Dio’s ‘Holy Diver’. Main stage monsters Metallica are greeted by an arena FULL, front to back, side to side, of sardine-canned-fans. What it must feel like to look across that sort of a crowd one can only guess, but ripping into an intro set including ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ – they prove why they’re such a Download stalwart and deserve to top the bill. The reverence of The Black Album is felt like shivers down the spine of the collective crowd as the band begin to play it in reverse order, and an epic singalong (and lighter swaying) for ‘Nothing Else Matters’ may well have been heard by low-flying planes. Following up with the likes of ‘Battery’ and ‘Seek and Destroy’, Metallica detonate well before the pyrotechnics do. This is their 7^th Donington performance, and despite some dodgy sound at the back – it’s one you’ll tell your kids about, for all the right reasons.