DAY 1

The question will be asked when heavy metal fans meet, “Where were you on the weekend of the 5/6 June, 2004?” The answer from most will be, “I was there mate, I was at Download.” And then a long conversation will ensue about whom they saw, who was great and who should have been but wasn’t, and which band triumphed as the best of the weekend. There were so many high points (and just a few low ones) in an event which will go down in metal rock history as one of the finest held anywhere, anytime. Last year’s festival boasted a strong line-up, and of course Metallica’s mind-blowing secret gig, and an attendance of around 70,000. Once a new festival beds in and the line-up becomes stronger, one expects to see notable attendance increases, but in 2004 any pundit’s predictions must have been blown out of the water.

But you wouldn’t know travelling along the virtually deserted diversionary country lanes heading for the festival VIP/Guest entrance at around 1 pm on the first day of the festival. It soon became clear, from the number of vehicles crowded into the relevant car park, the music media was out in force. And with a line-up including virtually every top metal band in the world, it was not surprising.

As we walked through the tunnel leading to the festival grounds it became evident that attendance was healthy but nothing untoward. Fast forward to Sunday and the festival’s ‘big day’ with a main stage line-up including Metallica, Korn, Slipknot, Slayer, Machine Head, Soulfly, Ill Nino, Turbo Negro and Breed 77. The secondary stage featuring Drowning Pool, Hatebreed, HIM, Damage Plan, Bowling For Soup, Hooberstank, Trapt and others was strong enough to headline any other festival. Ah, what a Sunday! I have never seen more people fronting a festival stage, with one official estimate given of over 150,000 people. It was awesome!

But it was also a little strange. You see the main stage was sponsored by BBC Radio 1 who never plays heavy metal music and relies largely on an endless diet of mediocre manufactured pop music (on radio and TV). Totally friggin’ weird!

In addition to the powerful line-ups on the two main stages, the more intimate Barfly stage boasted some very interesting up-coming acts. The line-up included Young Heart Attack, Mooney Suzuki, Acidtone, Amplifier, Span, Recover, Dirty Americans, Ikara Cult, Surferosa, Peaches and the notoriously erotic punk rock girl act Suicide Girls. Effectively, it offered lesser-metal fans with a range of diverse, quality performance alternatives. And for BMX and skateboard fans, the Snicker Bowl offered a weekend-long menu of the finest proponents from around the world competing in a tailor-made venue with fabulous spectator facilities. Punter fun and food provision was comprehensive and included a good fun fair, a vast arrange of fair-priced food and drink, excellent parking and camping, cash dispensing, toilets and truly exceptional first-aid facilities.

Three other factors are of course vital for the success of any major event, namely, the weather the organisation, and the punters. A cloudy but warm and dry day on Saturday gave way to blinding bright sunshine on Sunday. Organisation (including key security aspects) was incredibly good, and coped well with the almost inevitable last-minute performance hitches, and thousands of ‘enthusiastic’ fans. Our PR handler, LD Promotions, provided helpful, valuable and friendly assistance with all aspects of event coverage. The third vital piece of the jigsaw is the crowd which was diverse as it was large. For a photographer the crowd offered a dazzling display of dress, colour, age, and sexual persuasion, while being extremely good-humoured.

The scene was therefore set for one of the finest and most exciting music festivals I have ever attended.

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Day 1, 5 June 2004

We arrived late into the main performance arena but just in time to catch Cradle of Filth on the main stage. And I can’t think of a better introduction to a heavy metal festival. A diminutive and impeccably groomed Dani Filth was last to appear on stage kitted out (like his team) in shining black leather. Dark orchestral flourishes peppered a goth rock performance which few other bands can match.

Theatrics? Tell me about it. The killer touch arrived a few songs in when two towering black and white figures on invisible stilts glided onto the stage and for most of the show provided a beautifully choreographed backdrop to the band’s precision rock. At one point blood red material ropes plunged from the top of the stage which the female acrobat/dancer proceeded to climb. She then gracefully twisted and turned at a frightening height to the end of this fabulous show.

The Distillers from Australia caused a storm over here last year with the release of their album CORAL FANG, and some great live shows. Fronted by the gorgeous and pale-faced Brody Dalle, the band was next up on a main stage stripped of previous decore.

I estimate that around 50,000 punters were waiting in hot anticipation of the band and provided a raucous welcome as Dalle and Co wandered onto the stage. Looking very hung over and expressionless, but with the faintest hint of a smile, Dalle proceeded to give a raw and powerful performance of many songs from the album. Opening with Die On A Rope, the band then played Dismantle Me, The City of Angels, Sing Sing, The Gallow Is God, Hall of Mirrors, You’re Gonna Miss Me, Beat Your Heart Out before closing with The Hunger, Coral Fang and Drain The Blood.

The band’s brand of rock skirts the borders of heavy with a sense of melody and major dollops of passion. I can’t say I liked their album as much as many reviewers did, but performed in a live ambience they took on a whole new quality and meaning. Wonderful.

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This segment of the festival on the main stage proved to be one of the most interesting as it provided a diverse range of rock music, without straying too far from the script. I first saw The Hives perform at the Witnness Festival in Dublin two years ago, and while not a great fan of the band’s music was impressed big-time with their ability to grasp an audience by the short and curlies, and within a few short moments of mounting the stage.

Dressed in their formal black and white suits, the band strode purposefully onto the stage followed shortly by dapper, beaming and waving leadman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist. Unlike Dalle, he appeared delighted to be at the fest and immediately made the audience feel that a good time was about to be unleashed.

With their special brand of garage punk performed with arrogance, venom and military precision, the band played old favourites from their 2002 debut album. A few songs in and a strutting Howlin’ announced a song from the new album due for release later this year. The Swedes have a style of their own and once again proved to be a band that, for me, is much better live than on record. On completing their exciting set, the guys wandered down to the back of the stage and chatted openly with people who crowded around them. Nice lads and another very enjoyable performance.

While my associate covered the secondary Snickers Stage, I took the opportunity to wander around to the Snickers Bowl where practice for the BMX competition was underway. Now I have never seen these crazed athletes perform in the flesh, but as soon as I entered the superb gladiatorial arena was awe-struck by what I witnessed.

The deep wooden panelled ‘bowl’ was being used as a launch pad for helmeted guys on small bikes to work up speed and then launch themselves skywards. And if this wasn’t mental enough, they would then do somersaults and turns in mid-air! This I had to photograph! And so I focused at the various points where I thought they would launch themselves, and up a bit – bingo!

It was time to wander back to the main stage to catch a classic rock act live for the first time. Iggy Pop has produced many albums varying from very ordinary to downright brilliant, while controversy has never been too far away. With his band The Stooges, this was one performance I had spent days thinking about.

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But there were also signs of trouble brewing down at the main stage. Earlier in the day there had been a moderate amount of bottle-throwing onto the stage and into the crowd. Many bottles were empty, plastic and harmless. But an increasing number of glass bottles and half-filled plastic bottles were beginning to generate concern, and customers for the St Johns Ambulance personnel. Surfing had also increased dramatically and the superb, firm but fair and friendly security team were obliged to bolster their numbers substantially. And to top it all off, the hot weather was beginning to take its toll on punters who had been standing at the front of the crowd for many hours, waiting for their favourite band to appear.

By the time I had arrived back at the photo pit flattened drink cans and bottles were beginning to pile up by the stage and in the pit. At one point I turned towards the stage and then felt a thump in my back which turned out to be a full alcopop sachet, followed closely by a glass alcopop bottle which missed me by inches. The security personnel were incredibly good and could regularly be seen passing out drinking water, and pulling out troubled fans. Interestingly, I was told that the only glass bottles for sale were in the press hospitality centre (ordinary punters were also searched for bottles on entry) and it seems some might have been thrown away and picked up by those looking for trouble.

Time for Iggy! The pedestrian-looking group of instrumentalists in The Stooges could not have been in starker contrast to the wiry, long flaxen-haired and half-naked Iggy who followed them onto the stage. From a photographer’s viewpoint, he is the perfect subject, and I could have snapped away all day at this highly individual-looking character.

Iggy gave a startling performance as he moved jerkily around the stage. In fact it was almost as though his brain was taking its time in communicating movements to the rest of his body. With eyes fixed and blazing this renegade artist, who has virtually created a musical genre of his own, caught everybody’s imagination and the response was quite incredible.

But… what ensued what not so clever. Perhaps because of the massive audience response, Iggy invited everybody onto the stage with him. Security was caught off-guard and without prior warning was overwhelmed with punters who had Iggy and the stage fixed sharply in their sights. It was mayhem, and no doubt led quickly to the decision to double the number of security personnel at the main stage (a level that was sustained through to day 2).

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Aside from photography, my prime reason for wanting to attend live events is to properly gauge an act’s true quality. More often than not, gigs confirm rather than deny how good an act is, but then we are selective about what we review and feature. Already at this festival I have established that certain acts, whose records I deemed as average, are fabulous live. This provides me with a different, and perhaps more relevant standard measure. Sum 41’s punk rock has never impressed me on record, unlike the fans that had started to mass migrate to the main stage from all parts of the location.

On schedule, the band hurried onto the stage with elfish leadman Deryck Whibley arriving after band members had taken up their positions. A brief wave to the roaring crowd and it was into Mr Amsterdam and an intense Hell Song. Whibley often bent double over the stage monitors to deliver blistering versions of hits like Fat Lip, Still Waiting and Over My Head.

Okay, so I’m wrong again! The band gave a stunning live performance with songs I’d previously dismissed sounding great in this open air auditorium. And like all the bands that had performed on the main stage that day, they were tight and totally in union. Whibley’s voice is like a weapon of mass destruction and in this challenging environment he won hands down.

I decided to pay a quick visit to the Snickers tent and arrived just in time for some nutter on stage to ask the audience if they wanted to see his private parts. Without waiting for a response the guy had his kit off and then declared he was going to staple his balls! Another player stood beside him and looked on in disdain. The band was Wild Boyz/Jackass and sure enough a stapler was found and while the audience cringed, and some left, he went about his crazy deed. From outside the tent I managed to take a couple of pictures which I hope don’t offend – but it was a pretty unusual event! I later found out from my associate that this same nutter had set himself on fire and then played with a snake…. to an absolutely packed secondary stage tent…

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I wondered back to the main stage with the thought of ball-stapling echoing in my head (and nether regions). I was joined by many other punters wanting to see the day’s headline act, Linkin Park. It must be two years ago when I last saw Linkin Park perform at the Manchester Apollo, alongside Taproot and Deftones. I was more than impressed with the energy, vocal quality and use of decks in communicating their unique brand of message-laden, melodic hard rock. On arriving at the venue, I was warned by security that we may be asked to leave before the regulation 3 songs were completed. Looking out I could see why. Even before the band arrived crowd surfers were being ejected every few seconds, with bottles and other objects falling like rain.

During the afternoon sessions I had been hit several times by various brands of soft drink containers, and as I walked along the front of the stage missiles were being fended off by the unbroken line of security guards. Hell, what was the performance going to be like? Things quietened down a lot in the minutes before the band arrived but then all hell broke loose as the band rushed onto the stage, and within seconds Chester Bennington and his buddies launched into the first song.

For most of the day, clouds had blocked out the sun but suddenly they disappeared to reveal the bluest of skies. The scene was remarkable. If you imagine a multi-coloured sea of people covering the distant hilly landscape in the bright sunlight, you can perhaps understand my wonderment. And in front of me was a band at the peak of their musical powers, rushing to all corners of the massive stage with the three singers bent double to deliver their intense, pounding messages. The whole scene was amazing, and one I will not forget for some time.

Sure enough, we were ushered out of the pit after just two songs. Ambulance personnel were rushing around with bare-metal stretchers, while surfers were being ejected every second by security people that were close to exhaustion. It was surreal and just a little frightening. I took the opportunity to grab some hot chips as I wondered back to the Snickers tent to catch the dying moments of Electric Six and the opening moments of Pennywise.

I arrived just in time to hear the final moments of Radio Ga Ga, as interpreted by Electric Six, a band I had seen perform a wonderful set late in 2003. After major hype and chart success, things seemed to have quietened down for the band. I understand the guys has been working on their new record, which I hope will be more reflective of the band’s true quality.

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Pennywise appeared, and disappeared. Let me explain. For some strange reason, the lighting in the Snickers tent had been diabolical and especially for the vocalists who had performed in virtual darkness. It was not until my associate retreated to the audience ranks, where he was able to use a flash gun, when some decent and useable pictures emerged. As for Pennywise, a decent rock band that I felt did not deserve their headline slot on the fest’s second stage.

I didn’t wait for Pennywise to finish and slowly headed for the car for some badly needed rest and recuperation. It had been a fascinating day full of great sights, great music, great fans and some slightly worrying moments. I started to think about what tomorrow might bring on a day when the biggest guns would be performing in front of a potentially much larger audience.