Andy is known to book book some of the best bands from around the world at this famous festival, from the likes of Iron Maiden all the way to The Prodigy. At this festival, which some have been known to call it the "spiritual" home of rock, Download has something to offer everyone with over 4 stages of pure rock music across 3 days... talk about a long weekend.
This festival actually began in the 80's and went through to the late 90's under the name "Monsters of Rock" which hosted artists such as; AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Saxon, Megadeth, Metallica and many more faces of rock, some who are still going to this day. When Monsters of Rock stopped going the people of Britain were left with basically nothing left, except Leeds fest and Glastonbury which, no offence, did not give us rockers what we needed so badly. Along came Andy, a man who had been with Live Nations for quite some time already, and he was ready to relaunch if you will, this historic festival. His goal was to create a festival that only gave rock and it became a hit! Over the past 10 years download has been home to some of the most influential rock bands on the planet including; Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Guns n' Roses, Slash, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick and for the 4th time headlining this festival AC/DC in the year 2010. AC/DC had already headlined this festival when it was Monsters of Rock and to return in 2010 made it their 4th time headlining, something which no other band has ever done or will ever do. In fact no other band has ever even headlined twice never mind 4 times!! If you missed it I too feel your pain.
This year, 2012, brings us to Donington; The Prodigy (Friday headliners), Metallica (Saturday headliners) and Black Sabbath (Sunday headliners). Metallica have played Download before so this marks their second time headlining and marks the Prodigy's first time headling the main stage. Having only ever headlined the second stage back in 2007, is quite an achievement. As most of you probably know Black Sabbath are reuniting to bring us a brand new album and to see the famous Ozzy Osborn back in the group to eat bats and do whatever he does now days ha ha. So a pretty rockin' line up if I don't say so myself, one I'm definitely looking forward to!
Now time to talk about the controversial side of things... Chase and Status playing the main stage. On the one hand it does fit in with the whole "new age punk" scene. After all the prodigy are headlining the main stage and are the "new age punk" scene band. But a lot of people, mostly hard core Download fest fans, are not happy with the techno band being placed anywhere near Donington! Has Andy made a big mistake placing these guys on the bill? Well yes I think he has. Not being a fan of the band doesn't really give him the benefit of the doubt but I must say they would be better off playing somewhere like V-Festival or Leeds Festival. NOT Download, the spiritual home of rock... they are not rock. As one of my friends said "them chavs are going to get trashed by us rockers" well I couldn't agree me and in the words of The Kaiser Chiefs "I PREDICT A RIOT!"
Anyways I will be doing a live review of the festival in real time while I'm there so be sure to check it out! In the meantime feel free to keep up with the latest news from me on my Twitter, my Facebook page or The Sheffield Scenester where you can find all the up to date live reviews from around Yorkshire! Till then...
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