Download 2022 – review of Day 1 Friday June 10

There’s plenty at Download for everyone! I came away with a rosy glow at the wonderful time I had had. In these times with some major rock stars proclaiming “rock is dead” Download is there with the force of sheer numbers that proves that this is not the case. No one reviewer can cover everything with three constantly full stages, but I did my best to see as much as possible. Inevitably my choices leant towards my preferences of classic rock sliding towards Southern rock and glam, but I bet whatever anyone’s genre they found what they were looking for and more at this Download.

I began Friday with Wayward Sons who are frankly delighted to be opening the festival on the Opus stage. The sound is excellent and so Toby Jepson’s voice is shown to its best advantage. The only possible disadvantage to going first at such a big event is the the audience are coming in stone cold, but Toby did his best to get them to sing along. They can only fit in six songs in the set evenly distributed across their three albums with two from their newest album ‘Even Up The Score’ ‘Bloody Typical’ and ‘Big Day’. With a set of six songs they managed to communicate joie de vivre to the crowd in a short time span, so a very good opener.

Kris Barras followed on the same stage. A solid choice for supporting quality acts they are a dependable choice and they delivered the same set as they had for Thunder at the 02 a week or so ago including their most popular tracks starting with ‘Hail Mary’ and closing out with ‘My Parade’ . With their heavy blues riffs and harmonised vocals they have broad appeal. In the time available Kris gets in some plaintively emotional ‘crying’ solos and bass player Kelpie McKenzie outdoes himself with his passion for being on stage which shone through as he played up to the camera.

I crossed over to the Apex stage to take in Black Veil Brides who are super proficient at handling their enormous devoted fan base whipping them up into a frenzy and are the first band to have explosive plumes of smoke for dramatic effect. I just catch them treating the crowd to a new song ‘Crimson Skies’ before I cross over to take in some Myles Kennedy & Company back on the Opus stage my first wanting to be in

two places at once. I get there just to catch a nice version of ‘World on Fire’ with extended slide guitar. I only get to see a couple of tracks though as he must have cranked through most of his set pretty quickly and so I caught the end of Black Veil Brides ‘Fallen Angels’ and ‘In The End’. There’s a generational difference between the two audiences and there the heady whiff of crazy fan adulation coming from the younger crowd for Black Veil Brides that heightens the depth of emotion in the audience, whereas the older crowd for Myles give a more constant steady concentration and awe. Once again Download catering for everyone!

Tempt are the first band I saw on the smaller Dogtooth stage. Although this ‘tent’ is, in fact, so enormous that it easily takes a crowd as large as most middle size venues in London and certainly much larger than the Black Heart gig in London they did. The band pulled a packed crowd and must be new to a lot of the audience, but they were polished and on form and get a great reaction from the crowd with their accomplished and accessible AOR. They are more about quality of music than image with a feel good delivery and they were up for making as many new friends as possible. Finishing with Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ they got good audience buy in for a singalong, They must have been very happy with how it went.

I bumped into Rocky Shades of Wrathchild on my way to the loo. He diverts us with engaging chat. I told him my frustrating attempts to get an I phone compatible with old school headphones and he makes us all laugh with his joke ‘She’s Got The Jack’. You never know who you’re going to meet at Download.

I still manage to make it to the Opus stage for an always energetic

show from Airbourne. Just like AC/DC its straightforward – you get what it says on the tin always with a smattering of good humour. “Here’s a song for all the beautiful girls in black it’s called – ‘Girls in Black’”. Their sheer enthusiasm just to rock and democratic all inclusive approach is a great leveller. The crowd has clearly not tired of seeing vocalist/guitarist Joel O’Keeffe ride though the crowd on someone’s shoulders, banging open a tinnie on his head and throwing open pints of beer into the crowd. It’s amazing how many people volunteer to catch the ‘free’ beer knowing that it will likely slam into their hands covering them in the process. It has the air of a ritual that the crowd know and love. They cause the first big mosh that I see at the event. They pay tribute to the Download crew putting the monumental stages together safely reminding everyone of the enormous amount of work involved. They stage that Download is worth waiting for not sure for 2 years, but 2 million years. Their sheer positive enthusiasm and ambassadorship for rock has to be a big ingredient in their success. As Joel would no doubt say “All is Good”.

I make it into the Dogtooth tent to see the end of Steve Harris of Maiden’s British Lion who are already at the stage of getting huge amounts of applause from the crowd. It’s a powerful sound with beefy riffs, high pitched solos and strong vocals. Steve Harris is a master at crowd engagement interacting personally with individual members of the crowd making them feel special and conducting big singalongs to their anthemic chorus lines. They are the first band I see that really get the crowd to sing like a huge choir reminiscent of Whitesnake at the Hammy Odeon.

It’s time for KISS!! The crowd shout along to the intro ‘You wanted the best. You got the best’. It’s amazing that the band are still delivering to the extent that they always did in their 70s in terms of showmanship and the sheer physical effort it must take to perform in those costumes. Paul Stanley starts off with a huge kick to the camera in those massive heels. They kick off with ‘Detroit Rock City’ and the first thing I notice is that Paul Stanley sounds better vocally than the last time he did at Download when I thought he sounded as thought he had a cold. This time there is no such affliction and the sound is amazing! We get pyro explosions, tongues out from Gene, twirling drum sticks, synchronised guitar line ups all before the end of the first song.

Next up is ‘Shout It Out Loud’ and there’s a lot of pointing and crowd engagement. The crowd need no encouragement to sing along and it seems everyone in the audience knows all the words.

Paul reminds everyone that KISS have played Download five times now an this will be the last and it certainly is bitter sweet for the band and the crowd. It does seem like a bit of an end of an era. Who can replace KISS?

One thing that is noticeable is that Gene helps out a lot with the main vocals and he starts off with ‘Deuce’ and ‘War Machine’. Paul continues to strut his stuff looking very happy for Gene to take the lead on a few. He’s back soon enough for ‘Heavens on Fire’ staring right into the camera and sucking his finger for the line including ‘piece of cake’. We also get a great shot of that still very shapely rear in black spandex and studs.

Gene wields a flaming sword/torch that he thrusts into a large theatrical stone a la Excalibur as part of his taking the lead on ‘I Love It Loud’.

In ‘Sonic Boom’ and ‘Cold Gin’ Tommy Thayer gets a chance to shine in a bluesy and crying high pitched solo respectively ending with fire coming out of the end of his guitar hitting one of the hexagonal panels in a screen explosion with accompanying big sound effects.

‘Lick it Up’ is cue for a big party in the audience. We are already over half way through the main set and things are definitely not dragging even one little bit. We’ve had great dry sunny weather at Donington this year and Gene pants using as an excuse to show off his tongue “I can feel the heat tonight’ before launching into “Calling Dr Love’. They joke about not looking so good in the videos in the 80s as a cue for ‘Tears Are Fallin’.

Following the drum and bass solos Gene does his blood from the

mouth ritual and Paul flies over the crowd to the sound desk during ‘Love Gun’ as he did the last time they performed at Donington. He continues to sing and dance in those death defying heels to ‘I Was Made For Loving You’. All too soon we are on the last song of the main set ‘Black Diamond’.

The encore is ‘Beth’, ‘Do You Love Me’ and ‘Rock n Roll All Nite’ so no ‘Crazy Nights’ which was a bit of a surprise, but with a mammoth set of over 20 songs no one is complaining. As an extra piece de resistance Paul teases the crowd by pretending to smash his guitar, before he eventually goes through with it separating it from its neck leaving its strings dangling everywhere. No doubt a metaphor for the End of The Road tour. Paul tells us they will never forget us before fireworks mark the end of the show.

With KISS we knew what we were going to get and they did not disappoint. Bringing the first day of download to a monumental end. Absolutely awesome, literally.

Day 2 and 3 coming shortly…watch this space

Dawn Osborne

 

Photo Credits Paul Stanley arm out, Toby Jepson: David Dillon; Airbourne, Myles Kennedy and Paul Stanley on wire: Matt Eachus; Black Veil Brides and Gene Simmons: Matthew Higgs; Tempt:James Bridle