SOME RANDOM WORDS AND PICTURES FROM DOWNLOAD XXII

Words by: @ROLAND GENT

Photos by: @LOUISE PHILLIPS

Battle patches, tattoos, dust and booze! Back we all come to the spiritual home of metal…

…to Donington and Download, the festival that evolves and refreshes every year. If you grew up on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal there’s virtually nothing left of what was once the Monsters of Rock, but the crowds keep coming back. The weather in early June is unpredictable but this year the sun gods shone on us, apart from one downpour just before, fittingly, the Sex Pistols Mark 2 showed up.

Green Day the Californian punksters headlined day one, they deserve it, they’ve taken so much criticism over the years for “selling out”
whatever that is, from the punk crowd. Despite having started on the tiny indie Lookout records, and once having played at the Den in Wigan and Manchester’s Boardwalk on their 1991 tour to crowds of roughly 100 die hards. They rip the place apart, it even starts to rain when Billie Joe Sings “Here comes the rain again.”

I tried to explain to someone from Finland that Metal and Punk were certainly 2 different beasts in times gone by and metalloids used to say that punk “wasn’t music” but these days metal seems to be the far more extreme musical genre. Check out the likes of Fit For an Autopsy, or Jinjer if you want something extreme.

Sleep Token divided virtually everyone and an online squabble fest ensues as to whether they should be headlining the second day. Have they paid their dues? are they headliner material? are they just a drone? They’re all in masks, the music, is almost an endless trance, the light show is mesmerising. But is it rock? Well they sold tickets and pulled a big crowd.

Korn bring it all home, the third headliner are completely different to the first two, which musically reflects the divergence of the festival these days. They got the whole place fired up for a massive finale. Are they Nu Metal? whatever that was or just heavily stylised rock that crosses genres? The whole of the main stage crowd seemed to be jumping and a massive roar greeted the finale of the festival.

Some other highlights…

SIM

For SIM hailing from Japan, first up on the mainstage is a difficult place to be, especially if I’s sweltering hot and the audience by the time you walk onstage consists of people sitting in picnic chairs eating their sandwiches.

It’s a case of first impressions count, as you may never get a chance to have another one and they certainly took  it.

By 1-30 pm SIM can say accurately they were the best band of the festival by that point.

For most of the crowd who hadn’t heard them before it was a quick conversion to a band who were going for as many crowd pleasing moments you can cram into a 30 minute set. To describe SIM as being  one kind of music would be doing them a disservice as they manage to cram in as many angles of rock music you can think of, into the space of one song

They’ve got the ability to go from melodic metal, prog rock, all out thrasher, punk and reggae in the space of two minutes and can go from sounding like  Japanesse version of Evanessence, to Napalm Death and then sling in a bit of Bob Marley. Nice to see a vertically challenged band singing “Get up Stand up” with no sense of irony.

After10 minutes they have a circle pit formed and have claimed the gig for themselves. The big finale is a tune called Nobody Knows What’s Inside of Me although anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of biology could probably hazard a guess.

I’ve got the feeling that we’ll be hearing more of SIM in the near future

THE MEFFS

Produced by Frank Turner, who in one phone call got them signed up to Fat Mike’s Fat Records, in a big break in showbiz that most bands would die for, the Meffs are becoming punk royalty in a strotopheric rise that frankly they do deserve.

They’ve  done the big stage at Rebellion Festival  in Blackpool and now in the Avalanche Tent at Download it can’t be long before they make it to the man stage.

Singer Lily starts off with a brief political speech against war, which almost makes music feel a little pointless in a 24 hours in which Israel shoved the world one step closer to a religious nuclear meltdown. Then the Meffs do it again and again in a guitar and drums only melodic assault which is primed for non stop dancing.

Life’s a fight is the message in a mix of heartfelt lyrics of personal emotions politics and sexuality, that’s attracting a mixed bag of an audience, from earnest looking mums and girls, to a ten year old with a mohican cheerfully indulging in crowd surfing.

It’s amazing the sound they can conjure up with only guitar and drums, but here’s hoping  the next record will broaden out a bit sonically, and perhaps a smattering of keyboards wouldn’t go a miss to see how far they can take things.  A cover of the Prodigy’s Breathe points the way forward for them

2 albums in, Broken Britain and What a Life, The Meffs set off for a UK tour in smaller venues in September but surely now they have earned the right to be heard by a bigger audience.

 

BAD NERVES

They come from Essex, in case you couldn’t tell… And Bad Nerves just blew away the entire crowd the Avalanche stage in Download.

They are straight off the back of a US tour and even played Punk Rock Bowling, which is a feather in the caps of a band few in the mainstream have heard of. The band describe them selves as “power pop” nad for this reviewer that’s always a good sign, as they clearly beleiveinthe mighty powers of rock and roll as a thing in itself.

Bad Nerves have simply tapped into a lineage that goes back to the Sonics, Rolling Stones, Dr Feelgood, Ramones, New York Dolls, Boston’s Real Kids and most fittingly the Barracudas. Does anyone else remember the UK one hit wonders from 1979 with “Summer fun?”

They must be students of Rock n Roll as the front line of the band form left to right looked like and early Mick Jones, Mick Jagger, Sid Vicious, Johnny 2 bags Wickersham and I could have sworn for a moment it was Chuck Biscuits ex of Social Distortion and Black Flag on drums for one second. If you get a chance to see  them do, just do.

Most groups at a festival indulge in the same crown pleasing clap alongs and “call and response” stage antics but this lot don’t, they just blast out classic rock and roll at warp speed. One song after another, they don’t even stop for a Ramones style “1234”. The vocals are a  little low in the mix but if you aren’t full of joie de vivre after seeing this lot, you are probably a member of Putin’s back room staff. They’re my new favourite band

 

SOPHIE LLOYD

Saying that Sophie Lloyd can play the guitar a bit is like saying Beethoven could tinkle the ivories a bit, she is phenomenal.

She’s gained massive recognition via her you tube chnnel and later joined Machine Gun Kelly’s touring band. She collaborates with vocalists and guest musicians for touring shows and taking over the Opus Stage was an absolute thrill.

Nathan James joined Sophie for vocals well as Marisa Rodriguez, shut your eyes and James could have been David Coverdale. The main questions from her undoubted amazing guitar work is how much soloing there’s going to be and what will the guest vocalists add to the mix. Metallica’s Enter Sandman gives Kirk Hammett a run for his money musically, but a full on vocal would have been a nice addition

It really was a performance to gladden the hearts of anyone into blues rock and hard rock. Frankly watching someone totally in control of her craft was a welcome relief from some of the thrasher bands at Download, who sounds little different to the noise made by some of the aircraft flying above the Donington venue from the nearby airport.

Lloyd’s debut album Imposter Syndrome feature collaborations from Matthew K Heafy, lzzy Hale and Chris Robertson and there’s no reason why she can’t make it all the way.

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL

Eagles of Death Metal hit the stage in the middle of what was a sunny afternoon at that point and look like they own rock n roll.

Keith Richards once said that “Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll.” If there’s one thing that Eagles of Death Metal do, it’s a fact they roll. They have a groove and they’re quite happy ot flaunt it. If there’s another thing they don’t do it’s play death metal.

Current bassist Jennie Vee, the widfe of ex Stray Cat Slim JIm Phantom, wins a collective award for best outfit of the festival in the bar afterwards, for a flared PVC catsuit and cowboy hat combination.

Formed by Josh Homme and Jesse Hughes, Homme described the sound of the band as a combination of “blugrass slide guitar mixed with stripper drum beats and Canned Heat vocals.” Hughes is known for his enthusiastic interaction with audiences at live performances, and perhaps for a festival crowd, he drops the baton a little when he’s totally got the crowd revved up for more.

Don’t You Know Who I Am? hits the show for six, although their version of Duran Duran’s Save a Prayer, released after the horrendous events of the Bataclan concert in Paris, isn’t the big singalong chorus that is required to win over the average festival punter.

Hughes ends the show by telling us what a wonderful country we are in the UK and how we’ve produced so many great musicians, then wait for it, they pull out an astounding version of Bowie’s Moonage Daydream that could have knocked the stardust off Ziggy’s stack heeled boots it was just phenomenal.

 

THE DARKNESS

What can you say about the Darkness? If you wanted a band to play the crowd and win over people who had never even heard rock music before, you’d bet your last penny on Justin Hawkins and his chums to do the job.

They have been described as a “joke band’ and accused of not taking metal seriously, but who cares? Didn’t anyone ever notice that some antics of other metal bands looked a little bit over the top and doesn’t anyone remember Bruce Dickinson wearing more lycra than a gym instructor, but everyone took Maiden seriously.

The Darkness start with “Rock n Roll Party Cowboy” from the Dreams on Toast album, and that’s what you need to know, that’s what you want right now. With more than a nod to ZZ Top they sing…

“Leather jacket, no sleeves, Harley Davidson yes please…I’m a rock and roll party cowboy
And I ain’t gonna read no Tolstoy ‘Cause I’m a rock and roll party cowboy
And I ain’t going to eat no bok choi”

This is so hilariously wonderfully wrong it’s so right at the same time. Sartorially, Justin Hawkins has now got his entire torso covered in tattoos, one of which, right across his stomach reads “Lowestoft”, flipping Lowestoft seriously! The tedious seaside town that he hails from. It couldn’t be any worse unless he’d got Frinton on Sea, or Bognor Regis permanently scrawled on his flesh.

Bassist Frankie Poullain, who was previoulsy sacked from the band for taking too many drugs, which is a bit like Lewis Hamilton getting disqualified from the Grand Prix for driving too fast – is resplendent in a flared suit, super bushy hair and a porn star ‘tache, which looks like comedian Richard Ayoade is on bass more than a passing moment.

Dan Hawkins is obviously the stable anchor of the band he’s just wearing a leather jacket. Drummer Rufus Tiger Taylor is the son of Queen drummer Roger Taylor and that’s so telling, because clearly Justin Hawkins wants to be Freddie Mercury and Brian May at the same time.

So we get stage dives, we get headstands, instead of every single band leader telling the audience to “form a circle pit” the entire crowd does the walking side to side dance in “Walking through fire” it’s far more fun than smashing into people.

As it’s a sunny aftenoon in June we get “Christmas Time Don’t Let the Bells End” what else did we expect? And then they round it off with “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” Sensationally silly, they left them cheering for more.

 

SEX PISTOLS

A little bit of hindsight is a wonderful thing ”Today we learned that you can’t get a massive circle pit going downhill on a slope in the rain” said Frank Carter – the erstwhile singer of the Sex Pistols, and he couldn’t. Frankly it got dangerous, there were people starting to get hurt and Frankie was getting mobbed.

I’ve seen the show before on tour and indoors Carter was quite able to sing any tune he wanted in the middle of a slam pit whilst crowd surfing, but sometimes best laid plans and all that go wrong. There’s still massive demand for this Sex Pistols thing it’s not that people are outraged, or searching for some second hand shock – it is just that they are so damn good.

They reformed to raise money for Bush Hall in West London where Jones and Cook grew up and the thing just snowballed. Frank Carter from the Rattlesnakes and Gallows was pretty much born to do this, he fits into the band like a glove. Of course Johnny Lydon slagged off this whole project as being a “karaoke act” but Frankie’s got such superb energy he’s absolutely mesmerising, he really gives it some stick, dare I say he’s got more bollocks than Johnny Rotten?

The rest of the band seems genuinely happy for Frank, they don’t have to put up Lydon’s tantrums, and they are sonically a phenomenon. Cook Jones and Matlock never got they credit they deserved back in the 70s when apparently they were more into chaos than music and people said they couldn’t play. For me and countless others, Steve Jones’ guitar sound is the absolute bedrock of everything they want from a guitarist. Just think if he hadn’t been such a good burglar and stolen all that equipment from David Bowie and Keith Richards, there would have been no punk rock, crime pays sometimes.

The rain lashes down, it all gets a bit boisterous, a rainbow appears, which the singer declares to be the “most punk rock thing” they play all of Never Mind The Bollocks plus Silly Thing, No Fun and My Way. How long can they keep doing it? Will they write another album? Does it matter? So many people left saying it was the highlight of their weekend that Download may have missed a trick not having them headline the whole shebang.

NOTHING MORE

This lot are seven albums into their career and are first up on the Opus stage at Download on the last sweltering day of the festival and you could almost forgive your casual punter for not showing up due to fatigue and hangovers.

Anybody who stayed in their tent missed an absolute treat as Nothing More delivered a blisteringly good set. Singer Jonny Hawkins barefoot and bare chested having undergone a golden spray paint job, comes across like a cross between Eddie Vedder and Michael Hutchence.

The band get a groove going from the start and could be an amalgam of every alternative rock act that’s existed since the 1990s Imagine if Nine Inch Nails crossed over with Royal Blood and Biffy Clyro and you’re somewhere in the right area..

They’e got a lot of lyrics about mental illness and people striving to survive which strike a chord with the appreciative audience, who don’t hae ot be told to join in or clap along as they already get it.

Nothing More end up with a rousing drum beat ending, as two roadies who must be suffering from hearing damage, carry floor toms into the crowd for Hawkins to relentlessly pound. If you get a chance to see them, do, you won’t be disappointed.

THE GHOST INSIDE

With a name like The Ghost Inside, the average punter could almost expect some kind of Neo-gothic experience from this band on Epitaph records. Instead they have been classed as been classified as metalcore, melodic metalcore, and “melodic, emotional hardcore”

The band all dress in black and singer Jonathan Vigil sports a white baseball hat, jacket and trainers, which suggests that some kind of rapping experience might be on the cards, luckily though it’s metal all the way.

The band manage to come up with light and shade, differentiating between melodic interludes and hardcore thrashers. They play Searching for Solace and Death Grip and the intensity and volume goes up to industrial deafness noise levels.

The audience totally gets this as inevitable crowd surfing occurs, although being asked by yet another band at a festival to “form the biggest ever circle pit” gets a little jarring after 3 days at a festival of nearly every band pulling the same stunt. Latest single “Wash it away” proves a highlight and makes their fanbase cheerful on a sunny afternoon.

DEAD POET SOCIETY

Dead Poet Society are tucked away in the Avalanche stage to little fanfare , but they’re surely one of the unsung bands of this festival.
It’s the middle of the afternoon and they play with such vitality that it’s hard to dislike them. Sonically they are somewhere between melodic indie and aggressive riffing. Somewhere in a territory that Muse used to inhabit. There’s no gimmicks just super tunes and a massive amount of energy. The tent gets rocking and “Trigger Finger is the highlight of the set.

 

TURBONEGRO

What the hell can you say about this Norwegian band apart from they are completely over the top?
You simply have to see them live, frankly there’s never been anything like them before or since. It’s the third time Turbonegro has existed as a band former lead singer Hank Von Hell died of a drug overdose, and it seems fairly appropriate for them to belt out ”All my friends are dead”

Lead singer Anthony “Duke of Nothing” Madsen-Sylvester appears in make-up sweaty denim shorts and a leather cap looking like a shocking cross between Rob Halford and Matt Lucas.
Luckily he’s not the only gay in the village, Happy-Tom is in full make up and a sailor suit. Rune Rebellion on guitar looks like a OTT farmer in dungarees and the rest of them have various guises which seemed to have involved putting on their make-up during a minor earth tremor.

“We are so old last time we played here we were called Bad News” jokes The Duke of Nothing “ Are Saxon playing this year?” He quips. It’s a gloriously over the top affair as they get it together in denim and leather. The band describe their own sound as “Death Punk” Selfdestro Blues and City of Satan sound like the sort of thing that AC/DC might have written if they didn’t like girls. They wind up with a song called I Got Erection, I’ve no doubt they did.

Download 2025 was a great success, whether you like Heavy Metal, Nu metal, Old rock, Punk rock, or the Venga Boys and drinking til dawn or just watching wrestling, it’s a freewheeling free for all. What will it become next year? That’s the fun of the thing. Save your pennies for DOWNLOAD XXIII.

 

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