Category Archives: Music

Download – Day 2

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And Saturday rolled around. Despite the fairly early night and comfy bed, both of us were exhausted in the morning. I demolished the buffet breakfast (have you ever seen a plate literally piled around 6″ high with bacon, beans and HP Sauce? It doesn’t last as long as you’d think) and we got to the festival again in time to catch Hellyeah‘s cover of Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy“. It was only when the big screen showed the familiar face that I realised the drummer was Vinnie Paul – the brother of the guitarist that the second stage was named after.

We met back up with Tali and Hazel and sat through some decent sets by Shadows Fall and Aiden. Talia and Hazel went to watch Anathema, Gallows and My Dying Bride on the Dimebag stage while Anni and I enjoyed Bowling For Soup.

Whoever put Machine Head and Slayer on back to back with only a 20 minute break in between is a very cruel person in deed. Needless to say I was massively bruised and battered after that double bill. MH really know how to treat a crowd and Slayer’s sound quality was much better than in the warehouse in Perth where I’d seen them recently. The picture is of a random bondage-gear-clad girl I saw in the pit for both bands. Picture taken and published with permission! I have a video to prove that my camera is moshpit-proof as well, but you’ll have to wait till I get back for me to upload it.

T & H rejoined us before Marilyn Manson started and I have to say that he was rather disappointing compared to the show he put in in Leeds several years ago.

Linkin Park came on late, but this allowed a huge number of nubile (and not to nubile) young women to flash their boobies on the big screens. The biggest cheer went to one dark haired temptress who toyed with the cameraman for a good while before ripping of “her” wig to show “she” was a one of the numerous guys in drag floating around the festival!

Finally, LP came on and played a blinding set including the best version of “Push” I’ve ever heard… and left early. The songs were great, the light show dazzling, just the performance too short… and it clashed with Motley Crue in one of the tents.

As the spotlights dimmed, we crawled back to our tents-hotel. AQnni and I whized by Asda but we didn’t stay due to the stupid Sunday trading laws still forced upon England, which meant it had shut at 10pm.

Hotel. Shower. Crash.

Download – Day 1

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I slept like a log, thanks to the first room to myself since I was in Jordan. And utter exhaustion. Anni called me at around 8:30 and we arranged where to meet, Lyse made me a farewell cuppa and I scarpered off to catch the train from near her house up to the end of the line where Anni awaited in her dinky little motor. Lyse – a huge thank you for your hospitality, comfy bed, internet access and chicken curry! You are a star amongst stars!

Using Anni’s new birthday toy – a satnav system – we managed to not find the hotel we’d booked. Instead we resorted to the decidedly low-tech but much more accurate technique of asking someone. The Ramada decided that we couldn’t be refunded for the night we didn’t want to use despite the booking centre selling Anni the room on the condition that the dates could be altered. Anni will be taking that up with them next week. Happy puppies, we were not. Plus, our room “wasn’t ready” despite several people in front of us getting into theirs easily enough. We ditched our luggage, sorted day bags and legged it.

“Breakfast” consisted of a sausage and chips from a chippie near Asda in Derby. Hey, I’m only here for a few days so I’m treating it as a holiday – it’s indigenous food! We loaded up on snacks and drinks from Asda then headed Download-wards.

Parking was swift and I swear the walk to the main entrance was shorter than last year. As ever at a festival, I was wearing a Toon shirt so I got talking to the guy putting the wristbands on – and queue-jumped as a result. Once inside, I met Talia from Bristol for the first time. Nice to meet up! She was with a friend of hers, Hazel, and the four of us threaded our way to the Dimebag Darrell tent for the first band of the weekend, Turbonegro.

As would be fairly common for the bands in the tents, we ended up squished outside with a passable view of the stage. Some of the bands playing the smaller stages over the weekend were hugely popular so gathered quite a crowd despite the space (or lack of it) available. Turbonegro were pretty good, playing decent no-fuss rock’n’roll. I definitely need to look out more of their stuff.

Next up, though, were the mighty Megadeth on the main stage. Oh, yes. Almost dot on time, Mustaine & co. trod the boards to a huge welcome and launched into “Sleepwalker” from the new album. The ladies stayed up the slope and watched while I did my usual and vanished into the middle of the crowd at ground level to beat merry hell out of a bunch of strangers. I wish I’d taken my camera in with me. As well as a very attractive girl who hit like a man (kudos) there was a one-legged man in the moshpit! I poop you not. One leg, two metal crutches, mental attitude. Further kudos.

Megadeth, of course, rocked. I’m still not that sure about the newer stuff, they scattered in a handful of older songs most of which were from Rust In Peace, though I think the biggest crowd-pleaser was “Peace Sells…”

Injury count: impressive bruising of both forearms, gouges on my right wrist (I think from studs on someone’s jacket), cuts on left elbow, very sore right elbow from crushing it twice. The usual.

The set changes on the main stage were managed swiftly and around twenty minutes after the ‘Deth exited, Dragonforce replaced them. Woah! I didn’t catch these madmen at Graspop a couple of years ago – I must have been watching someone else – but I’m glad I caught them here. Their rules seems to be “why play one note when you can play 27?” and they must be one of the fastest bands right now, taking the term “speed metal” to its extremes. Superb vocals, great fun, women getting their tops of on the huge video screens to huge cheers. Rock and f’ing roll, indeed.

A potty break was called for and we wandered aimlessly trying to locate the wrong ones (we headed for ones we could see within the campground that Anni and I couldn’t access) until we got our heads around how the site was laid out, slightly differently from two years ago. Free drinking water was used to refill all the bottles we had on us, then we waddled back into the main area to watch Wolfmother. By now, Hazel had wandered off to collapse in her tent as their group had been awoken at 4am by some kiddie playing System of a Down at full volume (until someone kicked his stereo to pieces).

Wolfmother were pretty good, but we really just sat and watched them. Anni got ripped off £5.50 for an admittedly decent burrito and then the rotting remains of Guns ‘n’ Roses took to the stage and pretended they were still good (translation: Velvet Revolver came on). They were the first band of the day to come on stage late, which is typically primadonna-ish of them. We tolerated this for a while as there wasn’t much else to do before dividing up. Anni went to watch Korn in one tent while Talia and I headed for the Tuborg stage to get a decent spot for Hayseed Dixie.

On the way we popped into the “turn up and play” tent. It’s kind of an overgrown karaoke where random bands are created from people who want to get on a stage, playing cover versions. What we saw was pretty good and I was amazed to see Krusher, formerly of Kerrang and some dodgy rock TV programs, doing the compering. He looked about as drunk and wasted as I ever remember, though much older. I swear the guy’s barely 45, but he looks 70. Mind, I doubt anyone’s enjoyed their life (and all possible excesses) as much as that man!

We snuck to somewhere near the front of the Tuborg tent and watched Hayseed Dixie set their stuff up – no roadies for this bunch. Ten minutes early, John walked to the microphone. “Well, we’re not supposed to start for fifteen minutes, but you’re here, we’re here… We’ve been sat backstage trying to figure out how to get this down to 40 minutes, so let’s make it 55!”

The crowd erupted. I’ve seen this lot maybe eight or nine times and I honestly think this is the best performance in terms of atmosphere I have ever seen. The crowd spilled outside of the tent, everyone knew all the words to every cover version, their own material is short enough to grab attention without boring those who don’t know it and the reaction to “Duelling Banjos” was beyond belief. Punks danced with women dressed as cowgirls; skinheads pogo’d with their arms round hairy rockers; hands were raised, clapping like mad. I don’t think there was a single person in that tent – the band included – without a huge grin on their face.

And just to think – some people preferred to go and watch Velvet Revolver instead. Frankly, they stink worse than the poop I keep in a jar (Hayseed reference) at the best of times, but when compared to HD they simply don’t come close to cutting it.

I’m really glad we got an extra fifteen minutes from Hayseed Dixie, it’s only a shame it wasn’t an extra hour or so.

Talia had never seen them before and I think she’s now a convert. And as a huge bonus I bumped into Neil and Jane from Bradford on the way out of the tent. Neil’s someone I seem to just “find” at festivals so I’ve not seen him since this time two years ago. I can’t even remember when I last saw Jane. I think we ran out of hugs, it was so good to see them again! See, this is why I wear the Newcastle shirt. Neil asked where I’d been and after about two minutes I managed to get through the list. With any luck, I’ll get an email from him next week. If not, I’ll track him down again!

The final band of the day, My Chemical Romance were on the main stage by the time we walked out. Much as I find a lot of their fans annoying (emo kids really do need help, frankly) the music’s good and they put on a good show for the short time they lasted. Their set was scheduled for 90 minutes, and they wandered off – with no encore – half an hour early. Well, if you only have two albums to play off…

And time to go home. I swapped Talia one of my jumpers for her mobile phone (she was cold and her phone needed charged), said goodnights, and Anni and I headed for Asda to stock up again. And then to a pizza place for a late supper. Nice pizza as well, though I had “eyes bigger than mouth” syndrome. Shame.

The shower at the hotel when we finally checked in was hugely appreciated and we collapsed in bed. Anni complaining about how warm it was while wrapping herself in duvet, me just lying on top of the covers – something I’ve only really “learned” how to do while I’ve been travelling. Before I left the UK, I had to have some kind of sheet over me, even on the warmest nights.

Tomorrow looked set to be more violent fun…

Kibbutzes, Armageddon, Betzefer and Salem

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What a day this one was. And all due to the hospitality and friendliness of several Israelis I’d met in random circumstances. Despite barely sleeping the night before (I think maybe 30 mins), this would be a cracker of a day. As usual when you stay with a mate, I sat up till silly hours talking to Hen and playing with her cats until we nodded off. Then realised what time it was, tried to sort ourselves out mentally and then set off to get a bus to the town center.

On the way, I bought a plain black t-shirt as I didn’t want to trash my nice-ish shirt later on and – as mentioned – all my stuff was with Noa in Jerusalem. For 10 NIS it would do the job. We got to the central station and then onto another bus for Megiddo. Here’s an interesting fact – Megiddo is a bad translation if the Hebrew word for “Armageddon” and the valley around it is where the Final Battle is due to take place. Presumably once Bush finally flips and presses that big red button. So if you’re a journalist after some great shots, this could be your place. If you don’t mind sitting and waiting for a while. Hopefully quite a while.

We hitched the few k’s from the main road to the kibbutz entrance, and then again up into the kibbutz itself. OK, what is a kibbutz? For the long version go have a look at Wikipedia’s article. In short, it’s a collection of dwellings, sort of like a compound. The properties are built by the people who live there and most, if not all, of the facilities are co-funded and shared. They got a bad reputation when they kicked off for being very “communist”. Everything had to be shared, no major personal possessions allowed and so on. These days they seem a lot more laid back. People volunteer to travel to a country and help build and maintain the places. Hen made a lot of foreign friends this way.

We met a couple of Hen’s local friends who provided us with drinks and then walked over to her dad’s studio. He makes small sculptures for the tourist trade, all by hand and all pretty cool in an offbeat kind of way. Ice cream was provided by her parents’ fridge and we explored the surrounds. The kibbutz is well-furnished for kids with climbing frames, slides and a kick-ass new swimming pool all to play on.

Now, I didn’t mention this the other day, but when I was in the Tower museum I got talking to one of the security guards. I was wearing one of those handy-dandy limited edition MOSH tour t-shirts I had printed up before I left and he recognised the writing. We got talking about music and bands and I gave him one of my cards. Lo and behold a day or so later, I got an email detailing a few gigs he was thinking of going to including one in Haifa tonight. Megiddo’s more or less on the way (he was going to pick me up in Tel Aviv) so Hen gave him directions and my chariot arrived around 5:30pm, containing Giora, Lior and Ma’ayan. How’s that for friendly locals?

We got to Haifa early, picked up out tickets (60NIS, around £7) and I pretended I was 13 years younger so I could stand around on the street drinking beer from an off-license with a crowd averaging 21 years in age. 27 years in age if you included me. Now, drinking on the streets in Israel is not illegal, in fact it’s very common especially outside of concerts. Unlike the UK where venues always (try to) open on time or early so you’ll spend your money over the bar, Israeli ones advertise a time and then always fail to open anywhere near it.

So for the old guy staggering round with a cart and two dogs collecting empty bottles and cans, it was very much a *kerching* evening. We managed to convince him that the devil horns were a way of saying “hello” and he became a huge star as crowds of people wanted their photo taken with him! He wasn’t complaining. A bit of attention rather than just being “the scruffy guy with the cart” and a load of empties.

The doors finally opened around 90 minutes “late” and in we poured to watch Prey For Nothing, Betzefer (Hebrew for “cool”) and Salem. I picked up a Betzefer shirt with a very nice backprint that I can’t detail on this page. Suffice to say your mother wouldn’t like it. At least mine wouldn’t. Which is why it’s not going on here.

I had a great night. The music rocked, the company was great, the beer cheap and the women stunning (and far too young for me not to be morally outraged at myself). Despite the beers I also noticed something of a coincident. In Hebrew, “fire” looks like the word “LUX” in a vaguely unusual font. Lux is Latin for “light”. Weird, eh?

Prey For Nothing got a good reception for a support act and Betzefer really ruled for me. They ended with a superb cover of AC/DC‘s Thunderstruck which even Gio went mad to and he doesn’t like Betzefer. I ended up with a very large lump on my arm and another over my thumb. This is strange as anyone who’s festivalled with me in the past will know I normally get a swollen wrist. I’m sure Caz remembers my arm after Green Day at Leeds all those years ago… She spent half an hour trying to get me to go to the Red Cross as she was insistent I’d broken it.

I confess I fell asleep shortly after Salem started. Yes. Asleep. In a metal gig. I’d had less than an hour’s sleep! What I saw was good but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. Afterwards, Gio managed to get the phone number of possibly the prettiest girl in the club. Way to go, Gio! I continued my sleep thing in the car on the way back to Jerusalem, so apologies to my travel buddies for being so antisocial. I’m just old, deal with it. I have to!

We pulled up at Jaffa Gate at around 3am and I dragged my luggage-less carcass to bed/roof and collapsed.

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Slayer! Slayer! Slayer!

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My last full day in Perth and I didn’t do a whole heck of a lot except work on the 1000 Mile Walk page, eat food and watch telly.

Until 7pm when I headed for the train station, then the Claremont Showgrounds for Slayer’s first Australian appearance in 10 years.

Perth Central station was packed with black t-shirts, leather boots and bizarre hairstyles as the Fremantle line trains filled with loud metal fans off to the first major concert by pretty much any well-known act in a long time. It seems Perth has reached the population level it needs to make a tour date on the west coast economically viable as other acts are starting to dribble through now as well.

I got there in time to see the tail end of Mastodon who were OK, but nothing special. Outside, the concession vans were charging inflated prices for food and drinks but I did enjoy a fairly tasty and scorching hot chicken roll for $6. I also weakened and bought a tour t-shirt at $45 (quite pricey – they’re normally around $30 in Oz) just so I could get one with Australian dates on the back.

The original venue had sold out in next to no time, so the Showgrounds were selected as a larger one. Tickets were on sale at the door, but looking at the crowd inside it must have been very close to a sell-out. As soon as Mastodon finished and left the stage, the chants for Slayer began. And kept on going for the usual extended set-change times you have to get used to at these things.

The crowd got rowdy, people started shoving around as they always do, temperatures rose (and it must have been over 30 degrees to start with) and empty drinks containers flew through the air.

Then… darkness.

Then… smoke.

Then… Slayer!

Over 90 minutes of very loud, very fast music and people collapsing all over. Definitely the warmest indoor gig I’ve ever been at. Both my t-shirts and my shorts were drenched by the time I left. I was rather disappointed in the sound, though. Tom’s vocals were far too quiet and Kerry’s guitar kept dying – sounded like a dry joint or a dodgy cable somewhere.

Still, the crowd were active but much like the Brisbane mob for Fear Factory, content to do no more than move around occasionally, shove a bit and crowdsurf. Try to start a pit and you rapidly find yourself in a little empty spot thrashing at thin air. Wusses.

Talking to people on the train before and after only a handful had seen the band live before, and most of them while they were abroad in the UK or US. I have Slayer t-shirts at home older than some of the kids at the show. That’s scary.

The train back was delayed something rotten as well. It doesn’t help when the station display says that the next train is due in three minutes and you’re still standing there half an hour later. Of course, there was a mad crush when it did arrive and the driver’s pleas of “do not crowd onto the train – there is another one behind this one” fell on deaf ears. After all, if you can’t trust the sign to tell you when one is arriving, why believe the driver. As it turns out, the next train was over 20 minutes behind – I watched it pull into Perth later on.

The noise and atmosphere on the train was almost as intense as that at the Showgrounds. For three stops, almost the entire carriage I was on were chanting the band’s name. It was good to see that the “normal” passengers weren’t cowering, though. Instead, they sat and smiled at the loonies knowing that they weren’t going to be mugged or anything. Not what happens in the UK where anyone with a leather jacket or long hair is mentally branded a potential criminal.

I made it back to Mel’s around 12:30 and spent far too long packing my bags, showering and drinking lots of water before crashing at around 2:30. A bit silly as my alarm was set for 6:15 so I didn’t miss my flight the next morning.

*bounces*

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Two things to get excited about: I’ve managed to score a free ticket for the Eagles vs Magpies (Perth vs Collingwood) game for tomorrow courtesy of Mel’s boyfriend. Thanks, Matt! Hopefully I’ll make it there in time to see the whole game this time…

I’ve also just spotted an update to the Graspop Festival lineup – and Papa Roach are playing. Whoop!

Today’s been pretty cool as well. The Aussies do – it’s a stereotype, but it’s true – use anything as an excuse for a barbequeue. It’s Easter weekend and I’ve been off to one in a lovely local park with Mel, Jacqui and the family. Along with Mel’s two brothers, I discovered that carrying a puppy around does attract women. Sadly, they always seem to be under 13 or over 50… Bugger.

The troop have taxi’d off to another BBQ at a house elsewhere for the evening, but I’ve cried off as I have a ton of work to do on this walk. Plus, only getting four hours’ sleep last night has knocked me for six! One of the kittens is hyperactive and decided to spend the night playing with any part of me that was sticking out of the bed covers. Cute, but exhausting!