Download Festival : Top 10 Performances

10. Anathema – second stage – 2010.

The big story of 2010 was of course meant to be the fact that AC/DC were headlining. A band that had seemed to have become far too big for mere festivals, was lowering themselves to join the rank and file of Aerosmith and Rage Against the Machine. The actual story turned out to be the disruption that the Aussie juggernaut appearance brought to the festival. They refused to be listed on the official t-shirts and the bill on Friday was greatly curtailed so that they could have extra build time for the enormous additional stage that they also made as a stipulation of their appearance.

Originally there was just two bands subbing on the main stage, which caused a lot of disgruntled keyboard warriors to complain about value for money. To placate fans, 36 Crazy Fists and Unearth were rapidly promoted to the main stage and less then two weeks before the event Anathema were with little fanfare added in replacement to the second stage billing. Adversity is the Liverpudlian proggers middle name and playing to a crowd of curious onlookers, they produced for me the set of the festival. “We used to be a Death metal band” they quipped as they slide into the luscious ‘Thin Air’. Their set was a veritable thing of beauty. They had been added late to a sold-out festival, meaning that this was so not their crowd. Yet they managed to hypnotise everyone present and bath them in warm harmonised layers of exquisite sound. What could have been a disaster was instead turned into a triumph and they left the stage with hundreds of new fans (including myself).

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9. Parkway Drive – second stage – 2018.

Whist they were utterly magnificent, last year’s Bloodstock Headline slot wasn’t Parkway Drive’s coming of age moment. In reality, it was a year earlier in the final second stage slot on the Saturday at Download. Because of Guns N’ Roses insistence on a) doing a three hour plus mega set of needless covers and tedious solos and b) having the limelight all to themselves, Parkway Drive big headline moment actually began at the ridiculous time of 6pm. Despite the fact that the sun was still high in the heavens, they preceded to bring the most extraordinary of shows. The back line was a series of platforms that rocked side to side as they pounded into opener ‘Wishing Well’. Unable to use lights, they instead relied on hydraulic ramps, a drumkit that went all Tommy Lee on our arses and fuck loads of fire. This was the moment that they transcend from metalcore also-rans, to main stage headliners elect. But even with the upside-down drum solo, the moment of set was Winston screaming the lyrics of ‘Writings on the Wall’ and it's left, left, left right left as he was violently swung side to side. Theatrical, bombastic and utterly wonderful.

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8. Behemoth – main stage – 2019.

This was the moment that cult concern went mainstream. Behemoth may well be stadium black, but they have never compromised in anything that they put their name to. This was a full on heavy and nasty as fuck Black Metal show. It just so happened to take place at twenty past two in the afternoon, on a massive platform, in front of around fifty thousand people. Negral proved himself to be an extreme metal superstar and owned the vast swaths of the Download main stage. He held the vast crowd in his exquisitely painted hands and his dark charisma captured the hearts of even the most cynical glam metaller.  They were dark, anthemic and quite extraordinary. The moment where tens of thousands of people suddenly saw what all the fuss about Black Metal was.

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7. Myrkur / Zeal and Ardor / Baroness – Dogtooth stage – 2018.

Back in 2018 an almighty threesome of bands brought the Sunday night on the Dogtooth stage to a fitting close. Probably the finest run of bands that I have ever witnessed at Download. Each different, but each fracturing the mould for the area of our music that they operated in. Myrkur were first out the traps and were both ethereal and dark but also fragile and beautiful. Central was Amalie Bruun haunting vocals, single-handily recalibrating the boundaries of Black Metal. Her performance and every utterance were captivating, and a heaving tent stood in rapture as she tore down all the misanthropic falsehoods around metal’s most patriarchal of genres.

Zeal and Ardor continued with the barrier breaking as they combined Black Metal’s majestic energy with the primal utterances of afro-spirituals. They were staggeringly good, stood in line and taking us back to the sound and fury that birthed the blues. Many have tried to re-imagine extreme metal, none had made it this potent and immersive.

And then to seal the deal was Baroness. A heady concoction of complexity and commerciality. The songs were short and snappy, but they still had prog and inventiveness run through each of the veins. They were as astounding as the previous two acts and I distinctly remembering staggering out of the tent to see Ozzy, convinced that I had seen the future and that the future was good.

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6. Billy Idol – main stage 2010.

2010 was hot and dry, well it was until half four on the Sunday. At that point the heaven’s opened and all the water in the world came tumbling down onto Donington Park. At that exact point Billy Idol was midway through a career spanning greatest hits set. Now less seasoned artists would have retreated from the vanity ramp and gone and hid as far back on the stage that they could. Not Billy. With a yelp of “what a way to have a bath”, he took up residency on that walkway and beckoned to Steve Stevens and Billy Morrison to come join him. By the end of his hour-long slot he was as soaked as the crowd watching him. But god did he entertain. In that weather it could have been a car-crash, but instead became one of the most enjoyable sixty minutes that I have ever had at Download.

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5. Little Angels – second stage 2012.

When I was a lad, Little Angels were my band. When I was going through my teenage metalhead phase (which to be honest I have never grown out), there was a whole scene of interesting young UK rock bands emerging. The Almighty, The Quireboys, Thunder, Horse London (remember them?), Wolfsbane and Romeo’s Daughter, were all being lauded by Kerrang as the next big things and jockeying for our attention (and pocket money). However, the one whose mast I hung my colours to was Little Angels. They were fun, frothy, felt like me and wrote great pop songs. They seemed less serious, more zestful and just had that youthful energy that I craved. I bought the albums, attended the shows and even got told by Toby and Bruce not to sing too loud when I stood at the front during a Marillion support slot in 1989.

Last time I saw them was Aston Villa Leisure Centre in November 1993 as, being a penniless student, I couldn’t scrap together the money to do the final farewell show at the Albert Hall (I also to be honest did not want to admit that it was over). Therefore, there always felt for me to be unfinished business with the Little Angels, a need to do it one more time. Eighteen years later, at quarter past five on Friday 9th June 2012 I got to finally scratch that itch. Yes, it was little rough and ready, but they were utterly wonderful. Everything I remembered and more. I am not afraid to say that I cried, lots. Sometimes things are as good as you recall.

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4. Faith No More – Main Stage 2009.

Let’s stay with the reunions. Faith No More, probably the most influential and game changing band this side of the Sex Pistols. With “The Real Thing” and “Angel Dust” they ripped up in front of my very eyes the rule book on what was metal. In a genre that had grown very conservative and risk adverse, they challenged every norm and every convention. They were playful, they were dangerous, and they were peerless. It was inevitable that sooner or later the creative tensions that drove the diversity of their material, would also pull them apart and in 1998, the wheels messily fell of the great machine.

Eleven years later and the moment that we thought would never happen, happened. Backdropped by red velvet curtains, to the strains of Peaches and Herbs ‘Reunited’ and adorned in beige lounge suits, they once more shared a stage with each other. Mike Patten was last to enter, theatrically hobbling on a stick he crooned the first verse and chorus of ‘Reunited’, he then lobbed the stick away and tore into ‘The Real Thing’. They were unbelievable. The passion, power and unpredictability were all there. Time had not tamed them. They were as angry, challenging and disruptive as ever. A masterclass in the magnificence of living by your own rules!!

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3. Devin Townsend – acoustic stage – 2013.

The acoustic stage used to be in the alcove to the right of the main stage that the Avalanche pop-punk haven now calls home. It tended to be populated by bands and musicians playing elsewhere during the weekend, that had been persuaded to grab an acoustic and strum out a couple of tunes. However, every now and again they managed to persuade a big name to rock up and play just that stage. This is how I came to be stood in a massive crowd watching the bewildering site of Devin Townsend compete with Motorhead. Hevy Devy is one of the most charismatic and genuine performers out there. He exudes joy and passion and you cannot help but sport a massive grin when watching him perform.

That afternoon he was funny, self-deprecating, humble and rather quiet. So quiet that on several occasions the sound from Motorhead’s main stage set drowned out Devin’s acoustic beauty. “Turn it down Lemmy” he yelled, and it soon became a good-humoured competition between the virtuoso Canadian and the English Metal legends. I can’t think of a more pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

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2. Amon Amarth – main stage 2016.

2016 was the year of ‘that’ Friday afternoon rainstorm. A month’s worth of rain fell in five minutes and the site change instantaneously from lush green to an utter mud-bath. And from then on in it did not stop. It was an atrocious weekend weather wise and by Sunday there was standing water everywhere. It felt like you were wandering through paddy fields. Every-bloody-where the water was up to ankles, if not higher. And it kept on raining. It was getting biblical, in fact it was getting downright unpleasant. Into that hellhole strode Amon Amarth who preceded to give a headline performance at midday. They were utterly utterly brilliant and just what every sodden sod who stood In front of main stage needed. They brought fire, they brought props, they brought anthems and most importantly they brought an hour of utter entertainment that made you forget just how wet and cold you were.

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1. Tool – main Stage 2006.

Back in the day when Download took place inside the famous Donington Park racetrack. When warm, the place turned into a dustbowl of epic proportions. The strange orange particles were everywhere, and it was warm, warm as hell. With the sun still high in the sky, Tool wandered on stage at quarter past eight. From beginning to end, they were hypnotic and just light years away from any other band that I had ever seen. This was more than four guys playing rock n’ roll, they were concocting and creating these luscious sounds in front of my very eyes. I was transfixed by all of it. By Maynard, bare-chested and hidden at the back. By Adam, weaving layers after layer after layer of sonics onto his guitar tracks. By Justin weaving the funky pulsating bass lines and by Danny’s rhythmic primal beats that almost almost made me forget my pathological hatred of drum solos. They were incredible that night and even more impressively, managed to perform a breath-taking headline set entirely in daylight. Still by a country mile the greatest thing I have ever seen at Download.

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