Have I got news for you...
posted on November 17th 2009 at 10.00 by DownloadDog
So, the big bosses here at Download HQ have very rudely prodded me out of my kennel this morning, and woken me up from my annual hibernation. I’d usually be annoyed, but this year they have good reason to disturb me – we have some very exciting news…
(Drum roll please) Download is coming back in 2010. Oh YES – how good does it feel to finally say that?! AND we’ll be returning to the home or rock, Donington Park, following on from easily our most successful Download ever in 2009.
This morning we’re announcing a very special ‘Early Bird’ offer to everyone who supported Download 2009 – a chance to purchase tickets for next year’s festival at 2009 prices!
Tickets are going on sale right here at downloadfestival.co.uk from 9am on Thursday (November 19th), and you’ll be able to pick up Weekend Arena tickets for £135 and Standard & Family Camping tickets for £25 for Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, however if you do wish to arrive early on the Wednesday or Thursday there will be an additional charge of £10. Full details will be available at purchase.
These prices will only be available until midnight on Christmas Eve, so there’s a limited amount of time to get your hands on them. So if you’ve been saving your pennies and are ready to treat yourself - or buy that special someone perhaps THE most wicked Christmas present ever, now is the time to pick up a deal and start counting down the hours to June 11th 2010!
Here at Download HQ, we're all especially excited about 2010, as Download 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of Donington Park’s heritage with rock. From the infamous and legendary “Monsters of Rock” festival, which began in 1980; to more recently the epic Download Festival – the site has played host to some of the world’s greatest rock performances of all time. Many bands still to this day consider playing at Donington Park as their ‘defining career moment’, and next summer you’re all invited to help us celebrate in style.
Anticipation is building, rumours are rife, and our forums, Facebook and Twitter are getting inundated with all the questions you lot like to ask us - mostly, “who will be performing at next year’s Download?” …As usual, the beast will be unleashed in the New Year, and more badass than ever - don’t miss your chance to be part of history!
Right, I’m off to get some more kip – sounds like I’m gonna need all the sleep I can get…
Same time, same place next year anyone?
posted on June 14th 2009 at 23:17 by DownloadDog
So that’s it for another year. Download 2009 has officially come to a close, with Def Leppard playing an emotional set that included classic hits such as Pour Some Sugar On Me, Too Late For Love and a phenomenal encore in the form of Let’s Get Rocked.
I didn’t speak to a single person who didn’t have the best damn weekend of their lives at Download this year. The bands were incredible, the crowd were rocking hard for three days solid, and the weather was spectacular. As Andy Copping said to me earlier on, “The Lords in the sky must be rock fans”.
Highlights for me? Well, too many to choose from really, but I seem to be particularly remembering Slipknot’s hell-raising performance from last night. However, you can’t deny that the Faith No More set was something of a big deal, and what Def Leppard just did out on the Main Stage was nothing short of magic.
I also loved seeing both The Prodigy and Pendulum, who were adored by the Download crowd despite veering more towards the genre of dance. Korn were amazing. Whitesnake blew my mind, as did DragonForce, Limp Bizkit ZZ Top, Killswitch Engage, Marilyn Manson, Down, Hatebreed, Dream Theatre and Billy Talent. And Steel Panther have become my new Gods, with their love of all things illicit.
Special mention has to go out to our web guys, who were streaming most of the action from the Main Stage all weekend across the globe live from Donington. I don’t know how much bandwidth was required to pull that stunt off, but the end result was brilliant. We’re really glad that anyone who didn’t make it to the festival could see what’s been going down here at Donington for the past few days.
Now we can look forward to 2010. John Probyn confirmed today that Download will be returning to Donington next year, in a very similar layout to what we had this year. Andy Copping has already got a few headliners close to signing contracts for the festival, and all people are talking about on Twitter right now is how next year can be as good as 2009.
Seems hard to imagine now, but I guarantee that it’ll be even more incredible.
Thanks to all of you guys for reading this blog. Hope you had a good Download, and if you ever bump into me, buy me a JD on the rocks and I’ll tell you all about the best weekend of my life.
Dog x
I met Steel Panther earlier - those guys only ever have one thing on their mind...
posted on June 14th 2009 at 18:42 by DownloadDog
I’ve just been watching ZZ Top put on an amazing show. The crowd was full of fans of all ages – I even saw Brian May enjoying it from the side of the stage!
They played classics including La Grange and Sharp Dressed Man, with some seriously face melting solos thrown in the songs. At one point, Billy Gibbons whipped out a full bottle of Jack Daniels and threw it into the crowd. Dusty Hill was puffing on a cigar by the time the set came to a close, and they finished of with a cover of Jailhouse Rock. Was great to see.
I caught up with Steel Panther earlier, who are the most insane bunch of rockers I’ve met in a long time. All they talk about is metal, drugs and pussy – that’s all they live for. They said they hadn’t had a chance to sleep with any English girls yet, but were trying it on with one of our photographers, who actually seemed quite willing to Feel The Steel.
Whitesnake have just started to play on the Main Stage, so I gotta go and watch that. Then it’s Def Leppard, and it’s all over for another year.
Hope you’ve been having a good one…
Dog x
SKIN, Tesla and Black Stone Cherry keeping the crowds happy
posted on June 14th 2009 at 14:01 by DownloadDog
If the rest of today is as face-meltingly awesome as it has been so far, we’re going to have 80,000 very happy people on our hands by the end of the night here at Donington.
The rock has been flowing, the weather has been rock-tastic, and I’ve spent the past couple of hours watching SKIN and Tesla on the Main Stage, and talking to Shinedown about their set on the Second Stage later this evening. They’re stoked, and can’t wait to play to the Download crowd.
Here’s the latest pic, taken during Black Stone Cherry’s set. You crazy mofo’s seem to love the rock. Don't stop believin'!
See ya later
Dog x
And so the day of Classic Rock commences at Download 2009
posted on June 14th 2009 at 12:13 by DownloadDog
After a vicious day or metal mayhem yesterday, the final day of Download 2009 has kicked off with a bang, with Stone Gods rocking out the Main Stage, Sacred Mother Tongue on the Second Stage, Brides on Tuborg Stage and Fall From Grace over on Red Bull Bedroom Jam.
I’ve been growing my beard for the past week, in honour of the mighty ZZ Top who will be playing later this afternoon. Unfortunately all I’ve managed to produce is a horrid patchy stubble, rather than a full-on face of rock. Really looking forward to seeing those guys – when they rip out La Grange,, I’m gonna go nuts.
Also looking forward to watching Steel Panther, who are playing the Tuborg Stage at 6pm, and also hoping to catch them at their press conference that’s taking place shortly. Bring on the camp rock!
And tonight, it’s all about Def Leppard and Whitesnake. It’ll be off the hook.
Dog x
Day two at Download 2009 draws to a close - roll on Sunday...
posted on June 13th 2009 at 23:03 by DownloadDog
Slipknot just came off the Main Stage, and have left me with a ringing in my ears, and memories that I won’t be forgetting in a long time. That was one of the most outrageous gigs I’ve ever seen. That was chaos. That was history.
And so the second day of Download 2009 draws to a close, and managed to be even more epic and extreme than yesterday. I’ve got to hand it to John and Andy – they are putting on an incredible show here at Donington.
There were plenty of metal moments today, with Ripper Owens kicking off the action, followed by phenomenal performances from the likes of The Prodigy, DragonForce, Pendulum, Anvil, Down, and so many more incredible bands. We had to pause the action on the Second Stage at one point when a swarm of bees turned up during the You Me At Six set. And the boys and girls from Lucha Britannia were walking around backstage, entertaining us all with some awesome moves.
Tomorrow is Classic Rock day, with Def Leppard, Whitesnake, ZZ Top, Dream Theatre, Journey and loads more older acts still rocking hard after decades on tour. If that’s not your bag, there’s brutal action taking place on the other stages, so there’s going to be something for everyone. I think it could be a rather special day.
Bring. It. On…
Dog x
Day two is in now in motion
posted on June 13th 2009 at 14:23 by
DownloadDog
Looks like the sun has come out to watch the rock again – the weather’s great at Download today. The metal is flowing, the ground is shaking – day two is well and truly underway.
Having woken up with a bit of a headache this morning, I decided the best cure would be to stand in the Devildriver mosh pit for their entire set. It was an awesome experience. By the time they rolled out Clouds Over California, my punishment from the night before was most certainly gone.
Had a random experience backstage when I bumped in to Zoltan Bathory from Five Finger Death Punch, who was interviewing generic media types working at the festival for his very own webcast. We had a chat about metal, bonded over our mutual love for all things rock, and agreed that Slipknot tonight are going to be incredible. He said he’d see me in the mosh pit, but somehow I doubt that very much.
I’m off to see Billy Boy On Poison over on the Tuborg Sage in a few minutes, then going to watch Fightstar on the Second Stage.
By the way, I met DragonForce just now – they all say hi.
Dog x
FNM just rocked my world - what a way to end the first night...
posted on June 12th 2009 at 23:06 by DownloadDog
My ears are ringing. Faith No More have just left the stage, and after a colossal set that included the incredible Epic, and covers of Easy, Poker Face and Reunited (which they opened the set with), FNM proved, if there was ever any doubt, that after 11 years out of the limelight, they’ve still got it.
“We used to be good”, said Mike Patton. You’re now amazing, we say. As tight as ever, no one would believe that this band have ever spent more than a day away from the rehearsal studio, let alone splitting up for over a decade.
So, the first day at Download is drawing to a close, and it’s been one that I won’t be forgetting quickly. Predicably, FNM have to be the highlight for me, but Korn, Limp Bizkit and notably Billy Talent all put on incredible performances that shook the whole of the Midlands.
Another success of the day has been our webcast. Relentlessly streaming live action throughout the day from the Main Stage, we had tens of thousands of people from all over the world simultaneously logging at peak times. Tomorrow we’ll be streaming all day too, so if you’re not at Donington this weekend, you don’t have to miss out on any of the incredible action that we’ve been experiencing so far at Download.
Right, there’s noise coming from The Village. Tonight is Lucha Britannia wrestling and Ultimate Power – it’s going to be a late one – see you in the morning.
Dog x
Limb Bizkit, Korn, and some shameless name-dropping...
posted on June 12th 2009 at 18:57 by DownloadDog
Just walked off the Main Stage, where I was standing watching Fred Durst and the rest of Limp Bizkit putting on one of the best performances of the day so far. Managed to sneak into the side of the stage, and was particularly impressed by guitarist Wes Borland, who was covered in body paint and dressed up like some sort of Amazonian warrior. They ended with Take A Look Around, and the crowd loved it.
Had a fun afternoon, where I bumped into In This Moment lead singer Maria, who was very friendly. The celebrity spotting doesn’t end there though, blog friends, because I also had a chat with Jonathan Davis from Korn earlier, before going for a beer with all of Steadlür. (please excuse the shameless name dropping). Good times.
By the way, I managed to see a little bit of our ‘secret’ band Enter Shikari over on the Tuborg Stage, and it was one of the most hectic things I’ve ever seen at Download. Drummer Rob Rolfe came onto stage wearing just his vest and pants, and bass player Chris Batten was wearing bright green diving flippers – which he had to remove after one track cos he couldn’t operate the effects pedals, the loon! It took Rou about 8 seconds to dive in to the crowd – where he stayed for the whole set. What a guy.
Right, off to watch Korn, then the mighty Faith No More, before going for a drink or 3 in The Village.
Dog x
The ground is shaking, the sun is shining, Download is rocking...
posted on June 12th 2009 at 15:48 by DownloadDog
It’s Friday afternoon, and Download is very much in full swing. Hollywood Undead kicked off the Main Stage in style, followed by some incredibly worthy performances form The Blackout and Staind. I’m sat in my kennel backstage right now and can hear Billy Talent up there rocking loud and making the ground shake.
I managed to see a little bit of In This Moment over on the Second Stage earlier, but the problem with Download this year is that there’s SO many bands to see. So much awesome Metal, and we’re not even halfway through the first day.
There’s this weird kind of atmosphere in the air right now. Everyone’s having an amazing time, and all the bands have been on top form. But the underlining subtext is that none of us can quite believe that it's merely a matter of hours before we’re going to be watching Faith No More. Back together. On the Main Stage. At Download.
And that, friends, is something to be very, very excited about.
Catch ya later
Dog x
For those (literally) about to ROOOCK....
posted on June 12th 2009 at 12:52 by DownloadDog
I’m currently sitting on the grass facing the Main Stage, waiting impatiently for Hollywood Undead to come out and send this place wild. In less than half an hour Download 2009 will be kicking off, with Steadlür, Sleepercurve and The Instigators rocking out the Second Stage, Tuborg Stage and the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage.
Walking around the Arena, spirits are high, and it’s filling up quickly. My highlight of the day so far was standing on the Main Stage when we opened the gates to the Arena, and watching the first few hundred early-birds sprinting towards the stage to get their place right at the front.
If you’re not lucky enough to be here today, you’ll be able to watch live streaming from the Main Stage very soon, so you can catch all the action from the stage from wherever you are in the world. Click Here to watch it now!
We’ll also have a photo gallery online very shortly with pictures from last night on there, which we’ll be updating throughout the festival as our hard-working photographers get the shots. Stay tuned for more info on that shortly…
Dog x
I'm at the festival! Bring on the weekend...
posted on June 11th 2009 at 18:23 by DownloadDog
It’s Thursday afternoon, and I arrived at Donington a few hours ago. Was hoping to get here yesterday, but
decided to watch Faith No More at their Brixton Academy warm-up gig last night – they significantly improved my
life, and are going to make 80,000 people very, very happy tomorrow.
Once I’d settled in to my kennel I headed up to the Boardie BBQ that we host every year for our most active
members of the Download forum. They had Atticus Rage playing classic covers, including some awesome old-skool metal, and they ended the set with their version of Motorhead’s Overkill, which left the crow screaming for more.
Afterwards I wandered over to The Village, which was very much in full swing. Apparently last night the heavens
opened, but its been sunny all day today, and it was a hive of activity. I watched a bit of Guitar Hero, and
gave about 200 people a high-five. Everyone is in a very good mood today – and I don’t blame them. We're in for an
amazing weekend.
Back over at the Main Stage the roadies were going through a final sound check, blasting out Killing In The
Name, which made the whole of Donington shake – the sound is incredible.
I’m currently sat in a portacabin behind the Main Stage. Just bumped in to Katie P and Rhodri from The Lowdown, and
am going to persuade them to buy me a bevvie of some description.
Amazing – they’re playing Highway To Hell now. It just gets better and better…!
Looking forward to catching up with some of my Download brethren tonight, before rocking my freakin’ tail off
tomorrow. Can’t believe Download is finally here.
Don’t forget, you can follow me on Twitter and stay up to date with everything that’s going on at the festival. If
you’re following me from within the festival walls, keep an eye out for some special competitions that I’m going to
be running throughout the weekend.
Enjoy the show!
Dog x
Secret bands announced - how you reacted...
posted on June 9th 2009 at 10:51 by DownloadDog
Last night we announced the secret bands for this year’s Download. In case you don’t know, we’ve got hardcore-metal titans ENTER SHIKARI and rock legends THUNDER ready to grace the Tuborg stage this weekend.
I announced them on our official Twitter channel last night (about 2 hours after Andy decided to announce on the forums – naughty Andy…), here’s just a few of the responses…
- "One of my fave bands ever THUNDER have confirmed for Download 2009! Excellent news!"
- "ENTER SHIKARI will play on Friday night, THUNDER to play on Saturday! Oh yay!"
- "SHIKARI!!!!!!"
- "gunna be awesome looking forward too seeing them both :D"
- "You sir, are a legend. Thunder FTW! "
- "OMG Thunder! What a good doggy you are... *pats head*"
- "I. BLOODY. LOVE. THUNDER!!! And Enter Shikari, of course, but Thunder?! Round of applause Mr Copping! Fantastic news!"
News about The Village, and clearing up some Twitter-based confusion...
posted on June 1st 2009 at 10:51 by
DownloadDog
Word up peeps. Last week was one of great excitement, with loads of news coming through about some of the stuff
that’ll be going on at Download away from the stages. With buckets of entertainment like Comedy, Lucha Britannia wrestling, and the
mighty Ultimate Power taking
place in The Village from Wednesday 10th
June, looks like there’s going to be loads to do once the music stops on the stages (at about 11pm every
night).
We’ve also announced details about Bar Tokens, the Download off-licence, the return
of the wonderful Comfy
Crappers and much, much more. There’s plenty more info for you to take a look at, so if you’re heading to
Donington next week, make sure you check it out
now.
One thing I need to clear up – last week, I posted a tweet on the Download Twitter Channel that it is going to be muddy at Download this
year. No, that does not mean that I can read into the future, nor does it mean that I’ve hacked into the Met
Office’s secret files and found out that it’s going to be raining solidly for 3 days from June 12th. All I meant by
that was that Download is a summer festival taking place in the UK – come on people, there WILL be
mud.
But we’ll have a jolly good time none the less, right?
Dog x
I'm exhausted and need a holiday...
posted on May 26th 2009 at 17:34 by DownloadDog
Whist you’ve undoubtedly spent the past few days sat out in the sunshine (or locked in your room playing Warcraft??), we here at Download HQ been working our fine asses off adding the finishing touches to what is looking to become our best Download EVER.
Last night we announced a further 27 acts to the bill, which completes this year’s line-up. There’s now more than 120 bands playing this year’s festival, which is a staggering amount of rock. Well done to Andy Copping for booking them all – you’ve done a good job, chap.
Other news is that camping tickets are now SOLD OUT, which is good news for us, but bad news for you if you were planning on camping at Download this year and hadn’t bought a ticket yet. You snooze, you lose, I guess. Don’t worry though, we’ve still got a few weekend Arena tickets left, so it’s not the end of the world.
The website has had a whole load of new features added. As well as finally getting this blog up and running, we’ve got The Village section going now, which has details of all the cool stuff happening at Download this year away from the stages. Info about entertainment including Karaoke, Comedy, and services such as Comfy Crappers, and much, much more can all be found here.
There’s also information about all the cool stuff your mobile phone will win you during the festival, including meet ‘n greets, side-of stage appearances, text-to-screen stuff and more. Check it out here.
Finally, we’ve just launched the latest Episode of The Lowdown, which includes Katie P talking to In This Moment, a message from Buckcherry, and the best ever ‘hello’ message from Static X that I’ve ever seen. Watch it here.
Dog x
More bands announced, and Lowdown Episode 3 now live
posted on May 4th 2009 at 11:34 by DownloadDog
This week got off to a great start, cos we’ve announced 17 more bands confirmed to play at the festival. This makes Dog happy, as surely you can never have too much of a good thing, right? Check out the new additions over on my line-up page now, I reckon you’re gonna love it.
With only 36 days until the festival gates open, the anticipation for Download is so almighty sweet that I want to reach out and lick it. Fortunately there’s loads of festival stuff we’re announcing in the next few weeks, which should feed my hunger until June 10th (when the campsite is open to the hordes of Download addicts!).
In the meantime, there’s a new episode of The Lowdown on the site, with the lovely Katie P talking to Def Leppard bassist Joe Elliott, and the not so lovely (but some-what charming) Rhodri giving you a bit more detail about htose new bands we’ve announced. Go take a look now.
It's official - we're blogging...
posted on April 20th 2009 at 16:01 by DownloadDog
Woof Woof! So, the hard-working boys and girls who put this lovely site together have finally let my ego run free, and I'm now able to start blogging here on the Download Festival website! Doesn't sound like a very good idea to me, but they insisted.
There's 52 days until I'm unleashed at Download, and I'm getting so excited that I can't even be bothered to cock my leg up to go for a piss. I'm sure you feel the same way too, but whilst you sit around in your dark bedsit listening to your Dad's copy of On Through the Night, why not look at some of the cool new features on this site that the aforementioned techie guys have made for you:
There's some music and a vid on the homepage, an updated news channel, and not one, not two, but three whole blogs for you to read - one from me, one from Festival Booker Andy Copping and one from Festival Director John Probyn. It really is all very exciting.
In the meantime, you'll be able to catch my regular updates here on the Dog's Blog from now right up until the festival is in full swing, and beyond. We've also got this Twitter thing worked out now and I'm gonna be babbling away on that pretty regularly, so be sure to find and follow me on there, you lucky people. Grrrr...