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Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
@Maxximum23Clark
9:28 AM 16th June 2014
arts

Download Festival

 
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie
The Download Festival is the biggest event of the year for rock fans. The Castle Donington site is the spiritual home of rock having played host to the festival for over 10 years now and before that there was the Monsters of Rock festival held on the same site.

The Offspring
The Offspring


With over 100 bands to see every area of rock was covered. Rob Zombie might be a second rate version of Alice Cooper to some but he still has a great live show. His performance on Friday night did not let the faithful down. With a backdrop of photos of Frankenstein and Kin Kong, his live set was like watching a B film horror move.

He looks like he has just crawled out of the swamp but he has a friendly soft side to him. "I like you English people" The American pronounces "You are so friendly, Come on in and have a cup of tea" he says. His songs have a melodic twist to them. Listen to the Radio is one of his best songs of the night.


Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged Sevenfold
The Offspring drew a large crowd despite being on one of the stages at the same time as Avenged Sevenfold. Older and slightly bigger than back in the day, these ageing punks can still put on a great live show. Mind you with tacks like No Self Esteem and Pretty Fly for a White Guy it makes the task easier.

Avenged Sevenfold brought over their full production show for their headline slot. Fireworks greet the band on stage and their melodic brand of rock showed why they had become a headline act. Their set included older tracks such as Burn it Down from 2005 to more recent tracks like Hail to the King.


Bowling For Soup
Bowling For Soup
Bowling For Soup is the perfect festival band. Their mid afternoon slot on Saturday was one of the best of the day. They might have all put on a bit of weight since they toured the UK last autumn when they visited Leeds but they still can cut it live. A huge blow up sheep at the side of the stage meets its fate when a knight in shining armour gets out his sword and attacks the sheep. 1985 and Punk Rock 101 had the huge crowd singing along. As entertaining as ever the band performed a stunning set.


Tony Jepson - Scarborough born, still lives there
Tony Jepson - Scarborough born, still lives there
Yorkshire singer Tony Jepson who still lives in Scarborough performed a stripped down acoustic set. He was probably the only performer at the festival to have on stage with him a saxophone player who also played accordion too. Shadows on The Wall, one of his most recent solo tracks sounded good and he kept the faithful happy with a track from his old band, Little Angels with Don't Prey For Me.


Bring Me The Horizon - Sheffield's very own!
Bring Me The Horizon - Sheffield's very own!
Another Yorkshire act Bring Me The Horizon played a storming set on the main stage. These Sheffield rockers look set to be headlining the event in a few years time. Lead singer Olly Sykes asks the fans 2 put your phones down please and let's live in the moment" as Chelsea Smile sets the mosh pit alive.

The Wildhearts are still going strong, lead singer Ginger is as charismatic as ever, She Got Me and I Wanna Go Where The People Go had the crowd singing along.


Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister first played Donington over 30 years ago. Lead singer Dee Snider might be nearly 60 years old but he is as trim and fit as he was all those years ago. As always he is still one of rock music's best frontmen.

The bands tracks are rock classics - We're Not Gonna Take It and I Am I'm Me still sound as good as when the band played Leeds Queens Hall in the 80's.

Dedicating their encore to Motorheads Lemmy who is having health problems, the band performed a great version of the Motorhead track Born To Raise Hell.


Status Quo
Status Quo
Booking Status Quo to appear at Donington was always a bit of a risk but they pulled it off. Opening with Caroline and Paper Plane they soon had the non dis-believers on their side.

Headliners on the main stage, Linkin Park played their first album, hybrid Theory and with tracks like Closer To the edge and Crawling it was easy to see why they are one of the biggest bands in rock today.