30 years on from the first ever Donington Monsters of Rock, Download Festival 2010 was destined to be something special. With 3 days packed full of bands, across no less than five stages, Download is now the ultimate rock festival.

Friday June 11th

After fighting my way through the crowds, I was through the gates in time to catch the end of an enjoyable set from LAWNMOWER DETH, before the excellent TYKETTO took to the stage. Playing a number of classics from the ‘Don’t Come Easy’ album, Danny Vaughn’s band went down really well in front of a packed 3rd stage crowd, all of whom sang along to set closer ‘Forever Young’. On the main stage, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, who were a last minute replacement for WOLFMOTHER, paid tribute to their hero Ronnie James Dio with their great cover of ‘Holy Diver’.

With the festival arena filling up to bursting point, it was time for supergroup THEM CROOKED VULTURES to take to the stage, as the last band to play the main stage. The band features QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE frontman Josh Homme on vocals and guitar, FOO FIGHTERS main man David Grohl on drums and LED ZEPPELIN’s legendary John Paul Jones on bass.
I hadn’t heard any of the band’s material before the show, and of that, I’m quite glad! Not a single song impressed me, and THEM CROOKED VULTURES have to go down as one of the worst bands I’ve ever seen on the Donington main stage. They make be called a supergroup, but one thing’s for sure, they certainly aren’t super!

There’s no getting around it, this year’s Download festival was all about the return to Donington of the legendary AC/DC. Headlining for the fourth time, the AC/DC train rolled in bang on schedule, and the 2 hour ride that followed was full of all the usual thrills and spills that people have come to expect. As anticipated, the crowd was absolutely humungous, and surely the biggest Donington has seen for a number of years. Packed in near the front, turning rounded to look at the crowd, all you could see was a vast ocean of people, a quite incredible sight.

Playing on their own stage (next to the main stage), the set opened with the new track ‘Rock n’ Roll Train’, before classic after classic followed, including the likes of ‘Back in Black’ and ‘Thunderstruck’. You can’t help but love Angus Young, and it’s great to see him in such good shape, with his long locks of hair flowing again. Young hopped around the stage all night, and his solo on the platform at the end is always a highlight of any AC/DC set.

The giant inflatable Rosie came out for ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, and Brian Johnson swung like Tarzan to ring the huge AC/DC bell for ‘Hells Bells’. The final song of the setlist was ‘For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)’, complete with the firing cannons. This was a bombastic finale, and AC/DC had delivered a memorable set that will go down in Donington history as one of the very best headline performances. I for one hope that the footage of the momentous evening will one day be made available on DVD. The best live stadium band ever? Oh Yes!

Saturday June 12th

Of the day’s early performers, it was the female fronted FLYLEAF who made the best impression, with their cultured brand of nu-metal proving to be a good warm up for the rest of the day’s action.

Los Angeles quintet FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH then played a really strong set, following on from their powerful headline performance at this year’s Hammerfest. The likes of ‘Salvation’ and ‘No One Gets Left Behind’ really got the crowd moving, and at one stage, the set was under severe threat of getting cut short due to the number of crowd surfers. This set certainly wasn’t fun for the Download security staff.

A disappointing set from LAMB OF GOD failed to capitalise on the frenzy built up by 5FDP, with only ‘Redneck’ standing out from an otherwise bland set, ruined in one way by the fact that Randy Blythe’s voice could hardly be heard above the pummeling drums and guitars. Perhaps Blythe should invest in a more modern radio mic, which might help things?

Returning to play their fourth Donington were thrash metal titans MEGADETH. I was worried that the technical sound of MEGADETH’s complex music was going to get lost in the outdoor sound mix, but fortunately, the volume seemed to go up a notch, and Dave Mustaine and his latest crew sounded on terrific form. There wasn’t quite enough time to play the whole ‘Rust in Peace’ album, as they have been doing on this tour, instead they treated Download to a set full of classics, which certainly got a thumbs up from the crowd.

26 years after their last Donington appearance, San Fransisco rockers Y&T were back on the holy ground and delivered a typically face-melting setlist. This was 40 minutes of great songs, and the best guitar performance of the weekend from the ever impressive Dave Meniketti. On exiting the 3rd stage marquee, DEFTONES were performing on the main stage, a band who really don’t deserve the recognition they seem to get. After seeing a band with the quality of Y&T be restricted to a 40 minute set in a marquee, it was a disgrace to see DEFTONES on the main stage – a band who have a modicum of the talent of Y&T.

Resisting the temptation to try and find a place to watch the England World Cup game (it wasn’t made clear where the game would be screened), I hung around to see out the day. On the back of the success of their surprise Christmas number one, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE were Saturday’s main stage headliners. For me, a headline band at a festival of this magnitude should have at least 20+ classic songs in their catalogue, with a few on stage thrills up their sleeve to make the show a visible spectacle. Unfortunately, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE have neither.

Still, I have to admit that the set went down pretty well, and predictable set closer ‘Killing In The Name’ was one of the defining moments of the day. Every single metal fan in the country would have been delighted to see the song shoot down the X-Factor. Seeing 80,000+ people shout ‘F*ck You! I Won’t Do What You Tell Me!’ is a message of non-conformity to the pop music scene that continues to poison the TV and radio airwaves.

Sunday June 13th

Opening up the second stage today were two bands who unashamedly fly the flag for traditional old school heavy metal. Americans WHITE WIZZARD and Canadians 3 INCHES OF BLOOD, both made the most of their 25 minutes apiece, each paying tribute to Ronnie James Dio, with the crowd offering their best devil horns.

It was then a quick dash to the main stage to see metal veterans SAXON dust off their classic 1980 ‘Wheels of Steel’ album, playing the record in it’s entirety for the first time in their history. Fortunately, the 37 minute length of the record ensured that there was time to add a few more classics to the set, which meant the essential ‘And The Bands Played On’ got aired. This was a song written about the Donington festival, after SAXON’s 1980 ‘Monsters of Rock’ appearance. ‘Princess of the Night’ rounded up a great set, topping off a long overdue to the limelight for one of metal’s most underrated bands.

CINDERELLA was one of the most surprising names on the Download line-up. The band have been out of action for a number of years, due to frontman Tom Kiefer’s vocal problems, and their last UK performance was literally decades ago. CINDERELLA played a fantastic set, with great rockers like ‘Somebody Save Me’ and ‘Gypsy Road’, alongside the beautiful ballads ‘Nobody’s Fool’ and ‘Don’t Know What You Got (‘Till It’s Gone)’. As for Kiefer’s voice, well you would never have guessed that (as rumour has it) a year ago he couldn’t sing a note. Fingers crossed CINDERELLA will be back to the UK to play along overdue headline show.

Next on the main stage was legendary former GUN’S N’ ROSES lead guitarist SLASH, whose touring band includes the excellent Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE on vocals. Kennedy was once rumoured to be the next singer of LED ZEPPELIN, and today’s evidence, you can see why, sounding great on the high pitched GNR material (‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Paradise City’) and the VELVET REVOLVER tune ‘Slither’. It was a real highlight of the set though when SLASH brought out his mate Lemmy to perform the brilliant new track ‘Dr.Alibi’. It was a really good set by SLASH, who profited from concentrating on playing some good tunes, rather than messing about with endless boring guitar solos (like most other solo guitarists are prone to do).

It was just after SLASH’s set that the weather took a severe turn for the worst. After years of sunshine at the Download festival, it was always going to rain at some point, and boy did it rain today. The rain didn’t stop until the end of the night, and with the heavens well and truly open, many festival goers headed for an early exit. Playing on through the rain, BILLY IDOL followed SLASH with an enjoyable slab of the 1980′s. Inevitably ‘White Wedding’ and set closer ‘Rebel Yell’ were the two songs which will leave a lasting memory.

Next to play for the increasingly wet crowd were rock n’ roll outlaws MOTÖRHEAD. There’s no louder three-piece in the business, and MOTÖRHEAD’s uncompromising set was lapped up by the brave souls who trudged their way to the front. Of course, ‘Ace of Spades’ and ‘Overkill’ were as enjoyable as ever, but MOTÖRHEAD have plenty of other great songs, which all made for a great set.

With the crowd thinning out by the minute, and probably only a third of the people in the arena as there was for AC/DC, the return of the reunited grunge outfit STONE TEMPLE PILOTS was next on the bill. Lead by the recently departed former VELVET REVOLVER singer Scott Weiland, STP are one of the better bands to come out of the early 1990′s grunge revolution. The likes of the excellent ‘Plush’ and ‘Sex Type Thing’ made for a good entertaining set.

So with the clock heading towards nine o’clock, it was time for the sodden Download Festival to be brought to a close, with rock legends AEROSMITH given the job this year. Given the ridiculous price of their London O2 gig tickets, this was actually an opportunity to see AEROSMITH on the cheap. Although on the basis of today, it would have been nice to have had a roof over head.

Opening the set with their 80′s hair metal anthem ‘Love In An Elevator’, AEROSMITH swaggered through a brilliant show, suitable to bring the curtain down on any festival. The set had all the big hits, such as ‘Livin’ On The Edge’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’ - but their was still time to throw in the majestic lesser known rockers like ‘Lord of the Thighs’ and ‘Draw the Line’.

The AEROSMITH set, and with it, the Download festival 2010 was rounded off by an encore of ‘Dream On’, ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Toys In The Attic’. There’s no denying that the good old English weather really dampened the spirits on the final day, but not a lot can be done about that. Fortunately, all the bands turned up, and all the bands did the best they could to entertain the crowd. Although perhaps there was just too many people around on the AC/DC Friday, Download 2010 was a success yet again, and the festival continues to be a great celebration of all the different sub genres of rock music.

Festival review by James Allman

Festival Rating: 4.4/5.0