My Download 07

Well, where do I start eh? At the beginning I guess lol

I got up early on the Wednesday, all my stuff was packed the night before, so I jumped in the shower, got ready and then off on my way I was to meet Beth and travel down, the train rides there weren't too bad, was easier than I thought it would be messing around with all 4 bags I had.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to get there at 12pm for when the gates were meant to open to let everyone in, bad idea it turned out to be cause I ended up having to queue for 2 hours before finally getting in, when we did finally get in and met up with Jay, Ant, Tom & Kayleigh we realised that getting there early actually meant we would have to go to a far part of the blue camp whereas people who came later could camp closer, in some ways it wasn't too bad as we didn't get the smell of the toilets (oh it was lovely = ) but it would have been nice to have been able to choose wherever we wanted to set up our stuff.

I ended up sunburnt pretty much right away because of the waiting in the queue and setting up the tent I didn't have any time to put on sun block, oh well, I didn't let it ruin my week.

Wednesday was pretty much a chill day, set stuff up, bring everythin over and then we went to Asda to get supplies of which I always end up buying far too much stuff lol, guess it's better to have too much than not enough though eh?

On Thursday I met up with Jase, he's a cool guy I've known for a couple years now, we caught up for a while and made plans to hang out over the weekend but just didn't really get chance to, shame really but hopefully he had a good time. Later in the day I got a phone call from Charmaine saying that she had arrived, was all set up and sitting off with a group of friends if I wanted to go see her, usually I hate meeting someone for the first time when they're in a big group as I feel weird, but I couldn't be bothered with any of that shit so I set off to find her, proper little...

My Download 07

Well, where do I start eh? At the beginning I guess lol

I got up early on the Wednesday, all my stuff was packed the night before, so I jumped in the shower, got ready and then off on my way I was to meet Beth and travel down, the train rides there weren't too bad, was easier than I thought it would be messing around with all 4 bags I had.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to get there at 12pm for when the gates were meant to open to let everyone in, bad idea it turned out to be cause I ended up having to queue for 2 hours before finally getting in, when we did finally get in and met up with Jay, Ant, Tom & Kayleigh we realised that getting there early actually meant we would have to go to a far part of the blue camp whereas people who came later could camp closer, in some ways it wasn't too bad as we didn't get the smell of the toilets (oh it was lovely = ) but it would have been nice to have been able to choose wherever we wanted to set up our stuff.

I ended up sunburnt pretty much right away because of the waiting in the queue and setting up the tent I didn't have any time to put on sun block, oh well, I didn't let it ruin my week.

Wednesday was pretty much a chill day, set stuff up, bring everythin over and then we went to Asda to get supplies of which I always end up buying far too much stuff lol, guess it's better to have too much than not enough though eh?

On Thursday I met up with Jase, he's a cool guy I've known for a couple years now, we caught up for a while and made plans to hang out over the weekend but just didn't really get chance to, shame really but hopefully he had a good time. Later in the day I got a phone call from Charmaine saying that she had arrived, was all set up and sitting off with a group of friends if I wanted to go see her, usually I hate meeting someone for the first time when they're in a big group as I feel weird, but I couldn't be bothered with any of that shit so I set off to find her, proper little beauty she is, dead tiny but with a huge personality, we got on really well =]

Also on the Thurs we (the group of us that were camping together) went over to the third stage and watched the 'Alternative Karaoke' for a bit, that was a laugh, a few good performances and a couple shocking ones but that just made it funnier, we went back that night hoping it was still on because Ant wanted to sing something but unfortunately it wasn't, was just some crappy entertainment, people dancin around with fire, was pretty lame lol.

Friday was the start of the bands and I wanted to make the most of it this year so even if I wasn't completely a fan of some bands but knew some of the stuff I wanted to check them out, so the first band I saw was Ill Nino on the second stage, they got a very good crowd and I was very impressed with their set, then a bit later went over to catch a couple song's of Megadeth's set on the main stage, I'm not really a fan but they seemed cool, was just waiting for Saosin on the second stage, at this point I had my only dirty cheeseburger and chips for the weekend, not the nicest really lol. Saosin didn't really impress me too much, was my first time seeing them live, maybe they're better in their own show but nothing really stood out for me which I was disappointed about because I like a few of their songs.

I went back to the tent for a little bit then when the others went to check out Sanctity and Job For A Cowboy, I then made my way over to the second stage, watching a few Wolfmother songs on the main stage while passing by, they seemed quite good live. On the second stage was Paramore, saw them once before last year at Give It A Name 06, thought they were cool then so wanted to check them out again and see what the new stuff was like, a really good performance in my opinion, Hayley's a good frontwoman. After that I only saw one other band on the Friday which was Enter Shikari on the second stage, I saw them last October and thought they were decent like but I wasn't greatly impressed with their set at Download. The night time was a laugh sitting by the tents singing along to dodgy songs on the radio such as Backstreet Boys, always good fun though, they're got some good tunes lol.

The first band I went to check out on the Saturday was Aiden on the main stage, I've saw them twice before so knew it would be a decent set, it was a good way to start my day, then afterwards saw Bowling For Soup for like the 4th time who put on one of the best shows possible, their songs are catchy as hell and they're really funny to watch live so if you've never checked them out before I highly recommend you do so. I then met up with Jay to watch most of Machine Head's set, I'm not their biggest fan but I am starting to get into them now. After that it was over to the third stage to check out Silverstein, who in my opinion could have easily been put on the second stage, maybe next year eh? I couldn't be bothered to watch Manson so went and got some food back at my tent and chilled for a bit before going to see Linkin Park for my 6th time =] it had been 3 years (Download 04) since I had last saw them and they were still as good as ever, the new stuff is really good live, especially No More Sorrow, hopefully they'll schedule a UK tour for sometime before the end of the year.

Sunday was the last day of the music so I wanted to make the most of it as possible, first saw Chimaira for the second time, great set I thought, then over to the second stage to check out Unearth and Devil Driver, Also my second time seeing Unearth, I knew more of them this time around though so I could enjoy it a lot more, they're amazing live. Devil Driver I hadn't heard much of but I didn't wanna just sit by my tent all day so I thought I'd stick around to check them out and I'm glad I did, they're performance was so good, definitely going to be looking into them some more now.

There was then a bit of a break before the next band I wanted to see so I went over to the shops on the site and found a class belt buckle (it's like a royal flush with a silhouette of a woman on the Ace)

Over then to the main stage once more for pretty much the rest of the day, Lamb of God put on a good show, working the crowd very well. Stone Sour were up next, I didn't get chance to see them last year which I was a bit gutted about but I made sure I saw them this time around, I had saw Slipknot twice before at Download so it was interesting to see the difference between that and Stone Sour, both great bands in their own right. It was a shame that Adam had to pull out of playing with Killswitch once again because of back trouble but they still put on one of the best performances of the weekend, fuck knows why whoever did the booking thought that they should go on BEFORE Evanescence = who by the way were awful, Amy's voice just isn't that great live, she sounds too much like she wants to cry all the time, so instead of watching them we mainly just listened while Jay and Kayleigh had a little mess around MMA fight which was funny as fuck, hopefully Ant can upload the vid sometime if the file isn't too big.

Everyone else then stayed around the main stage to watch Iron Maiden close the festival, now although I do respect Maiden for what they've done for heavy metal music I'm not much of a fan of theirs, but I am a huge Billy Talent fan and they were playing at the same time on the second stage so I went to see them for the third time, they were also a contender for my fav band of the weekend, can't wait until they next come over.

After the bands all finished Jay, Tom & Kayleigh left to go home a night early but I stayed around because I was getting the train home the next day, went to find Charmaine and hung out with her all night, she kept me company which I thank her for =] she's also a great little cuddler lol.

Well that was it, my 4th time going to Download and I think it was probably my best experience there so far. Definitely gotta VIP/RIP it next year though.

Well done to you if you made it to the end of all this, I don't bother posting blogs often, but when I do it seems like I certainly have a lot to say lol.

Later