DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2003.
31ST MAY 2003. DONINGTON PARK.
After getting lost a few times on the way, due to poor event signage, we finally arrived on to the festival site at 12 noon. We tried but failed to blag ourselves press passes before getting charged �5 to park our car. Once we found our way to the arena, we headed straight to the Scuzz stage to secure a good place for Queen Adreena. We arrived in time to catch the last couple of tracks by Violent Delight. They ended with their biggest single to date, �I Wish I Was A Girl�.
There was abit of confusion as to weather or not Queen Adreena were actually playing. A sign outside the tent said they had cancelled. We later found out that the sign was for the Kerrang signing tent. Queen Adreena had cancelled their signing tent appearance but luckily, much to my relief, not their actual performance.
As usual they were amazing. Katie Jane has a lot of anger inside her. She takes this anger out on her battered and bruised band mates. They don�t seem to mind her beating them up on stage though. They mixed their slower, quieter, more beautiful songs such as �Pretty Polly� in with the louder, heavy rock tracks such as �Pretty Like Drugs�. The front few rows seemed to be made up of dedicated fans. I don�t think most of the rest of the crowd seemed too familiar with Queen Adreena but seemed to enjoy the set never the less.
We managed to get to the front for From Autumn To Ashes. They were good. There isn�t much I can tell you about them really as up until seeing them I hadn�t heard anything by them. I didn�t know what to expect but I was quite impressed by the end of their 30 minute performance. They seemed energetic and went down well with the audience.
3 Colours Red were up next. I was really excited about seeing them again for the second time in a month. They didn�t disappoint. In fact they were actually better than when I saw them a few weeks earlier in Scarborough. They opened with new single �Repeat To Fade� which was followed by tracks including �This In My Hollywood�, �Beautiful Day� and �Nuclear Holiday�. The band were clearly enjoying themselves, especially frontman Pete. He worked the crowd up into a frenzy and got them singing every word to nearly every song. They were on too early in the day. They deserved to be headlining.
After them there wasn�t anyone I wanted to see for awhile so I decided to go try meet Murderdolls. Unfortunately lots of other people wanted to meet them too. The never ending queue didn�t seem to move. We were in it for over two hours. While we waited we heard sets by Hellacopters, Soil and HIM. They all sounded pretty cool, especially HIM who I really wanted to see. Murderdolls left the signing tent before I got the chance to meet them. However even though I missed out on meeting them I decided to stay in the queue and hang around to meet In Me. They seemed like nice enough guys. They didn�t say much though.
The signing tent wasn�t very well organised at all. Nobody seemed to know who was queuing where or for which bands. This resulted in many disappointed fans not been able to meet their favourite bands, despite waiting for several hours to do so. At this point I would like to mention my poor shirt. It was white. After standing around for a few hours it had turned a light browny/grey colour because of all the dust that was getting blown about everywhere. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
After my short meeting with In Me, I had to rush over to the main stage for the first time all day in time for Marilyn Manson. It turned out there was no need to hurry. Marilyn came on stage 20 minutes late. The crowd kept themselves entertained by throwing plastic bottles at each other until 7.10pm when the God of fuck finally walked on.
The crowd went crazy. He opened with the anthem �Disposable Teens�. Two high kicking female dancers wearing military uniforms and fish net tights joined the band on stage. They later stripped down to garter belts, plastic genitalia and plastic breasts. Marilyn also had a few costume changes and kept changing his hat for some reason. He looked quite cool in his top hat.
Of the new tracks performed, �This Is The New Shit� was one of the highlights. A neon light with the word �Mobscene� written on it appeared as the backdrop while the current single of the same name was aired. It was followed by �Tainted Love�. Marilyn then said something about animals before launching into �Dope Show�.
It was weird seeing a dark gothic band while it was not only daylight, but also really, really warm and sunny. Manson announced that the band only had time for one more song. The crowd booed. They clearly wanted more. The set got cut short by at least 15 minutes. The final track performed was �Beautiful People�.
Afterwards we wandered back to the car for some much needed food and refreshments. All our chocolate had melted so I had jammie dodgers. Mmmmmmm. My brother then went to watch Iron Maiden. I decided to go see A. I arrived early and so caught the last few tracks by ska/punk band Reel Big Fish. They had a massive crowd watching them. I really wish I had seen all their set. They sounded much better than other ska bands like Spunge.
A opened with one of their biggest hits to date, �Nothing�. Their headline set nearly didn�t happen. Frontman Jason had been suffering with serious back problems earlier in the week and up until a few days before the gig he couldn�t even walk. They had thought about pulling the show but didn�t want to let their fans down. Bless. Jason said he is in a rock band and so wants to play live as much as possible unlike Limp Bizkit who suck up to their record company bosses by cancelling gigs to work on their new album.
A few new tracks were included during the 55 minute set including a possible future single called �Good Times�. Was a good song and the crowd were indeed having a good time. A were the perfect end to a fantastic day. See you tomorrow along with the top secret special guests. Wonder who they will be? Hmmmmmm.
BY MR MARTYN. JUNE 2003. |