Download Festival: The Classic Rock Report (Day Three)
Concluding Classic Rock’s round-up of this past weekend’s happenings at Download. Last but not least: Aerosmith finish Sunday in style.
DAY THREE
There’s nothing thousands of hungover tent-dwellers need less on the last day of a festival than starting the day slowly burning their exposed bellies to the exact colour and shape of a large Edam and ending it crotch-deep in stinking slurry as the airspace over the East Midlands dumps a decent-sized ocean’s worth of freezing water on our heads. So it’s a testament to the nature of this friendliest of festivals that there’s a distinct lack of whinging and a whole lot of squelchy dancing right up until the moment Steven Tyler minces from the stage at the end of Aerosmith’s closing set.
It shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise to see such resilience when you take into account the staying power of the day’s bands. While the not-really-missed bog standard US metallers Nonpoint make their big comeback after a decade on the Ronnie James Dio Stage, Saxon, albeit in their umpteenth incarnation, are still sounding huge after three decades on the touring hamster wheel.
But it’s Slash who provides the first genuine ‘moment’ of the day though. Proving a deep understanding of festival crowds, his set is stuffed with Guns N’ Roses hits such as Rocket Queen, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City which are howled along to by the happy drunks in the pit. He’s found a perfect foil in Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy, who’s beaming so widely he looks he’s won the lottery, found a cure for cancer and pulled Angelina Jolie all in the same day.
With a rich, powerful blues voice he hits the high notes beautifully and invigorates these old favourites in a way that, to be brutally honest, Axl Rose doesn’t these days. And when Lemmy is brought out to add his glorious rasp to Doctor Alibi, he and Slash look like a couple of rock ‘n’ roll cartoons brought to life. In Download terms, this set is the ‘Johnny Cash Sunday afternoon moment’ Glastonbury-goers hold so dear.
The high point couldn’t last though, and it falls on Billy Idol and nature to figuratively and literally piss on our bonfire. While the crowd bays for Generation X songs and the inevitable White Wedding, Idol prowls the stage while his band subject us to reams of eye-crossingly boring new material. In a heckle of cosmic proportions, the heavens open and a couple of chunky blokes wearing fairy wings and pink tutus are spotted trying to cobble together a makeshift ark from Tuborg cups and rain ponchos up on the hill.
Motorhead get us back on track with a typically earsplitting, grizzled blast, but it’s Steel Panther who are putting smiles back on faces on the Ronnie James Dio Stage, their ingeniously idiotic banter and syphilitic lyrics both saluting and roundly mocking the hair metal scene that they clearly adore and find ridiculous in equal measure. They’re like the band Zoolander would have formed if he’d discovered Motley Crue rather than Yves Saint Laurent.
If you don’t find their straight-faced rock cover of Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way hilarious at this point in the day, as they pout into the rain and come out with gloriously dumb pronouncements about their own inadequacy and sexual misadventures, you’re probably a little bit dead inside. Somehow, Spinal Tap’s illegitimate offspring found each other on Sunset Strip, and they’re carrying the torch of their forefathers admirably.
Idiotic in a different way, we get to Airbourne, who almost come a fatal cropper when frontman Joel O’Keefe mountaineers to the very roof of the stage, headbanging precariously on the slippery frame as thunder and lightning threatens to make it his greatest and last performance. The security guards certainly don’t see the funny side, pulling the plug and giving him a good telling off, but you certainly can’t call this band dull.
By now, the site is the Somme and there are more than a few poor souls wandering around looking like those mummified cavemen they occasionally dig up in fields in Dorset. This distinct lack of glamour has failed to reach Aerosmith, though, as Steven Tyler stalks on stage decked out in a gold jacket and eye-wateringly tight snakeskin trousers, looking like Huggy Bear raiding Cher’s wardrobe. By comparison, we punters are barely amoebas, and amoebas somehow managing to contract trenchfoot despite the lack of limbs at that. Suddenly, we’re in an underwater Vegas, Love In An Elevator raising spirits instantly, Joe Perry looking the picture of guitar god cool, the frontman demanding attention as he slickly slides across the stage.
The intra-band tensions of the past year are put to one side, for the duration of the set at least, and while the blues jamming gets a bit much, the stunningly uncynical mass singalong of uberballad Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing is genuinely moving and Sweet Emotion still sounds immense. As the hordes doggy paddle for their very lives towards the exit, they do so having wrung every last drop of fun out of the somewhat challenging final hours of Download 2010.
– Emma Johnston
Think its a bit poor of Classic Rock to review every other act on the main stage on sunday apart from FM!! OK..they might not be “huge” like they should be , but being one of the UK’s fave bands , I think its a bit snobbish of CR not to give them a mention! I love your magazine..but this time you have disappointed me!
Still drying out. Not even a token mention for the Stone Temple Pilots? Saxon ruled the day.
What a great weekend. I’m tired and feel insane.
Motorhead were sooooooooooooooo good even though it was pissing it down.
I CANT BELIEVE IT SAXON PLAY THE WHOLE OF WHEELS OF STEEL AND NO REVIEW.
What is this idiot Emma Johnston on about?
“While the crowd bays for Generation X songs and the inevitable White Wedding, Idol prowls the stage while his band subject us to reams of eye-crossingly boring new material”
So what are Ready Steady Go, Dancing With Myself and King Rocker then? All Generation X songs! (Yes Dancing With Myself was originally a Generation X number made more popular as a Billy Idol solo hit).
And the majority of the crowd would never have even heard of Generation X so they were hardly going to “bay for them”
Yes there were a couple of new numbers, and why not? His last album was over 5 years ago after all, besides, new song Kings and Queens sounded great..
As always, guitarist and right hand man Steve Stevens is incredible.
Here is the full Billy Idol setlist for Download
Ready Steady Go (Generation X cover) Play Video
Dancing With Myself (Generation X cover)
Love Is Strange
Flesh
Scream
Eyes Without A Face
Kings and Queens
White Wedding
LA Woman
King Rocker (Generation X cover)
Blue Highway
Rebel Yell
Jeez CR, where do you get them from?
Billy Idol put on one of the best performances of the festival, yeah admittedly if you dont know his material its not the easiest thing to get into at first, but his performance was outstanding especially in the rain.
Emma, You found Aerosmith playing the blues tedious?! I’m pleased Aerosmith did play a few old numbers for old suckers like me – who have bought their records and then cds ( and not illegally download them). Christ, four ballads in any rock bands set is enough! It made me laugh when all the kids looked vacantly at each other when they played ‘ Lord of the Thighs’. They did not even recognise Mama Kin or Train Kept a Rollin! Go to O2 if you want all the recent hits! This is Donnington.
We know its your job to stuff Slash and his new album down our throats since you have a contract to promote him, but would it be beyond the realms of possibility, imagination or wit to do this without mindlessly bashing Axl, its so cliche and boring.
For the record, Axls on fire right now so roll on Belfast and Reading and also Slash in Edinburgh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT7Cl8CACUE&feature=player_embedded
great article until this line
the stunningly uncynical mass singalong of uberballad Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing is genuinely moving
i mean come on
So the Billy Ido set he played wasnt very well represented!!! I know that critical reviews are about opinions but at least get your facts straight!!
i take it emma missed cinderella then! billy idol was the nuts considering the weather
If Im honest, this isnt the greatest review. SOme things I agrre with, others I dont. I thought from what I went to see, it was a fantastic Day.
Saxon, who Id enver seen before (Never been to see any established bands, outside of pubs nd clubs locally)) were fantastic and the opener of Motorcycle Madness was real cool. Cinderella were ok, but I just wanted it to go on and hurry up. I didn’t get too see much of Billy Idol, got soaked so only saw as far as Love is Strange, but was much bettter than this review. Slash was brilliant, but definately not in my opinion, the best of the day. Motorhead were epic, definately still got it, and I am looking forward to their next album. I must say, even though im not a fan of Aersmith, they probably put on the best show f the weeekend, and to say the Bluesy bit was tedious – musta been drunk or sumthin, it was a fantastic number.
My favourite 5 were:
1. Michael Monroe
2. Aerosmith
3. Skin
4. Saxon
5. Slash
AC/DC were awesome, but not the best for that weekend.
Holmesy you couldn’t of said it any better so glad it wasn’t a repeat of the Hyde Park Ballad Show.
I don’t want a miss a thing get a bigger cheer than Sweet Emotion which eats that song for breakfast and spits out before lunch.
Lack of knowlege must be your ispiration for bashing Axl as he is clearly singing better than he has in years and yes hitting the notes. Having seen both Slash and GNR recently i can say it’s definately the latter which will stay with me for years to come. GNR are on fire and (dare i say it) possibly the best they’ve ever been. We all miss Slash to an extent but come on first the Mick Wall review and now this, tell it as it is Classic Rock. Do you realise you gave the Slash ’s solo album a higher rating than Chinese Democracy??
Sorry but I have a rule that if you have to show your own music videos on a screen behind you or a scene from a tie-in film then it’s not about the song or the performance, it’s just pathetic and manipulative, especially as in this case they didn’t write the song in the first place. This was enough to get me trudging through the mud to the exit. The singalong was not heartfelt, it was pavlovian.
But to see them do Back In the Saddle, Mama Kin and Lord of the Thighs made it worth it. A few flashes of the real Aerosmith…
billy idol really impressed me, and im not even a fan. i watched it wanting to not like him! was great with the crowd and covered the doors” la woman.
really pissed me me off that the ‘metalhead’ stood next to me had a go at me for having a dance around in lord of the thighs.. told him to go and f**k himself when he tried to put his arm around me during that diane warren cover
Wow….if by “reinvigorating” the songs, and “hitting the high notes” you mean sounding like a women with a dildo shoved up her ass, then I guess Myles Kennedy is amazing.
I was nt at Download, but I ve watched his performances of the GNR classics on youtube, and his nightrain is pathetic to say the least. He robs that song of its balls, but then he sings as if he balls have yet to drop…..
And seriously Classicrock?! Have you actually listend, or even heard Axl’s singing lately? I saw them live in Seoul, Korea in 2009, and Axl’s voice was AMAZING! I was really worried that it would sound like shit (having never seen him live), but he sounded as good as the appetite days..
You guys seriously need to get over your Slash bias, and stop going gaga over anything and everything he does, while taking every oppertunity you can to bash Axl. As the other guy said, its gotten old and boring…..
I have to say that I enjoyed all the bands on the sunday.I got there to see FM onwards.Yes it rained from 4 o’ clock onwards, but it didnt stop me from enjoying it.i went on my own as no one i knew wanted to go,but i wasnt going to miss this lineup. Will look forwar to next year.
Oh Great… Axl bashing wow your witty… JK!! he is Brilliant live though (see Youtube footage) It looked fantastic shame I couldnt go good review mostly though should have reviewed Taking Dawn as well though
Dear Classic Rock
Please try to remove your puckered lips from Slash’s ass. Im sure even he is getting tired of them being permenently sewn on there.
And while you are at it, how about some fair and balanced reporting when it comes to GNR, Slah, and Axl?
Much appreciated
Toodles….
CR please stop licking Slash’s ass, I know you’ve got an album to promoto but it is really funny when you mention Myles and Axl in one sentence. Axl is sounding awesome during this tour and band is tight, he sounds better than in 92-93 tour and Myles is singing high notes like a girl nowhere near Axl at all.
And Aerosmith “I don’t wanna miss a Thing” ? It was Celine Dion song nothing in common with rock. That lady that wrote this review doesn’t know shit about rock , “Dream On” is moving rock power ballad , “It don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” is band going commercial way, singing songs they don’t even wrote.
Band of sunday for me was saxon, great set, and performance. They should have been on later in the day with a longer set.
This review is so poor its untrue.
No mention of F.M or Cinderella ?????
Take it from me i am not Billy Idol’s greatest fan and did not expect too much from him but he had the job of following Slash who was excellent and had all his teeny bopper fans. Then it rained and i mean rained Billy Idol come on and got soaked with the rest of us on the walkway into the crowd. I hope he tours after this I will certainly be getting a tickets.
who wrote this review billy idol totally rocked in the rain. Awsome.