A break from it all! (in Off-topic)

Whoever is really into Rock music should really check out the Download Festival.
This is a 3 day festival with the biggest names in rock music accompanied by up-and-coming bands.
The festival features over 100 bands spread over 4 stages.
Last year I delighted at Black Sabbath making their UK Ozzfest appearance at the festival along with other classics such as Motorhead and BILLY IDOL.
This year we already have Metallica, Deftones, The Prodigy and Korn confirmed. Check out Download Festival 2006

Last year I got a phone call from GL direct from Download, but I'm not sure if it was while Billy was actually playing or not. Whenever it was I couldn't hear him, he couldn't hear me. All I could hear was guitar noise!

My phone had no battery by the end of the Friday because I forgot to charge it and forgot to take my adaptor but who needs a phone when you have 12 hours of hard rocking to do? :)

Those tickets are so incredibly expensive. I mean when you convert it into USD it's sure to be more than the $400 I spent on my Coachella tickets back when the Pixies played there. :P

GL obviously wasn't hardcore enough! He needed a rest.

USD fluctuates to 2:1 at most currently so a weekend with camping ticket would only be a maximum of about $270USD, plane tickets are your only problem :).
For over 100 bands (ok you only get to see around 30 due to the stage splitting) I see this as a bargain considering at least 20 of the bands that will be on the roster would cost me £15-£30 each to see seperately.

(I was just joking about the exchange rate, Zog.)

I'm going to have to see the rest of this list of bands they're going to come up with before I can decided if it's really worth it. I don't really care much for any of the headlining bands. Deftones are alright I suppose, but they pale in comparison to seeing Radiohead, Pixies, Air, The Cure, The Flaming Lips, Belle & Sebastian, Bright Eyes, Thursday, Cursive, ...Trail of Dead, Death Cab For Cutie, Mogwai, The Killers, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, and 68 other bands over two days! I dare say that'd I'd like to go if Motorhead and/or Billy Idol were there though.

All ready have my Weekend ticket for this year! ;) Zog, we've got to arrange to meet up this time. I might even buy you a beer! ;)

A rest! It was quality drinking time, not a rest! ;)

And you not coming Johnny? Missus not letting you have the time off! :P

Ironic that Metallica single handedly shut down napster, yet they are supporting (playing) a "Download Festival"

Ohwell, I LOVE Metallica, I HATE "Nu-tallica" (Everything post-1988) The only band on that bill so far that would even be worth a third of the price of tickets is Trivium.

I've seen them twice, pretty solid.

This just goes to show what Sellouts some bands are.

Anyone catch the Sounds of the Underground tour?

This years line-up is:
"- IN FLAMES
- TRIVIUM
- THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER
- CANNIBAL CORPSE
- TERROR
- GWAR
- THE CHARIOT
- THROUGH THE EYES OF THE DEAD
- BEHEMOTH
AND A TON MORE TO COME..."

Last year they had 13 bands, for 25 bucks. Amazing show.

I've seen Gwar twice, and both times blew me away. In Flames has to have one of the greatest stage presences of any band I've ever seen, yet they dont charge hundreds of dollars to play.

God Nu-tallica sucks...

(I don't apologise if this constitutes as thread jacking (I'm not exactly sure what that is) I'm a musician, and I'm very vocal on matters regarding music.)

Somebody has to like GWAR I guess. I work the Reading and Leeds Festivals every year (except last year because I was getting married the following week) in the UK. I do sound for a regular performer in the comedy tent who's done it for the last ten years. So for ten years I've gotten into one of the biggest music festivals around for three hours work on the Friday and three hours work on the Sunday! Nice.

But back to GWAR. They played the festivals a few years back and I got to meet them. And wouldn't you just know it, out of those masks they were the nicest guys. Really polite and friendly. And two of them had brought their grandparents with them!

Oh and half of GWAR are vegetarians.... ;)

Yeah, Gwar are awesome backstage, I got to hang with them on the bus when they played here with trivium. They are just a bunch of drama guys who decided to play music, hence the HUGE stage-show.

They are entertainers, and that is exactly what they do :D

DUDE!!! Hook me up with some backstage passes! ;) But I can't get to the Reading Festival due to work.. :(

As I was saying to Avoid the other day.

Download Festival is just a name, it has very little to do with any actual downloading!

Napster sponsers one of the small tents and offers a free trial of their program but you still need to pay for usage of the music therefore I now don't see why Metallica would be against that.

But in general it doesn't actually promote the Downloading of music, in fact at £135 a pop for people to see the music live I don't see it promoting it at all.

For people who like bands such as The Killers (pretty lame now they are overly religious with their gigs) Download is not your festival unless you come on the Friday "Indie" day.

GL, I meant a break from the ranting and raving in other threads, I was stoned and drunk 24/7 at Download plus I ran out of money for my train fare home so had some blagging to do :P

:D Blagging the train home! My rest comment was to Johnny. ;) I'll give you my mobile number, we'll have to arrange to meet this year. :)

that's cool GL! I'm already meeting up with some mental Welsh chick so should be fun :P.
Did you know this will be Metallica's 7th appearance at the Donnington festival yet only their first headline?

Let us all bow our heads in respect to the tragedy that is Guns N' Roses headlining this precious festival.

Before anyone asks, no it will not be the original line-up.

O_O Oh dear....

To make it all worse, if I need to retake Unit 3 of Maths (I probably will) it is in the afternoon session on Monday 12th, do I leave on the Sunday night or try race back home early Monday morning?

more bands have been added so take another look guys (several bands are beyond my knowledge/tastes of rock music now)

I've a friend that is very excited that Tool is headlining! ;)

I am excited about that :)
I've heard of Cradle of Filth, StoneSour and a couple of other additions but nothing as good as Tool.