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It has now been a month since the 30th anniversary of the legendary Download festival, and this year’s line up was simply amazing. Even if you just focus on the three headliners it would still have been my personal choice for any music festivals this year. AC/DC, Aerosmith and Rage Against The Machine. In my opinion three truly amazing bands. For AC/DC and Aerosmith it was possibly one of their last festivals that they are going to play, that just made their appearance at the festival even better than it already was. But it wasn't just the headliners that made Download such a good festival this year, the line up was packed with so many great bands. Probably my personal favourite out of the line up was Slash, the guitar legend. After years of silence from Slash he brought out his very good solo album earlier this year and then proceeded it with a world tour. Also especially for Download Slash performed one of his new songs Dr Alibi with Lemmy from Motorhead. Any festival that has the presence of such a musical god must be in my opinion extremely high quality. Among the other bands in the line up were super group Them Crooked Vultures, rock legends Motorhead, Slipknot spin off StoneSour and 80's comedic glam rock band Steel Panther. Now though the only question on everyone's lips after such an amazing festival this year is, can they top it next year? I hope I am not alone when I say I hope so and that i will be there to find out. |
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Reading and Leeds
Out of the festivals I have written about Reading and Leeds are the two that are still to come. Musically Reading and Leeds are somewhere in between Download and Glastonbury. Some of the bands there are quite heavy whereas others are quite soft, it’s a good mix. Out of all the headliners that I will go on to in a moment the most famous has to be Guns N’ Roses. But before you get excited by the fact that such a legendary band will be playing you must look at their lineup. Axl Rose is currently the only original member left in Guns N’ Roses so it’s practically not even the same band anymore. But there are also many other great headliners playing at these two festivals such as Queens of the Stone Age, Blink 182, who are playing in the UK for the first time after their reunion and also Paramore. In comparison to the other festivals Reading and Leeds has been running for the longest, since roughly 1961 where it started out as a small jazz festival and over the last 50 years has grown to be two of Britain’s largest festivals. Reading and Leeds have 4 stages packed full of the best in indie/rock/punk around which may be less than the other festivals but they make up for it in quality and variation of genres. With the price of a weekend ticket to Reading or Leeds being £180 a lot of people can’t afford to go this year but, if you are just looking to go for a couple of bands you can purchase single day tickets for cheaper. |
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Another of Britain’s music festivals celebrating and anniversary this year was Glastonbury. As of this years festival Glastonbury had been up and running for 40 years, quite an achievement. Download is hot on its heels as it celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Compared to Download Glastonbury is a very different festival and not just in terms of music. The whole festival is on a completely different scale to Download, it is huge. Upwards of 25 different musical venues contained in just one festival, quite an achievement in itself. But back to the musical side of things. Whereas Download is a very heavy festival in terms of genres and the audience it brings, Glastonbury is a lot softer and also a lot more varied. With 25 staged to choose from there is a little bit for everyone. The three main headliners for Glastonbury were Stevie Wonder, Muse and Gorillaz. To start with U2 were going to headline but due to Bono’s back injury they had to pull out and Gorillaz took there place. It would take me hours to list the rest of the line up so I’m not going to but if you would like too see the very extensive list of bands that played then just pop on over to the Glastonbury website. As someone who prefers heavier music personally I would choose Download over Glastonbury but bands like Muse do appeal to me greatly. Hopefully the download for next years Glastonbury will be maybe slightly rockier then maybe I will be more inclined to go. As festivals are getting more and more expensive you can’t just look at the headlining acts you have to look deeper to make sure you’re getting your moneys worth by going to the festival. |
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