baratron | Download 2012

Yesterday was busy & chaotic. I set our alarm for 10am because the first band we were desperate to see was on at 1.15pm. In the end, we only just made it! I had forgotten Richard's complete inability to get moving in the morning & slowness of brain before coffee.

I left him packing the suitcase & went to Blacks for some shiny survival blankets. By the time we'd been to Costa it was obvious we needed to get a taxi rather rely on the shuttle bus. When we arrived at Download, we had a big argument with the staff on the gates who were trying to send us through Entrance C instead of B, like it said on the map and our tickets. In general, we've found that the staff on the disabled viewing platform and on the gates inside the main arena are competent, & the ones outside are bloody useless.

We missed Halestorm completely, but caught Ginger Wildheart, who was as brilliant as ever, but the sound quality was dreadful. If I didn't already have the new album, I might not have been persuaded to buy it, which is depressing.

Then there was the mother of all clashes, with Turbonegro, The Yo-Yos & Trivium all on at the same time. We chose Trivium on the main stage, & they were amazing. I'll have to actually LISTEN to their albums now rather than dismissing them because I don't like screamed vocals.

We stayed at the main stage for Steel Panther, who are the kind of band you could be horribly offended by if you didn't realise they are a parody of the worst 80s cock rock. Their live show makes it obvious, & I was pleased to see them after. missing them because of coursework fail in December.

I wanted to go over to the Jägermeister stage for an acoustic set by the Quireboys (the main theme of this weekend has been catching up with bands I liked when I was a teenager), but there was a SEA OF MUD to wade through. In the end, random strangers helped. The band was "okay" - I remembered why I'd liked them in the first place (catchy songs) & why I went off them (I'm not a fan of Rod Stewart). I might dig out their first album & play it again, but I'm certainly not getting any of their newer stuff.

While over there we caught the last couple of songs of a band we'd never heard of, called Mallory Knox. Stupid name, very young kids, but they rocked.

Then we had some time to waste, so we went shopping, in the mostly-dry top field. While there we had Skindred inflicted on us, and dear gods, were they awful. They were mostly playing very bad covers of famous songs e.g. the Emperor's March from Star Wars, "Single Ladies" by Beyoncé & "Sad But True" by Metallica. Ugh.

We saw the first four songs of Killswitch Engage, who were very good with loads of energy. Wanted to stay for the whole set but Richard was anxious about not being able to get onto the main stage viewing platform for Metallica.

Finally we saw Metallica, who were "better than last year but not as good as in 1991", according to Richard. They played the whole Black Album, which is now 20 years old if anyone else wants to feel ancient.

Getting out of the field at the end of the night was "fun". All the wheelchair users had to wait until the end, then be pushed/carried over the sea of mud by up to 5 stewards. We joined the near-infinite taxi queue & got back to the hotel at 2.30am.