Download festival 2010

Around 70,000 people had survived two-and-a-half days of almost wall-to-wall sunshine, listening to some of the best live music acts in the world, when everything suddenly changed for the final day of the Download festival.

Nobody dared say anything as the crowds cowered from the first drops of water over Donington Park at about 4pm, but Billy broke the silence from behind the main stage as he prepared to follow guitarist Slash's act.

"We'll beat this," he boomed across the arena to the assembled masses.

Fast forward 30 minutes - the difference was incredible and Billy couldn't have been more wrong. The thousands of T-shirt-and-shorts people who had been soaking up the rays earlier in the day were soaked to the skin and thoroughly miserable. The hundreds in just bikinis, underpants - or less - were almost hypothermic. And the people who had earlier looked hot and bothered as they carted rucksacks around with them were over the moon as they paddled around in full waterproofs and wellies.

Others... no names mentioned... were drying out their boxer shorts in the car.

The three-hour downpour saw the beginning of a mass exodus from the event, now in its eighth year, as music fans left for home in their thousands.

Download saw no fewer than 127 bands take to five different stages during the course of the three days, headlined by rock dinosaurs AC/DC and Aerosmith, with comparative spring chickens Rage Against the Machine (they've only been around for 18 years) sandwiched between them on Saturday evening. Other acts included Killswitch Engage, Five Finger Death Punch, Motorhead, Bullet for My Valentine, Tyketto, Suicidal Tendencies, Lamb of God, Deftones, Napalm Death, Cancer Bats... among many, many others.

Something for everyone, you might say.

For me this year the festival, the 30th anniversary of rock at Donington, was more about the atmosphere and experience than the music. I had seen my must-see band, Rage Against the Machine, just six days earlier at Finsbury Park and there wasn't much else on the bill that I was desperate to catch.

Senser was a 'must-get-to-the-mosh-pit' band though and they didn't disappoint on Saturday, despite just a half-hour set. The Pepsi Max stage tent was fairly full for the largely-forgotten 90s metal-rock-rap-techno politicos, but the crowd at the front was thin enough for people to avoid serious injury while doing their bouncing around thing.

From the opening chords of States of Mind the dust rose thickly from the heavily-scuffed ground and choked the few thousand people inside the tent for the entire set. It didn't dampen anyone's spirits though, and singers Heitham Al-Sayed and Kerstin Haigh seemed to enjoy themselves much more than when I last caught the band in a rainy Newcastle club some years ago. I even saw little Heitham smile at one point.

Later the same day Rage Against the Machine headlined the main stage and once again showed why they're the rap-metal powerhouse they are. Against my instincts I stood further back than normal while the scary surging crushes happened further down at the front, and boy did they crush. At the beginning of Bombtrack the band had to stop for a few minutes while security sorted out the heaving masses, after which singer Zac de la Rocha called for a little order because people had been badly hurt.

When the performance continued it quickly became apparent that it was going to be roughly the same setlist as had been played in London the preceding Sunday, and that was disappointing. Even the 'surprise' cover was White Riot by The Clash... exactly the same song that was played in Finsbury Park. I heard someone behind me at one point shout “play something unpredictable!” and as much as it hurts me to say this about the joint-best* band in the world – I had to agree.

Nevertheless they were still great, and I won't hear anyone say otherwise.

Before I forget, it would be remiss of me to go without mentioning AC/DC and their headline act on Friday... they were great too.

I'm not the biggest AC/DC fan – I've got a couple of albums I listen to sporadically – but I like a lot of their stuff in the same way that I like some Girls Aloud songs and bits and bobs by N-Dubz (sorry). As a result I knew pretty much everything they played and it was great watching the actual performance, which took place on their own special stage, plonked right next to the main stage itself.

It was slightly odd watching a bunch of old men running around like they were in their 20s, none more so than 55-year-old Angus Young who could have done himself an injury as he sprinted backwards and forwards in his school uniform. He was followed by 63-year-old Geordie lad Brian Johnson who proved there's still life in the old dog yet when he ran the full length of the stage walkway to hurl himself at a giant bell for the beginning of the classic Hell's Bells. A terrific intro to the song.

Whole Lotta Rosie saw a giant 'Rosie' inflatable straddling what appeared to be a full-size train on the stage, sleazy song The Jack had a handful of ladies in the crowd displaying their ample wares for the big screens, and the whole shebang was closed with a decent fireworks display.

The only problem with AC/DC was the fact that the band's name didn't appear on any line-up T-shirts, posters or in the £10 programme – which was a bit pathetic. I'm not sure of the exact reasons but I gather from the forums that it's some kind of 'control' issue on the part of AC/DC management. Whatever the excuse it just makes everyone look daft in my humble opinion.

Anyway, the rain was all Billy's fault. And it fell hard.

Having packed the tent up on Sunday morning in glorious sunshine, the missus and I had unwisely left our waterproofs in the car which was a good half-hour walk away from the main stage.

After trawling the stalls unsuccessfully looking for something to replace our proper stuff we trudged back to the car amid a steady stream of departing drowned rats, and were absolutely drenched by the time we got there.

Having dried ourselves out we returned waterproof jacket-clad for the awesome Stone Temple Pilots on the main stage which, by this time, could have floated away.

So bad was the ongoing deluge that singer Scott Weiland appeared with an umbrella, although he quickly chucked it in favour of skidding around the stage and generally larking about.

But this was the biggest disappointment of the weekend for me. STP were superb back in the early 90s with the release of the albums Core and Purple, although they went off the boil after that. You would have thought their 2008 reunion would have reinvigorated their fans of old, but the Download crowd was so thin at the front that I could have played Twister uninterrupted in the mud while still being able to shake Weiland's hand from the stage. It was such a shame.

I guess the Biblical weather had a lot to do with it, but I would have still expected some kind of atmosphere from the crowd or the band, but there was nothing to speak of and it was all a bit lacklustre - although the wife loved it.

Finally for me was Stone Sour on the second stage.

Not being a huge fan of these either, my first surprise was that I knew almost every song in the set. The second surprise was that it occurred to me I actually liked them all and hadn't realised.

Singer Corey Taylor (who I met last year at Sonisphere – he's tiny!) showed what an excellent frontman he is, with his incredibly powerful voice and oodles of stage presence. Think of a beef-necked, tattooed and sweary Dermot O'Leary and you'll have him spot-on.

As the rain finally began to clear he powered his way through the headline spot and had genuinely cheery banter with the packed crowd, introducing a special wiggly-hipped dance of his to keep the light-hearted show going.

But the mood changed when Taylor grabbed his acoustic guitar and took his stool at the front of the stage in silence. Everyone knew what was coming.

Just three weeks earlier, Paul Gray, bassist with Taylor's other band Slipknot and one of the 36-year-old's best pals, was found dead at a hotel in Iowa, USA. Taylor failed to hold back his tears as he introduced the song Bother, dedicated to Gray, and a wave of emotion passed over the crowd as the song went on and further tears flowed from the stage.

The mood picked up with the sing-a-long slow number Through Glass and by the time the finale arrived with 30/30-150, the crowd was bouncing like never before. It was a brilliant show which has persuaded me to dig out my Come What(ever) May album and give it another listen.

Aerosmith were already underway when Stone Sour departed so we stood at a safe distance and watched Steven Tyler and pals gyrate and sashay around under the glare of the floodlights and the admiration of thousands. But by this time we were covered in mud, damp and knackered so we decided to head off and beat the crowds.

I'm sure they were good though.

* Joint-best alongside Alice in Chains, of course, who I'll be seeing at Sonisphere in a few short weeks.