Live: Download Festival 2009

Ruth Booth - 15 June 2009

10:20pm
We're off to watch Def Leppard's encore - 'When Love And Hate Collide' and 'Let's Get Rocked'. What a triumphant end to Download 2009! We'll see you in the pit next year...

10:11pm
It's 'Rock Of Ages', a track so undeniably hater-proof, there's a security guard standing by a fire in the crowd and not putting it out with an extinguisher.

10:10pm
"See the hair on my arms? It's up, man, just like it was in 1986." Joe Elliott starts getting nostalgic about their last Download appearance, the first live show after drummer Paul Allen lost his arm in a car accident. "So before he starts blubbing, he's gonna introduce the next one!"

10:05pm
It's arms in the air from front to back for 'Pour Some Sugar On' on the main stage.

9:55pm
Is that a little Refused cover we hear floating out of the Red Bull Tent where We Are the Ocean are headlining?

9:40pm
There's a Starship Enterprise made out of Tuborg cups and gaffa tape floating across the Main stage crowd. VF promises not to make any 'Pour some tribbles on' jokes... Oh damn...

9:35pm
"Did you see that? A fucking aeroplane goes overhead! The weirdest thing I've ever seen!" The excesses of Def Leppard's eighties hayday may not have been as extreme as we were led to believe.

8:50pm
Uh-oh, what's this? Out of tune guitars for 'Fugue'? Trivium obviously need to get Petrucci in to sort out their guitar techs!

8:45pm
Def Leppard have pulled out all the stops, using 'God Save The Queen' as their intro, as a large screen video montage runs through their career to date in the background.

8:35pm
"This is your last time to mosh - we're going to fucking explode together!" Trivium's Matt Heafy's feeling a little horny over on the second stage.

8:00pm
Ah there it is - anthem for the nu-metal age 'Last Resort', played for "the old school fans" in Papa Roach's audience.

7:50pm
Jacoby Shaddix is taking the piss out of "Shitney Spears" and Paris Hilton as Papa Roach kick in to 'Hollywood Whore'. C'mon Coby, stop stalling! You know what we all want...

7:45pm
"Did anyone catch the Pet Shop Boys?" Twin Atlantic Sam McTrusty shows he's down with the metal, as they kick into newie 'Carribean War Syndrome'.

7:40pm
Is it just VF or is there something creepy about Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale introducing bassist Uriah Duffy with the words "lock up your daughters"?

7:30pm
Now on to Chris Frazier's drum solo. News just in - Bolivia explodes.

7:27pm
'Scars' is inducing many a middle aged man to get up and sway at Papa Roach.

7:25pm
The guitar duel between Reb Breach and Doug Aldrich hots up onstage. Somewhere backstage John Petrucci incinerates one of his slave demons.

7:20pm
Whitesnake break out into the mighty 'Is This Love'. Altogether now...

6:30pm
"I feel like a jerk / 'Cause my dick won't work". Steel Panther win lyric of the day.

6:25pm
"I'd like to introduce one of greatest singers... we could find... on Myspace". The Tuborg Stage sees its biggest turn out of the weekend for Steel Panther's UK debut. Thousands of people outside the tent join those inside on the synchonised arm-waving to 'Community Property'.

6:20pm
And now for Black Stone Cher... I mean Buckcherry. Actually, we're not sure what the difference is, help!

6:10pm
We spot David from Nottingham sporting a tribute ZZ Top beard. He gives a thumbs up to 'Just Got Paid'.
 
6:05pm
Just when we thought they'd given us all the lovin', hugs and kisses they had, ZZ Top head back for a cover of 'Jailhouse Rock'. Not Lady GaGa.

5:35pm
In the press area, Joe Elliott from Def Leppard is talking about the advice he'd give his younger self 23 years ago at Download. "I hate advice. I would just say play from the heart."

5:30pm
It's a very chilled out crowd for Clutch's set on the second stage, so they're taking the opportunity to debut some cuts from their upcoming new album.

5:15pm
Is it appropriate for a man of Billy Gibbons' age to be rubbing his guitar on his thigh like that?

5:00pm
Two Beards and a Beardless Beard step out in sync. ZZ Top arrive to show all these young whippersnappers how it's done.

4:40pm
Maybe Shinedown were right - they're pulling a pretty big crowd over on the second stage for new single 'Second Chance.

4:30pm
"For those of you who don't know us. We have the disease and we destroy." Have Dear Superstar just admitted to having leprosy?

4:10pm
John Petrucci from Dream Theater is cranking out the 50 note per second solo to 'Rite Of Passage'. That's not a mosh pit in front of the stage, it's actually a breach in the space-time continuum.

3:40pm
Backstage, Andy Copping (Download's Vice President of Music) reveals his part in the recent Faith No More reformation. He'd actually been after them for last year's Download, but things didn't get organised in time. He also let slip that Joey Jordison from Slipknot was brought to meet Mike Patton backstage, and was apprently "acting like a ten year old boy". Bless.

3:35pm
"I know you've had two days of rock, but let's not look like lightweights, eh?" Daniel P. Carter is determined to keep it proper for Hexes over on the Red Bull Stage.

3:25pm
We meet Muz and Az, two Cows from Northampton who are looking forward to spilling their milk over Dream Theater on the Main stage.

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