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Of the big
UK festivals I have been to, Sonisphere in its short run has the best
organisation. Not of the stages – more about that later. No, I mean the
essentials like car parking, lavatories, ease of access. It’s no Hellfest, but
it pisses all over Donington beyond a doubt. It’s back in the UK after a 2 year
absence but I could only choose one day. Saturday was the obvious choice. I just
had to see the First World War memorial dogfight in which Bruce was flying a
tri-plane. Having seen Maiden two weeks earlier at Hellfest, I might have chosen
the Sunday. Yes, might have, if Metallica fans hadn’t wasted a golden
opportunity to ask for rare songs with the ‘By Request’ set. They instead have
requested every single bloody song that Metallica ALWAYS play. You fucking
idiots! What an opportunity MISSED!!
Anyway, the
metal market is set up fairly well. I don’t like the line of food stalls running
down the middle of the field between the two stages. Can’t remember that being
there last time. Maybe it was….no matter. The guy who didn’t have a Testament
patch at Hellfest still hasn’t got one at Sonisphere but with Graspop Metal
Meeting on the weekend between, he probably hasn’t even been home to re-stock.
The downer
is that all official band merch evidently goes on sale the first day. The Maiden
tour shirts had already sold out on the Saturday very early. I don’t think
festivals should sell headline band merch before the day of that particular
bands performance. A lot of people who came specifically for one day and arrived
as soon as the gates opened were very pissed off at that – there were niggling
passing comments throughout the day. I have no idea who makes that decision or
whether they’re even working for Sonisphere but it’s not something fans are
happy about.
First up is
Ghost. Well, not first up, but do you really want to hear about English novelty
fat bastards Chas n Dave? Good. Cos I didn’t watch it. Missed Tesseract though.
That I am sorry for.
As with Rob
Zombie, it is very different seeing Ghost in the day. It doesn’t give the same
vibe because the same atmosphere simply cannot be created when the sun is out
(it’s raining) so part of me thinks the main stage performance is a mistake.
Strike 1. The Bohemia tent but a bit later on would have been more suited to
this band. It’s going down well from where I am standing but the vocalist does
appear to be a very good ventriloquist. Words come out when his lips are not
moving. I am not sure what to make of it. It something some of the crowd are
talking about too.
Next are
the Winery Dogs. Everyone turns around and walks a short distance to the other
main stage. I have a lot of respect for Richie Kotzen but I cannot help saying
that once you’ve seen Paul Gilbert with Billy Sheehan, there really isn’t any
going back. He (Richie) kinda looks like Chris Cornell nowadays. Mike Portnoy
may have made a career changing fuck up with Dream Theatre (yes that’s right
THEATRE – the way you are supposed to spell it :P ) but he’s landed on his feet
here. The three of them together put on a solid rock and roll show for,
unfortunately, only 40 minutes. We even get ‘Shy Boy’ at the end and I,
coincidentally, notice a Mr Big poster advertising a UK date in October. I’m
there.
Anthrax are
on the main stage. Ugh there’s that Big 4 moniker again. I hate that. This time
Joey chooses not to run past the crowd during ‘Indians’. Last UK festival
‘thrax played he got tackled by security. This is their second gig of the
festival. They treated their fans to some Among The Living last night too. Joeys
stage presence means his struggling vocals can be forgiven. Everyone’s going
nuts. It is thrash metal, after all.
Most of the
thrashers in the Anthrax pits quickly run over for Carcass and smash in to each
other. That I was not expecting. Again, strange to see another band so early in
the day and on the main stage. By this time the rain has fucked off for a bit
but it’s the wind that makes things difficult to hear in places. Carcass give an
average performance but again part of me is probably so used to seeing them as a
headliner on a smaller stage and later in the day that my view of this
performance is perhaps blemished. I don’t know. It’s by no means a bad
performance, but it lacks something and I can’t put my finger on what it is
exactly. Darkness? Strike 2.
Into the
Bohemia tent now for Sebastian Bach. Glad we got in at the right time 'cos they
are not letting anyone else in. It gets rammed very quickly. This appears to
catch a lot of people off guard and there are many disgruntled fans outside the
tent wanting to get in. Here is where perhaps an outside stage would have been
better for this kind of performer. Perhaps not surprisingly the set is Skid Row
material. He has 40 minutes which have already been eaten in to due to technical
difficulties, which he is more than a little pissed off about. The biggest
moments by far are the two ballads ’18 and Life’ and ‘I remember you’. These are
songs that just shouldn’t be sung from a tent. Sorry. Strike 3 – time for
something new.
Well,
luckily we have an aerial mock up dog fight with Bruce flying a tri-plane. No
rain, mostly clear skies as the clouds finally fuck off. I don’t think any band
member of any band anywhere could pull off anything that would top what Bruce
did here. This was a massive treat even if Bruce is flying a German plane.
Traitor! Smoke trails for feigning planes getting shot work a little better than
the machine gun fire over the P.A but they can’t very well give them real guns
now can they? This was awesome, a great way to mark the last date of the Maiden
England tour. Last year one plane flew over Donington, this year several planes
‘fought’ over Sonisphere. Brilliant.
After
eating it was time for Slayer, who from where I was standing unfortunately
sounded awful. No matter where I went someone somewhere just couldn’t get the
sound right. It is far too heavy on the bass drums and bass guitar, though Tommy
on vocals is fine. He even manages the Angel Of Death opening scream. Some
recovery in Seasons In The Abyss but it is fluctuating. War Ensemble wasn’t all
bad.
Finally,
Iron Maiden. A little slow in places, most notably ‘Prisoner’ but that’s been
par for the tour. There was also something particularly unfortunate given it was
the last date of the tour – something fucked up on the pyro-technics. The pilot
light. Bruce was pointing all over the stage on cue for flames to burst up that
never arrived. Finally he’d had enough and said ‘set the whole fucking place on
fire’. Well, whatever stopped working started to work after that. It wasn’t the
best Maiden performance of the tour (this being the third of this tour I had
seen) and Bruce seemed to struggle a little more on vocals in very few places,
but this marked the end of a good day that I will make an entire weekend of next
year as I did in 2010, when Maiden were on slightly better form.
Even with
the sound issues and trouble with merch sales and bands playing at times and on
stages that are not necessarily appropriate, this remains the best of the big UK
rock festivals.
Attending:
Matt Fabi |
