Well, the biggest metal event of the year has come and gone. So how good was it? This was my first time at the festival, so that's the perspective you're looking at it from.
On the whole, the event is very well-organised. Security and first aid are all over the place. Free drinking water is available from a number of places, but anything else will set you back a small fortune (for instance, one (small) carton of juice is �1 and two pints of cider or lager is �5 !) The food's equally as ludicrous wil a very stingy portion of chips costing around �2, about twice the going rate even at the seaside.
My main problem was getting out of the grounds and back in. At one point, I had to get some stuff back to our minibus. Thing is, once you're out of the venue, you can't get back in. Unless you have a guest pass. Fortunately, I had one of these. What they don't tell you is that this will only get you back in through the 'paddock' entrance which is a good two miles along the wall! As a result, I missed all of Korn and about 3/4 of Sepultura's set. Bastards.
Also, if you wanted to see bands on both stages, it was difficult to catch both sets. A gap of five minutes would have been appreciated to allow people to move from one stage to another. Often one band was barely off one stage before the next was being announced on the other.
Aside from those gripes the rest of the thing's held together remarkably well. Security at the front of the stage are well-trained in handling the crowd, it never gets too much of a crush and first aid are on hand just behind the barriers to supply water.
Sound quality on the small stage was a little crappy at times. In fact, it sounded better from behind the stage rather than in front. The main stage was spot on, though. Nice and loud but still crystal clear and audible from miles away.

But what about the bands? I'll run through these in the order I saw them (photos soon - the film will be in the chemist's tomorrow morning!). I missed a couple of acts at the start due to the timetable being shifted forward 20 minutes on the day. Typical. Almost cost me Fear Factory!

Fear Factory

As usual, they were tight as a gnat's chuff. Playing the obligatory oldie Self Immolation as well as a fair amount off the Demanufacture LP, they really got a good part of the crowd moving. They really ought to have been higher up the bill, as should Machine Head last year.
A good test of the security with the number of crowd surfers, they certainly seemed to go down well. I'm looking forward to their next headlining tour, though!

Paradise Lost

I only hear this set, didn't see it, as I was busy filling myself up with free orange juice in the Roadrunner tent. They certainly sounded on form, but from what I heard from my mates, they didn't go down as well as expected. I think they ought to have been on the bill last year when they were that bit more popular.

Dog Eat Dog

Great set! This band are just genetically primed to play live. Covering the current album, Play Games, while still dropping in a lot of older material, they bounced and leapt and had the crowd right with them.
Tracks ranged from the obvious No fronts, winner of this year's Kerrang award for "Best Single", through Who's the King (both from All Boro Kings) to Isms (the current single), Rocky (a possible future single) and Games from Play Games, ending in the anthem Dog Eat Dog.
Truly a great live band. They deserve to do well for themselves.

Type O Negative

The third time they've ever played the UK and they better hurry back. The size of the crowd and the number who knew the words certainly emphasized Type O's popularity, even without touring.
Pete Steele really is as big and imposing as he looks in the pictures. With this 6-and-a-half-foot tall, built like a brick outhouse behemoth learing at you through eyes showing only their whites, it's easy to be intimidated.
Rolling his R's in every song, he managed to introduce the current single, My Girlfriend's Girlfriend with a distinctive Scouse accent (that's a Liverpool accent for non-Brit readers). Strange.
Finishing with Black Number One, Pete and the band left a large proportion of Britain's metalheads growling for more. Here's hoping we'll get it - and soon!

Biohazard

I watched this set from a distance as this was when I started ferrying stuff to the van. From what I saw, they're as good live as they were when I saw them at Bradford Rio's a year or two back. They can certainly handle the larger crowd that Donington offered them.
Opening with Shades Of Grey, they had the crowd jumping and kicking the crap out of each other from the word 'go'.

Korn

When Korn hit the stage, I had just left the grounds, but the sound carried well. They got one hell of a cheer at the start and they sounded good enough, but I can't really comment more than that.

Sepultura

Again, I was walking back to the bloody far entrance when Sepultura came on. As a result, I was knackered when I eventually got there so I stood and watched from the side.
The first thing I noticed was that there were only three people up there. I later heard that Max couldn't make it as one of their roadies had died. Worse yet, he was apparently Gloria's (Max's wife's) son from a previous marriage. A sad way to spend Donington Saturday, but I'm sure the crowd understood.
Andreas took over vocals for the majority of the set with help on drums during Ratamahatta and Kaiowas from one of the roadies. Also, towards the end of the set, Biohazard's lead vocalist helped out with Nomad (I think - my memory's a bit fuzzy this morning!). Finishing off with Troops Of Doom, Sepultura left. One man short but with the fans still behind them 100%.

Ozzy

Starting his set with a warmup comedy video on the large TV screens on either side of the stage, Ozzy warmed the crowd up well. It's nice having something to take away the monotony of a set change, and this filled the gap really well. Featuring several piss-takes of films and videos, it got the crowd into a good mood for the man himself.
Highlights of the video included:
Ozzy as a third hitman in one of the more famous scenes from Pulp Fiction
Disco Ozzy to a (hopefully deliberately!) awful remix of Crazy Train
Elvis and Ozzy dueting
The Beatles...featuring Ozzy
A scene from an Alanis Morissette video where she's chucking things into the back seat. Cut to Ozzy grabbing her knickers, sniffing them and wearing them on his head
And my favourite, a take from Apollo 13. Tom Hanks utters the now-immortal line, "Houston - I think we have a problem" as a spacesuited Ozzy appears in front of the capsule. He then knocks on the window yelling, "It's me! Open the fucking door!" before drifting across the viewscreen of the Starship Enterprise...
This ends, and The Blizzard That Is Oz takes to the stage. The first couple of songs are old Sabbath numbers and to be honest, Ozzy's voice isn't spot on. Soon, however (after the belting rendition of Warpigs) he warms up and the fun really begins. Stopping between virtually every track to get the Grud-knows-how-many thousand people to yell and sing, Ozzy soon has the crowd in the palm of his hand.
A great mix of songs and use of the huge video screens with some dandy effects make this is a set to remember. Most everyone there will have known at least a couple of the tracks. Iron Man got a hell of a cheer, Mr Crowley saw the older fans in their element and for recent material we got No More Tears, Perry Mason and the new single I Just Want You.
A lot of the set was taken up with Ozzy 'cooling down' the security guards at the front by throwing buckets of water over them, and a firehose was brought on which soaked the first few rows of the audience. Well, it was scorching hot and hadn't rained the entire day (probably a first for Donington!).
Ozzy really is starting to look his age, mind. Having said that, anyone who can do an hour plus set on a stage that size isn't past it by any means. It's obvious he doesn't have the enrgy he once did, but his heart's pure metal and that's what counts.
And after two encores (Crazy Train and Bark At The Moon), he left the audience in no doubt that his next 'farewell' tour will be a long way off!

Kiss

This was the first Donington co-headliner, but Kiss deservedly got the top slot because of the extravangance of their stage show. I think their set was about the same length as Ozzy's actually, as Ozzy ran on and Kiss finished early.
A long set change involving some adverts for a reforming WASP and the new Maiden compilation album left the crowd a little restless at first. The cruel trick of pulling down the volume to annouce a few names for the information tent wasn't appreciated! But once the show began, it was obvious why it took so long...
Kiss have always been known, in the older days at least, for their brilliant live performance with many over the top goings on. This was their first appearance in the UK in a loooong time, and the debut appearance of them back in the old make-up. Returning for a full tour in November, the band wanted to make sure fans would be back for that. I think they're going to sell out ever venue!
The set consisted of older material right through, all (I think) from the original make-up era. So please bear with me as far as song titles. I've only got Hot In The Shade, Crazy Nights and Revenge, so I hardly knew a damn song they played.
Before the lights went down, four enormous inflatable figures of the band popped up to the right of the stage. Darkness fell. The crowd cheered. Loud 'whup whup' noises were heard. And a Kiss helicopter arose from behind the stage, searchlights scanning the crowd. A comp�re announced "You wanted the best - You got the best!" and Kiss strolled on. How you stroll in platform shoes that high, I don't know, but they managed it.
Lights! Fireworks! ACTION! The band kicked right in, all in perfect unison with one another. Every movement seemed perfectly rehearsed and choreographed. Faultless. Blazing away with two tracks back to back, the Kiss Army went mental.
Standing stage centre, grouped together and rocking left to right like three silvery metronomes, the band went through every over-the-top stage movement that they are so rightfully famous for.
Gene Simmons breathed fire, drooled blood and waggled his tongue a lot.
Ace Frehley played a guitar solo so fast, his guitar spewed smoke before being hoisted aloft. The replacement guitar shot fireworks which exploded above the stage.
Peter Criss's drum solo was as tuneful as you can manage with a drum kit rather than just "see how fast I can drum". It had as tribal a feel to it as anything Sepultura have done in the last four years.
Paul Stanley just kept the crowd going as any frontman should.
The four complement each other well. Ace hardly says a word, but plays guitar like a man possessed (he probably is). Paul isn't quite as mad as the others but knows how to talk to a crowd. Gene's just insane, and Criss is as good as a band could hope for in a percussionist and can still sing.
The effects kept coming right up to the end. Paul's guitar machine-gunned the stage top at the end of Love Gun and Gene did almost an entire song after being hoisted above the stage by a crane and surrounded by pillars of flame. At the end, the three frontmen stood on cranes which lifted them up and out over the audience. And of course, Paul destroyed his guitar (eventually) at the end of the set.
Cue fireworks, loads of people going "Ooh!" and "Aah!" and Kiss being welcomed back to the British shores like the kings of rock they truly are. Hell, I didn't like the music too much, but I don't think I've ever seen a more spectacular stage show. I'd go and see 'em again!

So there you have it. Donington '96 (most of it, anyway) in a nutshell. I'm going back again. And next time, I'm taking a tent! The atmosphere after the festival with people camping everywhere and ripping fences apart for firewood is a great one. I think the fact that it stayed dry the whole time for a change made a difference, though.
My advice is: if you've never been to Donington before - go. You won't regret it. There are so many bands on the bill, at least one of them will be to your liking and the headliners are always worth the admission fee.

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