My retort to dom lawsons post

What a poorly constructed argument, avoiding the true gripe people are taking with Download. People are upset because they want to go to Download. The place has heritage and the festival has time and time again proved to be a great weekend, something that Sonisphere will develop for themselves in time. But the fact remains people are so mad because the lineup is bad. There's no two ways about it. It has a chance to reprieve itself, every year there's probably only ten bands I really would tear my tongue off to see, the rest my tongue gets used to hurl abuse about the crap band playing at whoever is too drunk to walk away from me to avoid. People who have been faithful to download for many years feel cheated, feel that the premier rock festival is sliding down a slippery slope toward base and banal acts, novelty metal, idiotic beer metal without reproof or reputation. Sonisphere is the choice of two lesser evils. There's crap at S'phere too, but it comes with less of a feeling that the lineup is ignoring music from all corners. Download only recently redressed the balance by additions such as Down, Suicide Silence and so on. The initial announcements were wholly poor. Crap like Alter Bridge, Pendulum, Bullet for my Valentine and Disturbed only serve to hint at where Download is heading if it's not careful. For years it's taken a few chances, given headline spots to great original acts like Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan, who are daring, push what is possible within metal and provide metal with the rare moments where metal can stand tall and proud and say "this is what can be achieved" but sadly, this year, it's merely bands who further promote metal in a bad light, as uninspired, worthless tripe that doesn't deserve a wider audience. That's not even to mention the fact that the lineup even pretends to have any balance. There's usually something for everyone, interspersed with crap. This year, there's everything for nobody. It's all filler bands. They're everywhere. Where's the black metal, the prog metal, the post-metal, the death metal, the epic metal, the metal that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It's nowhere. If the lineup can be classified in any context, it's that this is the year of the safe choice. Nobody is going to be disappointed watching a repeat headliner, that's not the issue. It's that there's so much music out there and yet again, it's being ignored. Lamb of God gave Download one if the best festival performances ever in '07, but they're not headlining. But I guarantee if they were, the complaints would be wiped out. If Machine Head were headlining, the complaints would be wiped out. You see the difference. Download has moved from being a festival with teeth to a festival that gums you more pathetically than a toddler. Sonisphere isn't an amazing lineup, it's just better than Downloads. Simple as that. This writer cannot sit there and rant about the moaners. This moaning is their right and I for one am glad to see it. Metal is much maligned and it's down to the fans to vote with their feet and demand with their mouths what they want and they sure know what they want. It's not to be found at Download this year and it's upset people, so by Christ they should complain, because it's uually the highlight of the musical year (after ATP) but they've been denied the obligatory visit by a wall of crap.

You cannot sit there as one man and a pen and write off the opinions of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands by saying "shut up"...they call that facism and if taken to it's logical conclusion, the writer setting out his stall as he has only serves to single himself out as a mouthpiece for the Free State of Downloadians. People are generally idiots, singuarly, almost invariably so. But hundreds of thousands, all speaking as one, smacks of revolution. That many people cannot be wrong. Not in this context. The arguments may be ill formed, the prose vitriolic, but its sentiments true. Download, at this exact moment, really does suck.

There's what, sixty slots yet left to fill? Each of these choices could be inspired. Certainly, the last few additions have been a step in the right direction and if the remaining bands selected are perfissimo, then the abuse will be reined in and accusations retracted.

As to the people who agreed with the MH writer and stated "now look at the whingers proving him right"...just take a moment and think, because you sound like a cunt saying that (note how I don't have to resort to crass pejorative every sentence to illustrate my point, just selecting a choice cut when necessary) and nobody likes that sort of attitude. It's schoolyard, akin to sibling rivalrylike behaviour and beneath you, unless you're ten. Or have a similar mental age. When was the last time you watched someone get told off and you retort "told you you shouldn't have done that" or someone gets caught misbehaving and you add to their misery by letting loose something else they've done wrong. You understand now.

I know why you've referenced this post Download-when you've made so many enemies, you need all the friends you can get. When you resort to calling on such a weak excuse of a rant to try and muster support, you really are struggling. Don't try and defend yourselves, you must know you're in the wrong, surely? Make it right. Please. Because I like Download as a festival. But the rot started creeping in several years ago-tread carefully, you may have to be cropped at the base.

And my follow on to this

I wrote a delightfully raucous follow on to my earlier post, but unfortunately, my giant Yorkshire mittens brushed over the mouse-pad and took it from the page...darn and pifflesticks.

I do actually write for a music site and it grates me that i spend my time attempting to produce intelligent, balanced and astute reviews and features and considered opinions and that offerings such as this from Metal Hammer are splashed around and given premier exposure is a point of contention-not something I can rationalise or accept without a distasteful lump rising in my throat. Lawson is not a poor writer, he's just used his pen to give this issue an unpalatable veneer.

In a nutshell, here is what I can extrapolate from all the negativity about Download this year, or to be more precise, its line-up.

Download and Donington have a very enviable mythos, a seasoned heritage carefully developed over the years. If there's any place in the world that can truly claim to be the 'home' of , it's Donington and in furtherance of this fact, Download took this nut and for many years spent quality time nurturing and encouraging this idea of Donington and it grew into a multi-faced monolith.

The excitement and anticipation of Download begins the moment you leave it. You walk out after several days of brilliance, irrespective of the line-up or weather or any other element you care to name and you immediately begin to think, "Will next year be this good?"

Download isn't just the music, its the occasion, the banter, the camaraderie. People buy into this just as much as the music and as such, many purchase tickets pre-announcements because they can rely on sound judgement in selecting artists, knowing the 'festival vibe' is perennially there. You cant just say that if you don't like it, go elsewhere. people don't want elsewhere. they want Donington and they want Download, because it's proved to be the best thing to them so often. A line-up cant please everyone, it just cant. This said, it can please a lot of people and this year that fact is not in the ascendency. People are upset because they're not just faced with a poor line-up, but their premier musical event has been stolen from them. The music of the festival and the enjoyment of the festival is a symbiotic process. You need one for the other.

However, this year, the line-up stinks. It cant be all things to all men and the line-up never has been, but this year, it feels like something has been stolen from you. People want to come to Download because they feel that Download is their event, their festival and when you're there, its there just for you. This year, it feels its there just for one person. The line-up stinks. It does, its entirely unavoidable. the fact is the response has been overwhelmingly negative and its peoples right to complain as loudly as possible, so that lessons are learnt, people feel placated on a personal level and thus problem is not repeated. One needs to feel they have vented their fury because they feel personally slighted.

A line-up cant please everyone, it just cant. This said, it can please a lot of people and this year that fact is not in the ascendency. People are upset because they're not just faced with a poor line-up, but their premier musical event has been stolen from them and with it, their regular musical event isn't happening.

This line-up is evolving and ever is ever so slightly improved upon with each announcement, but the damage is done. Headliners don't really matter, it's the time between eleven and seven that people care about. The headliners, whoever they are, are by the time they come on stage playing to the drunkest group of people in the country who will shout and holler if there was a gaggle of geese playing the drums on-stage. No, the problem lies not with the headliners, but rather with the filler bands. Where's the sense of adventure,. where's the chances that you'll stumble across a stage and see a band who will redefine your outlook on music, where is the band that makes it all worth it.

No, make no bones about it, people are upset but they'll get over it. They'll pick another festival and have a great time. People who are saying "the people who moan will be the ones missing out" are sorely mistaken. They wont be missing out, they'll find a replacement and have a great time.

What is wrong with this picture? They shouldn't have to.