Saturday was set to be a much different day than Friday, and it certainly was. Hard rock and heavy metal wasn’t really the main focus of the day, and a lot of the lighter and more melodic rock bands took to the stage.

We arrived just in time to see the last ten minutes of Skindred, who seemed rather impressive, as expected. Didn’t see enough to warrant much of a rating though, so it was off to the third stage for Go:Audio. Was it the hype that had masses of people spilling out of the tent, or just the rain? Who knows, but the one thing which was for certain is that everyone there enjoyed it. Even after the rain had stopped, no one was in a hurry to leave their bouncy pop-punk anthems. This band look set for stardom.
Rating: 7/10

The bands on the Road To Download tour were all playing in the same order over on the second stage, so were worth checking out. First up was Alesana, who were okay. Nothing more, nothing less.
Rating: 5/10

The Devil Wears Prada are a band who play reasonably heavy music with a lot of melodies and a mix of vocal harmonies and screams. 36 Crazyfists were over on the main stage at this point doing a very similar thing, but better, so whatever made us stay here long enough to miss 36CF I’ll never know, and it’s a decision I’d rather try and forget. Everyone in the band nodded their heads and bounced in unison, almost as though they were a wind up band. Take that whichever way you want.
Rating: 1/10

After The Devil Wears Prada, there was no way I was staying there for another one of the Road to Download bands, so it was back to the main stage for Madina Lake. I was left feeling very sorry for Madina Lake after their set, because they deserved none of the abuse and problems that they received. They took to the stage to a sea of bottles, and it looked as though one of the bottles damaged some of Matthew’s equipment, because he seemed in a very bad mood for the rest of the set, even throwing his bass to the floor between songs. Despite everything, they played with the same energy and effort that they always do, and made it clear that they didn’t care what anyone thought of their band , as long as everyone was enjoying the festival. The bottling eventually stopped when they released around thirty huge balloons filled with confetti into the crowd, giving the idiots who felt the need to throw things something else to play with. Without a doubt, one of the highlights of the festival, especially because of the amount of willing they showed to put on their show despite all the problems.
Rating 9.5/10

Dinner followed Madina Lake, and after that was Scotland’s finest export, Biffy Clyro, who did exactly what Biffy Clyro do. They come onstage and simply say “Hi, we’re Biffy Clyro from Scotland and we’re going to play some songs for you.” And that’s what happens. There’s very little interaction with the crowd, but that doesn’t matter. Once their songs are done they say goodbye and leave, and everyone in the crowd is left satisfied. It’s not fancy, there’s not much flair and there’s no one part that you’ll sit down afterwards and think “That was the best part,” but overall, there’s just one word to describe it. Amazing.
Rating: 8.5/10

Pendulum may have pulled the biggest crowd of the weekend but I still wasn’t impressed. From the size of the crowd, and the way that they all reacted, they were obviously doing something right, but to me it was simply boring. I’m not going to rate them as I wont be able to give a fair score.

Ash on the other hand are something more like it. They play their radio-friendly pop-rock to an average sized crowd, and do it well. As with a lot of bands on the line up, they’re nothing special, but at the same time, they’re far from bad. It’s at this point that the second stage being on tarmac seems really annoying, because I wanted to lay down in the sun with a beer.
Rating: 6.5/10

Tonight’s headliners are The Offspring, but you wouldn’t know it. If you didn’t know the band, you wouldn’t know who was on. They had no backdrop with their name or logo, no flashy lights, nothing. They don’t even have an intro. The band just walk onto an empty stage and play their music, not unlike Biffy Clyro in that respect. The main difference is though, Biffy aren’t headlining a festival. Their music is very good, and their set is full of timeless hits, but there’s just no show. We were sat down on the hill when they started, and we didn’t even realise they were on, all we heard was a guitar start, as far as we knew the sound check was still going on. Not a bad musical performance, but as a headlining band, quite disappointing.
Rating: 6/10 
 

Date Added: Monday Jun 30th, 2008