Line up (In order of appearance)Iron Maiden
Pendulum
Alice in Chains
Slayer
Skindred
Karnivool
Madina Lake
Iggy and the Stooges
The Cult
Bring Me The Horizon
Dir En Grey
The Fab Beatles
CKY
Notable bands over in Bohemia were Funeral For A Friend and Fightstar, as well as Rise To Remain and Converge.
Sunday.
The final day of Sonisphere 2010 began at the donut stall, where I bought my incredibly healthy breakfast of freshly prepared donuts, more or less identical to the ones I used to get at carboot sales when I was younger and believe me, it was great being leant against a rail, eating donuts for breakfast whilst watching Karnivool rocking out on stage. James was pretty impressed with them, and so was I, I had listened to them briefly before but seeing them live was cool - And it was something I would have originally missed as the band were previously billed to perform in Bohemia but obviously moved up at the last minute.
As they were only opening the festival, it was obvious that they wouldn't be on for long - I believe they had as little as 30 minutes on stage before Saturn openers CKY came on. They were okay, James appreciated them more than I did but then they were around when he was proper into this genre years ago and I wasn't - Sadly, I didn't get to see much of them as I spent most of their set waiting to be served with an Iron Maiden t-shirt at the official merch stall, and you know you're being ripped off when you've spent nearly £50 in one weekend just buying three t-shirts.
I believe the next band we saw was Skindred. Having seen them during Sonisphere 2009, I wasn't overly fussed about seeing them again but I'm glad I did - Out of all the bands that weekend, I think Skindred had the best crowd interaction, with Benji Webbe trying to launch some crowd reaction competitiveness betwen the right and left hand sides of the audience.
I personally don't rate Skindred much but in terms of bringing something new to the table, I do - Who'd have thought of blending metal with reggae? Two completely different genres.
When they had finished, we decided to head back to the camp for a bit as there wasn't many good bands coming on in the mean time. I admit I don't really like Slayer, I don't like Dir En Grey and I certainly don't like Bring Me The Horizon and all three bands were booked to play in the next few slots.
We went to the camp to chill before emerging again to try and get into the Bohemia tent to see comedian Sean Hughes - but it being completely packed and the increased aroma of unwashed metal festival participator filling the air, we decided to duck out which was a shame - This was one of the last times he would perform in such an intimate environment as he was about to hit the big time. We then had a browse around the stalls and went back to the camp for a sit down. It was nearly for the highlight of James' weekend - Alice In Chains.
When they came on, Alice In Chains were great from the word go. They'd really advanced in such a short space of time; having seen them back at Sonisphere 2009 when they were about to release their first album with new frontman William Duvalle, filling in for the late Layne Stayley. It was great to see them again, and I imagine it must have been great for James. He'd grown up listening to bands like Faith No More and Alice In Chains, and he'd always wanted to see them, and to be a part of that was awesome. He's a great guy.
When Alice finished their set, we had a change of plan. We had a good spot, and we didn't want to give it up. It would be extremely hard to regain if we left it to see The Cult, so I had to sacrifice an opportunity to see them live in order to watch Iron Maiden. It was a hard decision as I'd just got into The Cult, but with Maiden being one of my all time favourites and the big headliners of Sonisphere 2010 - I had to see them. I couldn't pass them up. So we stayed there waiting until Pendulum made an appearance.
When they finally came on, Pendulum really got the crowd going. It was non-stop, people were actually dancing to their songs which was surprising for a metal festival - Sure, Pendulum are influenced by metal, but they're more DnB than anything else. A lot of their music is played on Radio One. I've only heard two metal songs on that, and that's Chop Suey! by System of a Down and Begging For Mercy by Bullet For My Valentine.
Pendulum were very good. They were perhaps one of the better bands at the festival, and I am so happy I got an opportunity to see them, but what amazed me the most about them was the fact that, not only did they have such a good set, and the crowd were surprisingly very good, but the band actually made something happen that none of us were expecting. It's strange really, what one man can do at a special appearence to a live gig, especially if your name is Anders Friden. Yes. THE Anders Friden, the same frontman from In Flames was present, and appeared on stage to help Pendulum perform Self vs Self. I am telling you now, when this man got started, the crowd went crazy. His singing is very intense, maybe moreso live than on recorded CD, and during the introduction to Self Vs Self, Friden held a scream for what felt like 10 seconds. The man is an animal, I swear to god. I am a huge fan of both Pendulum and In Flames, and seeing them both together... It was fantastic. It was just a huge shame about the large amount of flags that not only were blocking the view of the stage, but the screens as well so it was very difficult to get a glimpse of what was happening, let alone take pics - Otherwise I would have done this.
Anyway - On with the show... When Pendulum finished up, we waited at the same spot for a while, had a sit down next to the railing. It was nearly time for Iron Maiden to make their Sonisphere UK debut, and I was excited. I had heard rumours, that 'Maiden were going to be playing alot of their newer songs, which had me a bit worried, with it being my first time seeing the band, I would have liked to hear a lot of their classics which, I'm sure I'm not alone with, but we'd just have to wait and see. The sky was growing darker, the gathering crowd getting restless and for those who had camped at the front of the Apollo all day, so they could be just that little bit closer to the heavy metal legends themselves, it was about to pay off. The curtain that had fallen some while earlier on-stage lifted, and we were greeted by an eclectic lightshow, with dramatic music, reminescent of something from the original Star Wars films, with a hint of Masters Of The Universe beginning to play on the stage speakers as the crowd went nuts. The screens were showing star constellations, nebulas, gas clouds, anything space related and as the stars on the screen wheeled forward, the flashing red lights lights got faster as the intro music reached it's climax, and ended.
We were met with a very brief silence before the opening to The Wickerman sounded, reminding us that Iron Maiden had landed at Sonisphere. The guitarists wandered onto the stage, before frontman Bruce Dickinson legged it on there, leaping at a height which you wouldn't expect for a man his age to even come close to. Here he was, a man of 52 years of age, running and jumping around the stage like a man of half his years. Don't believe me? Here's the video which was kindly uploaded by a user named "EroticSludge" on Youtube.
So yeah, I think that video sums their intro up rather nicely. You may remember me typing earlier that I was worried about the band playing a lot of their newer songs rather than the older, more well known tracks. Sadly, this was the case, but Dickinson later spoke to the crowd, announcing that the festival was completely sold out, not a single ticket was left and that we were "All packed together like sardines". He also addressed the crowd regarding the kind of songs they would perform for us tonight, and due to them wanting to promote their more recent work rather play the same old songs, they were going to play songs from albums such as Brave New World, A Matter of Life And Death, Dance Of Death and The Final Frontier before delving into a few classics at the end.
Sadly, with this being one of the legs on their Final Frontier World Tour, you would expect them to play a few more songs off the album itself but this was not the case - At around the third or fourth song, we were treated to a live version of El Dorado, which was a single the band had given away for free in order to promote the then-yet-to-be-released album, The Final Frontier.
The full setlisft for their Sonisphere slot is as follows:
The Wicker Man
Ghost Of The Navigator
Wrathchild
El Dorado
Dance Of Death
The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
These Colours Don't Run
Blood Brothers (This was dedicated to the late Ronnie James Dio)
Wildest Dreams
No More Lies
Brave New World
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden
Encore:
The Number Of The Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Running Free
Very good setlist, actually. I was worried that they would play their new stuff but actually hearing it, it wasn't that bad. It's certainly made me appreciate their efforts in more recent years which I suppose was their intention, and I agree with them where they say its boring having to play the same old songs every chance they get to play. Why would they still make new material if they don't play it?
Iron Maiden took Knebworth out of this world, and I would love an opportunity to see them again soon.
This finally concludes the review of Sonisphere 2010, and I currently look forward to the next festival. An announcement appears to be incoming shortly, as the official website has updated for 2011 but does not have the headliners announced. Here's hoping for Foo Fighters, Muse and maybe a bit of Ozzy Osbourne, who knows... Watch this space.
For now, I will simply leave you all with this video - A teaser for the festival highlights show that was on TV recently, it contains pro-shot clips of videos I would have included in here if I was able to but sadly, there aren't many. Worth a look :)
