Friday:
We started early and it paid off, the first band of the weekend, Amplifier, were great: sure there’s only three of them but there’s loads going on in this prog stoner hard rock sound. Next up was Bullets And Octane who were recently in the UK supporting Avenged Sevenfold, and sure they may be this year’s attempt at reviving the Sunset Strip’s ‘80s heyday, but shit can they wail - great songs from great showmen. Running between tents we caught the latter half of Coheed And Cambria who – as usual – were unbelievable; particularly the extended vocodered guitar freak out – genius. Atreyu were great, nailing both new tunes and classics alike. Tool were good if a little boring. Maynard spent the entire gig writhing topless on the drum riser and the video screens only showed Tool videos – the show just didn’t translate out of the headphone onto the outdoor stage where the more instant rock and metal anthems work better through the wind.

Saturday:
Brightonians Johnny Truant are as tight and brutal as ever despite their new guitarist Reuben Gotto have had only a handful of practise hours with the band. Exit Ten were way down the line-up, and this may have been their largest audience to date, but the Reading boys held their own through less-than-perfect sound, singer Ryan working the crowd like a pro. By the time Sikth hit the Snickers Stage the tent was chock full (at only midday) which is good news for Britain’s Answer To Slipknot™, but while it was packed the crowd were hardly movers or shakers. Trivium debuted some of their new material which had people looking at each other wondering whether the band know how much like Metallica they sound: from the riffing to Matt Heafy’s new vocal style. Killing Joke played to a lacklustre crowd in the MySpace tent as most punters headed to the main stage for Metallica, who deftly ripped through the entire of Master Of Puppets and other thrash classics. For many this performance was the highlight of the festival.

Sunday:
Dragonforce were by far the freshest thing on the menu, and had 70,000 people eating out of their hands, waving plastic swords and chanting ‘Through The Fire And Flames’. All six of the band were running around like madmen, never failing to exact their light-speed and technically difficult guitar manoeuvres. Genius. 36  Crazyfists were next on the same stage and had a hard act to follow, not least because singer, Brock Lindow had broken his voice and was all but unable to thank the crowd. Despite the setback the boys debuted new songs like, ‘I’ll Go Until My Heart Stops’ as well as older numbers from their previous albums – a great show all thing considered. Eighteen Visions put on a great show despite the fact that most people had headed off to the main stage to watch Bullet For My Valentine and the crowd was thin. Bullet themselves were amazing, proving that they have what it takes to become a great band who can handle themselves in the thrones of rock gods. Another weekend highlight was Canadian quintet Alexisonfire whose near perfect set was a brilliant live rendering of the band’s glorious scream/sung rock/metal anthemia. Guns n’ Roses? You’ll have to wait for the review in an upcoming issue of Metal Hammer…

Ta luvs, Gill

So I went to see Axl and friends last night, and was super excited. A7X went off, we got some beers, and then got back in there to see the Gunners. But lo and behold, Axl was running late. Fair enough, it was slightly expected, but him not coming on until 10:45 is taking the piss! No matter which way you cut it, going on that late just isn’t cool, especially when there’s kids in there with their dads and people with last tubes to catch. My girlfriend was even talking to a girl from Scotland who was going to miss her last train back so had to beg her mum to book her a flight back so that she wouldn’t get fired for missing work the next day.

There’s no way Axl will know any of this stuff of course - the show went great for him - but I think he should. However good a gig is, it’s never going to make up for all the fucking around. Everyone in that room paid around 40 quid to see GN’R and the least Axl could do is get his shit together in order that people can get home without having to pay more money. Rock’n'roll is supposed to be fun, not stressful. Instead of seeing Axl the next time that he plays, I think I might put two hundred quid behind my local bar, ‘Appetite…’ on the jukebox and get my mates to join me - that’s a guaranteed good night right there. If you want to chip in and join us, then mail me: jamie.hibbard@futurenet.co.uk