Hammer brings you the first of many live updates from the Download Festival 2009!

Gill: Hammer’s onsite. Just. With the tube strike on, no one was returning hire cars to the depots, so our 7-seater MH funbus was… well, it wasn’t. Luckily the hire company replaced it with some massive executive monster of a saloon that was the size of the Enterprise and loads more futuristic. Anyway, we got here. And because I know you want to know, we listened to Hendrix’s ‘Are You Experienced’, He Is Legend’s ‘Suck Out The Poison’ and Black Lungs’ ‘Send Flowers’ (Wade from Alexisonfire’s side-project).

So now we’re onsite and the sun is shining like a motherfucker. The media tent is like a sauna, and having hunted high and low for a coffee, we’re finally ready for a day of metal. We’ll be filling you in on all the backstage shenanigans as well as bringing you the first reviews of loads of bands, so stay tuned. Oh, hang on, here’s Carem Gibson with some news…

Caren: Wandering around the site for the first time, there’s actually a really good vibe among the punters. With the sprawling layout and four stages it’s got a kind of Reading festival vibe. But without the pretentious cunts and hangers on. Download organiser Andy Copping has really turned things around this year. Big cheer for that man, well done fella.

Steadlur have a tough task opening the second stage. Their toughest competition may only be Hollywood Undead on the main stage, but with the Download punters still waking up and familiarising themselves with the site layout, there seems to be more interest around the glam wannabes than at them. If Steel Panther are Motley Crue, then Steadlur aren’t even LA Guns. They’re Spread Eagle or Kik Tracee. They’re even worse than odious gangsta wannabes Hollywood Undead. Exactly.

Beez: Hollywood Undead were nowhere near as bad as I feared. Don’t get us wrong, it’s certainly not good to see someone humping the air and finger-windmilling like Eminem, but it’s heavier live than on record. I’ll never see them again but they wasn’t as truly abysmal as was expected.

The Blackout are lovely guys but there ought to be a law against singing out of tune to this extent. Seriously, it’s like a cat being throttled with barbed wire. Applause for bigging up the Durst though. His arrival is imminant, the excitement is unbearable.

A Day To Remember have just slayed it on the second stage. Opening with The Downfall Of Us All, the beatdowns are sicker than sick, the chorus’s are insane and the energy given is madness. Hats off to the crowd too, they’re making enough racket to drown out low flying planes.

A bit of an aside but I’ve seen a dude thrashing around in a one-man circle pit like his life depends on it while his mates just look on obliviously. I walked past the same spot ten minutes later and he was still going. The fans make this festival what it is – the best weekend of the year. Better yet, it’s only just begun.

Check out pics from Steadlur, Hollwood Undead, The Blackout & A Day To Remember’s sets at the official Download website.