Download Festival 2010 dates announced
Early Bird tickets are now available for Download Festival to be held from Friday 11th June to Sunday 13th June 2010 in Donington Park, Leicestershire.
As the monster rock festival thunders into its eighth rip-roaring year, festival-goers eagerly await the line-up announcement. But the history of Donington and rock goes back even further to 1980 when the first Monsters of Rock Festival was held. Thirty years later Donington has hosted a lifetime of legendary performers and performances and to celebrate the anniversary, this year’s event is going to be phenomenal.
And it’s not just heavy rock and metal that’s being served up at Donington; there’ll be markets with a variety of international foods, clothes, jewellery, merchandise and the all-important tattoo parlours with cafe, bars, funfair rides, shops and a cinema continuing after the last band has left the stage and running until 2am. Shuttle buses run daily from Derby and East Midlands Parkway Stations.
Donington 2009 saw heavy metal missed with glam rock, nu-metal, dance and classic rock with bands like Faith No More, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and Prodigy with old school giants, Whitesnake, ZZ Top and Def Leppard providing seminal performances on Sunday Classic Rock Day.
Don’t miss out on this year’s feast. Early bird weekend arena tickets are on sale until midnight on Christmas Eve with prices at £135 with camping and family camping tickets priced at £25 for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
ZZ Top
The veteran rockers from Texas, ZZ Top return for concerts in Europe, Wolverhampton and London. They’ve been around for 40 years but the old timers still do rock ‘n’ roll better than anyone else. With fourteen studio albums tucked under their beards and a never-ending string of hit singles, they were entered into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 for their outstanding achievements in the world of music.
The trio of Billy Gibbons, lead vocals, guitar, Dusty Hill, vocals, bass, keyboards and (aptly named) Frank Beard, drums and percussion are still the original members. Not only capable of putting on a truly gritty show, they’re brilliant musicians in their own right; Cub Koda described Gibbons as “one of America’s finest blues guitarists working in the hard rock idiom…while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support.”
Beloved by bikers everywhere, ZZ Top has always milked the hells angel image wearing biker leathers and boots and sporting their trademark shades and long beards. In 1984, they declined an offer of £1 million dollars each from the Gillette Company who wanted them to shave them off for a commercial, saying, “We’re too ugly without ‘em.”
The bands inception was in 1969 in Texas where they toured for several years before opening for The Rolling Stones in Hawaii. By 1974, they had a huge following appearing at shows like the Labor Day stadium concert in Austin. Later artistic reinventions came about with the use of a synthesizer sound that resulted in their signature formula of modern electronics, fuzzy guitar and danceable beats. In 2000, expanded and re-mastered versions of the original studio albums were released with additional live tracks. In 2009 they celebrated the release of their first live concert DVD, Live From Texas with the world premiere at the Hard Rock Cafe, Houston. Now they are about to celebrate their four decades as recording artists. This is one for hell-raisers everywhere.
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