pick of the day for Saturday at Download

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Download Festival 2010

Friday 11th to Sunday 13th June 2010
Donington Park, Leics, England MAP
£140 weekend (with 5 nights camping + £40)

Daily capacity: 111,000

So what would Saturday bring other than another roasting from the sun? I remembered to coat the tops of my ears today so hopefully they wouldn’t make the dulux paint chart in the red section. My pick of the day has to be Rock Sugar, a strange choice maybe given that Rage Against The Machine are headlining but I like seeing different things and will still be back to catch Rage later.

Most people with kids will be familiar with the cartoon Animaniacs. Take Wakko Warner borrow his voice and stick him on a stage in a White Suit and Stetson and you get front man Jess Harnell. So many things about this band shouldn't work, not only is the lead singer a voice over actor, who has many credits to his name including being the voice of Brer Rabbit in the Splash Mountain ride at Disneyland, but their work is completely made up from mash-ups.

They started the set with Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' I think with it's sudden rise in popularity this drew many people from the surrounding areas into the tent, there was a few confused looking faces when this then merged with 'Enter Sandman' not quite up to Metallica's standard but on the whole the track known as 'Don't Stop The Sandman' was a good touch. So mash-ups aren't a new thing but seriously how the hell can 'Detroit Rock City' by Kiss work with 'Straight Up' by Paula Abdul, give it the name 'Straight to Rock City' and it works so fantastically well you question your sanity as you’re nodding along with the music.

Never in a million years would I have expected a big crowd at Donington to be rocking to Paula Abdul. During the set Harnell invited the crowd to join him in his repertoire of impressions, one of my friends had Axel Rose down to a tea by the end of it (well he thought so anyway). Other mash-ups included 'Crazy Girl' where Ozzy Osborne's 'Crazy Train' meets Rick Springfield's 'Jesse's Girl' and 'Voices in the Jungle' brings together Guns N Roses 'Welcome to the Jungle' with the 'Till Tuesday hit 'Voices Carry'. The set ends with a great combo of Queen and Motley Crue, opening with 'Bohemian Rhapsody', into 'Kickstart My Heart' into 'We Will Rock You'. Definitely a band I would catch again sooner rather than later, my only complaint was the set just wasn't long enough.