'Sonisphere Festival'
Knebworth Hall 1st & 2nd August2009
Review by Metal Mick ‘the beard’ Staley

Day One

Well where do I start, this was a stunning line up for the first Sonisphere Festival and an equally stunning location.
From the collaboration between such veteran festival organisers, Stuart Galbraith and Lord and Lady Lytton-Cobbold, you would expect nothing but the best.
Knebworth’s great tradition for hosting rock festivals and Stuart’s contacts and know-how gave us this epic line up.
2010 Sonisphere planning is already underway and who knows what that will throw at us, but if they can top Metallica, then it’s a must in your diary!

That’s enough of that, now on with the gig review.

The first day was opened by ‘Blars of Glory’, an umpar band that plays metal ! (I won’t explain as you will hear more of these guys I’m sure) but everyone enjoyed.
Then the big guns, starting with Soil, who were on top form. Next up were Abba tribute act Bjorn Again’, but don’t ask me why they were there everyone seemed to enjoy them and they did a fantastic cover of ‘Enter sandman’.
You should all know by now what to expect from such metal heavy weights, Airbourne were nuts as usual, B.F.M.V gave us their best, Skindred awesome as ever. Heaven & Hell were as good now as they were 20+ years ago and that was day one.

Day Two

The Machine Head saga was resolved and they blew away the rest with a jaw dropping performance, throwing down the gauntlet to all who followed, even Limp Bizkit had to mention them when they played. Mastodon, Saxon, Killing Joke, lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold, Alice in Chains, all followed with Metallica putting on an unforgettable show, ending with JamesHetfield covered in custard pies due to it being his birthday, but this we expect and with the staggered start times between stages, you missed nothing.
For me though the unsung heroes of Knebworth are what these gatherings are all about, bands that play the small stages like the Jaegermeister stage. While Metallica and the like are playing for £1000’s payout, these guys play for little or no reward except recognition as they try to get a foothold on the ladder of fame. Next time you are at a festival try and make the effort to see some of these as you may miss out on some great talent such as The Defiled who gave a brutal un missable show and Heavens Basement were sublime.
Sonisphere was a fantastic show for the great and good, next time you go spare a thought for the Mino’s too.
Thanks once again to Lord and Lady Lytton-Cobbold for letting us in on their garden party, cant wait for 2010.

 

saxon