Sonisphere Festival 2011

The UK used to have just the one major rock and metal festival. Donington Monsters of Rock gave way to Ozzfest and Download, but (thankfully) the spirit of the festival stayed true to keep the metal bands coming to our shores. Then, three years ago, the touring circus that is Sonisphere came to the UK and we were blessed with three more days (well, two to start with) of rock ’n’ roll heaven in the UK.

Knebworth House in rural Hertfordshire, it seems, is the venue that all of the UK’s premier rock acts aspire to play. Perhaps, to consider yourself a true ‘giant’ in the rock world you have to play here – Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and Oasis have all played Knebworth. So it seems appropriate for this place to play host to the world’s biggest bands. And in those bands are some of the world’s most revered drummers. Natural, then, that Drummer felt compelled to go along, party on behalf of all you readers, and then bring you the interviews from the festival.

Drummer’s team at Sonsiphere (editor Jules, master of photography Tina K, tuition guru James Hester and Drummer newbie Joel McIver) braved the monster downpours and donned wellies to plough through the mud, flying from stage to stage to get the interviews, get the pictures and, thanks to Mr Hester, get the video that matters for you, dear readers. And there was no shortage of artists to cover! This year’s Sonisphere presented the first ever appearance of the ‘Big 4’ thrash bands … that’s Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.

Drummer was able to meet with all but one of the Big 4 drummers (Lars Ulrich wasn’t talking to the press this year, I’m afraid. We did, however, catch Metallica doing their pre-show rehearsal in the back of an artic truck, with full stage backline set-up!) and two of those interviews are here for you to read in this, our ‘Sonisphere’ issue. But there was no going home after that … we had to stay around to see Joey Jordison take to the stage with Slipknot (a brutal, punishing band to watch – awesome!), stadium inductees Biffy Clyro and Ben Johnson, Josh Freese perform with Weezer, Igor Cavelera with Cavelera Conspiracy, Mikkey Dee with Motörhead, the UK’s own master blaster Jason Bowld who performed with not one, but three different acts (Killing Joke, Bill Bailey and Slaves To Gravity), Brooks Wackerman with Bad Religion, Dan Flint of You Me At Six, Ryan O’Keefe of Airbourne, Brann Dailor of Mastodon and Michael Miley of Rival Sons … relentless!

One of the highlights for us was seeing Matt Helpern of Periphery doing a world’s first by organising a last-minute drum masterclass for a bunch of drummers in the Metal Hammer tent, which he invited Drummer to film. That video, together with many more highlights from the festival, will be available on Drummer’s new YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/drummermag). We hope you like our pictorial report of the festival and our features with the amazing Dave Lombardo and the brutal Charlie Benante, and enjoy the video highlights from Sonisphere as much as we enjoyed making them.