Ten Things Learnt At Download Festival 2009

1. Killer Bees either love/hate heavy metal. So much so that it causes them to form TORNADO SWARMS in front of the second stage.

2. Mike Patton: still got it. INCREDIBLE.

3. Rock stars are split roughly 50/50 when it comes to protecting/smiting endangered species. CONTROVERSIAL.

4. Marilyn Manson hates music so much that he doesn’t even phone in his performances anymore, he bloody well texts them in. And on top of that, he does it from one of those websites that lets you send free SMS instead of using his own phone. TERRIBLE.

5. Pepper Keenan + booze + terrible drum’n'bass-rock crossover music = interview gold.

6. Slipknot: still got it. SHOVE BEING TR00.

7. Cab-sharing WILL make you a sex pest.

8. Scandanavian women are still pretty much the greatest thing in the world.

9. Websites, hotel rooms, backstage media centres and Limp Bizkit’s PR people all stop working at the worst possible moment.

10. What happens at the Saturday night afterparty STAYS at the Saturday night afterparty. No matter how hard you try to remember it…

You’ll be wanting to keep your browser on ThrashHits.com all next week for the videos, reviews, interviews, gossip, and shazizzle from Download. Trust me – it’s gonna be off the frickin’ hook.