On stage, Maynard and the band had their stands – they rarely moved from their areas – but here was this guy, break dancing at a heavy metal festival. It was as hypnotising as the visuals on the screens. Short dreadlocks, back pack on, stood alone. Stood in front of us was a guy that looked to be in his early twenties.

Visually stunning, the sound was amazing…but it wasn’t that that got me sucked in. Strapping Young Lad were hilarious and brutal, Metallica were sensational (but ‘fashionably’ late), Korn were fronted by various different people as Jonathon Davies was ill, Prodigy was the most insane gig I’d ever seen…and Tool. Thirteen years on, there are a few bands I remember from Download. When Download came, we decided to watch Tool on the Friday night.

I wasn’t overawed by it, but I seriously appreciated how good an album it was technically. I remember asking my Dad to put it on in the car, and vividly remember him saying at some points “They’re really trying to rip off Pink Floyd, there.” The artwork was unlike any I’d seen before for a CD, with what were special 3D lens type glasses that enabled the pictures in the booklet to almost come to life, showing you more than if you just looked at them normally. They were selling the album ‘10,000 Days’. On a day out in Norwich, we popped in to HMV. I remember going to the pub a few weeks before the Download weekend and some of the guys I was going with saying, “Tool on Friday but, you know, seen them once and it’s always the same.” Nothing was really making me think, “Tool are a band I need to invest in.”īut, despite it all, I did. I’d always thought ‘Sober’ was an incredible song, but the other songs seemed to go over my head a bit. I really only knew a few songs ‘Sober’, ‘Parabola’ and ‘Schism’. I remember when we got the tickets and the line up was announced I was immediately excited to see Metallica, couldn’t believe I’d have a chance to see Prodigy, and hugely anticipated seeing the likes of Deftones, Alice In Chains, Korn and so on. I’d gone to Download with my cousin, Mark, and we camped with a few others that I knew to varying degrees. The only time I have ever seen Tool play live was at the Download Festival in 2006.

Tool 10000 days album stereoscopic