hero. We were rewarded with blistering, impactful and unusually short and direct sets from such metal monsters as Pantera, Slayer and Tool, rock giants Guns ‘N Roses, and a brutally brilliant Metallica, with everybody adding Black Sabbath covers to their sets.
There were slickly rehearsed supergroup sets featuring members of Rage Against The Machine, Smashing Pumpkins, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Living Colour, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith and a sprightly appearance by Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones, who has never knowingly missed an opportunity to whip out his slide guitar. An energetic Steve Tyler ripping through Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love with Chad Smith on drums and Tom Morello on guitar was phenomenally good fun.
And then there was Ozzy as heavy metal’s mad King Lear, raging against the inevitable end. It was sad. It was glorious. We really will not see his like again.
Compare and contrast with Glastonbury. No Palestine flags, no Israel death chants, no Palestine Action speakers. Just people at a music festival having a great time.
And – ooh yes – class. It's not so easy nowadays to talk about class in Britain, but here we are. Glastonbury is defiantly, stereotypically, middle class, while heavy metal has always been a working class genre – here in the UK, at least. And, as Villa Park shows, the fans, despite the image, have always been the best.
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