From the powerful nu-metal and great crowd interaction of the Union Underground (who I hadn't heard before but who's Album I'll certainly be buying as soon as it's out) to the triumphant, pyrotechnically charged Black Sabbath climax, the 60,000 crowd went absoloutely wild for every single act, almost all of whom produced performances which definitely merited the receptions. Alright, so the death metal crunching of Raging Speedhorn and the well worn antics of the similar sounding Slipknot didn't exactly float my own personal boat, but every band seemed to have thousands of people there to support them exclusively, and recruited a fair percentage of those with a more casual interest to their cause as well.

Disturbed were my own personal highlight, with the disappointment of the absence of their electric chair stage set being more than compensated by a musical set which seemed to produce of itself as much electricity as any chair could produce. They failed to capture the crowd at large, perhaps, but then playing on the smaller stage, in between the twin behemoths of Slipknot and Black Sabbath they were always facing an uphill task.

My enthusiasm for Amen has been well documented on these pages, and a fine set from them conveyed their usual frenetic energy, if failing to fill such a massive space as effectively as they had commanded the London Astoria stage. Plus I got to meet Casey Chaos afterwards, wandering round the crowd on his own personal "meet and greet", which included signing a guy's ass, several pairs of breasts and my own ticket. Also he told me what he REALLY thought of playing before the JJ72s on the nme tour earlier this year... which I'm sure you could all work out anyway, but amused me a great deal. The phrase "stuck up pricks" was used. if only guitarrist John Tumor had put on his "nu-metal is shit" T-Shirt... that kind of irony would round off ANY day!

The godfather of Nu-Metal Max Caballera collaborated with members of Slayer and Slipknot's Corey Taylor during a typically agressive, if condensed Soulfly appearance, and whilst both suffered from low billing, their reception was equalled by (hed) Planet Earth, who rapped their way through a selection of funky, if hardly spectacularly origanal tunes.

Whilst hugging the front barrier of the smaller "Kerrang!" stage throughout an imprressive performance by Mudvayne, followed by Amen and Disturbed, I missed out on much of a view of what, nevertheless, sounded like a superb set by Tool, whose latest offering "Lateralus" comes with my highest reccomendations. I'm told, however, that frontman Maynard James Keenan performed wearing only swimming trunks, and that the non-musical offerings consisted of a spectacular sequence of light, pyrotechnics and images projected onto the backcloth.

So who was left? Oh yeah... that lot... Black something-or-other. Having recieved tributes from almost every band on the bill, and accolades from many as "their original inspiration" (Union Underground) "the guys who started it all" (Soulfly) and, um "Dad" by Apartment 26's singer Biff Butler(son of Sabbath guitarrist Bill) the aged ones took the stage to rapturous greeting from all. It was truly astonishing to see Korn-hoodied 14 year-olds and mustachioed 50-something bikers alike standing as one to acclaim Ozzy et al as they took the stage to a video compilation of their greatest hits, each of which they duly performed, alongside brand new offering "Scary Dreams". This was clearly a band that could d no wrong, with the presence of half the underbill in the wings to watch as "Paranoid" and "War pigs" proved the highlights, before jets of fire shot out over the crowd and a 10 minute firework display closed the evening.

So the final word was with Ozzy- "we'll be back real soon". To the myriad worshipping hordes, of course, they never went away.

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Sandy King