Born out of the desire to build a festival the like that had not been seen since the glory days of Donnington's Monsters of Rock, two individuals from totally different backgrounds came together to bring their fellow Metalheads the best Metal festival in the UK, BLOODSTOCK.
Organisers Paul Gregory and Vince Brotheridge first came together when Paul was looking for someone to build his website. Paul met Vince through a mutual friend and soon it became apparent that although their backgrounds differed, their taste in music didn't. After a succession of meetings they agreed to form Amust4music, the umbrella for all bloodstock.
Paul has lived in Derby since he was born, so when he and Vince were looking for a venue for Bloodstock, the Derby Assembly Rooms seemed the ideal solution, surrounded by pubs local eateries and accommodation.
They have the location they had the name, all they needed now was an identity an image to help establish Bloodstock's roots, this is when Paul had the idea of using some of Derby's folk law, 'The Derby Ram' ( No one knows for sure who first spotted 'the finest ram that ever was fed on hay'. Legend has it that this fabulous, fearsome beast was ten yards tall, had a tail like a bell-rope, and the teeth of a regiment of men. The butcher who finally slaughtered the ram was said to have drowned in its blood ).
After Paul painted the first image he decided to give the beast a name, so a competition was held and the name was given, S-tan the name was given by a fan, for fans by fans.
The first headlining band confirmed to play Bloodstock's first show in 2001 was Saxon. This came about as Paul had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of the Band 'Saxon' and their indomitable singer Biff Byford in 1984. He was commissioned to do the artwork for the album and the stage designs, the album was 'Crusader', now a classic in the annals of rock. Paul has painted ten albums to date for the band and has developed a great friendship with Biff and the boys. Saxon were very supportive of Bloodstock and were happy to Headline the very first one day show, alongside Primal Fear, Glenn Hughes, Blaze, Skyclad, Return To The sabbat and many more.
Following an incredibly successful show with over 700 people in attendance and great reviews to follow, Paul and Vince were straight on to planning the 2 nd years show even though they had made a considerable financial loss which they expected in the early days.
Continuing with the same theme, S-tan, Paul introduced another element into the artwork for the second show, that of the headliner. Paul had already done the artwork for Blind Guardian's 'A Night at the Opera' and a shirt with a similar theme for their headline spot at Wacken, so he was certainly going to continue the theme for Bloodstock.
Paul says, 'Blind Guardian were brilliant to work with whilst he was doing their artwork and just the same as Bloodstock's headliner, top band, top guys'.
So with Blind Guardian headlining and Gamma Ray second on the bill the 2 nd Bloodstock was on its way to becoming a great lineup, hence, the festival drew a larger audience than the first year with approximately 1500 metalheads in attendance.
Later in 2002 Paul and Vince went on tour with Saxon. Saxon were asked to headline a festival in Germany due to none appearance of the original headliner, at that festival Vince first saw Nightwish. Having never heard them before, he was quite literally blown away by their entire set and felt they would be a perfect headlining band for Bloodstock in 2003, plus this would be their first UK show. Paul recalls how excited Vince was at Nightwish agreeing to headline the Saturday, so we can thank Saxon again for that moment. It was at this stage that Paul and Vince decided to take a leap of faith and host two days of metal mayhem with Saxon agreeing to come back to headline a more classic evening on The Friday alongside Blaze, Power Quest and 5 th Man Down. Nightwish headlining the Saturday alongside Dragonforce, Paradise Lost, Edguy, Masterplan and Mercury Rain plus a great mix of bands on the 2 nd stage.
Paul says '04 was a piece of artwork that as a design, just seemed to work on every level.
The colours reflected 03, S-tan seemed more menacing and with a bit more attitude. With GammaRay and Children of Bodom headlining the show, S-tan was in his element and so as it seems was everybody else.
Keeping with a more classic theme for the Friday evening and Gamma Ray holding the headlining slot, supported by Threshold, Sinergy, Illuminatus and Infobia. Children Of Bodom was a little more diverse as the headlining slot for the Saturday and went down a storm with Sonata Arctica, Primal Fear, Evergrey, Balance Of Power, Panic Cell and Intense alongside them.
Paul decided to go back to stronger colours on the artwork for this years image. There are several elements in this work that made it different from the rest keeping the colour overall the same, the addition of the snake, S-tan and the country needs you addition for which Paul has no idea how he managed to get in!
This years show had the largest number of bands yet with Hammerfall headlining the Friday main stage slot with Stormwarrior, Metalium and Reckless Tide alongside. A Battle Metal Night ensued on the Darwin Stage with Conquest of Steel, Warchild, Deliverance and Zillah. Saturday showcased Within Temptation as the main headline act alongside Amon Amarth, After Forever, Bob Catley, Raven, Iron Saviour, Suidakra, Season's End and Rise to Addiction. Where as the Darwin Stage heralded Cathedral, Soliloquay, Balance of Silence Jesus Fix, Kingsize Blues, Dreadnought, Projekt, MFKZT and Osmium. A feast of metal was had by all.
In 2005, Paul and Vince took an even bigger leap and decided to expand the sell out indoor show which only allows for a maximum capacity of 2500 metalheads, to hosting an Open Air festival alongside the now well established indoor festival which would allow for up to 10,000 metalheads, hence the birth of Bloodstock Open Air.
Paul says the logo for BOA was fairly easy to develop, but he still wanted to keep the original concept of the ram. Once the layout for the lettering was decided it was then he came up with the idea of the metamorphosis from S-tan to S-tan plus snake. As the Bloodstock designs were quite detailed Paul decided to simplify the BOA design for it's first appearance.
There is a huge financial strain to put on two top notch metal festivals, but Paul and Vince were so commited to bring their dream to reality and realised the UK's need for a Open Air show that could still retain the friendly Bloodstock atmosphere that the indoor show had become renowned for. At this juncture Wacken showed huge support and leant their European marketing muscle to help spread the word of Bloodstock and offered sound advice to Paul and Vince to help build for the festivals future. Sebastain Bach (ex skid Row) was a superb headliner for the Friday with Mostly Autumn, Breed 77 Gothard and Panic Cell. The headlining slot for the Saturday had to be Children of Bodom as they were so well received at Bloodstock in 2004. Followed by previous Bloodstock band Paradise lost, with Edguy, Evergrey, Masterplan, Humanity and Fourwaykill.
As with all the imagery for Bloodstock events I try to produce something different each year. The themes are established with S-tan and the snake, which in a way makes it more difficult to alter the imagery significantly. However I shall rise to the challenge yet again for 07, this should also be a significant year for our shows with Wacken Open Air as our partner.
The bloodstock collective and I look forward to meeting you all next year at one or both our shows. Show your support, live the dream.
For fans by fans.
Paul
I tried to capture elements of both festivals in this image, also I believe it's good to add splashes of humour within the artwork, cans of larger etc. You may notice other additions, the shield carrying the Wacken crest. Some of the characters within the artwork are actual fans, something I deemed appropriate.
Often when producing artwork you're not always aware of those elements that sneak in and catch you unawares.
I don't recall who it was who complimented me on the snake being in the shape of the number two, whilst pointing out how problematic it was going to be to paint 04. Well now's the time to own up, as obvious as it is to me now, it was not a conscious decision. I was, as always concentrating on the design whilst subliminally focusing on the 2. Strange as it sounds that's how it happened.
How metal is that.
Paul
2007 was a record-breaking year for Bloodstock Open Air. We added an extra day to the festivities and secured out biggest line up in the festivals history starting with Testament as our Thursday headliner. We soon followed this announcement with Lacuna Coil headlining Friday and In Flames to headline the Saturday. The rest of the line up came together pretty quickly after that.
Bloodstock’s official website was totally overhauled and every spare minute of the team’s time was dedicated to building the festivals profile in every way possible. One of the most successful additions to the website was the facility for unsigned bands to upload their own music videos to allow thousands of metallers around the globe to vote for their favourite world wide unsigned band. This winning band 'Sight Of Emptiness' came all the way from Costa Rica to open the main stage on the Thursday evening to rapturous applause.
Our objective in 2007 was to literally double the attendance of the previous year’s open air which saw well over 2,000 fans attend in 2006.
All we had to do now was make sure that all the true metal fans around the UK were also aware of Bloodstock’s fantastic line up.
One of the largest record stores in the country 'HMV' agreed to display our posters, flyers and sell tickets for us and the same can be said of as many independent record stores who were only to happy to support Bloodstock and the UK metal scene. This was also the first year that Bloodstock saw a huge shift in the amount of support from the media. The metal magazines have always supported us but now we had sky TV and radio that had a core metal fan base thirsty for a festival such as Bloodstock Open Air.
Well as everything else was now in place and tickets were shifting nicely, the weather decided to throw a bit of a spanner in the works as the summer of 2007 proved to be the wettest summer in over 50 years. As luck would have it about 1 week before the festival the weather abated and the roads eventually cleared …Hoorah ! !!
Over 5,000 fans turned up and braved the wet to celebrate Bloodstock’s most successful Open Air to date and to those of you who were there ………WE SALUTE YOU!
With its strongest line up in 8 years and the highest number of metal heads in attendance since its conception - Bloodstock Open Air truly came of age in 2008.
When we first started out on the journey of Bloodstock in 2001 we were told by so many that there just weren’t enough metal fans in the UK to hold a metal festival. Nearly 8 years on over 8,500 people descended on the quiet village of Walton On Trent in Derbyshire to celebrate 3 days of full on metal.
Opeth, Dimmu Borgir and Nightwish headlined the weekends festivities. And we were fortunate enough to secure ‘At The Gates’ who reunited for the first time in many years to offer up an exclusive UK show in 2008 and their fans were not disappointed. Special Guest’s ‘Helloween’ turned out a stunning performance alongside Iced Earth, Overkill and so many more.
Organisers Paul, Rachael and Vicky have always aimed to get the festival to 20 – 25,000 capacity seeing this as a comfortable level which would allow the festival to retain its intimate safe and friendly atmosphere. The fans who attended Bloodstock this year truly excelled themselves as we had the highest number of metal heads attending in the festivals history and the whole atmosphere front of house and back stage was awesome.
The unsigned stage turned up some amazing metal acts that we know will be around for many years to come - Marshall Law and Conquest of Steel made a guest appearance on the Thursday night and really set off the weekend’s metal party with a bang. The metal karaoke tent run by the infamous 4 DJ's of the Apocalypse entertained well over 4000 metal heads each night after the main arena closed down and was as always packed to the rafters.
Valhalla smiled down on Bloodstockers this particular weekend as the UK was experiencing yet another full on frontal from the rain and other festivals were struggling against a tide of mud baths – Bloodstock received no more than a cup of it. Roll on 200