Wollaton Park

Luke Seagrave: "The stage was then set for the headliners - Green Day. Love them or hate them, but they know how to put on a brilliant performance. They opened with Maria using pyrotechnic explosions to give the people right at the back a chance to have some visual stimulation. Their set list consisted of a greatest hits theme. The only exception was that they missed out Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) from their set list. But all the other hits were included: Minority, Basket Case, Knowledge, and When I Come Around to name just a few."

David Flint: "Green Day have a lot to follow after a storming set from the Iggy, and frankly, they're not up to the task. Perhaps if the band concentrated on playing an hour of pop-punk favourites (we know they can do it) rather than filling the stage with rabbit costumes things would be better. As it is, when the band do their shtick of inviting members of the crowd onstage to play a tune, what might have been a fun interlude just seems an endless slice of contrived nonsense (if this was a one-off, it'd be fine, but they do it all the time) that effectively grinds the show to a complete halt. Ah well... at least the rain stopped."

Matt Andrews: "We were talking, when we heard a roar from the crowd who were already by the main stage. I looked down there and I could see the guy in the pink rabbit suit. I shot off down there and made my way to the front, not wanting to miss anything. Suddenly over the PA, The Ramones' classic Blitzkrieg Bop began playing, and everyone was singing. Here comes the bit you've been waiting for! Sirens began wailing everywhere, like air raid sirens, and flashing lights were all over the stage. Everyone by that time knew who it was, and the cheers were deafening. Over the noise, the band ran out of the wings, and shot straight into Maria. Everyone was jumping around as though they were on pogo sticks, and it was an amazing atmosphere, even though we'd all been there for almost 12 hours in total. Green Day was easily the best band there. After the opening, Billie shouted out 'HELLO NOTTINGHAM!!' and everyone went crazy down in the pit. For almost every song, Billie stopped singing and had us all chanting things, 'HEEEEEEEYYYYYY!!' or 'Heeeeeeeeyyy-ooooo' and 'OY! OY! OY!' etc. It was amazing how he got everyone jumping about and shouting. During Maria, a ton of explosives went off, it looked amazing. This happened again in another song, only it was fire, and I felt the heat from it as they went off, it was amazing. When they first started, there was a huge cartoon skull banner as their background, but when the chorus started to one song (it may have been Longview or Welcome To Paradise, I can't remember), this dropped away to reveal their logo from the International Superhits cover. When I was watching them, I felt really weird, like in awe. This was my favourite band and they were currently playing live around 10 metres away from me. It was hard to believe at first. I could see Blue (Billie's famous guitar) which, up until now, I had seen all over the internet and magazines, and now it was onstage, metres away from me. I was loving the whole show, I sang every word to every song and I was jumping around like a kangaroo to everything, regardless of how stupid I might have looked to anyone else. When it came to Knowledge, the band did what I knew they would, and got some audience members up to play. First they got the drummer, and Tre taught him the beat. After a shaky start, he picked it up and the crowd went wild for him. Next they got a bass player, and me and some friends from school were trying to get a girl we knew to volunteer, although she didn't really want to. They ended up with a girl, and again, once she picked it up, everyone went wild. Finally, they chose the guitarist. This made me feel sad a little, I play guitar, and I would have loved to have played, but I'm not quite good enough yet to play the barre chords needed for that song, so I stood by and watched. Once more, the crowd cheered as the guitarist joined in, then Billie sang and they all played their hearts out. After they finished, Billie asked the boy who played guitar his name, and then announced 'Everyone, James (or whatever his name was) has just won a guitar!' and gave him the one he had played. Lucky boy. When King for a Day was played, Billie did his usual, dressed up as a king in a crown and robe, and ran about the stage while two trumpet players dressed like The Three Amigos played. There was also a bee and a rabbit (i think..) dressed up playing horns too later on. Sometime during the set (I forget when), the International Superhits logo fell away to show their Japanese style logo made up in lights. They played Minority at a faster speed, and everyone was moshing all over the place to it, and singing the chorus like a football chant. Waiting was great too, and Tre got onto an amp stack and danced about on it for a bit, which was cool. For most of the songs, the band needn't have sang. The audience sang almost every word, and it showed in the bands performance how cool it must feel to have an audience sing the words back at you. Billie shouted at one point, 'Are there any old skool Green Day fans in the house?', and I cheered madly. Although I'm too young to be 'old-skool', I love all the old material, as much as, if not more than, their newer stuff. Where I live, owning Nimrod is pretty underground, so in that context I guess I am old skool! After this, they played 2000 Light Years Away, and I noticed that not as many people sang this one. They also did a cover of that Shout song, ("You know you make me wanna SHOUT! Put my hands up and SHOUT! Etc..) Which was great and funny too. In the middle of another song, Billie got a water gun and soaked the crowd, which was cool, while Jason played guitar. Another cool song they played was Platypus, which isn't one they do a lot. It was great, they played it furiously and everyone was moshing. Next to me, one of those gaps in the crowd opened up and all these people were jumping into one another and going insane! I was on the edge, trying not to get pulled in. Towards the end, all of the lights went off and only their 'Japanese' style logo, illuminated with lights, was left lit up. The band went offstage without a word. Quickly, everyone began to chant 'GREEN DAY! GREEN DAY!' or 'WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE!'. They then ran back on again, and played a couple more songs. Strangely, they didn't play anything slow, like Macy's Day Parade, or Good Riddance, but I didn't care, just seeing them was enough. At one point, I swear Mike saw me, during one song I was the only person in my little area jumping about and with my hands in the air, and he looked into the crowd in my direction and made a stupid face. Oh, and whoever said he is growing a mullet, damn right. At the end, about 8 strobe lights came on while Billie strummed the last chord of the song for ages, and then the siren noise came on again, but really warped. I didn't see how (I had to stand on tiptoe to see the stage as it was, and the strobe lights made it harder) and Mike's bass was on fire. He started slamming it onto the stage, and eventually stopped when he was left holding the neck on its own. Tre then dived over his kit, and picked up the bass drum and smashed it up more, then repeated this with the floor tom. After Tre threw his drumsticks away, they all then ran offstage, and after a few minutes, the logo went out. People hung around still, shouting for them to come back, but they didn't, and then the between-acts music came on, and some roadies appeared onstage and started packing away."