I would have seen Nekrogoblinkon and UFO, had the bonds of grandparental babysitting stretched to so early in the billing, but, as it was, Alice in Chains were always going to be Saturday's main course.
Frontman William DuVall and lynchpin lead guitarist Jerry Cantrell were masterful and totally, utterly in charge as Them Bones, Dam That River, Check My Brain, Down In A Hole, Man In A Box and Rooster thumped from the amps.
Hollow and then Stone, from the new album The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, rounded off an absolutely airtight performance. Even a man with arrestable BO moshing to my right failed to smear the experience.
As for Queens of the Stone Age, it's hard to do a fair review when you've been reduced to human flotsam, carried between ebbing and flooding tides of people, punctuated ad infinitum with "Excuse me" and "Sorry mate".
For those who hold to the gig etiquette of Staying In Place, it was a true low point.
That said, with Feel Good Hit Of The Summer as QOTSA's top-tempo opener and the blistering fret work on closer Song For The Dead, those two at least did the business.
Which left Iron Maiden to bring a wet and freezing Saturday night to a close. With typical aplomb, their arrival on stage was heralded by a low flying WW2 Spitfire.
The sight of fans pumping their fists the length of the arena looked like a scene straight from Lord of the Rings. The undisputed highlight was pyro-tastic 80s hit Can I Play With Madness.
