Simple Plan’s guitarist Jeff Stinco was notably absent from Simple Plan’s Download set on Friday (June 13th).

He grabbed a last minute flight back to Canada for ‘personal reasons’. The band was keen to fulfil their commitments and play the metal festival, but struggled on stage without the aid of their much loved lead guitarist.

Front man, Pierre Bouvier seemed confused, telling the crowd, “It’s great to be in Birmingham”, when they were actually in Donninton.

Simple Plan played a shortened set including ‘Your Love is a Lie’, ‘You’re Gone’, ‘Welcome to My Life’, ‘Generation’ and ‘I’d Do Anything’ before finishing the set with ‘Perfect’ and getting the hell out of there. Fans were left stunned by their below par performance.

It’s not all rainy days and grey skies for the band though, as they celebrated winning the People’s Choice Award for ‘Favourite Canadian Group’ at the MMVA’s last night, their fifth snag.

They also presented the awards which were held in Toronto, Canada.

(by Luisa Mateus)