I'm ngl I think this line-up will be lapped up by the 16-19 year old demographic. Sam, Billie and Killers are a ginormous three headliners.
Obviously I agree that it's uninspiring and there's no unique names it's a very narrow genre spread across the big names, not to mention the running order being disjointed.
But honestly, with the 3 MSW headliners, they've stayed within the indie - pop constraints to almost double down on that demographic.
It's safe, it's uninspiring, but weekend tickets will sell very well.
I honestly think Sam, Billie and Killers are the biggest 3 names you can book in 2023 judging by who's around in August. From an FR persepctive, it does make sense to build the line-up around those 3 rather than throw in a bunch of rocky subs for the sake of it.
I hate them, but objectively Imagine Dragons are a logical MSW partner for Billie, and their 2016 appearance did get a massive crowd - and they're around in August and have barely touched the UK since 2018 apart from one stadium show. It does actually make sense, as much as I don't want it to.
Same with Capaldi - like Fender, he's toured sooooooo much in the UK but his rise has been that meteoric that he's just too easy a booking to ignore.
Foals is a weird one. I love them so much and so do plenty on this forum, but if anything I feel they actually contribute to the line-up being uninspiring. Fender and Killers tick the indie box, a more rockier act or a rapper could have taken that slot but ngl I'm not gonna complain. In a way, they serve as the rockier act.
But yeah - it's safe, uninspiring, the same is true for some of the subs, but it will sell well and it does look cohesive around those big 3 names of Fender, Killers and Billie.