Headliners 2016

[CJTM]

Makes a good point^

[eFestivals]

59 minutes ago, russycarps said:

The lack of imagination is just awful.

to be fair, they can only book who is available to be booked of who is suitable to headline - and it's not as huge list.

They also can't go to every possible act every time, as that would just make clear that the one who accepts isn't the first choice. And it's hardly like any of the most-strongly rumoured acts aren't popular.

Your problem is that you care about acts who presumably you won't be seeing. Why?

 

[brettredmayne]

Who should the festival go for then , when they try and be different with jay z and kanye the festival is given abuse.

When the festival books safer acts like radiohead muse and coldplay its deemed to be predictable and dull

 

[JoBalls]

Mine:

Blur - amazing, one of the best live performances I've seen.

Gorillaz - average. 

Stevie Wonder - outstanding. One of my best Glastonbury moments. 

Arctic Monkeys - mostly awesome but they played quite a lot I didn't know (I think it was just before the album was released?)

Rolling Stones - brilliant. Still can't believe that happened. 

Mumford & Sons - they were fine but I reckon they weren't quite ready to headline Glastonbury.

Kasabian - totally smashed it.

Florence - totally smashed it again. 

The Who - felt a bit flat.

Look at that list though. How bloody lucky are we that we get to see acts like these?

[A Guy Called Matt]

1 minute ago, brettredmayne said:

Who should the festival go for then , when they try and be different with jay z and kanye the festival is given abuse.

When the festival books safer acts like radiohead muse and coldplay its deemed to be predictable and dull

 

Whatever the festival do those who want to complain will make noise than those who are happy. Sadly that is the way of the world, especially on social media.

[Bobs]

5 minutes ago, captainmuscles said:

Are we ranking the headliners we've seen? I always end up at the Pyramid every night and I hate myself for it.

Best - Coldplay, The Who, Stevie Wonder

Good - Muse, Gorillaz, White Stripes

Mediocre - Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Jay-Z, The Verve, Kanye West

 

 

If we're doing that

 

Best - Rolling Stones

Good - , Muse, Metallica and Stevie Wonder

Boring (needed to change show) - Kasabian

Saw Part - Kanye (I thought it was okay actually, but i did leave 7 songs in)

Bad - The Who, U2

Didn't see - Gorillaz, Florence, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Mumford, Beyonce, 

[A Guy Called Matt]

1 minute ago, JoBalls said:

 

Kasabian - totally smashed it.

Florence - totally smashed it again. 

The Who - felt a bit flat.

 

The only three I have seen and your opinion is exactly the same as mine.

[eastynh]

Just now, FuzzyDunlop said:

What can you expect though when some bellend makes a petition and some fucker sends EE a death threat over Kanye?

Safety and stress free first options were pretty likely

Seriously did they?

The world's gone mad. I am not a Kanye fan but I was glad he was on. I would not mind but he is as mainstream as you can get really.

It is a sad world when someone makes death threats because the headliner at a festival is not a miserable white guy on a guitar.

[captainmuscles]

3 minutes ago, brettredmayne said:

 When the festival books safer acts like radiohead muse and coldplay its deemed to be predictable and dull

If it does end up as Muse / Radiohead / Coldplay then I can only see it being a direct response to the Kanye petition, ie giving people what they asked for. Of course, line ups like that will grow stale very quickly and maybe that's a message the Eavii want to convey.

Then again, Muse / Radiohead / Coldplay is an ideal set of headliners for me, so maybe I'm part of the problem. (Even if I do like Kanye).

[eFestivals]

1 hour ago, brettredmayne said:

Neil will you have your spy gear on for Wednesday night to try and get some info

The secret squirrel delved in a bin the other day looking for info, but got diverted by an old sandwich there and tucked in. Unfortunately the sandwich wasn't good, and the squirrel got food poisoning and died.

So no, unfortunately not. It takes a while to train up a new squirrel.

[HoTWire]

I wonder if the people complaining that the choice of Coldplay et al as boring are the same people that didn't want Kanye at Glastonbury because he wasn't a rock band, and Metallica because they were too much of a rock band.  I'm always curious who these people want to headline instead.  It is usually someone equally insipid and uninspired, but it is their insipid and uninspired choice.

[Little Andy]

Arcade Fire - I'm not a fan of their music, but it was a good performance

Kasabian - Best headliner I've seen over 2 festivals

Florence And The Machine - Surprise of the festival for me, brilliant.

Kanye West - Insanely dull, regrettably.

The Who - Nothing special.

[Hotchilidog]

Think my favourite pyramid headliner was my first, Neil Young in 2009. A gig he seemed to enjoy (curmudgeon that he is) as much as the audience watching who to my great surprise really took to him. I also enjoyed the U2 set as they were so clearly outside of their comfort zone and the field was not 100per cent behind them. It was nice to watch them dig a little deeper for a change. Stevie Wonder was amazing as expected. Also whisper it, I quite liked Coldplay in 2011, gig made by the hysterical reaction of the crowd more than anything else (I'll expect the same this year too).

[siweltrebor]

Think of it this way

If you don't want to see the likes of Muse/Adele/Radiohead and Coldplay

then it opens you up to other stages and seeing bands that can equally steal the highlights for the weekend.

Also it opens up the opportunities for headliners particularly in 2017, as it won't be anyone from this year.

Though I expect Foo Fighters will return to headline after what happened last year, maybe in 2017, maybe not for a few more years beyond that. 

[JBarbour]

2 minutes ago, HoTWire said:

I wonder if the people complaining that the choice of Coldplay et al as boring are the same people that didn't want Kanye at Glastonbury because he wasn't a rock band, and Metallica because they were too much of a rock band.  I'm always curious who these people want to headline instead.  It is usually someone equally insipid and uninspired, but it is their insipid and uninspired choice.

People expect too much, they expect Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, The Who and the mega (old) bands. Seen people asking for AC/DC, Prince, Stone Roses. This year may calm things down a little with peoples expectations for the "mega bands" topping the pyramid stage

[brettredmayne]

21 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

The secret squirrel delved in a bin the other day looking for info, but got diverted by an old sandwich there and tucked in. Unfortunately the sandwich wasn't good, and the squirrel got food poisoning and died.

So no, unfortunately not. It takes a while to train up a new squirrel.

Shame, guess we will have to hope something just gets spilled accidentally to the press.

[Chris Lfc]

1 minute ago, craigb said:

People expect too much, they expect Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, The Who and the mega (old) bands. Seen people asking for AC/DC, Prince, Stone Roses. This year may calm things down a little with peoples expectations for the "mega bands" topping the pyramid stage

AC/DC  / Fleetwood mac are my picks instead of muse/adele/radiohead (one of them)

[russycarps]

21 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

to be fair, they can only book who is available to be booked of who is suitable to headline - and it's not as huge list.

They also can't go to every possible act every time, as that would just make clear that the one who accepts isn't the first choice. And it's hardly like any of the most-strongly rumoured acts aren't popular.

Your problem is that you care about acts who presumably you won't be seeing. Why?

 

I care only because it's not a move the festival has ever done before. It feels like an admission of defeat. 

<assuming radiohead not adele> we have 3 headliners who have headlined 10 times between them before and who are all white, middle class, male. As someone said earlier, it's like a glastonbury parody.

There has to be a better option out there. Would someone like ellie goulding really kill the festival? 

I think it makes the festival look lazy and uninspired.

Compared to the variety of last year this is a real backwards step. 

 

 

[captainmuscles]

1 minute ago, craigb said:

Seen people asking for AC/DC, Prince, Stone Roses

I don't think there's anything special about the Stone Roses except their price tag

[Alan_C]

Still wish I was going, but this Coldplay news is good for me on a year I'm missing it. I get sick of the prospect of them taking up one of the headline slots every year, so I'm happy that it's actually happening when I'm not there. I would also be more than happy if Radiohead and Muse were the other two headliners. I would have liked to have seen Radiohead, but if it turns out that they do play the Saturday then I would have went to see New Order anyway. 

I don't hate Coldplay mind, I still love Parachutes and A Rush of Blood. Not a fan of their later output though, and it's just a boring booking. I chose Chemical Brothers over them in 2011, and also Primal Scream over at T in 2011 as well. I like Muse's earlier stuff as well, but I wouldn't fancy a set heavy on their newer stuff. 

I see it as wiping some of the more obvious headliners out for a few years, and it does open the opportunities up for next year, when the headliners surely can't be anywhere near as predictable, or at least they couldn't have headlined the festival as much.

[Alan_C]

1 minute ago, captainmuscles said:

I don't think there's anything special about the Stone Roses except their price tag

Their songs and the sound of tens of thousands of people singing every word in a field is pretty special.

[JBarbour]

5 minutes ago, Chris Lfc said:

AC/DC  / Fleetwood mac are my picks instead of muse/adele/radiohead (one of them)

That's what I'm talking about - AC/DC and Fleetwood Mac are the "mega bands" people expect year in year out. It's unsustainable. These bands come with a high price tag that Glastonbury generally doesnt pay (see Isle Of Wight and Fleetwood last year). These old big acts are getting fewer with every passing year and no ones taking their place 

It's a Great British pastime, complaining about the Glastonbury line-up and headliners

[eastynh]

8 minutes ago, Alan_C said:

Their songs and the sound of tens of thousands of people singing every word in a field is pretty special.

Unless they announce some new music they are just taking the piss really. At least Coldplay have new tunes to play.

 

[Alan_C]

The Prince and Fleetwood Mac rumours will probably become unbearable again next year, with people looking for a big act who hasn't headlined. 

[captainmuscles]

Is there going to be a festival crisis when all the great headline acts are gone? Will Glastonbury end in our lifetimes?