Benj

OK and for full context I say this as a 40+ male, who's lived in the aUS for the past 5 years. Gorillaz - Not a huge fan but would be interested in seeing them, not sure they'd be interested in playing over other options, I think they would definitely be a draw though. Haim - Don't mind them but, from my perspective, they can in no way aheadline Reading. Perhaps theyre much bigger in the UK than I can ever envisage, Im pretty sure they wont be a big enough draw for the 'Neutral' Tame Impala - Again a little too niche to headline a mass, commercial festival. They will not shift tickets (as is confirmed even at London based more niche festivals), they wont attract the kids and there's not enough beard strokers about to fill that field The Weekend - OUt of my comfort zone, too old to get into them obv, but it just seems like bland pop to me, nothing slightly special but I don't know near enough about them to assert that opinion The Strokes - Again coming from a 40 year, I would much rather see them as much as Stormzy (just about), miles more than Liam Gallagher and miles more than BMTH. Think they're perhaps just about big enough but imagine the other 3 would sell better to the target demographic

Does 'slaps hard' mean 'average'? Its got the biffy randomness without the tune to back it up... Maybe it does, theyve hit that point for though where its always gonna be the same old shit for me...and its all sub standard unless they can produce something properly different. Trying to sound like a shit BMTH, like with 'Instant History' is not the way to go....

I live in the US, if you’re from there you’ll know it’s a massive country that can’t really be pigeon holed as one. The whole ‘gun’ thing was just a clickbait, media construct, yes sales rose (as they do with any looming hurricane etc...) but the queues shown in the U.K. press etc where hugely rare events at a tiny few locations, blown up to make it seem like they were happening everywhere, to get people clicking, when it was in no way close to being true. People do very much care in America, the level to the restriction has and still varies hugely place by place, the likes of NY, NJ, MA etc who had earlier and stricter shut downs that the U.K. and have had masks mandated for months, have a low count of cases at the moment, while the likes of FL and TX which has no real early surge and basically operated as usual are now fucked and imposing stricter lockdowns. That Chainsmokers show was the first event of its type allowed in NY. There has been gatherings and parties in the US (and continued protests) from what I’ve observed though, it’s not really BEEN any different than what’s in the U.K. and much of the US (again not all, as there are 50 different states with 50 different sets of rules) is still under a stricter lockdown than the U.K.

Erm.... have you not seen all the mass gatherings in the U.K?! Much worse than these scenes out there if you take a look at gatherings outside Anfield, in Leeds etc... This event is being taken to court due to the non enforcement of the licensed restrictions. Anywhere with alcohol people aren’t going to social distance I see a load of UK based ‘drive in’ gigs have just been cancelled, I suspect off the back of this. It will be interesting to see how these planned low capacity indoor gigs though, as an indicator to how feasible such things are in the future.

They were fucking awful last time they played

Exactly, off the back of late summer Euro shows

Suggests MCR are active late August to me. It starts here (again)

I’ve been in the US since 2015 so this would’ve been my 6th remote one. blimey. That’s gone quick

No chance he’ll be slightly big in 5 years time, artists like that swing in and out of fashion, Sheeran is the only one to buck the trend

Nearly 25 for me! Spent more days at Reading than lockdown so far!

Painful

It’s a very different beast to Reading but I think the writing is on the wall

No

Maybe they’re lowering the capacity, refunding day tickets, only allowing weekenders. would be nice if they only allow 50k or so in

Postponements allow promoters to keep the cash. I suspect many of the 'postponed' tours will ultimately be cancelled when things pick up again and money is flowing once more.