Frankly Mr Shankly

A Day to Remember (& to a lesser extent Alter Bridge) are on the up though, playing bigger venues & higher slots at festivals each time they tour... Placebo have peaked & dropped down from where they were in 05-07 when they possibly could have been considered a headliner. I say that as a fan of Placebo & not of the other two.

They've played it every time I've seen them - twice in 2012, once in 2016. I do get the feeling Bob isn't a massive fan of the song though.

Parkway Drive, ADTR, Ghost, Architects and Korn are the obvious ones that jump out to me over the next few years to step up. Of existing headliner sized bands I imagine Foo Fighters, Green Day, QOTSA and Blink will all probably do it in the next 5-10 years as the 'big' headliner pool grows shorter.

The Pot was the best live performance I think I've ever seen, perfect set. The sound on the mainstage for Tool was the best I've ever heard at a festival, which begs the question why it was so ropey for the rest of the weekend. Pumpkins were good, the setlist could have been better but Billy actually sounded great again.

Is it just me or are the dates wrong on this? Thursday is the 18th not the 17th & so on...

There was nothing wrong with your response at all. I thought it was a very genuine & empathetic post.

I don't think you can really call Download too small when the arena has a capacity of 110,000 (I think they have a license to extend to 120,000 if needed) - that's bigger than any stadium in the UK. Plus if it's a farewell tour they could easily do Stadium dates as well later in the year. Download has in the past made changes to accommodate demands - Ozzfest branding in 05, allowing AC/DC their own stage in 10, allowing big headliners no clashes, Download France adding a fourth day to accommodate Guns n' Roses. etc. So I suppose it depends how badly Copping wants to book them & if there is still enough money to be made for LiveNation once everything is considered. I would say they're unlikely but far from impossible.

Better than being a colonel c**t

Nope, the Smashing Pumpkins were.

So why was it cancelled in 93 then? & again in 97? - hell, in 95 they had to change the name of the event in order to get Metallica to agree to play. The event was stale, stuck in the 80's, refused to change with the times and so it died.

I'd say that's pretty spot on. The problem with this model though is if they don't take a few risks to build up new 'staple headliners' eventually the pool will run dry. See MOR for evidence.

The festival may have considered it, but I doubt Metallica would have. Surely it would have been far more likely that Arcade Fire or Kasabian dropped down a slot to accomodate Prince?

Still pretty sure that whole Metallica being originally booked to headline the other stage thing was bollocks.

And they say chivalry is dead? Arsehole.

Also worth noting that artists that feature heavily on popular/sponsored/promoted playlists are likely to see massively inflated numbers. I don't think streaming figures (in isolation) are a good way to judge who is & is not headliner material.