Frankly Mr Shankly

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.

No, I don't think it ever will. I may be wrong but I think they have the ability to push capacity to about 110,000 if tickets sell well.

Kiss, Rammstein, Metallica

I agree. It's happening in Italy so it's not out of the question. I suppose it depends on how much they charge & if Copping thinks they're worth it.

Yeah I tried that shit, never again. Awful stuff & far too low on the old alcohol percentage for my tastes.

They sell lager, cider & wine but no spirits to be found anywhere on site.

Could not disagree more. It's such a wonderful city to visit, plus the surrounding places (Sintra & Cascais in particular) are well worth a visit too. I've been to the festival 3 times, the only thing I feel that lets it down are the drink options. It really needs a bar that sells proper spirits, other than that it's a great festival.

I disagree - it's their first UK show in 12 years & they have a die hard fan base who will buy day tickets without consideration for the undercard. If you meant in terms of the line up then I do agree that they would be wise to have a 'traditional' Download band against them to draw away anyone that isn't a fan. Slayer or Whitesnake would make sense.