Johndenis

Hard to imagine Macca playing PS. Literally one of the biggest acts in the world. If you want to hear The Beatles, it's as close as you can get. (I'm going to see Depeche Mode in Dublin in February. Have never seen them but have become a big fan over last few years so am really looking forward to it.)

Seems to be a relationship that's been repaired, Gorillaz played Barcelona (but NOT Primavera) in mid June 2018. Which at the time looked very much like there had been some sort of snub from Primavera. I saw Gorillaz at the horribly over crowded PS 2022 Weekend 1 and they were very good. Separately, Madonna feels pretty "big" for PS - I don't know why she is currently doing only UK dates at the o2. Bit frustrating as I'd love to see her live. Does Kylie plays festivals? I saw her at Glastonbury (the crowd was absolutely massive, incidentally) but I don't know if that was an exception.

I'm pretty interested in the stage set up (or as everyone calls it now, "production") for these big stadium shows as it seems like u2 lugged around "the claw" over a decade ago to play "360/in the round" and everybody (the folk who design these things) decided that was an insane and expensive choice. So the stadium acts are back to a big stage at one side or end, and a wee runway to a B stage. I have never seen Coldplay in a stadium (last time I saw them was in the queen's Hall in Edinburgh around 2001) but I would be surprised if they're as good a overall experience as the rolling stones, u2 or beyonce (these are the stadium shows I've seen that immediately come to mind as being very impressive indeed). Coldplay remind me a bit of that criticism of Marvel bring squeaky clean - "everybody looks great but nobody is horny", or words to that effect 🙂 I don't "get" who the audience is for this present edm-ish version of Coldplay. Efests is clearly not where their (clearly massive) fan base hangs out. Maybe a Depeche mode kind of thing where they are wildly popular in other countries. I've paid £100ish for DMs tour in February and am expecting it to be an impressive show - have never seen them before but the overall live band is supposed to be incredible.

Thanks very much for this info. I've looked at setlists and you're correct, just for example Fred headlined Connect (OK a fairly modestly sized fest, but still..) with his own material. I'm genuinely surprised by that - how has he "crossed over" already to that extent? I didn't know Chems and Orbital built the songs every night. That's some effort.

A few years ago I was having a good laugh at suggestions "guitar bands" like Foals or the 1975 could headline, but this feels a lot harder to call. Pulp are imo an incredible band and Common People is literally era defining, in the UK at least.

I meant to reply to say thank you for the insight. And also to @jannybruck. So you reckon bands take bookings based on what they will pay, rather than how it may look? Interesting. I just always feel sorry for a band that gets sucked onto a britpop type festival (yknow the ones). Feels like they're being dragged into an inescapable black hole. I watched Ash circle the drain for a few years, before succumbing ...

Has she made a statement? I thought she was saying nothing. Which was a damaging strategy imo. If she is saying she didn't think she had a huge gay fanbase, that's just a lie 🙂

@Skip997 @airwaves I've seen each of Fatboy Slim, Orbital and Chemical Bros live several times and agree they have some incredible records. Things like "Belfast" and "Electrobank" send shivers down your spine. Fatboy is a bit different in that he is creating a party but I think what he did with samples to create (for example) "Right Here Right Now" and "Bird of Prey" is terrific. From a technical perspective I'm not sure what any of these guys are doing that FA couldn't. They're surely not assembling each song anew from the various samples every night. I saw Chemical Bros DJing at WHP years ago and the main difference appeared to me they would only play small sections of a few of their own songs. If @airwaves is saying FA doesn't have the back catalogue comparable to these guys, then I agree. It will take him years to build. Chems built up their set of big hits between 1996ish and 2005ish, for example. (As an aside, I'm a wedding DJ and I note that "Filthy Dirty Disco" played as part of an intriguing DJ line up at Alex James' Big Feastival, and played "nu house" and "dirty basslines". Can anyone tell me what the err flagship songs of these genres (?) are? It's good to keep up to date 🙂 )

Agreed, the tides of folk departing Mordor pre-Pavement, after tame impalas 6th set of the last 8 years :-), was sad enough to see in terms of the festival crowd changing hahahaha

1994 - almost 30 years ago - looks like the last year that Glastonbury's headliners were out of step with what was selling millions of albums. Unlike Primavera, it hasn't noticeably changed in less than a decade. My point also stands that for every Coldplay at Glastonbury there's a range of more interesting acts performing simultaneously. It sounds like Primavera was almost experimenting with how punters would handle Calvin Harris, and only Calvin Harris.

Brandon Flowers looks like a game show host wearing a gumshield. There's 4 fun "indie" songs on their first record, 2 on their second, 1 on their third and after that I'm bemused by their ongoing popularity. It's rock pop fluff. Arctic Monkeys on the other hand continue to develop and continue to be interesting. Even in 2018 pre-tranquility base I think it was quite clear then weren't an average lumpen rock band.

No, you were saying Glastonbury had, like Primavera, moved from left field acts to MOR. But it's always had MOR at the top of the Pyramid bill. And it's also always had loads of alternative options. It's never had a Calvin Harris with hardly anyone else on at the same time. It's a huge shift for primavera and I doubt it's because Gabi has discovered some pop instinct in middle age.

Glastonbury don't have investors to answer to. I'd argue their headliners have always been surprisingly MOR (more recent headlines like Jay-Z, Kanye, Stormzy have skewed the perception). But they have several other stages (Other, Park, West Holts) which have simultaneous headline acts which any other festival would have as outright headliners. Just for example, on the Saturday night of 2019 I didn't go to see the Killers but saw half an hour each of the Wu Tang Clan, Chemical Bros and Hot Chip instead. Programming Calvin Harris vs no other act of note is quite a statement. The Killers appearing on any Primavera bill is also IMO an eyebrow raiser and an indication of the direction of travel.

I'm sure there is now a general expectation that Saturday will be more "pop/chart". At my first primavera in 2021, the main stage Saturday act around 1am was Animal Collective conducting what sounded like a very long sound check. Unthinkable now.

Did Calvin harris get a crowd, in the end? Was it a bomb? Was Gabi ever questioned, or did he offer an explanation, for such an odd booking? Speculatively trying pull in some of the F1 crowd seems a very unlikely motivation. You're not going to torpedo your carefully curated line up for some petrol heads. Maybe Gabi wasn't given by a choice by his investors...

I was really quite drunk and got as far down to the front as I could before the golden circle/VIP. fell over several times in all the pushing and moshing. Great fun. But that means I have no clue re sound elsewhere. Julian mic did cut out at one point, I remember that.

Have been to several of these, the sound is fine unless you stand up the back obsessing over whether the sound is off 🙂 Quite a severe drop in quality of the line ups though, with possible exception of the Strokes day

I could go to the Friday but can't make the other days, but seeing the Scream is a lot less appealing these days after all the chat about how they treated their keyboardist. Agreed that Saturday in particular looks pretty good. Would be a good day out and would probably reward a bit of effort in terms of travelling from other places in Central belt.

Gorillaz were supposed to play 4 smallish stadiums in the US in autumn but the gigs have been cancelled. Presumably due to sales. Fair enough, as they did an arena tour last autumn. It was presumably worth them testing out demand. The second night at Wembley looked like a stretch too far for Blur, but they seemed to mostly fill it one way or another? Whoever books Damon live shows maybe got a bit carried away. 🙂 I could see Blur considering more festival dates for 2024. And gorillaz played this year's coachella as a one off 2023 date, supporting Bad Bunny, apparently at his request. But you'd have to think Blur returning to the Pyramid ever again would carry major risk...

Who is "the trader"? And what was the song played 8 times? Genuine queries, not taking the piss! Agreed that music post midnight gets bizarrely homogenised.

hahaha i think there were maybe 2 drawled mentions of being "on the farm". Not the kind of emotional gratitude the Glastonbury crowd seems to want. ps do they not like the "Arctic" bit anymore, they seem to just mention "Monkeys" a lot in their chat and "production" (signage).

The setlist indicates confusion though, if they are committed to changing the sound and moving forward, why did only 1 song from Tranquility Base get played? Otherwise I like the Elvis/Nick Cave/Vic Reeves tribute act as I don't think he is a talkative type. "four out of five" was terrific and he just said "Outstanding! " after it, nothing else 🙂 I can see how it must be annoying to some people. But I watched Texas on the iplayer earlier and Sharleen Spiteri was rambling and effing and jeffing after almost every song. Too much. Ultimately we want songs, not stand-up... I agree they * do * seem to butcher some songs though. It's almost impossible to sing along to this interpretation of Cornerstone, for example. Are the band struggling with the tempo, or is he deliberately singing off beat. As someone said earlier, a bit odd.

Catching up on the thread. Losing a whole day could hardly have been harder? A cancellation because of rain seems so bizarre. Do we suspect dishonesty? This weird site really seems to have had nothing going for it. Hours from the city centre and not even any drainage.

@aidenlangan95I am pretty sure the intention is a few big venues in North America. With a big undercard. Maybe an East Coast, a west coast, and somewhere inbetween. Stadiums in the UK in autumn would be insane, and they are also obviously not popular enough in the UK. They have however really built the live following in the US over 13 years. Its been an impressive effort. Zane Lowe was obviously invited to mention "stadiums", so there must be something in it. I pretty much laughed at the idea of Blur doing Wembley, yet they've obviously managed to completely sell out one date.

Thank you for the 2011 memories. My first edition as well, I then returned evry year until 2016 - when I watched ty segall then action bronson, then looked out to the power station chimneys and gave myself a wee chat about how I was a dad now, and wouldn't be back for a while. And so it proved. I did return this year but I had a very mixed experience sadly. The insane overcrowding really spoiled it. I expect folk who came during the noughties felt by 2011 it was losing its character! Things change. As a final addition to your memories - it was actually Suicide that Nick Cave asked /told folk to go and see. They played their first LP on the Ray Ban immediately following Grinderman. It was the first time I'd ever seen Nick Cave or Suicide perform. What a night. On the Saturday I saw John Cale performing Paris 1919 (I know everyone goes on about sufjan Stevens, but John Cale, and Mike Mills Big Star Band (2012) and Suede (2016) are *my* auditori moments), the fiery furnaces, then left the festival during Fleet Foxes, to watch Barcelona win the European Cup at the arc de triomf! Met Jarvis Cocker on the way out. Returned in time for Animal Collective doing a dreadful set - probably the only bad thing I saw all weekend. It seems I then opted for DJ shadow Over DJ Coco. Very tasteful of me at 3am, on my 4th night out in a row 🙂 https://clashfinder.com/m/prim11/?user=0yctrf.tp I am excited, or at least pretty interested, to see the poster tomorrow, but I don't think I will ever be back.