andyrhodes24

I just can’t see then booking someone like this at all. Genuine question - obviously they’re booking chart stuff these days but where are we thinking they draw the line?

MGK sees himself as an R&L headliner so FR would have a job on their hands booking him any lower. He be a weaker looking MSW headliner though as people have touched on.

In that weird space between MSE sub and MSW headliner I think. FR would do well to get him subbing MSE.

It was (finally) my first time seeing them so that will have had an effect. Do agree though that the stuff from the latest album is all quite similar, especially Deep Fake and Tear Gas so it was an odd opening two. Pit definitely took it up a level when they played Doomsday

Architects were excellent last night supporting Biffy, new stuff sounds massive live. Didn’t mention anything about festivals next year but they’d smash Download or R&L. (It did get a lot livelier than the video suggests I should add). FullSizeRender.MOV

Completely forgot about that and I was there in Leeds (know he said it in London as well with Melv present). Thinking back, what he said definitely hinted at it but the way he said it didn’t make it sound like he’s booked for 2023. Only my interpretation though

They were Billie Eilish, Green Day, Sam Fender, KSI and Foals. Final one is a mystery

Bastille surely no chance after playing last year (although you wouldn’t put it past FR), Twenty One Pilots would be ace

The fact we’re even discussing this one tells you they’re really on the edge of V Fest territory. Shouldn’t even be a debate this

I was too, they do give it to proper independent band image though. Find them to be a proper weird band, does he wear that one outfit all the time?

They are indeed: https://threesixzero.com/client

He’s done a post on Insta saying “bands can do what they want, but I never would because it’d be like The Clash going on tour with Madonna.” Get his sentiment but that’s a hilarious statement to make

Post Malone and Sam Fender will do it again but the others won’t get anywhere near. The radio/mags/rags/awards can push Wet Leg all they like but that’s all it seems to be. Blossoms are a broken record at this point, YB might get as far as MSW and Aitch isn’t nearly big enough. It’ll get close to this lineup but most of us will have moved on from R&L by then, the amount we moan about it on here I’m surprised we haven’t already.

Neither act would go down well when first announced, very few acts ever do. People turned up to watch MTS though and they’ll watch MGK as well, I doubt FR care at all about the Twitter reaction if they’re still shifting tickets

MGK last night was every bit an R&L headline set. Perfect mix of his two genres, just take out the filler from the 27 songs he did and throw in Willow/Yungblud/Iann Dior to do the collab songs at the festival and it’d be ready. He did mention wanting to play R&L again soon and that he’d see us again very soon (just the usual spiel) and very much an emo crowd from where I was standing.

Same here, I’d rather sit in the campsite but it’s a massive booking. 18 year old indie-phase me would be buzzing

Look at it this way, at least we’re talking about an up and coming British indie band headlining for the first time, 14 months ago we watched Post Malone headline for the second time in as many festivals.

Been fortunate enough to see them all in the last three years, Billie was excellent twice, Green Day, Fender and Foals we’re just a bit pedestrian (Foals was Big Weekend tbf) and KSI was garbage. As Andre says though, can’t deny they’re all massive acts in their own right and would be very R&L bookings. I’ll reserve judgement on MGK until after the gig tomorrow!

It’s a weird mix that I’d struggle to get excited about personally. Billie would be massive and Green Day ace if I hadn’t just seen them. Foals and Fender are really meh to me but it comes back to the thing of there not being an abundance of headline size UK guitar bands. Tbf Fender is as current as they come

Speaking as an old man who enjoys yelling at clouds, the backing track doing the work on this doesn’t exactly strengthen his case. Can’t deny that the crowd aren’t lapping it up though

I do agree but I see both sides, he’ll be as much of a joke to the older R&L goer as he is to the boxing purists but you can’t argue he isn’t popular amongst the next generation in both worlds, as much as it pains me to say it. The whole YouTuber boxing circus is laughable mind you.

I do agree that charts are a fair assessment of popularity but it doesn’t necessarily translate to live music. Loads of pop acts have had number ones but play academies or lower. Eg, Tom Grennan, loads of high charting tracks but only just playing arenas. A more extreme example is Gayle, that abcdefu song is massive but she only played the 320 capacity Omeara in May. Album sales and ticket sales are a better indication than singles charts when it comes to indie/alt/rock, hence YB’s two number one albums and arena tour but no charting singles. Don’t think there’s any one solid metric.

Singles don’t need to chart to be popular, and acts don’t need number one singles to be popular. Tik Tok has more influence as you say. There was a grand total of five number UK one singles between the headliners this year (AM: 2, Dave: 2, Halsey: 1).

Thanks both, much appreciated. I read a review if one of his US gigs and he apparently had to pay $70k for every 10 minutes he overran. Looking forward to it!