Yoss

2013. It was my first year and I didn't realise it was a one-off and it came as a shock the following year to find we weren't privvy to all of it. Not sure I've ever got over the disappointment.

I'm still holding out some vague hope of Furman putting in a personal appearance for some sort of album launch thing, but I can't see that he'll bring the band all the way across for a single gig. (And the new album will probably need the band.) I'm going to guess it's someone else who will have played Electric Picnic earlier in the weekend (a guessing game not made any easier by them not even having released day splits yet, as far as I can see). So - Roisin Murphy? Shura? Yonaka? Echo and the Bunnymen?

I'm not a runner but have forwarded the info to someone in our group who is. Also, in case you're not aware of it, author and runner Adharanand Finn is doing a talk on the literature stage at some point over the weekend, and said something on twitter about "might even lead a run too" but I don't know if that's being followed up.

Yeah! I'd almost forgotten about that, but had at least one cracking night down there, back in the day before it was Beavertown and was (during the day) our secret bar that hardly anyone seemed to know about.

They've got late night electronica in the Big Top on Friday and Saturday this year, which is a new thing. Hoping that takes a bit of pressure off the Tipi.

Speaking of secret sets, just putting this out there - when line of best fit tweeted asking for requests / suggestions the other week, they got a few replies but mine seems to have been the only one they saw fit to retweet. I'm hoping that means I got a couple right, but we'll find out.

Squid are in the Big Top.

Listed twice because it seems to cover Nov3l as well as Crack Cloud (did someone mention that they share some members?). The blurb at the side confirms the EotR gig as well.

Hence "prior to last year". Hopefully the earlier release is the new normal but I'm not sure we can take that for granted yet.

Prior to last year the times were only issued on the week of the festival.

Other than Spiritualized, the Thursday is mostly guesswork at the moment. (And likewise, I presume, for the timings on the Talking Heads stage.)

It's worked out nicely for me - no interest in Tempest but it solves the Barnett / Kikagaku Moyo clash. Bummer for those wanting to see Barnett and Low, though. On the wider discussion - I don't think anyone would dispute that last year's headliners were stronger. But that says more about how strong they were last year, that was the exception rather than this one. Even without the short notice problem it seems to have been a tough year for festivals finding headliners, most obviously Green Man as others have noted. And I don't care, the bill is still stacked. Nor do I care if they're saving any money out of it - though it's far from obvious to me that would be the case anyway.

Both EotR and line of best fit tweet out *some* of the piano stage sets - but not for bigger acts like Big Thief, for whom there would clearly be more of a potential audience than the piano stage could cope with. So that one, at least, wasn't advertised at all in advance as far as I'm aware. Enough word got round for it to be pretty well rammed in any case.

Saw Rozi at Howlin' Fling earlier in the year. She was very good - Actually and Swing Shut and both belters. But I wouldn't say she was so good as to feel gutted if I don't get a chance to see her a second time - which is lucky because there's so much going on throughout Friday that it's very unlikely she's not going to clash with any of the must-sees.

I, on the other hand, am not bothered about Low, nor was I bothered about Beirut and nor would I be bothered about YLT. I'm hoping Courtney Barnett gets promoted to avoid the current clash with Kikagaku Moyo.