Quadrophobia
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Everything posted by Quadrophobia
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I mean just like Lankum draw on the Irish tradition of Folk and lore, Mumford & Sons draw on the British tradition of being absolutely insufferable
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If you like The Armed, Brutus should do something for you too
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My list currently holds 30 names, of which 9 are must sees that I have never seen before. Much more actually than 2022 where the majority of acts I had already had the chance to see before.
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Joanna Newsom even got everyone a free drink on her "Have one on me" tour making up for a past cancellation. And when Lubomyr Melnyk had played a show in a venue unaffordable to most people in my city he came back a few months later to play a super small free concert in a poor neighbourhoods church. I do understand that bands have reasons to cancel and that making up for missed shows doesn't always work out. But doing a tour in the exact time and place of the gigs you missed two years ago and not making up for them isn't cool
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It used to be crazy cheap on a Northern-European salary. My first PS in 2016 cost 450€ in total. It has become much more aligned with what a week in Berlin or so would cost, so its not a bargain anymore.
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I really think they should stop the expansion. London fell through, Madrid was a Desaster, L.A. didn't work out, Bogota had to be resized. It just seemed like one of these things private equity firms do, when low-interest rates make huge investments viable, but under the current conditions, runnning huge losses to establish a festival just makes little sense
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Headliners in 2022 were alphabetical You misunderstand me. Its not about if Massive Attack fit (of course they do) its that this fest isn't conposed of 60% internationals anymore. Many internationals just can't reasonably afford the trip anymore and especially older former attendees will drop out of the PS game because of other obligations (as with every other festival). Hence, new local audiences have to be reached, logically younger ones as the festival built a majority of its former audience internationally and hence has weaker ties to older local audiences. And this means it can be risky to put too much emphasis on legacy acts like Massive Attack, Pulp, PJ Harvey and such, because these draw - on average - mostly older audiences. The conditions for this festival have changed dramatically since 2022 due to rising costs for travel, the costs of doing a week of PS from anywhere you need to fly from now stand at a minimum of 1000€ - if you're going for group accomodation. Flights for me were 120€ both ways in 2016 and only got marginally more expensive through to 2019. Next year I'm looking at 350€ minimum. Costs for accomodation have almost doubled. With these conditions it simply isn't about liking the line up as much as being able to afford the trip anymore. And that'll mean losing a lot of older core audiences.
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I think the big misunderstanding here is that many people regard the Indie-Rock artists beloved on here as relatively non-commercial, whilst they are exactly the ones that safely shift tickets. The fact that many people on here have seen them countless times, simply isn't as important in the wider public. And as much as I love Massive Attack, they are firmly rooted in audiences that by now are on average too old to make the trip to PS. As PS has to focus on local audiences much more since the huge increase in travel cost, acts like that can be a risky booking if it means droppig f.e. SZA
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The festival marked J Balvins great breakthrough, he was a risky booking at that time, just like FE Megan Thee Stallion in 2022. It was all but sure these were gonna be big at the time of booking. Cardi B and Miley maybe yes, but that was the only act on that line up. Janelle Monae, Carly are not commercial names, they are popular only with their respective core-audiences. The vast majority of people thinks of carly not as a pop innovator but as a one hit wonder. Erykah Badu is the opposite of a commercial booking. And there is little to none difference between Tame Impala and The National commercially.
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I think you are distinguishing acts as "commercial" on a very subjective basis. I don't really see who on the 2019 line up could've been called "commercial" at that point. The only purely commercial acts I ever saw at PS were Maneskin and Calvin Harris, both obviously part of an effort to implement Madrid and push into more Mainstream audiences for daytickets, a move that is not really necessary now that its just Barcelona again
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I am not saying they are irrelevant, just the often ushered "Massive Attack would make this line up better than the National" sentiment (to which I myseld agree, having never seen MA) and the "this line up will sell poorly" story do not add up. LCD Soundsystem actually themselves thought they would sell rather poorly in Europe and only booked quite small venues in 2017 (when the still had reunion bonus). They are a great band, fantastic live act, but commercially their impact in Europe is far below that of many acts on this years line up. The same venue LCD played in Berlin, Mitski sold out twice within minutes.
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Why would it not sell? This has Gen Z and late Millenial Favourites (Lana, Mitski, Sza, FKA Twigs, Troye Sivan), Legacy Heroes (Pulp, PJ Harvey, Beth Gibbons), some best of 2000s Indie (National, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend) and some can't-see-anywhere-else acts (Clipse, Jai Paul, Duster), some indie darlings (American Football, Duster again, arab Strap, Blonde Readhead) And the undercard hold top notch hardcore/metal bands (The Armed, Gel, Scowl, Brutus, Wiegedood), many of the most interesting female singer-Songwriters and rising pop names (, The Last Dinner Party, Faye Webster, Julie Byrne, Ethel Cain) alongside a very solid Electronic Line Up (Disclosure, Justice, The Blessed Madonna, sofia Kourtesis, Peggy Gou). And these are just from the 2/3 of the line up I know! This is just such a diverse, interesting Line Up catering to many tastes. I don't say its the best ever PS but why on earth would this not sell? And if thats the concern: The Smile, Massive Attack or - especially - LCD Soundsystem would not have shifted more tickets than most of the acts in the headline. I think the Brits here tend to overstate the respective acts relevance outside the UK. These are all very good acts, I would've loved to see. But None of them would (or did) sell bigger venues than The National outside the UK
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Pro old stage set ups reckon this line up does not call for a secod set of „mainstages“ like last years
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If Carly wasn‘t secured Gabi should have called her maybe?
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Sometimes it also just happens, that the time-window for a booking closes. MA migh've just been on the market too late when all Top-3 Acts where already watertight. Also its possible that MA have a different strategy for their 2024 tour where they play select fests but only if they make them their biggest act. Bottom line: we cannot see through the myriad of factors and as outsiders we never will understand whats going on in a booking process
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But that was mid-pandemic, by now, booking and communication processes are realigned.
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For Kaytranada I reckon Sonar is indeed the most likely path. For Massive Attack, I really don't know. Maybe Mad Cool bagged them or maybe, they are just humans after all, they attend a wedding or smth the Weekend of PS.
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Very odd indeed. Also that Danish Act Barselona would've been a good booking at PS 😄
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Didn't see the 10 years of Pinata for Freddie Gibbs and Madlib before. Great stuff!
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Cofirmed for Auditori are William Basinski Charlemange Palestine And its hinted Joanna Sternberg will be there. Also some artists like Phew I couldn't imagine anywhere else
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Thursday there is no Metro between 0:00 and 05:00, Friday no Metro between 02:00 and 05:00. Saturday its 24h. Tram goes 24h but only every 20 min or so. Shuttle Buses take you to Placa Catalunya, those were pretty reliable even when the Metro didn't run anymore
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If Thursday isn't too packed, that sounds like a great option. Also nice if you wanna stay until the metro starts running again
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is Jai Paul enough of a party though for the closing spot? Agree with the other too but would Peggy Gou instaead of Jai
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I would watch any act on this bill - including stella maris - over Tool
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Yeah I can totally see that and I know that glasto is different to most fests. But: it is not just a matter of personal entitlement where an artist is placed on a poster. It is quite relevant because a position at a big fest will be used as measurement for positions/fees by other promoters. I have actually seen bands cancelling gigs altogether, because they were promised to be in the headline, but then were pushed down because the fest scored some other band last minute (I think this even happened publicly once with Architects at Jera on Air). I think thats just way harder to plan in detail and the finetuning probably just wasn't ready. It involves external players after all, not just the PS crew and the artists booked.
