how big are the gossip?

[dakyras]

Bollocks. The Arctic Monkeys were massively popular before the media had even given them any attention. They're popular because their music is excellent and they gave it away for free.

[rockinthecasbah]

Put simply, The Gossip just aren't big enough to be headlining the R1 tent. I'd be pretty confident 95%+ of the Reading/Leeds crowd would struggle to name a song by them other than Standing In The Way Of Control. Also their main audience at the festival will be the indie teens, who will ALL be at Arctic Monkeys.

Then if we take into account the increase that will have when the new album's released next month, the fact they're *only* co-headling and the way in which no-one battered an eye lid when The Cribs headlined, it just doesn't seem like there's that much in it, not enough to warrant threads on various forums about it anyway.

[midnightradio]

Put simply, The Gossip just aren't big enough to be headlining the R1 tent. I'd be pretty confident 95%+ of the Reading/Leeds crowd would struggle to name a song by them other than Standing In The Way Of Control. Also their main audience at the festival will be the indie teens, who will ALL be at Arctic Monkeys.

Comparing them to The Cribs just isn't valid in my opinion. They'd had three reasonably successful albums(in the circles of people who go to the festival) have a pretty large following which enables them to play Academy size venues pretty comfortably, and still had a bit of hype remaining from Johnny Marr joining the band. Also up against Metallica, they were a sensible pick, as fans of The Cribs generally won't be that keen on Metallica, and vice-versa. And I'm by no means a big fan of The Cribs.

Edited May 19, 2009 by midnightradio

[dunny]

When gossip were announced I though "who?"

I asked all my friends and hardly any of them had heard of them either.

[inspectedinspector]

So we've had the Arctic Monkeys Vs. Rise Against battle and now the Gossip Vs. Arctic Monkeys....

Rise Against Vs. The Gossip COMMENCES!!

In all seriousness I wonder why we have debated Saturday's headliners the most. I think most people on these forums regard Saturday as having the weakest set of headliners (so therefore feel the need to moan)..

Or it could be that the bands actually have more crossover in terms of audience than we think.

To make that clearer I think AM/ Gossip (Glasvegas)/ RA have more similar fans than KOL/ FNM (Jamie T )/ Billy Talent and Radiohead/ Lostprophets (although we have had that discussion too) do.

Personally I love Rise Against, quite like Arctic Monkeys and am stupidly prejudice about the Gossip. I had no idea they have more than one album (especially not a different style beforehand) and 'Standing in the way of control' is a guilty pleasure, especially when drunk

[Charmer]

You are seriously going to label them 'shameless media whores'? The Arctic Monkeys got recognition for being a decent band, one of the best to come out of Britain for a while. The attention came from them being good, it was not unjustified attention.

Just because a band gets exposure for being good doesn't make them 'media whores'. Someone have a personal vendetta with AM?

[Bradders]

Oh, the naivety is so cute!

[hearing_aid]

The Arctic Monkeys did have some pretty clever internet marketing going on early on, and they were the right band at the right time. They had some of the good bits from the scene that bands like The Strokes and The Libertines started but were a much more commercial package, though lost a lot of the edge that other previous mentioned bands had imo.

Fortunately of course Alex Turner has a talent for the style of songs he writes thank god so they put out some decent stuff. Not really a massive fan myself but can see why they are so popular and do think they have moments of great stuff. Though can see why come people dislike them and think they are overated.

As for The Gossip I wouldn't have thought they were big enough to be honest. Not sure they have really grown in popularity recently and would never have guessed they would headline...

[rockinthecasbah]

What I've been saying is that I think, compared to previous headliners, they've done more than enough.

[problematique.]

I agree with the majority, when everyone heard "Standing in the Way of Control" they went out and bought the album, and probably tried to return it after one listen due to that being the only good song on it. So headlining the tent, with only one overly popular song isn't going to draw the biggest crowd ever, or gives them reason to headline! FR must of got lazy with Jamie T and The Gossip.

Edited May 20, 2009 by problematique.

[kaosmark2]

Man I do enjoy a spot of fishing...

Gonna need a bigger boat