Was the choice of main stage headliners a fail of epic proportions

[Vieuphoria]

My rundown of headliners for mainstage

Guns N Roses - A Band who turned up late, and got cut off early.

Aracade Fire - A Band who drew noone

Blink-182 - A band who put on an awful performance to a big crowd, but the crowd rapidly decreased in size throughout the set.

[t8yman]

Gill and Beezer on the metal hammer podcast summed up GnR superbly. They f**king buried him, and they put it all into context.

http://mos.futurenet.com/resources/metalhammer/metalhammerpodcast115.mp3

no timer, but if you pull the QT slider about 25% through it, you will hit it. The slagging goes on for about 10 minutes. Its beautiful.

Beezer also summed up V Festival perfectly too. "its a music festival for people who like Hollyoaks more than they like music" that was f**king poetry right there.

Edited September 4, 2010 by t8yman

[Budweiser]

Beezer also summed up V Festival perfectly too. "its a music festival for people who like Hollyoaks more than they like music" that was f**king poetry right there.

[neatneatneat]

for people who say Arcade Fire didnt deserve the slot clearly didnt go to see them or have never heard of them

musically outstanding

reliable band

number 1 album - clearly popular enough (blink havent had a number 1 before!)

suitable for a festival with their songs

i loved them and all three of their albums are amazing, would be stupid to see pendulum over them

[j-j-j-j-joe!]

Aracde Fire knocked Eminem off the number one album spot. Not even Tom Jones could do that. The fact of the matter is that Arcade Fire have sold more albums and tickets than any of the other bands on the saturday mainstage. (with the possible exception of dizzee rascal, but there is no way he'd have headlined). Their actual gig was flawless, possiby the best Ive ever seen.

Blink were musically awful but the atmosphere was incredible. Had an ENOURMOUS crowd, miles biger than Paramore. Without a doubt the biggest crowd of the weekend.

Guns N Roses have released one album in 16 years, and that was a total flop. They were the only undeserving headliner.

I have to question whetehr the person who started this thread even went to Reading?

[Vieuphoria]

Chinese Democracy was in nop way a flop. It reached numner 1 all across the world except the UK where it got to number 2, and America where i dunno where it got.

Oh and i always laugh when people say sorry for shouting after they used CAPITAL LETTERS. dunno why... it's just kinnda funny

[ap3311]

Guns and Roses played a decent set. All we really missed was Paradise City and maybe Knocking on Heaven's Door. I can't be the only one who preferred what we got with GnR instead of just another bland set straight off the festival merry-go-round by Muse or Kings of Leon...

[Vieuphoria]

I with you there. 100%. Axl is a tool, they came on late.... but it was nice to see something different. A nice chaotic GnR set was brilliant way to start off.

[Leocadius]

My rundown of headliners for mainstage

Guns N Roses - A Band who turned up late, and got cut off early.

Aracade Fire - A Band who drew noone

Blink-182 - A band who put on an awful performance to a big crowd, but the crowd rapidly decreased in size throughout the set.

Edited September 11, 2010 by Leocadius

[Vieuphoria]

No offence mate but what in the universe are you on!

Guns N Roses outstayed the curfew, Arcade Fire was brilliant and Blink's crowd only decreased when the final song finished. The main gates getting out were rammed. The only time that's happened before was Green Day in 2004!

Axl is a spastic.

[Vacant0]

Saturday – As predicted, a huge crowd gathered for The Libertines only to disappear like an ebbing tide as soon as the last kiss between Carl and Pete was over. The Arcade Fire, who were polished, played to the smallest Main Stage crowd I have ever witnessed (This was my 8^th Reading). Even Win Butler couldn't understand what they were doing there. "Look, we've never had a hit song, so I don't know what the f**k we're doing here, but until someone comes with a hook we're going to stay." There set was good but they didn't justify a headline slot. Meanwhile, Pendulum were playing to probably one of the biggest crowds the NME Tent has ever witnessed which, according to friends that were there, at best, bordered on being dangerous.

[oohaahcantona88]

no way man!!they should of been about 3rd from the top maybe. Totally agree that the headliners were poor this year. As some one said.....Download had such a good line up. mind you, V wasn't too bad either...plus glasto?!? no one good left to play Reading

I was in Pendulum and it was PACKED! also saw blink and thought that was pretty busy.

[joe1990]

guns n roese. were in my eyes looking back on it pretty good ino they took there time coming on but i agree to do a 20 plus set wich must be at least 5mins per song was good. and it was funny when axle wouldn get off stage.

Arcade Fire. i think to say that they wernt good enough would be rong. yes maybe they could of got a bigger possibly better well known band. but if its true they were called apone at the last min they did really well. and they are top musicians

blink 182. i think bink 182 where most likey the band that appealed to the biggest audence. there an easy band to like beacuse they dont do much rong. an there songs are catchy and easy to sing along to and beacuse they have been around along time everyone nos the words.

over all i think they did good this year. but i think they can do even better next year

[JC-Mo'Fucka]

my favourite line up since 08

you didnt really hear the headliners that often on daytime radio like you would razorlight, killers, kol and even pendulum but i thought blink and AF appeal to the r&l crowd really well.

i wont try backing up that tosser axl though - although i knew this before hand and thus went to LCD

[Benj]

3_ Blink-182 crowd was big (not as pig as Paramore's i might add by the way), but me and my firends decided to sit at the back. By about half way through the set people were leaving. There was a none stop stream of people. We couldn't believe it. So as you were in the crowd and i was at the back seeing it happen, i once again can't see your point?

[Vieuphoria]

You've argued this before, you stated left to see another headliner when they started, as obviously did many others. You'll always get a steady movement of people leaving- Those who aren't interested. Those who are interested but non plussed. Those off to see another band but waited to catch a bit of the band playing. Those who have to head off to catch a train etc.

I've joined seemingly masses (as in congestion) leaving Metallica to see The Cribs in 08, was it a mass walk out? No chance.

I stood in pretty much exactly the same place for all 3 headliners

GnR - pretty busy but thinned out substantially before and during the set.

AF- Small crowd, could not tell if it got busier or thinned out

Blink- one of the biggest crowds I've ever seen headline at Reading, no noticable decline in numbers, even at the traditional leave for the tent headliner and get a train times.

[lucastang]

But the point is that Blink 182 still had a massive crowd for a headline act, so big in fact that an announcement was made for everyone at the main stage to take 5 steps back, and a further 2 steps back when Mark told everyone. Now, that is dangerous. Yes, there may have been people leaving, but you get that at any festival with headliners. The only acts which I can remember that the crowd did not decrease was Metallica in 2008 and Coldplay at Glasto in 2003.

The massive crowd for Paramore, my guess is that people weren't there for Paramore, they were there for Blink. A lot of people I spoke to said the exact same thing, and nobody moved except forwards as soon as they finished.

Overall, they still had the biggest crowd of the weekend.

Arcade Fire, in terms of crowd size, failed I admit. Mainly because it was due to Pendulum being at the NME tent, which I heard was on over capacity. Had AF come up against any other NME headliner, they probably would've pulled a bigger crowd. But the crowd size does not judge it was a massive failure of headliner. They produced the best musicianship and sound of the entire weekend, and you could argue very well, the best act. The crows singing along to Wake Up was probably the loudest I've ever heard any sing. Whether people left or not, probably most likely did, they aren't as popular as they are in other countries. But, nevertheless, showed how GnR how they should have done it.

What can I say about GnR? Melvin Benn is stupid if he did not think he was going to turn up late. It's almost as bad as the KoL catastrophe last year. But, I have to give it to them, to do 20 odd songs within 1hr and a half is something. But, like I've always said, Axl Rose has lost it. Had they turned up on time, it would've been brilliant. Crowd size didn't really decrease, and were really up for it, but didn't make up for the fact that they really did fail. But, Gorillaz failed at Glasto, that's all I can say.

Really, what I'm trying to get at is that crowd size does not add up to a bad headline act. All 3 acts put on a good show all in different reasons (you could argue with GnR). This festival was the diversity that it needed, AF for the class and alternative acts, GnR for the legendary set, and Blink for those who waited long and hard and lived through their childhood to see live.

[Vieuphoria]

I will give up now. people are idiots.

[lucastang]

I understand the points and arguments made, but I just can't justify how it became a massive proportion of failures.

[Vieuphoria]

i just hate it when conversations loop back around and around. (see: Soundgarden debate). It does nothing but annoy.

But yeah i wasn't the OP. I thought the Mainstage headliners were although in some respects quite weak... were all still solid bookings. I only saw 1.754 out of 3 mainstage headliners though. But what i do not understand is when people attribute things to bands which are false. Seems silly.

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

What I am saying is there UK fan base didn't warrant them headlining and no matter what you say you can't deny that the crowd was pretty dismal?

[lucastang]

i just hate it when conversations loop back around and around. (see: Soundgarden debate). It does nothing but annoy.

But yeah i wasn't the OP. I thought the Mainstage headliners were although in some respects quite weak... were all still solid bookings. I only saw 1.754 out of 3 mainstage headliners though. But what i do not understand is when people attribute things to bands which are false. Seems silly.

[Vieuphoria]

me either.... which was one of my original points.

[lucastang]

So what is your argument then? Cos you're very contradictive at times.

[Vieuphoria]

aren't we all. If you want my arguement... Read what i've said. Don't add in and take out at random to suite your point... just read it. it's pretty clear what i said