2012 Lineup

[gazza_20]

I do and I've also been arguing with people like Gazza & others who keep saying they are so big that they will only play mainstage since the reformation.

[gazza_20]

Well that proves that a band can play both, which has happened before anyway (Cancer Bats also playing both this year). It doesn't really prove anything specifically relating to Refused as their may be other reasons, for example as a reforming band there would be more desire to get them as an exclusive than the likes of Billy Talent or Cancer Bats.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did turn up at R&L as I don't believe exclusive claims any more, but this one could be right.

[Greg123]

If they do play, I want to see them in a crowd full of people who want to see Refused, not a crowd full of people who are waiting for them to play New Noise. That was what I had reservations about seeing them at Soni tbh.

Call me picky but that's how I feel about it. That's why Lock Up is perfect, all the people who might have seen them just to watch New Noise will be off seeing another headliner.

[gazza_20]

If they do play, I want to see them in a crowd full of people who want to see Refused, not a crowd full of people who are waiting for them to play New Noise. That was what I had reservations about seeing them at Soni tbh.

Call me picky but that's how I feel about it. That's why Lock Up is perfect, all the people who might have seen them just to watch New Noise will be off seeing another headliner.

[Greg123]

Nothing wrong with that, it's a good song! It's the "fashionable" people who listen to one song and claim to be the biggest fan in the world who annoy me. Fair enough if you're a casual fan.

[gazza_20]

Nothing wrong with that, it's a good song! It's the "fashionable" people who listen to one song and claim to be the biggest fan in the world who annoy me. Fair enough if you're a casual fan.

[Martino231]

I'm ashamed to say that Refused are another band that I've never really got into. I tend to love hardcore music but it took a while for me to get into ATD-I. Refused are a band that I've listened to a lot but that I haven't really got into. With regards to Lock-Up I'm hoping for NoFX to headline with Anti-Flag somewhere on the line-up. That would be perfect for me.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Martino231

[Greg123]

I think I'm just a bit bitter that Refused are, pretty much, only doing festivals so far. Can't blame them though, the guys have to get paid.

[jump]

I think I'm just a bit bitter that Refused are, pretty much, only doing festivals so far. Can't blame them though, the guys have to get paid.

[Greg123]

Yeah I know. Can't blame them I suppose as the US is probably where a lot of the demand to see them live is and Sweden is their home country. Here's to hoping they'll decide to do a UK headline show!

[rivalschools.price]

Out of interest did anyone own a refused cd before they got back together?

[HuntingFools]

Really hope refused are at reading.

Do you think crosses(chino of deftones side project free ep on their site) could be added somewhere maybe NME or FR stage. Secondly How To Destroy angels as they've got a new album out

[Jacky Boy]

yup,i did.

though i dont really see a problem with someone becoming interested in them because they heard that a lot of punk fans got excited about them reforming.

there's nothing wrong with becoming aware of refused cos of the hype,having a listen to 'shape of punk to come',liking it, and going to watch them (as long as you dont then claim to have been a lifelong fan all along)

if you read some of the threads on here,loads of people are only listening to the cure cos they have been announced as headliners(ok they are not reforming but that isn't relevant).

i dont see the difference in people suddenly listening to the cure and liking what they hear and other doing the same for refused.

[Greg123]

There's definitely nothing wrong with becoming aware of the band because of the hype, I'm not one of those annoying people who berate fans of bands by saying "I liked them before you".

Anything which expands peoples music taste and gets new fans in is good a good thing.

[jump]

There's definitely nothing wrong with becoming aware of the band because of the hype, I'm not one of those annoying people who berate fans of bands by saying "I liked them before you".

Anything which expands peoples music taste and gets new fans in is good a good thing.

[Hart Attack]

Saturday NME/Radio 1 Stage

At The Drive-In

The Cribs

A Day To Remember

Billy Talent

The Used

Young Guns

Twin Atlantic

InMe

We Are The In Crowd

LostAlone

Cherri Bomb

Any chance of something like that? The only bands I like on Saturday at the moment are ATDI, Enter Shikari and Billy Talent...

[lharris92]

*would vom if ADTR were placed there*

*would have a victory dance prepared if InMe played R&L, regardless of placing*

[Greg123]

Don't people piss and moan on this forum about the likes of Mumford & Sons, Florence and anything the NME likes because they are hyped up tho?

[gazza_20]

Saturday NME/Radio 1 Stage

At The Drive-In

The Cribs

A Day To Remember

Billy Talent

The Used

Young Guns

Twin Atlantic

InMe

We Are The In Crowd

LostAlone

Cherri Bomb

Any chance of something like that? The only bands I like on Saturday at the moment are ATDI, Enter Shikari and Billy Talent...

[jump]

I doubt it, Billy Talent played above ADTR last time so they ain't going to do that reversed 2 years later surely. I still The Subways is a good shout, though it doesn't make sense them not being announced. Going by that they can't announce yet, NOFX or Rancid fit

[gazza_20]

There's no reason why NoFX can not be announced.

[jump]

June UK dates before Download

Edited April 5, 2012 by jump

[gazza_20]

You Me At Six, Vaccines, Cancer Bats, Blood Red Shoes, Foster The People and a shit loads of other acts on the line up have UK dates too...

I haven't looked the Rebellion line up properly but I can't see a problem with Rancid being announced yet either.

[jump]

Rancid something to do with Rebellion needing to sell out 1st or something?

Blood Red Shoes, Cancer Bats are right down the bottom - probs not really affecting sales too much. Foster The People I think had, they sold Brixton out easily.

You Me At Six have one date in Belfast.

The Vaccines have a couple of dates on sale, but in fairness one is very small and the other is right down south in brighton , still a fair way away from Reading.

NOFX clearly have tickets available for all their tour dates still, and are a big add for the Download crowd. Billy Talent have no UK dates at all, so if you chose R&L or Download, or even both, promoters are in a win situation and people have no other dates to even see them.

[JBarbour]

Dont know if this already been covered but anyway here is q&a with the promoter and booker of r&l - Neil

What’s the reasoning behind Paramore being booked? Most importantly they’re a great live band and they’ve got a new album out around the festivals so makes sense on that level. Also I like to try and get acts before the headliners that are different but which complement them. So with The Cure being a more established act someone younger , with a female singer, works well. They’re also a big act making exclusive festival appearances for us, their last UK tour sold over 100,000 tickets and whilst they may have loud detractors on forums they also figure very highly on every poll we run. This year’s marmite band I guess but there’s a lot of people who want to see them.

Why are there no bands like Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine or Red Hot Chilli Peppers? Well in a way there are…The Cure aren’t a million miles away musically from Radiohead and Foo Fighters occupy similar territory to Rage and RHCP…If you mean why aren’t those particular acts playing this year, well all three have headlined within the last 5 years and whilst I’d love to have them all back at some point it’s probably too soon for us and for the bands themselves to do it this year. We’ve got one headliner who has never played the main stage before (Kasabian), one that hasn’t played Reading in a lot of people’s lifetimes (The Cure) and the biggest rock band on the planet (Foo Fighters) so I think we’ve got a great range of headliners there…and that’s before you look at acts like Florence and the Black Keys who are massively successful right now (as well as brilliant live) and could almost headline in their own right. So , we haven’t got those particular acts this year but I think we’ve got great headliners.

What would your ideal line-up be? My ideal line up is one where 160,000 people come to Reading and Leeds and have the best weekend of the year, seeing a load of acts they love, a bunch of new acts they haven’t seen yet, one act that makes them want to form their own band, one act where they want to run away with the singer/bass player (don’t run away with the drummer whatever happens), one act they’d spent months saying was going to be **** but turned out way better than they thought. They make new friends and enemies on the campsite, go a bit mental at the Silent Disco and go home on Monday wishing they never had to go back to college/work/real life. …and At the Drive –In play.

Do the line-ups reflect what you like or what you think people will like? It has to be about what people like or will be into – there’s the obvious ways of gauging that from record sales and how tours have gone and then there’s making sure acts with new records out in the year play at Reading and Leeds so you get bands playing new sets and not just retreading what people have seen before. At the top of the bill it’s usually all about greatest hits sets – Foo Fighters are planning the mother of all headline sets this year – but throughout the bill it’s about what’s new and what’s going on in alternative music generally , whether that’s a great new hardcore band on the Lock Up stage or

There’s 23 of the acts we’ve announced so far (and loads of the acts still to be announced) who have had or will have had new albums out by the time the festivals roll around so that’s a big part of it too.

It’s all about getting the best live acts, the most popular acts to a certain extent on bigger stages and the most interesting newer ones on the smaller stages.

What comes first - ensuring a sell-out or creating a festival line-up that will be remembered for years? Creating the best possible line up every time. We get offered acts that could sell a gazillion tickets but if they’re not right for the festival we won’t do them.

Do you and Melvin ever argue about artists? Every artist is on the bill for a reason. Whether that be they have a new album out, they’re selling a lot of tickets on their tours, they haven’t played for ages, everyone’s asking to see them on forums, they’re just ****ing amazing live or they bring something different to the festival…occasionally I might like a band Melvin doesn’t or vice versa but it’s not something we argue about. Again it’s not really about our personal taste it’s about what’s best for Reading and Leeds and we’re on the same side there.

What's changed since the first Reading/Leeds line-up you look after? Well, the festival’s grown a lot with various stages being added and the whole thing’s become a lot bigger but at the same time once you get on site come Thursday night and you have a few beers and work out a timetable of bands you want to see each day and look forward to an amazing weekend , well that never changes.

When is the line up booked by? Usually start on headline acts up to 18 months before a festival and still booking newer acts pretty much up to the middle of July.

Which stages are fully booked first? Everything follows on from headliners so main stage and NME stage are usually the first. Dance and Lock Up follow shortly after and I try to book FR stage as late as possible so we can make sure we don’t miss out on the latest acts coming through.

Does the line up change over time following bookings? It’s constantly added to all the time but bands confirm their positions on the bill and it’s unusual for that to change.

Does the budget for each stage change yearly? It tends to increase , yes.

Do bands regularly pull out? Given how many bands we have playing it’s remarkably rare but usually you get one or two sore throats/broken arms/bands splitting up halfway up the motorway but Reading and Leeds Festivals are incredibly important to acts to play at, it’s a real test and honour for them to play so they usually make every effort to play when some times they’d pull any other show. There’s always one or two bands playing on crutches…

Has this year's line up been fully booked yet? No we leave the Festival Republic stage as late as possible to make sure it’s as current and relevant as possible come August.

The BBC introducing stage is still to be confirmed and acts can still upload tracks via BBC for inclusion on that.

How much attention is paid to forum/Facebook views on who should play? A lot and it’s something we want to develop and build on. It’s obviously important to us to know what people think, who they want to see , what works at the festivals and what can be improved. The polls we do are a great way of gauging which bands everyone wants to see so spread the word on those.

We can’t always get every act people want to see whether it be due to their commitments or they’re just not touring but we try. It’s