Announcement

[she bangs the drums]

lets face the facts here people, DL have announced what would widely be regarded as a strong set of headliners in anyones money. they are announcing a further 14 or so bands on monday. Sonisphere have yet to announce anything. Its not that people were spoiled by early announcements last year, its not that the festival is still x months away. their main competition is DL wether you like it or not, and they quite obviously haven't got anything worth writing home about to announce.

we all know the rough availability of most bands simply because of tour/recording commitments and other festival exclusivity etc. they dont have a massive field to choose from. I think the headliners at the very least are going to be either disappointing, or recent repeats (ring any bells sonisphere goers?)

They cannot afford to let DL gain too much on ground on them. its a big year for donny, 10 year anniversary (as we all know) and copping is supposedly pulling out all of the stops (I reckon we'll see how true that is on monday). many people (myself included) need to get time booked off from work quickly, and I for one need to know wether I am booking a long weekend in June or July. The longer they leave it, the more likely I am to go with what I know is there (DL) or what I hope might be there (soni)

even if soni said "we are announcing on the xxth of Jan" it would give people some kind of timeframe. as it stands they havent even announced when they are going to be announcing.

[kipper64]

The way I see it, sure they'll lose customers to Download who need to choose now, but that's not going to have a large effect overall. Sonisphere is only a 60,000 person festival, and even in 2010 (in it's 2nd year with only 2 real headliners booked) it managed to get near that number...and that was up against Download's only sell out year (which announced later but sold out with over 2 times the amount of tickets). There's room for both festivals to have strong line ups and sell out.

[she bangs the drums]

People also keep criticizing Sonisphere's line up without it actually being announced! In my opinion Download's headliners are strong in name but they are nothing out of the ordinary, I've seen Metallica and Prodigy to many times over the past few years and sadly Black Sabbath may not play and even if they do will Ozzy be up to the job?

The rumours are that Sonisphere has 3 headliners that have not played the festival before and I could easily see people posting on here in a few weeks time saying its a great line up and they are going to go to Knebworth over Donnigton.

Saying that It will be interesting to see who Download announce on Monday. It's an exciting time of year for rock festival announcements and I have no doubt that Sonisphere will make a major announcement by the end of January.

[kipper64]

Well I think it's also important to note that is it even certain Black Sabbath will be at Download this Summer? I know nothings been said yet, but due to Iommi's possible serious diagnosis, it could mean touring is cancelled. That's one of the reasons I'm not buying a ticket yet, personally, untill they let us know what's happening at least.

Anyways Scuzz just posted this on bookface:

Scuzz TV

Coming this Monday at 9pm: our 'Sonisphere Festival's Mystery Headliner' show!

We're going to play you 13 bands, one of which will be the first headliner to be named by Sonisphere. Which one of these 13 bands will be the first announced headliner for this year’s Sonisphere? You’ll have to wait and see at a future date.

So looks like they're dropping a massive hint, can see the announcement being the week after next, if that's the case!

Edited January 13, 2012 by kipper64

[jump]

Well I think it's also important to note that is it even certain Black Sabbath will be at Download this Summer? I know nothings been said yet, but due to Iommi's possible serious diagnosis, it could mean touring is cancelled. That's one of the reasons I'm not buying a ticket

Anyways Scuzz just posted this on bookface:

Scuzz TV

Coming this Monday at 9pm: our 'Sonisphere Festival's Mystery Headliner' show!

We're going to play you 13 bands, one of which will be the first headliner to be named by Sonisphere. Which one of these 13 bands will be the first announced headliner for this year’s Sonisphere? You’ll have to wait and see at a future date.

So looks like they're dropping a massive hint, can see the announcement being the week after next, if that's the case!

[kipper64]

It's just some advertising/hype building, innit. The headliner won't be confirmed outright on the show, just one of the bands played will be the first headliner announced. I reckon the announcements will be like last year. One headliner next Friday (whichever one scuzz played), and then the rest the following monday on BBC1 Radio, which is what happened last time, but Biffy sent an e-mail out a few hours early, and the BIG4 were delayed a week due to a website errors of one of the bands.

[spitfireman]

This might be game on .... just noticed that the official Sonisphere UK website has changed!

The image is new and there are no links at all .... so i'd assume that there will be something new happening very soon i.e. today!

[TYLER_4]

they may announce the headliner after the scuzz show. but more likely they'll wait til next monday.

[5co77ie]

I'm hearing end of the month - so probably next week.

[kipper64]

They told us that on the Sonisphere forums a week ago. Get with the times

I reckon next week, probably Monday as well though, with an outside chance of one headliner possibly being confirmed this Friday, kind of like Slipknot being announced before the planned Monday announcement of last year.

[she bangs the drums]

Next Monday makes sense with Download's announcement tonight, I can see tickets going on sale Friday 27th as that is majority of people's first pay day since Christmas.

Edited January 16, 2012 by she bangs the drums

[Rancidpunk_76]

Man alive, Soni need to pull their fingers out. Downloads lineup is proving to be a huge temptation to many people after this evenings annoucements. In this financial climate Soni ought to be getting something out the door before people have spent their money elsewhere.

[she bangs the drums]

It says in this weeks Kerrang 'Next week Sonisphere news, you wont believe who they've got playing'

So I would guess an announcement on Monday with tickets going on sale Friday 27th?

[jump]

It says in this weeks Kerrang 'Next week Sonisphere news, you wont believe who they've got playing'

So I would guess an announcement on Monday with tickets going on sale Friday 27th?

[biffoire]

Man alive, Soni need to pull their fingers out. Downloads lineup is proving to be a huge temptation to many people after this evenings annoucements. In this financial climate Soni ought to be getting something out the door before people have spent their money elsewhere.

[t8yman]

I fucking hope its Monday, I really need to commit to one or the other, and DL's announcement and lineup so far is pretty damn impressive. Soni would be great for me as I'm guessing there are some rock royalty places left? RIP at download sold out ages ago, and I really like to push the boat out a bit these days. Dont know if I could face standard camping at Soni tbh.

[she bangs the drums]

Maybe we will get one band on Friday (one of the ones from the Scuzz programme) and the a few more on Monday?

I'm thinking now that Van Halen are going to be announced from the wording and the fact that Andy Copping got so angry when efestivals ran the story about them not playing Download.

[kaosmark2]

Maybe we will get one band on Friday (one of the ones from the Scuzz programme) and the a few more on Monday?

I'm thinking now that Van Halen are going to be announced from the wording and the fact that Andy Copping got so angry when efestivals ran the story about them not playing Download.

[jump]

Maybe we will get one band on Friday (one of the ones from the Scuzz programme) and the a few more on Monday?

I'm thinking now that Van Halen are going to be announced from the wording and the fact that Andy Copping got so angry when efestivals ran the story about them not playing Download.

[she bangs the drums]

AC was getting stroppy as the story was that one of his headliners had pulled out and he was maintaining he never booked them so therefore they couldn't of pulled out. It was probably something like he was in talks with them but they decided they didn't want to play. Really can't seen them playing, long US tour and they would need a break after since one of them is chicken shit to fly.

Edited January 18, 2012 by she bangs the drums

[jump]

Maybe though the money headliners of a festival like Sonisphere get paid will surely help them get over that fear and long schedule!

Blink 182 are surely going to play either T in the Park or Sonisphere based on tour dates so it could easily be:

Kiss

Van Halen

Blink 182

[dip]

Announcement next week.