Announcement before Wednesday 25th January

[kaosmark2]

Biify are the media darlings of the moment, surfing along on the crest of the wave provided by the likes of bowman and murray and the nme, boosted on by that muppet off of xfactor covering their song. Placebo have been consistent for the last decade or so. biffy may be big at the mo, but it remains to be seen if they can remain so. Placebo are big in france, most of Europe and the far east, and again - have been for quite some time.

dont get me wrong, i love both bands, having seen them both probably a dozen times since about 2001, i just dont think its a massive stretch for them to headline soni, particularly in a year where the genuine big time headliners appear to be a bit hard to come by.

we will all know by tomorrow hopefully anyway.

has anyone mentioned floyd? that would be a biggie, and it appears that the rift between gilmour and waters may be softening a little. it would guarantee a sellout at the very least.

[spitfireman]

Amazingly, it seems that no strong rumours really seem to be sticking atm. I was given a number of VERY STRONG rumours from friends in the industry back in October/November but so far nothing has materialised.

I've been told that a number of bands were keen to headline but problems arose when money was discussed .... no surprises there. I also suspect that Rush were put off by Soni being a touring festival and they'd therefore have to agree to play a number of European festivals.

I am still left thinking that strong contenders include:

Van Halen

Kiss

RATM

Queen

Tool

However, the announcement that one of the headliners is 'unbelievable' leads to to just three obvious candidates ....

Zep - surely no way!

Stones - ditto

Bowie - I think not as 90% of the audience would be there to just see him

Floyd .... lots of rumours of a 2012 reunion

I don't know about you, but i can't wait for some proper news now!

[kaosmark2]

Amazingly, it seems that no strong rumours really seem to be sticking atm. I was given a number of VERY STRONG rumours from friends in the industry back in October/November but so far nothing has materialised.

I've been told that a number of bands were keen to headline but problems arose when money was discussed .... no surprises there. I also suspect that Rush were put off by Soni being a touring festival and they'd therefore have to agree to play a number of European festivals.

I am still left thinking that strong contenders include:

Van Halen

Kiss

RATM

Queen

Tool

However, the announcement that one of the headliners is 'unbelievable' leads to to just three obvious candidates ....

Zep - surely no way!

Stones - ditto

Bowie - I think not as 90% of the audience would be there to just see him

Floyd .... lots of rumours of a 2012 reunion

I don't know about you, but i can't wait for some proper news now!

[t8yman]

I'm still concerned that there has been little or no communication on exactly when they are announcing. I cant believe Kerrang are getting the exclusive reveal, its far too scattered to make a splash. surely a simple headsup from kili wouldnt hurt?

[spitfireman]

Agreed - surely they'll post something online tomorrow. Even a countdown clock to an announcement would be something.

I'm still confident that Soni will have three great headliners, I know i'll enjoy the festival (as i have all 3 so far) but i am growing tired of this waiting now!

[t8yman]

unfortunately, I dont share your confidence, and whilst I dont think the headliners are the be all and end all, they are indicative of the kind of calibre of acts we are going to get.

i could quite easily pick 3 of the strong rumours and have my dream set, but by the same token I could very easily pick 3 I would hate, blink being one of them.

the biggest thing soni have going for them (with regard to me buying a ticket - purely selfish) is that I can still buy VIP, whereas download has sold out. 2 or 3 good headliners would make me feel really easy about forking out for rock royalty.

[TYLER_4]

im not even going and im getting impatient, feel sorry for you guys going haha but im sure you'll get a very strong line up.

[kipper64]

My point was more Placebo subbed in 2010, so don't really see why they'd get bumped up to headliner, they certainly haven't got any bigger since then.

As for the lack of communication, I do find it odd they haven't posted anything on twitter as a heads up, but they're a small team and are probably very busy so I'm not completely surprised, generally we don't hear a date untill a day or a few days before anyways.

[gazza_20]

to be honest with everyone moaning that there is nothing, for them to announce something pretty cool on the basis of no word is exactly what they are likely to do.

[t8yman]

My point was more Placebo subbed in 2010, so don't really see why they'd get bumped up to headliner, they certainly haven't got any bigger since then.

As for the lack of communication, I do find it odd they haven't posted anything on twitter as a heads up, but they're a small team and are probably very busy so I'm not completely surprised, generally we don't hear a date untill a day or a few days before anyways.

[kipper64]

Not really making an excuse, just said it's odd, but going by how things have went in the past, I'm not that surprised.

Anyways, it's not like they're alone in that. Download didn't announce their first "announcement date" untill the night before it happened. Which was also the case for their second announcement, and they didn't even announce anything before dropping their third. The announcements generally speak for themselves.

Edited January 22, 2012 by kipper64

[Andre91]

I personally think the Kerrang! thing saying its unbelievable is exaggeration, because I really can't think of anyone that is really 'unbelievable' except maybe 'Queen' to an extent, but I don't think that's truly unbelievable. Unless it is Led Zep, which would be absolutely insane but it isn't them, it can't be, surely ?

[t8yman]

Not really making an excuse, just said it's odd, but going by how things have went in the past, I'm not that surprised.

Anyways, it's not like they're alone in that. Download didn't announce their first "announcement date" untill the night before it happened. Which was also the case for their second announcement, and they didn't even announce anything before dropping their third. The announcements generally speak for themselves.

[luckysalt]

He means The Prodigy announcement I think, that was just out of nowhere, 6pm on a Thursday

[kipper64]

Yeah it went Metallica (which we found out the night before, and that was only after Metallica and Radio 1 said they had festival news so everyone had already put 2 and 2 together). Then the night Metallica were announced, they posted we'd get another announcement the next day, which was of course Sabbath, and then Prodigy came out of nowhere on a Thursday afternoon as luckysalt says. So their first 3 announcements, at most, had a warning the night before, with no real PR building/hype, and I imagine Sonisphere will do the same, as it's what they've also done in the past. It was only really the latest undercard announcement that got a date, and that was only a weeks notice too.

Edited January 22, 2012 by kipper64

[biffoire]

I personally think the Kerrang! thing saying its unbelievable is exaggeration, because I really can't think of anyone that is really 'unbelievable' except maybe 'Queen' to an extent, but I don't think that's truly unbelievable. Unless it is Led Zep, which would be absolutely insane but it isn't them, it can't be, surely ?

[luckysalt]

Yeah it went Metallica (which we found out the night before, and that was only after Metallica and Radio 1 said they had festival news so everyone had already put 2 and 2 together). Then the night Metallica were announced, they posted we'd get another announcement the next day, which was of course Sabbath, and then Prodigy came out of nowhere on a Thursday afternoon as luckysalt says. So their first 3 announcements, at most, had a warning the night before, with no real PR building/hype, and I imagine Sonisphere will do the same, as it's what they've also done in the past. It was only really the latest undercard announcement that got a date, and that was only a weeks notice too.

[kipper64]

Well yeah, true, but it wasn't given a solid date till then, just like the sonisphere announcement has been January for a month, and end of january for 3 weeks now

[Andre91]

The fact it's unbeleivable is either a very subjective opinion based comment, or a comment based on someone playing that you wouldn't expect.

Personally, you couldn't pay me to watch some of the bands rumoured however others might think those bands would make a great line up.

[Andre91]

The fact it's unbeleivable is either a very subjective opinion based comment, or a comment based on someone playing that you wouldn't expect.

Personally, you couldn't pay me to watch some of the bands rumoured however others might think those bands would make a great line up.

[kaosmark2]

Download got out of the traps early. Soni's not exactly announcing late.

[Vacant0]

I didnt say people were saying they dont belong at soni, I said people didnt think they were big enough. my argument is that they are way bigger than biffy, so its quite conceivable that they could headline

Edited January 22, 2012 by Vacant0

[luckysalt]

If Placebo got announced and they were playing Without You Im Nothing in full, THAT would be headliner worthy, thing is their sets are too current and they just don't play enough classics. I was lucky enough to see them on the tour for that album though and the Black Market Music tour and Ive seen them more recent and for me they're a shadow of their former selves.

The Meds tour was nothing but new stuff and like 1 classic. For long time fans think its a bit of a kick in the balls.

[kipper64]

They mixed it up quite a bit at Soni 2010, which was nice, more than I was expecting anyways considering they BFTS out..or just about to come out - I can't recall

[kaosmark2]

If Placebo got announced and they were playing Without You Im Nothing in full, THAT would be headliner worthy, thing is their sets are too current and they just don't play enough classics. I was lucky enough to see them on the tour for that album though and the Black Market Music tour and Ive seen them more recent and for me they're a shadow of their former selves.

The Meds tour was nothing but new stuff and like 1 classic. For long time fans think its a bit of a kick in the balls.