florence

[Spindles]

I'd hope that at least one of next year's headliners would be someone current and a debut headliner.  Florence was a worthy shout for headliner (should have got the call over the who, imo) and I wouldn't be surprised to see her topping the bill at several next summer.

[stardustjunkie]

Florence absolutely smashed it. 

 

I saw her in 2010 and had no intention of going to see her headline this year because I was disappointed it wasn't someone 'bigger'.

 

I'm grateful to my friend for convincing me to go because it was one of my highlights of the weekend. She had a lot of energy and I don't know about where anyone else was but I was amongst happy people, singing and dancing away, having the time of their lives. It was wonderful. 

 

It's one of those Glastonbury memories that'll stick with me for a long time. I don't tend to spend much time at any of the stages and when I do I don't feel too overwhelmed, however I really believe she showed everyone she could do it and she truly wanted to be there and loved every second.

[Bisque]

Reading & Leeds 2016...

[mrlibertinedream]

Glastonbury have often given new bands headline slots, Arctic Monkeys in 2007 had not even released 2nd album before they were confirmed as headliners and Kings of Leon in 2008 had never headlined a uk festival before Glastonbury. Both of those bands more than played above expectations....sadly Florence was way off that standard

[dentalplan]

Oh yeah, those legendary Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys performances...

 

Anyway, I think she was superb and best of the trio. I read that (via social media analysis or some bollocks) she's been the most positively received headliner too which isn't bad considering she wasn't gonna be headlining until three weeks ago.

[russycarps]

saw one of her songs on the bbc glastonbury highlights last night. It was exactly as I expected it to be. Self indulgent, superficial, squawky shite. 

 

Just awful. 

[T-Mouse]

Oh yeah, those legendary Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys performances...

While not legendary, the festival did assist in giving these two bands the reputation to be able to headline festivals without people batting eyelids.

Perhaps the monkeys were inevitable, but at the time KOL headlined, they hadn't yet released Only By The Night (the "sell out" album if you will) and pulled it off on the back of 3 albums that were no where near as successful as the albums they were to create subsequently.

The performances helped to cement their status, for better or worse, as festival headliners and did so at a time when they had yet to really break into the mainstream.

I would like a he festival to do this a lot more. Bar Mumfords and Flo this hasn't been done so much in recent years. While I have no true affection for either, I think to keep things interesting the festival needs to be the front runners in elevating artists to that status.

If you can secure 2 headliners that have already been established, I think the policy should be to allow an act that is teetering on that edge, ie acceptable as sub/other headliner, to get the 3rd spot. Some will fail, some will prosper. But it will keep the market fresh and stop it from deteriorating at such a fast rate. There is risk in that method without doubt, but one that is smaller to Glastonbury than any other festival, due to the demand for tickets.

[dentalplan]

Yeah I realise that and the importance of promoting new bands, it's just that they were being held up as bands that got given the slot and then surpassed all expectations. Now I wasn't there for either but from general reaction, both were quite boring. Arctics' 2013 show was even heralded as 'completing unfinished business' by their sycophants, and that was crap so 2007 must have been bad to make 2013 look good.

[T-Mouse]

Yeah I realise that and the importance of promoting new bands, it's just that they were being held up as bands that got given the slot and then surpassed all expectations. Now I wasn't there for either but from general reaction, both were quite boring. Arctics' 2013 show was even heralded as 'completing unfinished business' by their sycophants, and that was crap so 2007 must have been bad to make 2013 look good.

No doubting that, other than on very rare occasions of unanimous public opinion, the reception of a set/performance is entirely subjective and based on personal opinion and preference.

My friend who was at the 2007 monkeys show said they were ok but it did feel like they wernt ready to be able to manage a crowd that big. I've had friends who were there in 2013 tell me it's the best gig they've ever been to. I wouldn't know as I had Portishead elevate me to a higher level of consciousness but I can imagine for fans of their music, they came full circle in 2013.

I saw nothing wrong with KOL in 2008 although it was the year before I started attending. I was a massive massive fan of their first 3 albums and thought they were fantastic from my comfy armchair.

[Little Andy]

I just realised something - i saw no big overblown media explosion about the fact that Florence fell over in her set! When that happened to Madonna recently the media went mental!

 

I'm happy about this by the way - the media blow up insignificant stuff like this to try and make money. But was it cos Florence did so well that night, or maybe just because the camera didn't properly catch it? Or do the media not care about Florence? Or maybe cos Kanye got all the bad press?

 

p.s I thought Florence was fantastic. My personal biggest surprise of the weekend.

[Bonneville88]

I enjoyed Florence. Was dead set on Jamie XX but after the surprise awesomeness of Mark Ronson's set I suddenly decided that Florence on Pyramid could be pretty magic. Loved it - still haven't admitted that to my mate who is a big fan.