2019 Headliners

[Hugh Jass]

17 minutes ago, Dronx said:

Don’t understand the negativity towards having AM alongside Macca and The Cure. Arctic Monkeys are the biggest band in the country right now and they definitely appeal to the younger generations. The gig I went to last week had loads and loads of teens and students in the crowd. If there are no ‘alternative’ Headliners available I.e Kendrick, Fleetwood Mac etc then it doesn’t really get any bigger or better then the rumoured 3 headliners IMO. 

I think all three are perfectly fine bands/artists and would make perfectly fine headliners, I could see myself happily seeing all three if nothing else takes my fancy. The issue is that having all three headline in the same year shows a complete lack of variety in the biggest slots. I appreciate they can only book who is available but I, and a few others from the looks of things, would prefer to see a little more variety and something more contemporary in at least one of those slots. The festival certainly seems to be getting more and more conservative with its headliner choices over the last few years and while they can celebrate the diversity of their lineups lower down the bill  it's the three headliners that really generate the headlines/interest.

If they are the three then it'll be seven straight headliners who have been white blokes with guitars in some form or other.

[Gucci Piggy]

I don't think many people on here have even said it's a poor trio, most just want some more diversity in there.

All three of them are pretty well-liked on here, although I have been surprised at the slightly lukewarm response The Cure have been met with. Arctic Monkeys are just a pretty dull choice and headlined the festival whilst touring their previous album - but at the same time I think everyone accepts they're an obvious booking to make and unless the Eavii had something amazing lined up they'd be silly to turn them down.

[Winslow Leach]

Every AM album since Whatever People Say I Am has been questionable, but the new one is just downright embarrassing. 

Edited September 24, 2018 by Winslow Leach

[Gucci Piggy]

1 minute ago, Doug85 said:

Of course it's just my opinion but i'd wager there are many others who think so too. I know that they still sell out their gigs though which proves that they are still up there as being one of the biggest bands but its not based on that last album. 

6 years since they played but only 4 festivals in between.... i'd argue that was too soon for another headline slot but if Coldplay and others do it then fair enough. By that precedent though that means that Kasabian will be back for 2020....

On the contrary I'd say if any Arctic Monkeys album is utter dross it's AM, and they headlined touring that one

[Doug85]

3 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

On the contrary I'd say if any Arctic Monkeys album is utter dross it's AM, and they headlined touring that one

That's the beauty of us all having different tastes isn't it? I'd say they haven't had a great album since their debut album with the others just having a few bangers on it but they have always sold loads of albums and sold out arenas. Clearly doing something right but I just couldn't get into the new album at all. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

It's not the quality of their albums that's the main concern, more the fact that they've done it twice and fluffed it twice.  

[ConorC]

1 hour ago, Ovechkin said:

Frank ocean wont headline other lol, would suspect he is way more expensive then kendrick as well and therefor more expensive than any of the 3 suggested headliner.

 

gambino is done as an act after this tour, Will it expand over next?

I'm a bit late on the reply here and it looks like the conversation has now moved on but anyway:

Frank headlined mid-level fests like Parklife and Lovebox last year and his stock hasn't risen much since so Other headliner is about right. Also he pulled out of various fests at the last minute last year so if anything he'll have lost a bit of bargaining power when it comes to negotiating festival slots in the future.

Gambino I'm not sure about him retiring it, but he's only doing/done 2 UK dates on this tour (both in London) so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he could extend a few months.

1 hour ago, Radi0Head said:

How come you think Gambino is done? He's had three albums, two of which were hugely successful. Donald Glover is an incredibly talented entertainer, I can only see him progressing further.

That said given he's coming to the UK soon, I doubt he will be at Glastonbury. And an Other headliner would be insulting for him.

He's doing 1 UK date in November to add to the 1 other London UK date he did. Also I'm not getting how Other is an insult because again, like Frank Ocean, the biggest headline show he's had here is a headline slot at Lovebox.

You can add Chance The Rapper coming off a new album to the potential alternatives to the white men on the Pyramid too.

Edited September 24, 2018 by ConorC

[FrancisH]

I doubt I will be watching AM myself, but it would hardly surprising if they ended up doing it. They are certainly "big" enough these days, and their last album wasn't so divisive that it had any impact at all on their ticket sales.

Plus, 6 years getting live experience of large gigs and festivals under their belt feels about right for them to come back to Glasto and right some wrongs of past headline slots.

Edited September 24, 2018 by FrancisH

[mufcok]

1 minute ago, FrancisH said:

I doubt I will be watching AM myself, but it would hardly surprising if they ended up doing it. They are certainly "big" enough these days, and their last album wasn't so divisive that it had any impact at all on their ticket sales.

Plus, 6 years getting live experience of large gigs and festivals under their belt feels about right for them to come back to Glasto and right some wrongs of past headline slots.

Was 2013 generally not received very well? I was there and loved it. When I watch it back it's brilliant as well, granted Turner seemed a little worse for wear. 2007 looked great to me as well, although I wasn't there in person for that one

[ConorC]

1 minute ago, FrancisH said:

I doubt I will be watching AM myself, but it's hardly surprising if they end up doing it. They are certainly "big" enough these days, and their last album wasn't so divisive that it had any impact at all on their ticket sales.

Plus, 6 years getting live experience of large gigs and festivals under their belt feels about right for them to come back to Glasto and right some wrongs of past headline slots.

Judging by the 2 times I saw them at festivals over the summer, that won't happen. Not if the set is heavy on the new stuff anyway.

It's not that the album itself is that divisive for the casual listener, it isn't that hard to listen to. But I feel like much of their core fanbase who got into them off the back of the first 2 albums hate it. There were plenty of people leaving during the back end.

[jyoung]

I always think, with the headliners, if you don't fancy them, it's a bloody good job you're attending Glastonbury with more than 10 main stages and about 100 other places offering the largest variety of entertainment you could ever imagine let alone wish for. It's not like Reading and Leeds where if you don't want to watch Kings of Leon headline you have to go and set your tent on fire for a buzz.

[FrancisH]

1 minute ago, ConorC said:

Judging by the 2 times I saw them at festivals over the summer, that won't happen. Not if the set is heavy on the new stuff anyway.

It's not that the album itself is that divisive for the casual listener, it isn't that hard to listen to. But I feel like much of their core fanbase who got into them off the back of the first 2 albums hate it. There were plenty of people leaving during the back end.

Weird - A lot of their setlists I saw looked pretty light on new stuff for festivals and arena dates, 4 songs from the new album maximum - typically ending in their most well known tunes... What exactly were people expecting before they left? "I bet you look good on the dancefloor" 20 times?

[kingcrawler]

3 minutes ago, mufcok said:

Was 2013 generally not received very well? I was there and loved it. When I watch it back it's brilliant as well, granted Turner seemed a little worse for wear. 2007 looked great to me as well, although I wasn't there in person for that one

It’s generally seen on here as being pretty dull. It’s strange, that set seems to be revered by people who weren’t there. I saw it described on reddit as “the most fun and liveliest they ever played in that era”, but based on this forum people who enjoyed it seem to be the minority.

[ConorC]

2 minutes ago, FrancisH said:

Weird - A lot of their setlists I saw looked pretty light on new stuff for festivals and arena dates, 4 songs from the new album maximum - typically ending in their most well known tunes... What exactly were people expecting before they left? "I bet you look good on the dancefloor" 20 times?

I saw them at Mad Cool and Sziget, the crowd was noticeably chatty at both for the TBHC stuff.

They came out for the encore and played the opener off the new album and groups of people started leaving around me.

[The Martini Police]

2 minutes ago, kingcrawler said:

It’s generally seen on here as being pretty dull. It’s strange, that set seems to be revered by people who weren’t there. I saw it described on reddit as “the most fun and liveliest they ever played in that era”, but based on this forum people who enjoyed it seem to be the minority.

It is revered by people who were there too. Given it was my favourite band at my favourite festival, it's something that's come up a lot since and I've honestly not spoken to one person who didn't think it was at least great (including all the people I was there with). It's considered a resounding success on the AM forum too. Was quite baffled to see the comments on here recently describing it as 'boring' etc. For better or worse, like we've seen with many other artists/sets, this forum isn't often representative of the views of Glasto attendees, let alone the wider world of music and festival fans.

[FrancisH]

1 minute ago, ConorC said:

I saw them at Mad Cool and Sziget, the crowd was noticeably chatty at both for the TBHC stuff.

They came out for the encore and played the opener off the new album and groups of people started leaving around me.

I guess with a festival crowd you're always going to get a bit of that - People were supposedly streaming out of Radiohead last year at the start of their set (I was at the front, didn't really notice), but I thought it was quality.

 

19 minutes ago, mufcok said:

Was 2013 generally not received very well? I was there and loved it. When I watch it back it's brilliant as well, granted Turner seemed a little worse for wear. 2007 looked great to me as well, although I wasn't there in person for that one

To be fair mate I'm purely going off this forum's opinion of the set, I failed to get tickets that year! Regardless, I still think they'd go down very well as headliners in 2019.

[eastynh]

Love the moaning about the beige, white guitar bands headlining Glastonbury. It is a bit ironic considering the crowd that attend is the most beige and white that I have ever seen at a festival.

[The Martini Police]

15 minutes ago, ConorC said:

Judging by the 2 times I saw them at festivals over the summer, that won't happen. Not if the set is heavy on the new stuff anyway.

It's not that the album itself is that divisive for the casual listener, it isn't that hard to listen to. But I feel like much of their core fanbase who got into them off the back of the first 2 albums hate it. There were plenty of people leaving during the back end.

Which festivals were these? They've generally been playing 5 off the latest album per set, less than off AM (questionable decision) and not many more than the first 2 albums (3/4) each. When you consider one of those TBHC songs is Four Out Of Five which has been getting a great reception, it's really not many at all, certainly a lot less than most acts play off their latest album. Can't imagine that number would go up for a Glasto headline set where they're more likely to bring out classics.

[CaledonianGonzo]

2 minutes ago, eastynh said:

Love the moaning about the beige, white guitar bands headlining Glastonbury. It is a bit ironic considering the crowd that attend is the most beige and white that I have ever seen at a festival.

So one way of fixing that is to diversify the line up.

[dentalplan]

3 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

So one way of fixing that is to diversify the line up.

Book the anti beige. As you were.

[Hugh Jass]

Fifty shades of beige.

[eastynh]

1 minute ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

So one way of fixing that is to diversify the line up.

They don't want to diversify the crowd. They have it nice and cosy as it is. They will pay lip service to it and stick on the odd token act but they don't want a crowd like Parklife.

[ConorC]

5 minutes ago, The Martini Police said:

Which festivals were these? They've generally been playing 5 off the latest album per set, less than off AM (questionable decision) and not many more than the first 2 albums (3/4) each. When you consider one of those TBHC songs is Four Out Of Five which has been getting a great reception, it's really not many at all, certainly a lot less than most acts play off their latest album. Can't imagine that number would go up for a Glasto headline set where they're more likely to bring out classics.

Mad Cool and Sziget.

Just had a look and to be fair they only played 5 off TBHC at each. Must've just felt like more.

I see they abandoned 'Star Treatment' as their opening encore track later on in the tour. That seemed to be the big crowd clearer at the 2 shows I mentioned.

[henry bear]

I wouldn’t dismiss Fleetwood Mac as a potential just yet - they’ll be touring Europe around the time.

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, eastynh said:

They don't want to diversify the crowd. They have it nice and cosy as it is. They will pay lip service to it and stick on the odd token act but they don't want a crowd like Parklife.

Having never been to Parklife I'm not really sure what the crowd's like, but I'm honestly not so sure about the festival wanting to remain cosy.  Does Parklife have anything like NYC Downlow or The Greenhouse?