Shoulda, coulda, woulda... headliners

[Ayrshire Chris]

8 minutes ago, Rumblestripe said:

Surprised it took so long to mention His Royal Purpleness.

Simple Minds subbed The Cure in 95. Not sure when they might have been bigger but I feel they could have Headlined at some point?

So many years I waited in vain to hear him announced.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

8 hours ago, Slugworth said:

Were The Who relevant at the time? A great booking for sure but maybe they could have played the year after. 

2007 was the only chance to book DP

Yep, true, altho being a huge heritage band I guess I focused more on Artic Monkeys and the Killers. 

Def feels like Daft Punk's time has gone now. 

[lukethekid]

Daft Punk will remerge eventually I reckon. 

What about Michael Jackson? Despite him being a peado and that. 

[dentalplan]

15 minutes ago, lukethekid said:

What about Michael Jackson? Despite him being a peado and that. 

I don’t think the festival became a place that would/could book MJ until after his death.

[Matt42]

7 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

I don’t think the festival became a place that would/could book MJ until after his death.

Yup, agree. From what I remember I don’t think there was ever an appetite to book him in the past?

[lukethekid]

8 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

I don’t think the festival became a place that would/could book MJ until after his death.

Yeah I agree with ya there actually. I think if he was still knocking about 3/4 years later / wasn’t having documentaries released about him he could have had a chance.  

[Hugh Jass]

2 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Yup, agree. From what I remember I don’t think there was ever an appetite to book him in the past?

He wasn't really a live proposition for the whole of the 00's up until the announcement of that tour, so they couldn't have booked him if they wanted to.

They would never have been able to afford him anyway.

[dentalplan]

5 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Yup, agree. From what I remember I don’t think there was ever an appetite to book him in the past?

You’re doing it on purpose now aren’t you?

[Matt42]

Just now, dentalplan said:

You’re doing it on purpose now aren’t you?

What? Do? You? Mean?

[Hugh Jass]

You could make an argument that Green Day were worthy of a nod around 04/05 when American Idiot was absolutely massive.

[lukethekid]

2 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

You could make an argument that Green Day were worthy of a nod around 04/05 when American Idiot was absolutely massive.

Agree with this one, don’t see an appeal for it now but then I think you’ve got a mighty argument for it. 

[jparx]

13 hours ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Prince,  any year! 

Christ you're right, that's the obvious answer. I was talking with a friend about that last weekend, how he could have headlined instead of The Who. I know you can never guarantee a set would be great, but it's hard to imagine that Prince at Glastonbury wouldn't have been one of the greatest headline sets of all time.

[stuartbert two hats]

16 hours ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

Primal Scream, sometime between 1997 - 2000. Fucking ferocious live band back then. 

They did headline. Friday night in 1998.

[maelzoid]

13 hours ago, priest17 said:

Foals should have in 2016, jury's out on whether they will in the future.

Instead of Coldplay, Muse or Adele? (delete as applicable)

[maelzoid]

12 hours ago, Rumblestripe said:

Surprised it took so long to mention His Royal Purpleness.

Simple Minds subbed The Cure in 95. Not sure when they might have been bigger but I feel they could have Headlined at some point?

I was there and a pretty big Simple Minds fan. They were definitely on a downward trajectory. I think 1989 should have been the year. Number 1 single, playing arenas through Europe that year. Headliners were Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega and Fela Kuti. I wonder if at the time, Simple Minds felt the festival wasn't big enough for them!

My vote however would be for Elbow instead of Kasabian or Arcade Fire in '14

[priest17]

5 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

Instead of Coldplay, Muse or Adele? (delete as applicable)

Muse. Adele was a good choice, I don't like Coldplay but had LCD Soundsystem for me so good to get them out of the way while I didn't want to be at the pyramid stage. Having serial headliners Muse and Coldplay in the same year felt lazy. Also I ended up watching Muse as I sat down at the end of Foals and literally couldn't move and they were so boring.

[maelzoid]

1 hour ago, lukethekid said:

What about Michael Jackson? Despite him being a peado and that. 

All other considerations aside, this would have been logistically impossible. Jacko didn't so much as do gigs as put on productions, and I think the intricacy of his performances would be impossible to set up in the hour after whoever it would have been left the stage.

And when would it have happened? He would have been too big for the fest in the 80s. In the 90s, he was seen as something of a freak and I think people today don't appreciate how mainstream pop was not especially welcome at Glastonbury (or any festival) during that decade. 

[Xeph1995]

Qotsa after like clockwork, villains was a bit of a flop for anyone who wasnt already a big fan. 

[lukethekid]

1 minute ago, maelzoid said:

All other considerations aside, this would have been logistically impossible. Jacko didn't so much as do gigs as put on productions, and I think the intricacy of his performances would be impossible to set up in the hour after whoever it would have been left the stage.

And when would it have happened? He would have been too big for the fest in the 80s. In the 90s, he was seen as something of a freak and I think people today don't appreciate how mainstream pop was not especially welcome at Glastonbury (or any festival) during that decade. 

I agree, I don’t think he could have done it when he was alive. Potentially if he was still performing now (forget about the cost of it). Obviously now there is a much broader outlook on mainstream pop music at the festival and also the production level and capability to execute those production levels has excelled in recent years. Not just at the festival but all across the world, you can put together a level production in half an hour that is of truly professional and elite standard. Only got to look at the Super Bowl half time show to see what they can do in such a small amount of time. 

[lukethekid]

5 minutes ago, Xeph1995 said:

Qotsa after like clockwork, villains was a bit of a flop for anyone who wasnt already a big fan. 

They headlined the other in 2011, obviously not pyramid headliners though. 

[Superunknown]

Feel like Pearl Jam should have done it by now but I realise they have their own reasons for not headlining. Just seems like a wasted opportunity as from their set at Mad Cool, it's obvious they'd smash the Pyramid.

[lukethekid]

Nirvana? 

[Matt42]

Can someone remind me the issue with Pearl Jam and why they haven’t headlined a UK festival since 2012, I can’t remember exactly what it is!

[henry bear]

42 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

I was there and a pretty big Simple Minds fan. They were definitely on a downward trajectory. I think 1989 should have been the year. Number 1 single, playing arenas through Europe that year. Headliners were Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega and Fela Kuti. I wonder if at the time, Simple Minds felt the festival wasn't big enough for them!

My vote however would be for Elbow instead of Kasabian or Arcade Fire in '14

Simple Minds were a huge act back then (could comfortably sellout very large venues)  and Glastonbury wasn’t yet big enough to attract their likes. 1989 wasn’t great headliner-wise. Elvis Costello solo with an acoustic guitar. You spoil us Michael!

[henry bear]

12 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Can someone remind me the issue with Pearl Jam and why they haven’t headlined a UK festival since 2012, I can’t remember exactly what it is!

The feeling is that (and this is more Glasto related rather than UK festivals in general) whilst they have a significant fan-base, they aren’t particularly well-known outside of that, other than one or two songs. So they fall into that no-mans land of being too big to sub (and possibly ditto headlining the Other) but not really a Pyramid headliner. And not helped by the Eavii not being overly rock friendly when it comes to the top slots.