2024 Headliners

[incident]

9 minutes ago, stuie said:

😁

To the point where Dave and KLF no longer seem like edgy bookings because it's been discussed for 67 pages.  And I'm actually starting to believe it will be Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

 

I'd argue that the KLF not being an edgy booking is nothing to do with them being discussed here.

It's because they've been a merch company not a musical act for the last 25 years. Might as well get whoever the current ubiquitous infomercial person is (I assume there still is one).

[Gnomicide]

You boy! Is it the beginning of the year yet?

[MEGABOWL]

14 hours ago, Skip997 said:

Of course they should be creative and imaginative, otherwise it just becomes another Leeds/Reading/Download/Latitude/Coachella/APE etc, etc

Why do they need to sell over 100,000 tickets? I've always said Glastonbury will sell out regardless and IMO a couple of years of imagination and creativity, re headliners (and the Pyramid lineup overall) would change the dynamic for the better.

 

That would only make sense if you were comparing Main Stages. Glastonbury would have to shut about 70% of the festival to be like those festivals.

They need to sell over 100000 tickets because they need money to fund the festival. Given ticket prices these days there is absolutely no guarantee it would sell out especially if they start arrogantly thinking they can book whoever they want to headline. That type of hubris is the road to ruin. 
 

They’ve got a formula that currently works. They’ve been booking the biggest names possible for 30+ years now while proving a huge variety in the headliners on alternative stages and catching every up and coming act possible somewhere on the line up. They didn’t book Oasis/The Prodigy/Blur/Radiohead/REM/Shakespears Sister in the 90s because they were cool and edgy, they booked them because they were massive and what the kids were listening to at the time. The idea that booking a load of acts to headline that aren’t popular enough will lead to it still selling out but with some sort of more alternative crowd is just a total myth with no basis in history.

[CaledonianGonzo]

2 minutes ago, Gnomicide said:

You boy! Is it the beginning of the year yet?

"Go and fetch me a Bob Vylan - the edgiest one in the shop"

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, MEGABOWL said:

They didn’t book Oasis/The Prodigy/Blur/Radiohead/REM/Shakespears Sister in the 90s because they were cool and edgy,

Non of those acts have ever been edgy, with the exception of The Prodigy

[MEGABOWL]

4 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Non of those acts have ever been edgy, with the exception of The Prodigy

If you say so. Then where’s the precedent for Glastonbury festival being successful while filling the Pyramid with ‘edgy’ acts?

[CaledonianGonzo]

6 minutes ago, MEGABOWL said:

If you say so. Then where’s the precedent for Glastonbury festival being successful while filling the Pyramid with ‘edgy’ acts?

Joe Cocker sometimes went days without taking a shower.

[MEGABOWL]

It’s interesting to see how people of different ages treat music. I’m 47 and I see in some of my friends this self assurance that their music taste is not just an opinion, it’s better. They’ve been around a while (getting less open-minded) whereas the kids don’t know what they’re talking about.

You can see how it happens. In the 90s I was an Indie kid so I’d buy NME and Select and listen to Steve Lamacq and you got siloed off into a particular type of music. Same when I then got into pills and Dance music and you had to buy the right mags and go to the right record shops and be seen in the cool clubs. You become part of the scene. There was a kudos to being the first to hear something.

Kids don’t do that now. We’ve had an influx at my work of folk in their 20s who are gig and festival-goers and when you ask ‘what type of music are you into?’ none of them have a ‘type’ because they have instant access to all the music ever and listen to whatever they feel like. Nobody gets anything ‘first’ because if someone recommends a track they can be listening to it within 5 seconds. They’re open to whatever and will go and watch all sorts of different stuff at festivals. You know what, they’re doing it right.

 

[MEGABOWL]

6 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Joe Cocker sometimes went days without taking a shower.

I heard that. He and Jackson ‘the edgiest edgester’ Browne.

[Hugh Jass II]

21 minutes ago, MEGABOWL said:

If you say so. Then where’s the precedent for Glastonbury festival being successful while filling the Pyramid with ‘edgy’ acts?

Skippy's argued in the past for Edgelord acts such as Chic and Public Enemy (who's edgiest member wears a big clock as a necklace) to headline the Pyramid.

[majormajormajor]

The world changes. It's uncomfortable for a lot of people, who get their kicks out of their rear-view mirror.

[Skip997]

So lets have a look at who I watched at Glastonbury last year:

Thursday: Ewan McVicar, Denis Sulta, and Daniel Avery B2B Richard Fearless

Friday: Billy Nomates, The Comet is Coming, Shy Girl, The Sparks, Kelis, Four Tet, Blessed Madonna , Booty Bass

Saturday: African Head Charge, Dreadzone, Lizzo, Leftfield, Nia Archives, Jamz Supernova

Sunday: Speakers Corner Quartet, Barrington Levy, Ruff Neck Ting 30, The Temple for  Old School DnB

 

Pretty even mix of the old and the new there I think, and certainly doesn't suggest that I'm an old git living in the past.

[shuttlep]

32 minutes ago, MEGABOWL said:

It’s interesting to see how people of different ages treat music. I’m 47 and I see in some of my friends this self assurance that their music taste is not just an opinion, it’s better. They’ve been around a while (getting less open-minded) whereas the kids don’t know what they’re talking about.

You can see how it happens. In the 90s I was an Indie kid so I’d buy NME and Select and listen to Steve Lamacq and you got siloed off into a particular type of music. Same when I then got into pills and Dance music and you had to buy the right mags and go to the right record shops and be seen in the cool clubs. You become part of the scene. There was a kudos to being the first to hear something.

Kids don’t do that now. We’ve had an influx at my work of folk in their 20s who are gig and festival-goers and when you ask ‘what type of music are you into?’ none of them have a ‘type’ because they have instant access to all the music ever and listen to whatever they feel like. Nobody gets anything ‘first’ because if someone recommends a track they can be listening to it within 5 seconds. They’re open to whatever and will go and watch all sorts of different stuff at festivals. You know what, they’re doing it right.

 

I agree

 

I don't think there is a right way or a wrong way to do music. You just have to do it.

 

the only downside to instant access to music and tracks, is that no one listens to an album from start to finish any more. It will be a lost art form the Album that takes you on a journey , 

[stuie]

3 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

So lets have a look at who I watched at Glastonbury last year:

Thursday: Ewan McVicar, Denis Sulta, and Daniel Avery B2B Richard Fearless

Friday: Billy Nomates, The Comet is Coming, Shy Girl, The Sparks, Kelis, Four Tet, Blessed Madonna , Booty Bass

Saturday: African Head Charge, Dreadzone, Lizzo, Leftfield, Nia Archives, Jamz Supernova

Sunday: Speakers Corner Quartet, Barrington Levy, Ruff Neck Ting 30, The Temple for  Old School DnB

 

Pretty even mix of the old and the new there I think, and certainly doesn't suggest that I'm an old git living in the past.

I never had the impression you were an old git living in the past.

But I really don't know why you constantly argue that (one of) the biggest stage in the world shouldn't showcase the biggest acts in the world.  It's where the big (old and boring) stars should be. 

 

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, stuie said:

It's where the big (old and boring) stars should be.

Good point.

They need to be corralled somewhere.

[Drinky]

It would be much worse if we had artists on stages far too big for them. The maxim that a certain number of people will be at the Pyramid no matter what only goes so far, as a Rufus Wainwright discovered in 2022. All in favourite of people being given a bump up where they can though

[stuie]

2 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Good point.

They need to be corralled somewhere.

The thing I don't get is, I've met lots of folk like you over the years who don't like the acts on the Pyramid, but it doesn't bother them, they just say 'oh we don't go to Babylon' and accept its necessary existence. 

Stadium acts in a stadium sized field, watched on TV by the country generates the buzz that allows the festival to sell out and the income to put on all the other stages that you do like!

[kalifire]

2 hours ago, Yoza101 said:

Is Adele a possibility? She's just announced a few shows in August in Munich and alludes to a big summer with shows closer to home? I think her residency in Las Vegas finishes mid June too 🤔

Adele’s shows in Germany in August are European exclusives for 2024, apparently. 

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, stuie said:

The thing I don't get is, I've met lots of folk like you over the years who don't like the acts on the Pyramid, but it doesn't bother them, they just say 'oh we don't go to Babylon' and accept its necessary existence. 

Stadium acts in a stadium sized field, watched on TV by the country generates the buzz that allows the festival to sell out and the income to put on all the other stages that you do like!

Again I can't logically argue with any of that.

I count myself as one of those Babylon haters, although I will make an exception for a very few worthwhile acts.

[Joey Peeps]

20 minutes ago, shuttlep said:

 

the only downside to instant access to music and tracks, is that no one listens to an album from start to finish any more. It will be a lost art form the Album that takes you on a journey , 

Yeah the pros outweigh the cons (not for the majority of musicians of course) though it has made everything somewhat disposable. 

[-TLR-]

1 minute ago, Skip997 said:

Again I can't logically argue with any of that.

I count myself as one of those Babylon haters, although I will make an exception for a very few worthwhile acts.

even tho' i constantly bang on about the old days - i have nothing at all against the Pyramid or the main markets (or Babylon) in fact, last year i spent more time at the Pyramid stage than i have EVER done before at one festival.

people on here constantly say things like "dont spend the whole festival at the pyramid, thats not what the festival is about"... or somesuch...

i hold the oposite belief - if you want to spend the whole festival at the Pyramid, i say go for it. 

 

[CaledonianGonzo]

[Scrump]

31 minutes ago, -TLR- said:

if you want to spend the whole festival at the Pyramid, i say go for it. 

 

Spent almost the whole of Sunday last year at the pyramid. Not cos I wanted to but because each time I tried to get up my body told me I had to lie back down. 

[Drinky]

11 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Where at the G can I have a bath with a banana split and a bottle of tequila? Missed opportunity

[Mich1268]

1 hour ago, MEGABOWL said:

It’s interesting to see how people of different ages treat music. I’m 47 and I see in some of my friends this self assurance that their music taste is not just an opinion, it’s better. They’ve been around a while (getting less open-minded) whereas the kids don’t know what they’re talking about.

You can see how it happens. In the 90s I was an Indie kid so I’d buy NME and Select and listen to Steve Lamacq and you got siloed off into a particular type of music. Same when I then got into pills and Dance music and you had to buy the right mags and go to the right record shops and be seen in the cool clubs. You become part of the scene. There was a kudos to being the first to hear something.

Kids don’t do that now. We’ve had an influx at my work of folk in their 20s who are gig and festival-goers and when you ask ‘what type of music are you into?’ none of them have a ‘type’ because they have instant access to all the music ever and listen to whatever they feel like. Nobody gets anything ‘first’ because if someone recommends a track they can be listening to it within 5 seconds. They’re open to whatever and will go and watch all sorts of different stuff at festivals. You know what, they’re doing it right.

 

100% my 20 somethings listen to anything from chopin to take that to hard core nut job stuff. I am jealous of the musical freedom and acces they have which I didn't have at their ages. And they literally could not care what is and isn't cool