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Headliners 2023


Crazyfool01

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2 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Coldplay and Muse are a strange blind spot for the festival, why they keep coming back is a mystery but even for them it's now been seven years since they last played so it's looking like even they are being phased out a bit.

Looks to me like the festival are being a little pickier now with how quickly they invite acts back, even Arctic Monkeys now have a full decade since they last played.

Indeed, looks like - I just wouldn't discount the idea yet is all. Again let me be clear, I'd generally always prefer festivals switch it up more. Download's been boooooring for a long time and I'm so happy 2022 is finally somewhat fresh. But I do still think it matters much less for a festival where entry is never guaranteed and there are multiple other festival headline sized acts playing at the same time. 

Anyway, said my piece, let's get back on track and talk about how S Club 7 are going to rock up to the Legends slot in style this year. 😉

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Just now, BenG92 said:

Indeed, looks like - I just wouldn't discount the idea yet is all. Again let me be clear, I'd generally always prefer festivals switch it up more. Download's been boooooring for a long time and I'm so happy 2022 is finally somewhat fresh. But I do still think it matters much less for a festival where entry is never guaranteed and there are multiple other festival headline sized acts playing at the same time. 

Anyway, said my piece, let's get back on track and talk about how S Club 7 are going to rock up to the Legends slot in style this year. 😉

I will always support a first time headliner, even if it's someone I'm not arsed about, over a returning one. I'm not even that big a GnR fan but they are a far more interesting booking than the Foos or U2 or even Arctic Monkeys would ever be for me.

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12 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Coldplay and Muse are a strange blind spot for the festival, why they keep coming back is a mystery but even for them it's now been seven years since they last played so it's looking like even they are being phased out a bit.

Looking at recent returning headliners:

  • Macca - 18 years between sets
  • The Cure - 20/30 years between sets (can't be arsed to check properly)
  • The Killers - 12 years between sets
  • Radiohead - 14 years between sets
  • Coldplay - 5 years
  • Muse - 6 years

Looks to me like the festival are being a little pickier now with how quickly they invite acts back, even Arctic Monkeys now have a full decade since they last played.

Not having 3 bands/rocky/indie acts used to be a 1/3 year thing, now its basically every year - with some years like 2022 even having two non rocky acts. Theres a far lesser need to keep inviting these same acts back as the pool of headliners has become wider

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1 minute ago, gfa said:

Not having 3 bands/rocky/indie acts used to be a 1/3 year thing, now its basically every year - with some years like 2022 even having two non rocky acts. Theres a far lesser need to keep inviting these same acts back as the pool of headliners has become wider

Completely agree, it's become a lot more diverse ever since Emily took over the majority of the booking process.

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11 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Coldplay and Muse are a strange blind spot for the festival, why they keep coming back is a mystery but even for them it's now been seven years since they last played so it's looking like even they are being phased out a bit.

Looking at recent returning headliners:

  • Macca - 18 years between sets
  • The Cure - 20/30 years between sets (can't be arsed to check properly)
  • The Killers - 12 years between sets
  • Radiohead - 14 years between sets
  • Coldplay - 5 years
  • Muse - 6 years

Looks to me like the festival are being a little pickier now with how quickly they invite acts back, even Arctic Monkeys now have a full decade since they last played.

I always thought Muse was a weird one in 2016, they were still massive but their recent material at the time flopped hard. Least with Chris and Co you could say the material continued their commercial rise, despite how poo it was.

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3 minutes ago, scatteredscreens said:

I always thought Muse was a weird one in 2016, they were still massive but their recent material at the time flopped hard. Least with Chris and Co you could say the material continued their commercial rise, despite how poo it was.

There are probably people on here who know more than me but I always assumed Muse were called after they failed to nab someone else.

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1 minute ago, Hugh Jass II said:

There are probably people on here who know more than me but I always assumed Muse were called after they failed to nab someone else.

That would make sense.

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2 hours ago, Jose Pose said:

AM is only a naff booking if you don’t like them, or prefer the Foos over them, which is somewhat contradictory to the point you’ve been trying to make.

No, your argument for why the Foos were a naff booking was this:

"because only two festivals have elapsed since their last appearance and in that time we have a backlog of three years when the festival couldn’t book anyone at all, couple that with the fact it would also mean they’d have no female headliners, but would be going back to white male guitar band to give them their 2nd headline slot in 4 festivals"

The only difference between Foos and AM is how recently they last played. The other reasons you gave for it being a naff booking all apply to AM as well. 

It's not about personal taste trust me. I think Foos are shit, I think AM are shit and I think GnR are shit. Maybe it's about personal taste for you but some of us can look at it objectively for this reason!

If you have reasons that Foos would be a worse booking other than the size of the gap since they last played then please share.

 

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1 hour ago, BenG92 said:

AM have sold out something like 8 stadiums, 3 parks and 2 arenas with more still selling. They are the #1 booking Glasto could make this year with Elton, even if some of us will be staying away. 

On the other hand, to me that means they're playing everywhere and so make it a very boring booking for Glastonbury. 

1 hour ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Again, you're missing the point. It's not about being "one and done" and it's certainly not about personal preference. Six years or three festivals is, in my opinion, too short a gap between headline sets for any act, especially when that act has nothing new to offerbeyond what they've already done.

 The headliner pool is vast and diverse, why return so quickly to something that has already been done?

Not disagreeing with that. I was just calling out your Sheeran comparison as being false. I ignored it the first time, but you bought it up a second time because you thought it was oh so smart and didn't get enough attention the first time you posted it. Was just explaining why it didn't hold up.

And as we've said millions of times, the headliner pool isn't vast and diverse. It's made up of a very limited number of acts who are the right size, available and willing to do it for the fee. We wouldn't be three male acts and two guitar bands if the pool was so diverse.

What's funny is you ignoring that while telling Neil he doesn't understand nuance.

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8 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

No, your argument for why the Foos were a naff booking was this:

"because only two festivals have elapsed since their last appearance and in that time we have a backlog of three years when the festival couldn’t book anyone at all, couple that with the fact it would also mean they’d have no female headliners, but would be going back to white male guitar band to give them their 2nd headline slot in 4 festivals"

The only difference between Foos and AM is how recently they last played. The other reasons you gave for it being a naff booking all apply to AM as well. 

It's not about personal taste trust me. I think Foos are shit, I think AM are shit and I think GnR are shit. Maybe it's about personal taste for you but some of us can look at it objectively for this reason!

If you have reasons that Foos would be a worse booking other than the size of the gap since they last played then please share.

 

Right, so AM are a naff booking because you don’t like them. 

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1 minute ago, Jose Pose said:

Right, so AM are a naff booking because you don’t like them. 

I explained why AM were a naff booking way back. (And why I don't actually think they're playing at all, but it's impossible to talk on this thread unless you pretend AM are playing because then people just go "no it's AM".) But to recap, they're a naff booking because they're playing everywhere, headlining much smaller festivals, they're regarded as a weak live act, they're an expensive act and they played relatively recently.

If you're telling me your only metric for if it's a good booking or not is "have they played recently" then fine, we can end this now. That essentially your entire point is that there's some magic amount of time that elapses between 6 years and 10 years ago where a band goes from being a naff booking to a good one. Knock yourself out by all means but that's a weird as fuck approach.

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    • sub yes I could see but I don't think they get 1hr 15, a headliner starting at 18:15 though is unlikely. Even the recent co-headlines that have had like 1hr 15 then a 1hr 30 after were on 8pm or just before, you are trailing behind more than 1.5 hours then. In that scenario some 3rd down bands are only starting at 18:15 and some haven't lol. I agree they won't not book them due to this but it won't be 6 headliners. It would be 5 headliners and you wouldn't want to see 5 headliners booked but Biffy were to not be thouhgt of as an option for one. Wolf Alice on the other hand could sub no bother and you'd think nothing of it. I'm not so sure Biffy would get headline though after the festival choice in Kendal this year.
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