Headliners 2023

[Florian Saucer Attack]

2 minutes ago, p.pete said:

Interesting, would be great if GnR were actually on Other - that'd explain why there's been no official denial of them playing.  How do we grow this rumour, who would be the actual headliner?

sam smith or lewis capaldi 

[gfa]

At what year would everyone say they booked 'superstars' every year from?

Obviously acts change in size over time but I think stand outs of when there was a weak link might be Moby in 2003, Travis in 2000 (maybe chems too?), Manics and Skunk Anaise in 1999

Most of those performances were before i was even born but would be interested to hear what others think?

I've excluded Basement Jaxx as they were a replacement - i'm guessing they weren't pyramid headliner size in 2005 and quite a big bump up right

[CaledonianGonzo]

10 minutes ago, p.pete said:

Yeah, the whole draw the crowd away from the Pyramid field doesn't seem like it was ever a thing.  They used to have 300k in there [not reality] when the rest of the festival was a fraction of the size.

It also relies on the premise that the one time they booked a headline sized act on the Other Stage as a counter-programme against a huge Pyramid headliner was against Prince - a notorious shoogly peg and subsequent drop out.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Anyway, coming next:

Could Guns'n'Roses headline West Holts? They have a reggae element to their music.

[gigpusher]

1 minute ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Anyway, coming next:

Could Guns'n'Roses headline West Holts? They have a reggae element to their music.

😂😂

I feel like I should send this post to Emily and say please just give us some news to save us from ourselves 😄 

[Boilingtent]

36 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

Id guess at fairly similar record sales, and each band has one absolute out and out stone cold classic banger of an album (appetite and MoP, just for clarity!) but Metallica came from and helped create thrash, which is a much smaller genre than guns n roses coming out of hair metal - much more radio play, sales, fuss and nonsense about the latter (sadly). 

its a great question though, and definitely worth some debate. I think guns n roses have an extra live cachet in that they didnt properly exist for the last twenty years, whereas metallica have carried on, and have an excellent live reputation even through dwindling album returns.  I've seen metallica a couple of times, never seen Guns. 

 

Edit: Metallica want to play arenas these days, more so than stadiums. But they're headlined basically everywhere, played everywhere all over the world, and are in a position where they can pretty much do whatever they fancy, so if its nice dark indoor arenas as opposed to drafty shitty sound at big outdoor places, then good on em - its a much more enjoyable thing as a punter, i'm sure it is as a band as well.  

I'd argue GnR were very much an anti hair metal band.

They sell out stadiums now only because they went away for a long time whereas Metallica have sort of stayed around. 

[gfa]

10 minutes ago, Boilingtent said:

I'd argue GnR were very much an anti hair metal band.

They sell out stadiums now only because they went away for a long time whereas Metallica have sort of stayed around. 

could say that about a fair amount of acts that have made a comeback recently e.g. RATM or MCR

[FloorFiller]

I think the Metallica supposedly being booked to headline Other originally thing is bollocks tbf. It doesn’t make any sense to stick one of the worlds biggest acts on against one of the worlds other biggest acts, and nothing like it happened before or has happened since. I think they were potentially asked to keep the weekend free if Prince didn’t work out, and according to Emily the only year Prince was in serious talks was ‘15, so Metallica were likely pencilled in to headline pretty early on. In fact, we heard from somebody on here that they ran in to Michael in like December  ‘13 and in traditional Michael fashion he blurted out that Metallica were headlining. 

Guns N Roses are headlining the Pyramid or not playing at all, and according to Duff, they are playing, so there we go.

[dreams_burn_down]

9 minutes ago, Boilingtent said:

I'd argue GnR were very much an anti hair metal band.

Oh I've got to hear this. In what way? Sure they presented as more 'dangerous' than the likes of Whitesnake and Poison, and they were bigger than any of those bands, but they still made the same brand of preening, overblown hard rock that got washed away by Nirvana and the Seattle explosion.

[gfa]

25 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

It also relies on the premise that the one time they booked a headline sized act on the Other Stage as a counter-programme against a huge Pyramid headliner was against Prince - a notorious shoogly peg and subsequent drop out.

Who was that? 2014 seems to be what i'm pointed to online for prince and its skrillex, massive attack and jake bugg?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Just now, dreams_burn_down said:

Oh I've got to hear this. In what way? Sure they presented as more 'dangerous' than the likes of Whitesnake and Poison, and they were bigger than any of those bands, but they still made the same brand of preening, overblown hard rock that got washed away by Nirvana and the Seattle explosion.

Soundgarden and Pearl Jam washed away preening, overblown hard rock?  Oh I've got to hear this. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, gfa said:

Who was that? 2014 seems to be what i'm pointed to online for prince and its skrillex, massive attack and jake bugg?

Now I'm getting confused too. I mean Metallica.

Anyway, @FloorFiller has summed it up perfectly.

[Boilingtent]

4 minutes ago, dreams_burn_down said:

Oh I've got to hear this. In what way? Sure they presented as more 'dangerous' than the likes of Whitesnake and Poison, and they were bigger than any of those bands, but they still made the same brand of preening, overblown hard rock that got washed away by Nirvana and the Seattle explosion.

You can literally hear it. Listen to Whitesnake then listen to GNR.

[dreams_burn_down]

4 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Soundgarden and Pearl Jam washed away preening, overblown hard rock?  Oh I've got to hear this. 

Ha fair point, there's definitely a throughline from hair metal to the more ambitious Seattle bands - well, more than some of them would like to admit

 

Just now, Boilingtent said:

You can literally hear it. Listen to Whitesnake then listen to GNR.

I'm sorry, but I really don't hear it! Much more similarity than difference. How are GnR not only not a hair metal band, but an anti-hair metal band?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Paging @Gnomicide to thread.

[Boilingtent]

7 minutes ago, dreams_burn_down said:

Ha fair point, there's definitely a throughline from hair metal to the more ambitious Seattle bands - well, more than some of them would like to admit

 

I'm sorry, but I really don't hear it! Much more similarity than difference. How are GnR not only not a hair metal band, but an anti-hair metal band?

They grew up around sunset strip or whatever when it was plagued by hair metal. GNR came late 80's rather than early, they are distinctly heavier, dressed a lot less "hair metally". Overall they have more in common with metal and punk.

Both genres are from hollywood and feature blokes in tight clothes with questionable hair singing about partying but sonically its pretty different...

Like comparing arctic monkeys to bring me the horizon because they are both from Sheffield and play guitars. 

[Hugh Jass II]

39 minutes ago, FloorFiller said:

I think the Metallica supposedly being booked to headline Other originally thing is bollocks tbf. It doesn’t make any sense to stick one of the worlds biggest acts on against one of the worlds other biggest acts, and nothing like it happened before or has happened since. I think they were potentially asked to keep the weekend free if Prince didn’t work out, and according to Emily the only year Prince was in serious talks was ‘15, so Metallica were likely pencilled in to headline pretty early on. In fact, we heard from somebody on here that they ran in to Michael in like December  ‘13 and in traditional Michael fashion he blurted out that Metallica were headlining. 

Guns N Roses are headlining the Pyramid or not playing at all, and according to Duff, they are playing, so there we go.

Yeah The Stones, Macca, even Adele we’re probably all bigger bookings than Prince would have been and there was never any attempt to “split the crowd” in terms of counter programming.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Not that Ive done it, but if you read back to threads from that period there was the usual amount of Is Prince Big Enough To Headline?, Could Prince Be The Legends Slot and, naturally, Could Prince Sub Radiohead?

[CaledonianGonzo]

"By Booking Prince They Continue To Back Themselves Into A Corner Of Large Acts.  They Should Instead Increase The Pool Of Future Headliners By Bumping Up The National" - a PhD Thesis

 

[Gnomicide]

27 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Paging @Gnomicide to thread.

I mean, I could write a 10 page essay but essentially...

19 minutes ago, Boilingtent said:

Both genres are from hollywood and feature blokes in tight clothes with questionable hair singing about partying but sonically its pretty different...

This isn't far from the truth. The only thing I would say is it was very different from what hair metal became, Poison, Warrant but not so much different from where it started (early Crüe etc.) and the stuff that influenced them (Aerosmith, Nazareth, Stones).

 

[Hugh Jass II]

1 minute ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

"By Booking Prince They Continue To Back Themselves Into A Corner Of Large Acts.  They Should Instead Increase The Pool Of Future Headliners By Bumping Up The National" - a PhD Thesis

 

Have a point though…

[dreams_burn_down]

17 minutes ago, Boilingtent said:

They grew up around sunset strip or whatever when it was plagued by hair metal. GNR came late 80's rather than early, they are distinctly heavier, dressed a lot less "hair metally". Overall they have more in common with metal and punk.

Both genres are from hollywood and feature blokes in tight clothes with questionable hair singing about partying but sonically its pretty different...

Like comparing arctic monkeys to bring me the horizon because they are both from Sheffield and play guitars. 

I can see the (slight) distinctions, but there's not a world of difference between them. Definitely not as much as there is between Arctics and BMTH to take your example. There's no way anyone is convincing me that GnR are an anti-hair metal band.

I do want to apologise for how my initial post was worded though - it sounds quite rude and confrontational reading it back, sorry for that!

[Breeze]

1 hour ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Anyway, coming next:

Could Guns'n'Roses headline West Holts? They have a reggae element to their music.

Why not just wander about like vagabonds and the Rindy Dink Sound System? (Does that still exist?)

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, Breeze said:

Why not just wander about like vagabonds and the Rindy Dink Sound System? (Does that still exist?)

Yea Rinky Dink still exists, they were around last year.

I know some of them and have helped them at protests in the past.

[The Nal]

23 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Yeah The Stones, Macca, even Adele we’re probably all bigger bookings than Prince would have been and there was never any attempt to “split the crowd” in terms of counter programming.

If anything they went the other way. Mostly absolute jabronis on the other stages. The jack off hour.