2025 Headliners

[kalifire]

2 hours ago, Spindles said:

I think the football also had some effect.  I nipped back to the tent during Janelle (as it was lifeless) to grab a quick change of clothes and the last of my ciders, I saw plenty of people in the campsites watching the footie in groups on tablets and phones and the cheers that went up from campsites suggested that a lot of people were doing the same.

 

I ended up randomly spending the last 10 minutes with a certain group who made the news with the big telly, generator and One direction lad before nipping off to Leftfield to catch the farm and the bobs.

Janelle certainly wasn’t lifeless. She was much better than Avril by just about every metric, and was robbed by a rubbish festival booking decision. 

[FKA SOSOTWS]

15 hours ago, efcfanwirral said:

Same! I saw them years ago and was really impressed, but for some reason dismissed them when looking at the lineup before the festival, despite complaining there was no headliner for me. Glad I had a closer look at the lineup that afternoon!

I wish I also saw the first 20 minutes of their Glasto set, cause the audience vibes were off the charts. 

[northernangel]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

That's fair. Bedford was a really weird choice to put on a show as an exclusive for this region of England, plus the £70 ticket price can be off-putting whereas if you're already at a festival, you'll have the luxury of going "f**k it, why not?"

 

I don't particularly like the song Girlfriend so that would probably have counterbalanced the fact stuff like Sk8r Boi or Complicated are genuinely quite good.

 

Exactly and as soon as she was announced for Glastonbury the extra younger crowd Glastonbury brings in now can already see her. In fairness it was stupid looking her to play Bedford on Glastonbury weekend.

[Spindles]

59 minutes ago, kalifire said:

Janelle certainly wasn’t lifeless. She was much better than Avril by just about every metric, and was robbed by a rubbish festival booking decision. 

Yeah, I wasn't really referring to her performance so much as the crowd I was in. 

[Skip997]

3 hours ago, kalifire said:

Janelle certainly wasn’t lifeless. She was much better than Avril by just about every metric, and was robbed by a rubbish festival booking decision. 

Janelle was great. Not her fault…

 

Well you know the rest 

[efcfanwirral]

4 hours ago, charlierc said:

That's fair. Bedford was a really weird choice to put on a show as an exclusive for this region of England, plus the £70 ticket price can be off-putting whereas if you're already at a festival, you'll have the luxury of going "f**k it, why not?"

 

I don't particularly like the song Girlfriend so that would probably have counterbalanced the fact stuff like Sk8r Boi or Complicated are genuinely quite good.

I'm With You was the highlight of that set for me. 

[northernangel]

4 hours ago, kalifire said:

Janelle certainly wasn’t lifeless. She was much better than Avril by just about every metric, and was robbed by a rubbish festival booking decision. 

Quite hard to know this without being in the crowd for both which is quite difficult.

[efcfanwirral]

4 hours ago, FKA SOSOTWS said:

I wish I also saw the first 20 minutes of their Glasto set, cause the audience vibes were off the charts. 

Yeah I loved the atmosphere, really wanted an upbeat sing along and we got that 

[CantWaitForGlasto22]

1 hour ago, efcfanwirral said:

Yeah I loved the atmosphere, really wanted an upbeat sing along and we got that 

It was fun wasn’t it? We were at The National which we loved and were reluctant to leave before the end, but skipped the last 5 mins and ran (!) to see the last 20-30 mins of The Feeling at Avalon. Perfect end to the festival - would only have been better if I hadn’t had to leave The National set a bit early to do it, but glad we saw both. 

[jonnytee1]

6 hours ago, kalifire said:

Janelle certainly wasn’t lifeless. She was much better than Avril by just about every metric, and was robbed by a rubbish festival booking decision. 

Couldn’t agree more - I thought she was superb and watched back on the BBC when returning home and it was every bit as good as I remembered even though I was pretty drunk at the time. 
 

She’s a hugely underrated artist and performer. 

[matrainertje]

10 hours ago, jonnytee1 said:

She’s a hugely underrated artist and performer. 

She's excellent. Still one a top 10 live show ever for me. 

 

 

[fraybentos1]

On 1/2/2025 at 3:50 PM, stuie said:

 

 

Hold on... people previously posted 'locked' information before it was locked and you expect no one to mention that?  On the headliners thread, when it's been confirmed it only was at the early discussion (rumour) stage? haha

 

On 1/2/2025 at 3:21 PM, kalifire said:

 

For it to be locked, as you went out of your way to be outraged about, signatures would have to be signed. We now know they weren’t. I don’t know why you choose to die on this hill. Just accept there was info that seemed good but wasn’t good enough. What’s the big deal? 

I must have missed you two guys retracting these high and mighty statements after NY was confirmed. No apology necessary boys 🙂 lucky I am here to keep you right 

[Gnomicide]

28 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

 

I must have missed you two guys retracting these high and mighty statements after NY was confirmed. No apology necessary boys 🙂 lucky I am here to keep you right 

 

[northernangel]

11 hours ago, jonnytee1 said:

Couldn’t agree more - I thought she was superb and watched back on the BBC when returning home and it was every bit as good as I remembered even though I was pretty drunk at the time. 
 

She’s a hugely underrated artist and performer. 

She's not underrated, she just has her crowd and kinda niche genre with not a lot of crossover. Put her headlining WHs and you'll see the difference. Not within and around the legend slot/nastolgia other stage slot where it's a one time only for some. 

[Stokesy10]

Janelle is f**king outstanding.

[kalifire]

5 minutes ago, northernangel said:

She's not underrated, she just has her crowd and kinda niche genre with not a lot of crossover. Put her headlining WHs and you'll see the difference. 

For sure. The year she headlined WH and finished by disappearing into the crowd, reappearing with mud all over her face, screaming a stream of consciousness about how special the moment was… that’s up there with the best moments I’ve ever enjoyed at Glastonbury. Sensational. 

[NorthernSoul52]

What was the record on page numbers for the 2024 Headliners thread? Can anybody remember?

[NorthernSoul52]

Also, when was the last year where none of the headliners had special guests? 2017?

[rawrsomesauce]

2 hours ago, kalifire said:

For sure. The year she headlined WH and finished by disappearing into the crowd, reappearing with mud all over her face, screaming a stream of consciousness about how special the moment was… that’s up there with the best moments I’ve ever enjoyed at Glastonbury. Sensational. 

Only knew one or two songs of hers before that set, it blew me away. Phenomenal! 

[Jamm]

15 hours ago, CantWaitForGlasto22 said:

It was fun wasn’t it? We were at The National which we loved and were reluctant to leave before the end, but skipped the last 5 mins and ran (!) to see the last 20-30 mins of The Feeling at Avalon. Perfect end to the festival - would only have been better if I hadn’t had to leave The National set a bit early to do it, but glad we saw both. 

Depends when you left The National!

 

At least they didn’t finish on Vanderlyle - that would have been a magical end to the festival.

 

I don’t particularly love About Today - but the best version of that song was in the latest tour run. 
 

But nothing on earth could have pulled me away from that ending run of England -> Graceless -> Fake Empire -> Mr November -> Terrible Love. Only thing that would have made it better was the crowd singalong of Vanderlyle replacing About Today as the finisher.

[angelin]

I had two tickets for Janelle last year and couldn’t give them away on here.  I love but I do think she’s niche.

[compactdisc]

2 hours ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

Also, when was the last year where none of the headliners had special guests? 2017?

 

Technically Ed Sheeran had a special guest, they just weren't a big name.

[northernangel]

3 hours ago, kalifire said:

For sure. The year she headlined WH and finished by disappearing into the crowd, reappearing with mud all over her face, screaming a stream of consciousness about how special the moment was… that’s up there with the best moments I’ve ever enjoyed at Glastonbury. Sensational. 

 

Yeah it was a top set. I'd seen her at Coachella 2013 first time and had to again. It clashed with The Cure but she won.

[Spindles]

49 minutes ago, Jamm said:

At least they didn’t finish on Vanderlyle - that would have been a magical end to the festival.

I was really hoping they would, but as you say, the version of About today makes up for that.  It was a really well judged setlist from start to finish, although I only know that from iplayer as I missed the first couple of songs due to being at leftfield and running over after the bobs were done.

 

For me it was a magical end to the festival, up there with recent closing performances from Pet Shop Boys and The Cure for being the absolute best way to finish a great festival on a high.  From my point in the crowd I was surrounded by people who were completely engaged with the gig, no talkers, people singing along and at the end a young fella stood by me stopped to chat and gush praise for the gig, the festival and how Sunday had been an amazing day where sometimes it can feel a bit flat.  It was lovely and I hope that young man has tickets this year, the festival is all about people like him.

[Johndenis]

I think Janelle Monae is pretty niche.  As we have discussed, Spotify metrics can trick you into thinking someone is "bigger" than they are, but I'm surprised to see Tightrope (which I'd guess is in her top 5 most "commercial" songs) only has 49m plays.  Think we can all agree Pyramid wasn't the right place for her.  Avril Lavigne by contrast is easily identifiable as "fun"/"wouldn't attend a specific gig but if she's at Glastonbury I will see her" and pop punk/emo (don't anyone get on their high horse and come after me for that genre generalisation) has a huge UK audience.

 

From the Glastonburys I've attended, there's certainly a part of the demographic that wants to get smashed on if possible the Wednesday, certainly the Thursday, with the music almost an inconvenience.  So not surprising plenty of folk are burst by the Sunday.  Not saying it's right or wrong. 

 

I don't agree there's no reputational impact of a Sunday exodus.  SZA's team certainly isn't going to have encouraging words for any act considering the Sunday evening.