2nd Division Festival!

[Sickboy74]

If you head over to the NME site there is a video of Melvin Benn describing this years headliners as 'Absolute Exclusives'. Would someone care to explain to me how the hell 'My Chemical Romance' are exclusives as they are appearing at T in the Park and are not even headlining there!!!!!

One of the big sells of Reading is that the headliners are exclusives...surely having bands headline Reading that appear lower on the bill at other festivals is a shoddy way around that rule. I am not getting involved in whether or not MCR are valid headliners as it's all down to personal opinion, but I feel that the fans who have made this festival what it is have been sold tickets under false pretences. Melvin has done us proud with some awesome line ups in the past but has completely sold the festival, himself, and the fans well short this time round.........What the F..k does it say about Reading that we can't even book headliners capapble of headlining any where else??????

Rant over...enjoy the fest. :angry:

[j...rox]

Muse are a massive draw, The National are third down and headline Latitude and there are some big acts on the undercard ie. Deftones, 30STM, Pulp, Elbow, Interpol. Good variety, and they spent up on the Libs last year I imagine.

[fat_man_joe]

Exclusive to England

[chappiepunk]

I wouldnt say its 2nd division, its underachieved so far, like chelsea this season.

[allan14]

T in the park is in Scotland not England.... there goes your hole argument..

... also i like the lineup

[dannyv18]

what about pulp headlining wireless and headlining leeds? :| .... completely exclusive??? I THINK NOT!!!!! why lie to us melvin?

[theloveofmusic1]

what about pulp headlining wireless and headlining leeds? :| .... completely exclusive??? I THINK NOT!!!!! why lie to us melvin?

[allan14]

they are swapping around for leeds

[she bangs the drums]

Muse have played every festival going over the past 5 years so they are hardly exclusive though out of the 3 headliners, they are the biggest by far.

MCR are a marmite band and have been bottled at R&L and Download plus as people have pointed out they are not even headliners at other festivals in the UK.

IMO the Strokes should not be a R & L headliner, they should be playing second to a big draw band and although they are good live they are not a massive appealing band. Pulp are playing every festival in Europe or so it seems.

Beady Eye are a poor NME headliner, one album, Liam is doing no harm to anyone enjoying his little mind making a Beatles style music but they are just a poor mans Jim Jones Revue and should not be playing that high. The festival needed a big popular headliner to go up against MCR, personally I would have loved someone like Soundgarden but they probably wouldn't have shifted enough tickets

Janes Addiction are a fantastic band but like bands like Faith No More who have played before them will probably only attract 10 men and a dog watching them.

2manydj's should be headlning the Dance Tent one night.

The rest of the line up has the odd gem amongst a lot of new very average bands.

Festival Republic have taken the regular attendees for granted that they would pay £200 to watch a very average festival line up full of bands people are not that bothered about or repeat bookings and the public is voting with their feet. The fact is that the festival has not sold out a couple of hours after tickets went on sale and people could get onto the order tickets pages straight away for the first time in many a year which is even worse considering pre-sales and ticket touts buying them.

[chappiepunk]

Festival Republic have taken the regular attendees for granted that they would pay £200 to watch a very average festival line up full of bands people are not that bothered about or repeat bookings and the public is voting with their feet. The fact is that the festival has not sold out a couple of hours after tickets went on sale and people could get onto the order tickets pages straight away for the first time in many a year which is even worse considering pre-sales and ticket touts buying them.

[dannyv18]

the strokes are headlining ? pulp are subbing

[Sickboy74]

T in the park is in Scotland not England.... there goes your hole argument..

... also i like the lineup

[allan14]

grammer !

diffrent festival diffrent target audience is why they can headline Reading but not T..

.. there would also be bands that could headline T but not reading

[chappiepunk]

grammer !

diffrent festival diffrent target audience is why they can headline Reading but not T..

.. there would also be bands that could headline T but not reading

[mattl]

Personally, I don't give a damn about the Exclusivity of a festival, I didn't care when I watched Faith No More twice because they were absolutely amazing.

So what if these bands are playing elsewhere, even if they're not headlining? Whether or not you like it all three bands deserve their headlining spots.

My Chemical Romance shifted almost an entire generation of youth onto their type of music, one of the best underground bands before their explosion onto the world scene. Yeah they won't see much love on this forum but, believe it or not, they will draw a crowd and have done enough to warrent a Headlining spot.

The Strokes are the Indie Darlings of the New York Scene, the poster boys of the Indie revolution emerging in music when I was younger. Two of the most critically acclaimed albums of the last decade means they deserve to headline.

Finally, Muse. quite possibly the most critically and commercially acclaimed artists to come out of the UK in the last 20 years.

So, we have three influential, best selling artists Headlining a festival that caters to this audience. That's why they're headlining.

[JWC126]

That'd be a valid point if it weren't for the fact that they're UK Headliner exclusives.

[allan14]

different

[dannyv18]

have you ever just thought that t in the park just got really lucky getting them as sub and just got a good sub? ... if MCR signed for reading they might of been asked to headline but said "we cant headline but well sub for the same amount" and t paid it... maybe its not a bad booking for R+L but a good booking for t!

[Mariner]

If I was organising I would have went with one of the following instead of MCR to shift tickets:

Green Day

Foos

Beastie Boys

The Prodigy

REM

Daft Punk

Yes, not all of them would've been available, but still, one fo them must be. That's just headliners I can think of off the top of my head. There are literally a bunch of superior potential sub headliners. I don't know why it's so poor this year. I can't understand why they've optioned for MCR. It doesn't make sense to me.

Festivals around the world like Coachella, which is considered to have a weak line-up this year, totally shits over this Reading lineup.

Edited March 21, 2011 by Mariner

[MEGABOWL]

If I was organising I would have went with one of the following instead of MCR to shift tickets:

Green Day

Foos

Beastie Boys

The Prodigy

REM

Daft Punk

Yes, not all of them would've been available, but still, one fo them must be. That's just headliners I can think of off the top of my head. There are literally a bunch of superior potential sub headliners. I don't know why it's so poor this year. I can't understand why they've optioned for MCR. It doesn't make sense to me.

Festivals around the world like Coachella, which is considered to have a weak line-up this year, totally shits over this Reading lineup.

[mrtourette]

Comparing R&L to V, TITP or Oxygen, whether it's in regard to tickets seeling out or headliners is retarded. If you want to watch Rihanna, Jessie J, The Saturdays, Black Eye Peas, Bruno Mars or the 'indie rock' options like Coldplay, KOL or Arctic Monkeys then f**k off to one of those festivals. Not one of those would ever put bands like The National or Friendly Fires so high on the bill or have Jane's Addiction. Sure there are misses (terrible ones in some cases) but if you can't recognise that R&L is trying to be different then you can't be clever enough to make the comparison, and if you can recognise it and still don't like it then you're probably at the wrong festival for you. It's like saying Download is shit because FNM headlined there and then only headlined the tent at R&L. As for the ticket sales do you ever wonder why Justin Bieber sells more records than Sonic Youth? Would everyone be happy if Melvin Benn didn't make his dumb exclusive headliner claim and we had the Arctic Monkeys headlining again?

Edited March 22, 2011 by mrtourette

[pink_triangle]

I agree the fanbase is different and you wouldnt get many of the pop bands at reading/leeds. However in terms of headliners while some of reading/leeds headliners will sub at T, I cant remember the same happening the other way around, although Im sure someone will be able to tell me it has.I think reading/leeds have many good qualities but feel they do sometimes not manage to pull in the same calibre of headliners as the other festivals. You could make a good argument that the v and t headliners are all bigger than all 3 at reading/leeds, that doesnt mean they are necessarily better of course. However part of me feels I shouldnt be paying as much for a festival with less popular headliners, who I assume would cost less to book.

[jump]

I agree the fanbase is different and you wouldnt get many of the pop bands at reading/leeds. However in terms of headliners while some of reading/leeds headliners will sub at T, I cant remember the same happening the other way around, although Im sure someone will be able to tell me it has.I think reading/leeds have many good qualities but feel they do sometimes not manage to pull in the same calibre of headliners as the other festivals. You could make a good argument that the v and t headliners are all bigger than all 3 at reading/leeds, that doesnt mean they are necessarily better of course. However part of me feels I shouldnt be paying as much for a festival with less popular headliners, who I assume would cost less to book.

[pink_triangle]

Prodigy headline IOW & Faith No More headlined Download maybe more but I'm not sure and can't be bothered to check.

[jump]

Im talking more in relation to T in the park. I still find it odd that T in the park get headliners who would all headline reading/leeds while the same doesnt happen vice versa, despite T not being significantly more expensive. I agree the target audiences are different which acoc**ts for some of the pop bands at T, however dont think it explains the difference in size of headliners they seem to get.