2012 Lineup

[mrtourette]

But what would sell more tickets, a big act that isn't exclusive or a smaller act that is? Does he put himself in a worse position by choosing the latter and assuming it's better than the former?

Those are rhetorical questions by the way, obviously the answer will be different in every case and he knows better than any of us what to do. I guess it's why people second guess him all the time, if he went for non-exclusive bigger acts I'm sure he'd get grief for that as well as soon as it looked like ticket sales were struggling.

[eFestivals]

But what would sell more tickets, a big act that isn't exclusive or a smaller act that is? Does he put himself in a worse position by choosing the latter and assuming it's better than the former?

Those are rhetorical questions by the way, obviously the answer will be different in every case and he knows better than any of us what to do. I guess it's why people second guess him all the time, if he went for non-exclusive bigger acts I'm sure he'd get grief for that as well as soon as it looked like ticket sales were struggling.

i reckon he's better off going the exclusive route. He'll know what number of tickets an act can shift*, and he can be sure that he'll get all of those sales and not someone else.,

* I act in an unofficial/ad-hoc role as an advisor to a few fests for this sort of thing, and while it's a leap in the dark to some extent to try and pre-guess how many tickets an act will sell for a fest, it's not always so difficult, and much easier when you know you're not competing with another fest over the same act or acts.

[mrtourette]

and much easier when you know you're not competing with another fest over the same act or acts.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

I don't see why them playing Hyde Park would rule them out of R/L, yeah it makes it slightly less likely, but PULP did it, along with playing everywhere else and they're not as big as Blur.

[jump]

I don't see why them playing Hyde Park would rule them out of R/L, yeah it makes it slightly less likely, but PULP did it, along with playing everywhere else and they're not as big as Blur.

[mrtourette]

I guess you have to judge how many tickets Pulp playing sold for R&L and how many Blur would sell (or more importantly how many would be lost by them playing locally shortly before the festival) and weigh that up against other potentially exclusive headliners that may end up selling you more due to the exclusivity (or may not due to them being smaller).

Edited January 9, 2012 by mrtourette

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

That led to the MB's "North England exlusive" comment and shoved them to a co-headline slot.

[thetime]

But there was no "exclusive" deal in Reading... Not to mention The Strokes & MCR also played at T in the Park, among other places.

[jump]

But there was no "exclusive" deal in Reading... Not to mention The Strokes & MCR also played at T in the Park, among other places.

[eFestivals]

I don't see why them playing Hyde Park would rule them out of R/L, yeah it makes it slightly less likely, but PULP did it, along with playing everywhere else and they're not as big as Blur.

Pulp were a co-headliner - because, as you say, they're not as big as Blur. That probably changes thing in Melvin's mind.

And anyway, I didn't say "does rule them out", I said "just about rules them out", because I know that Melvin is exceedingly keen to try and always have exclusive headliners.

But the headliners are not decided purely on the basis of what Melvin is aiming to try and do - real life factors outside of his sole control come into the mix too, and he has to work along with those if they're impacting on things or find another act.

What I'm saying is that if Blur are lined up for Hyde Park, it's exceedingly likely that they won't be on Melvin's list of preferred headliners for R/L.

[mrtourette]

Neither 'side' (the organisers or the punters) use or understand the term properly or consistently so it ends up with a lot of accusations being thrown around that don't make sense or don't matter.

The funniest of which being "how can The Strokes be an English exclusive when they're playing TITP?" (can't remember who that was but it summed it all up really).

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

I understand why if you truly have an exclusive headliner you'd bill it as so; for example the Cure at Bestival this year. However making things up like "northern England exclusives" is just stupid. As is the "English festival exclusive", if people are that bothered about a band, they'll travel. For people in the north there's not that much difference in travelling to Scotland than there is travelling to London.

[mrtourette]

I understand why if you truly have an exclusive headliner you'd bill it as so; for example the Cure at Bestival this year. However making things up like "northern England exclusives" is just stupid. As is the "English festival exclusive", if people are that bothered about a band, they'll travel. For people in the north there's not that much difference in travelling to Scotland than there is travelling to London.

[Kierkegaard]

it's because we're not 100% on which set of events in Hyde Park they'll be playing at. But we know they're playing Hyde Park.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

I totally agree with everything you said. I just think if he over looks Blur on the basis of 'oh they're playing Hyde Park, so I can't claim any sort of exclusivity' and then books someone like Bloc Party to headline, who could easily sub again, then he's the wrong man to be running the festival. I guess time will tell.

[thetime]

if people are that bothered about a band, they'll travel. For people in the north there's not that much difference in travelling to Scotland than there is travelling to London.

[mrtourette]

Yeah I'd agree with that, but that's the point I made about sometimes you go with the big band who aren't exclusive and sometimes you go with the smaller band that are. In that case I'd hope he'd go with Blur (although I'm not too confident he would), whereas if you replace Blur with RHCP even though RHCP are a bigger band than Bloc Party it isn't as simple when trying to figure out who would draw the most people in.

[Dom123]

Leeds 2012

Friday

Main Stage

Foo Fighters

Tenatious D

Lostprophets

You me at six

The vaccines

Dropkick murphys

Sum 41

Simple plan

Gallows

NME

Two door cinema club

Hard-FI

Dry the river

Saturday

Main Stage

Kasabian

Bloc party

Incubus

Mumford and sons

The wombats

We are scientists

The subways

Foster the people

Tribes

NME

MGMT

Funeral for a friend

Ed sheeran

Sunday

Main Stage

The KIllers

Pixies

Placebo

Death cab for cutie

Feeder

All time low

Yellowcard

The horrors

Twin atlantic

NME

Chase&Status

The xx

The maccabees

Edited January 9, 2012 by Dom123

[jump]

^ I really hope Incubus don't play, they were fucking awfull last time.

[eFestivals]

Agreed! One of the reasons im going to roskilde fest in denmark is thats bjorks playing.

but if Bjork was playing somewhere in the UK, then it's likely you miught well prefer to go to that one because it would be likely to involve less travelling.

Much the same applies wirth the likes of an 'English exclusive" which R/L often have. While Melvin might big up the 'exclusive' part mostly as marketing bollocks, the simple fact is that an 'exclusive' like that gives R/L a boost to the tickets it sells.

[thetime]

but if Bjork was playing somewhere in the UK, then it's likely you miught well prefer to go to that one because it would be likely to involve less travelling.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

Agreed! One of the reasons im going to roskilde fest in denmark is thats bjorks playing.

[thetime]

I don't know if you've seen her before, but you will not be disappointed. I saw her at the Manchester International Festival last year & wow, just WOW!

[charley]

I saw Bjork headline Reading many years ago and she was amazing. Don't think they'd ever let anyone like her near headlining these days.

[rug568]

I totally agree with everything you said. I just think if he over looks Blur on the basis of 'oh they're playing Hyde Park, so I can't claim any sort of exclusivity' and then books someone like Bloc Party to headline, who could easily sub again, then he's the wrong man to be running the festival. I guess time will tell.