Headliners 2015

[Lubic]

I don't think you could put Kasabian or Mumford and Sons among them either. Are we now excluding them from it as well?

I'll tell you what. Why don't we not have a band that formed from 2000 onwards and be done with it.

Kasabian - proven festival headliners, as were all of last year's headliners.

Florence and the Machine is not. I'm not a fan, but I've no doubt she could put on a good headline set, as could most bands with experience playing high main stage slots at festivals. I just think it would be a waste of a headliner as I reckon she'd be happy to play in a sub slot. Much like Elbow last year.

[FuzzyDunlop]

Yay another public school toff

As opposed to Thom "abingdon public school for boys" Yorke?!

(I would much rather Radiohead be on that Florence though)

I am from a council estate... Florence headlining because of class isn't a problem -her being shit is.

Edited January 20, 2015 by FuzzyDunlop

[russycarps]

Is russy actually Chris Bryant? Has anyone ever seen them in the same place...

chris bryant is a toffee nosed, ex-public school boy, oxford educated, god-bothering, expenses claims scamming twat.

He's no better than blunt or that wailing harpie, despite him patting the working class on the bonce over the lack of opportunity in the arts.

[Morse Code]

Yay another public school toff off the conveyor belt and handed a headline slot on a plate.

Meanwhile you fawning simpletons keep tugging your forelocks and lapping it up.

Dear Russycarps,

You classist gimp. I happened to go to a boarding school. No one helped me at boarding school to get into the music business. I bought my first guitar with money I saved from holiday jobs (sandwich packing!). I was taught the only four chords I know by a friend.

No one at school had ANY knowledge or contacts in the music business, and I was expected to become a soldier or a lawyer or perhaps a stockbroker. So alien was it, that people laughed at the idea of me going into the music business, and certainly no one was of any use. In the army, again, people thought it was a mad idea.

None of them knew anyone in the business either. And when I left the army, going against everyones advice, EVERYONE I met in the British music industry told me there was no way it would work for me because I was too posh.

One record company even asked if I could speak in a different accent. (I told them I could try Russian).

Every step of the way, my background has been AGAINST me succeeding in the music business. And when I have managed to break through, I was STILL scoffed at for being too posh for the industry. And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me dont deserve it, and that we must redress the balance.

But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.

I got signed in America, where they dont give a stuff about, or even understand what you mean by me and my ilk, you prejudiced wazzock, and I worked my arse off. What you teach is the politics of jealousy.

Rather than celebrating success and figuring out how we can all exploit it further as the Americans do, you instead talk about how we can hobble that success and level the playing field.

Perhaps what youve failed to realise is that the only head-start my school gave me in the music business, where the VAST majority of people are NOT from boarding school, is to tell me that I should aim high.

Perhaps it protected me from your kind of narrow-minded, self-defeating, lead-us-to-a-dead-end, remove-the-G-from-GB thinking, which is to look at others success and say, its not fair.

Up yours,

James Cucking Funt

[Mezhyp1]

He's done you there russycarps, fair play

[Homer]

That is f&cking brilliant.

[CaledonianGonzo]

HNo. I don't neccessarily agree with russy on this, but that James Blunt response letter is one of the most spectacular pieces of point-missing I think I've ever seen. Hoist by his own Harrovian petard.

[eastynh]

Dear Russycarps,

You classist gimp. I happened to go to a boarding school. No one helped me at boarding school to get into the music business. I bought my first guitar with money I saved from holiday jobs (sandwich packing!). I was taught the only four chords I know by a friend.

No one at school had ANY knowledge or contacts in the music business, and I was expected to become a soldier or a lawyer or perhaps a stockbroker. So alien was it, that people laughed at the idea of me going into the music business, and certainly no one was of any use. In the army, again, people thought it was a mad idea.

None of them knew anyone in the business either. And when I left the army, going against everyones advice, EVERYONE I met in the British music industry told me there was no way it would work for me because I was too posh.

One record company even asked if I could speak in a different accent. (I told them I could try Russian).

Every step of the way, my background has been AGAINST me succeeding in the music business. And when I have managed to break through, I was STILL scoffed at for being too posh for the industry. And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me dont deserve it, and that we must redress the balance.

But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.

I got signed in America, where they dont give a stuff about, or even understand what you mean by me and my ilk, you prejudiced wazzock, and I worked my arse off. What you teach is the politics of jealousy.

Rather than celebrating success and figuring out how we can all exploit it further as the Americans do, you instead talk about how we can hobble that success and level the playing field.

Perhaps what youve failed to realise is that the only head-start my school gave me in the music business, where the VAST majority of people are NOT from boarding school, is to tell me that I should aim high.

Perhaps it protected me from your kind of narrow-minded, self-defeating, lead-us-to-a-dead-end, remove-the-G-from-GB thinking, which is to look at others success and say, its not fair.

Up yours,

James Cucking Funt

Pardon my ignorance but is this the letter that James Blunt wrote to the politician?

[Morse Code]

Pardon my ignorance but is this the letter that James Blunt wrote to the politician?

Yes it is. Actually don't agree with it all and if we were having a pop at the privileged walking in to jobs as stockbrokers etc. it would be different but being a successful musician is surely a meritocracy where only the appreciation of the general public defines success, regardless of how much money you were born in to?

I get that Russy doesn't like Florence's music btw

[eastynh]

Yes it is. Actually don't agree with it all and if we were having a pop at the privileged walking in to jobs as stockbrokers etc. it would be different but being a successful musician is surely a meritocracy where only the appreciation of the general public defines success, regardless of how much money you were born in to?

I get that Russy doesn't like Florence's music btw

I have no problem with James Blunt. His music is a bit bland for me but he seems a pretty sound and interesting bloke. It is not his fault that he was born into a privileged environment.

[Brave Sir Robin]

"remove-the-G-from-GB thinking"

Absolutely unbelievable that a bloke who is non-dom for tax purposes has the gall to say that.

Also, his wealthy connections (particularly casting director girlfriend Dixie Chassey) led him to meet Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame, who put him up in LA for free, pushed his songs to anyone who'd listen and introduced him to Sean Lennon and Paul Simon's son. But I'm sure that that could have happened to anyone from a council house, eh James?

Here's some hard evidence about elitism in this country: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/aug/28/elitism-in-britain-breakdown-by-profession

7% of the country go to private school, yet 22% of "pop stars" went there. So yes, James, it seems it does help.

[Homer]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/james-blunt-twitter-comebacks#.xsqW1Wyeq

[eFestivals]

Yes it is. Actually don't agree with it all and if we were having a pop at the privileged walking in to jobs as stockbrokers etc. it would be different but being a successful musician is surely a meritocracy where only the appreciation of the general public defines success, regardless of how much money you were born in to?

I get that Russy doesn't like Florence's music btw

The biggest supporters of the arts are artists themselves.

Think about it!

[eastynh]

responding like a maniac, while completely missing the point however, IS his fault

I should have done some research really but I have absolutely no idea what the politician has said to him.

[eFestivals]

I should have done some research really but I have absolutely no idea what the politician has said to him.

Bryant said not a lot. He merely mentioned Blunt as one of the many people within the arts who was privately educated.

Blunt missed the point entirely, and took it as an attack on him personally, which it wasn't. He's merely an example of the privileges that private education brings.

It's not a great idea to name names, really. The point is the proportion, and not individuals.

[Morse Code]

"remove-the-G-from-GB thinking"

Absolutely unbelievable that a bloke who is non-dom for tax purposes has the gall to say that.

Also, his wealthy connections (particularly casting director girlfriend Dixie Chassey) led him to meet Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame, who put him up in LA for free, pushed his songs to anyone who'd listen and introduced him to Sean Lennon and Paul Simon's son. But I'm sure that that could have happened to anyone from a council house, eh James?

Here's some hard evidence about elitism in this country: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/aug/28/elitism-in-britain-breakdown-by-profession

7% of the country go to private school, yet 22% of "pop stars" went there. So yes, James, it seems it does help.

Re your last point, and this is a serious question, do you think it's because children from better off families have greater access to musical instruments from an early age, access to music lessons, access to rehearsal spaces etc? Talent is talent at the end of the day and it doesn't matter how much money you've got and how many leg ups you get through wealthy connections etc, if you ain't got it, you ain't got it...

[Morse Code]

The biggest supporters of the arts are artists themselves.

Think about it!

So not the people who listen to their music, buy their albums, buy tickets to their shows then?

[eFestivals]

Re your last point, and this is a serious question, do you think it's because children from better off families have greater access to musical instruments from an early age, access to music lessons, access to rehearsal spaces etc? Talent is talent at the end of the day and it doesn't matter how much money you've got and how many leg ups you get through wealthy connections etc, if you ain't got it, you ain't got it...

it's more than just the access to music. It's the opportunity to pursue it.

Blunt went to Sandhurst - essentially, because he's posh - and earned an above-average wage as an officer. He then did music.

Did the higher wages give him more time to pursue music after quitting the army, instead of having to get a job instead? Did he fall back on his parents wealth in that time, or use money he'd perhaps inherited?

Exactly how his life of privilege helped him in music we don't know for sure, but the proportion of privately educated succeeding in music definitely suggests that it's likely he had an advantage of some sort (tho of course, there'll be a proportion who would have had similar success anyway).

[eFestivals]

So not the people who listen to their music, buy their albums, buy tickets to their shows then?

Those things only happen *after* initial success. It's more about how a person is able to achieve that initial success.

Artists have to pursue their art, and it's normally the case that doing so is unfunded. They need a source of funding, and most-normally it's them or their family that fund it.

[neil999]

its alot easier to pursue a career thats unlikely to succeed if you dont have to worry about money

[Morse Code]

it's more than just the access to music. It's the opportunity to pursue it.

Blunt went to Sandhurst - essentially, because he's posh - and earned an above-average wage as an officer. He then did music.

Did the higher wages give him more time to pursue music after quitting the army, instead of having to get a job instead? Did he fall back on his parents wealth in that time, or use money he'd perhaps inherited?

Exactly how his life of privilege helped him in music we don't know for sure, but the proportion of privately educated succeeding in music definitely suggests that it's likely he had an advantage of some sort (tho of course, there'll be a proportion who would have had similar success anyway).

I know this isn't how the internet is supposed to work but I agree entirely!

[Brave Sir Robin]

Re your last point, and this is a serious question, do you think it's because children from better off families have greater access to musical instruments from an early age, access to music lessons, access to rehearsal spaces etc? Talent is talent at the end of the day and it doesn't matter how much money you've got and how many leg ups you get through wealthy connections etc, if you ain't got it, you ain't got it...

Absolutely, that is part of it. But the lack of access at an early age is exacerbated by the lack of opportunity or encouragement at many state schools - which is one of the points Bryant was trying to make before Blunt's paranoid, narcissistic rant sidelined the debate.

As for "if you ain't got it, you ain't got it", well, if you've got it but never have the opportunity to develop it, no-one's ever going to know.

[Morse Code]

Absolutely, that is part of it. But the lack of access at an early age is exacerbated by the lack of opportunity or encouragement at many state schools - which is one of the points Bryant was trying to make before Blunt's paranoid, narcissistic rant sidelined the debate.

As for "if you ain't got it, you ain't got it", well, if you've got it but never have the opportunity to develop it, no-one's ever going to know.

I often wonder what undiscovered talent I may have had that will forever lay dormant. Always fancied myself as a racing driver....

[Matt42]

Kylie headlining a july festival in Germany.

Could she be a pyramid sub? Potentially?

[EZYSEY]

Not sure this has already been mentioned but Vaccines could be a shout. Probably not headline material come to think of it but would feature fairly up the list on one of the mean stages. New album due out as well.

Edited January 20, 2015 by EZYSEY