2019 Headliners

[incident]

19 minutes ago, gearbm95 said:

The Killers were just announced as the headliner at Beale Street Music Fest on May 3rd in Tennessee...this is a C-level fest, not even close to being in the same class as Lolla, Bonnaroo, or Coachella...not even on par with Governors Ball or Firefly...

It's a sad state of affairs if these minor league US fests are booking the same headliners as Glasto.

The rumour mill has (Coachella headliner) Tame Impala playing the Other Stage at Glastonbury. The "they did a smaller festival so shouldn't headline Glastonbury" argument is pretty dumb even when the festival is in the same country - when it's on other continent it's just nonsensical.

[dentalplan]

Ok Gov Ball in 2016. Serves me right for being cocky.

[dentalplan]

If Beale Street Music Festival Could Talk

it’d say

“I’ll say one thing about The Killers - it’s amazing that they’ve got so far while fronted by the Corinthian figurine of Robin Van Persie.”

[CaledonianGonzo]

More like the Kim Jong-Il puppet from Team America World Police covering the greatest hits of Menswear, I'd have said.

[dingbat2]

You cant compare headliners between US and UK festivals, it depends on who is big at that time in each country. Killers have always been big in the UK, much more than the US. They started and became big here first so the UK have adopted them as favourites so we have a soft spot for them

Phoenix headlined Saturday at Coachella in 2013, but were hardly heard of in the UK at the time, and only managed headlining JP that year

[ClementsMike]

1 hour ago, didinowanttohearthat said:

Confirmed where?

 

[sisco]

Surely they’ll announce a Wembley gig (or something similar) off the back of it.

[gearbm95]

52 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

They headlined Gov Ball, Lolla and Bonnaroo in 2017/18, genius.

They also played to very small crowds at both of those shows. They haven't had anything come close to touching the mainstream US charts since "When You Were Young". Have their more recent albums done well in the UK? 

Just seems very uninspiring to book a band that has been so overexposed when it comes to festivals gigs, as well as only having 2/4 original members at this point. Also, with no new material to promote what makes this booking exciting or exclusive?

[Guest]

They're not performing at the BRITs, that video includes the names of all the nominees.

[Funkyfairy!]

1 hour ago, incident said:

The rumour mill has (Coachella headliner) Tame Impala playing the Other Stage at Glastonbury. The "they did a smaller festival so shouldn't headline Glastonbury" argument is pretty dumb even when the festival is in the same country - when it's on other continent it's just nonsensical.

Tame impala are headlining A small French festival, route du rock in the ramparts of st Malo on the Thursday , seriously can’t match country to country. (Although I am considering hoping 14 miles over the water to see them ) 

[august1]

2 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Makes sense really, The Killers always sounded like a British indie band.

 Lady Gaga once described the Killers as one of her favorite British bands..

[dentalplan]

1 hour ago, gearbm95 said:

They also played to very small crowds at both of those shows. They haven't had anything come close to touching the mainstream US charts since "When You Were Young". Have their more recent albums done well in the UK? 

Just seems very uninspiring to book a band that has been so overexposed when it comes to festivals gigs, as well as only having 2/4 original members at this point. Also, with no new material to promote what makes this booking exciting or exclusive?

Damn quit moving the goalposts.

I don't think anybody has said they're exciting, but exciting headliners are thin on the ground. Glastonbury needs solid headline acts and The Killers are one. Last few years they've sold out 60,000 cap Hyde Park in a matter of days, headlined stadiums, IOW, TRNSMT and Latitude, shifted 50k first week sales (in UK this is pretty good, esp. for a band). Their status here is undeniable, and I would say over in America they're clearly one of the big bands seeing as every festival seemed comfortable enough to book them to headline despite being all over the map.

They're oversaturated, sure, but the general public don't analyse this shit like we do, nor will they know/care that two guitarists have changed. They want a band they know who they can get excited about and sing along to, and The Killers are very popular with the middle-class millennial demographic that Glastonbury attracts a lot of so I don't see any problem..

[gearbm95]

15 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Damn quit moving the goalposts.

I don't think anybody has said they're exciting, but exciting headliners are thin on the ground. Glastonbury needs solid headline acts and The Killers are one. Last few years they've sold out 60,000 cap Hyde Park in a matter of days, headlined stadiums, IOW, TRNSMT and Latitude, shifted 50k first week sales (in UK this is pretty good, esp. for a band). Their status here is undeniable, and I would say over in America they're clearly one of the big bands seeing as every festival seemed comfortable enough to book them to headline despite being all over the map.

They're oversaturated, sure, but the general public don't analyse this shit like we do, nor will they know/care that two guitarists have changed. They want a band they know who they can get excited about and sing along to, and The Killers are very popular with the middle-class millennial demographic that Glastonbury attracts a lot of so I don't see any problem..

Don't worry, I'm just bitter that I'm escaping the US fest scene (been going to fests since 2003) and trying to avoid the same recycled, uninspired headliners like The Killers, Bassnectar, Kings of Leon, RHCP, etc...and the first time I book a international fest The Killers follow me, grrrrr. 

 

[dentalplan]

13 minutes ago, gearbm95 said:

Don't worry, I'm just bitter that I'm escaping the US fest scene (been going to fests since 2003) and trying to avoid the same recycled, uninspired headliners like The Killers, Bassnectar, Kings of Leon, RHCP, etc...and the first time I book a international fest The Killers follow me, grrrrr. 

Bassnectar. That is a truly bizarre phenomenon around the US fests.

Honestly, you really ought not worry about there being uninspiring headliners. For how long you've been going to festivals over there, you'll be too obsessed by the things that make the festival different to what you've seen before, rather than bored by some acts that it has in common.

Edited February 13, 2019 by dentalplan

[Matt42]

5 hours ago, dingbat2 said:

Phoenix headlined Saturday at Coachella in 2013, but were hardly heard of in the UK at the time, and only managed headlining JP that year

God coachella must have been really fucked that year. Phoenix headlining coachella is probably like the equivalent of Glastonbury giving Bombay Bicylcle Club a headlining slot this year.

i mean that as Phoenix never came close to headlining coachella or any other US festival before, and they haven’t had any slot similar since. 

If rumours are true the stones gave them a hard time and they had to bump someone up last minute. But yeah Phoenix aren’t really a massive band over in the US compared to here - they headlined coachella because something clearly went very wrong.

(this is not a dig at Phoenix/ not Bombay though as I like them)

[Gilgamesh69]

59 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

God coachella must have been really fucked that year. Phoenix headlining coachella is probably like the equivalent of Glastonbury giving Bombay Bicylcle Club a headlining slot this year.

i mean that as Phoenix never came close to headlining coachella or any other US festival before, and they haven’t had any slot similar since. 

If rumours are true the stones gave them a hard time and they had to bump someone up last minute. But yeah Phoenix aren’t really a massive band over in the US compared to here - they headlined coachella because something clearly went very wrong.

(this is not a dig at Phoenix/ not Bombay though as I like them)

Tbh that Coachella lineup looks pretty amazing

[gearbm95]

1 hour ago, Matt42 said:

God coachella must have been really fucked that year. Phoenix headlining coachella is probably like the equivalent of Glastonbury giving Bombay Bicylcle Club a headlining slot this year.

i mean that as Phoenix never came close to headlining coachella or any other US festival before, and they haven’t had any slot similar since. 

If rumours are true the stones gave them a hard time and they had to bump someone up last minute. But yeah Phoenix aren’t really a massive band over in the US compared to here - they headlined coachella because something clearly went very wrong.

(this is not a dig at Phoenix/ not Bombay though as I like them)

It was before Bankrupt was released and Coachella assumed that it was going to blow up and they would look smart making them headliners, obviously it did not.

Still, not the worst attended Coachella mainstage set ever...that would goto the Stone Roses and Blur. Even though they sell about 90,000 tickets less than 10,000 people showed up for their sets.

[tevaburger]

I think in 2013 Coachella may have posted/tweeted a pic of some 'stones' on a hill as if they were about to roll, as in a hint that they had a certain band booked that lots of us saw on a wonderful Saturday on the Pyramid. maybe Phoenix were a late/weak alternative headliner. 

[Ovechkin]

4 hours ago, Matt42 said:

God coachella must have been really fucked that year. Phoenix headlining coachella is probably like the equivalent of Glastonbury giving Bombay Bicylcle Club a headlining slot this year.

i mean that as Phoenix never came close to headlining coachella or any other US festival before, and they haven’t had any slot similar since. 

If rumours are true the stones gave them a hard time and they had to bump someone up last minute. But yeah Phoenix aren’t really a massive band over in the US compared to here - they headlined coachella because something clearly went very wrong.

(this is not a dig at Phoenix/ not Bombay though as I like them)

Thats not true at all. Phoenix headlined governers ball 2017. Subbed bonnaro 2014 when they had a massive lineup (Frank ocean and arctic monkeys were subs too). Subbed lollapalooza Chicago aswell 2013. 

Fwiw Phoenix at John peel 2013 was amazing, one of the best that weekend

[MetaKate]

4 minutes ago, Ovechkin said:

Thats not true at all. Phoenix headlined governers ball 2017. Subbed bonnaro 2014 when they had a massive lineup (Frank ocean and arctic monkeys were subs too). Subbed lollapalooza Chicago aswell 2013. 

Fwiw Phoenix at John peel 2013 was amazing, one of the best that weekend

Love Phoenix and loved the JP set... had to cut early bc of the last start and bc of my dumb friends but what I saw (like 80%) was a party. I'm a massive fan anyways... i always thought it was a good booking when Phoenix were at Coachella... they were pretty mainstream off of Wolfgang Amadeos

If they were on any stage this year I'd easily choose them over stormzy killers & cure. 

[dentalplan]

1 hour ago, Ovechkin said:

Thats not true at all. Phoenix headlined governers ball 2017. Subbed bonnaro 2014 when they had a massive lineup (Frank ocean and arctic monkeys were subs too). Subbed lollapalooza Chicago aswell 2013. 

Yah they’d sold out two nights at Madison Square Garden on the tour prior. Was just the same as them picking up Black Keys as headliners - and probably more sensible than Tame Impala who were just headlining a 10k capacity festival across a couple of counties over from Coachella in October.

@Matt42 it was the Chilis that we’re supposed to have been the drafted in replacements. Phoenix were there from the get-go.

[Superscally]

On 2/12/2019 at 7:20 PM, Neontiger90 said:

Anytime I've posted info regarding The Killers on here it's been correct, regarding the secret set in 2017, TRNSMT, and the fact they'll be headlining multiple festivals this year tba. So only reason i said for certain that it was incorrect to say The Killers won't be headlining Glastonbury again, is because the person who gives me reliable information said the band have an agreement to headline Glastonbury again. And there's literally no reason for me to doubt them...

Apart from the fact that if they tanked, said something offensive or if better headliners emerged they wouldn't get the gig. They may have had a nice verbal thanks and maybe from the Eavis' but I bet you, using information from a music biz lawyer that there would be no way a loose "sometime in the future" agreement would EVER be created. Never ever.

[Superscally]

9 hours ago, gearbm95 said:

Don't worry, I'm just bitter that I'm escaping the US fest scene (been going to fests since 2003) and trying to avoid the same recycled, uninspired headliners like The Killers, Bassnectar, Kings of Leon, RHCP, etc...and the first time I book a international fest The Killers follow me, grrrrr. 

 

Don't stress, you've escaped Bassnectar and probably the Chilis too.

[Yokel Again]

Phoenix in 2013 was bloody awesome!

[ghostdancer1]

Phoenix and their music is exactly the type of stuff that Coachella loves. upbeat synth-y indie pop. Empire Of The State (remember them?) were on the 2nd line on the poster in 2017 ffs

similar one-hit wonders Portugal the Man were the 3rd name on their day last year, ahead of Migos and Cardi B....

e: they're actually called Empire of the Sun, which goes to show how much I've forgotten about them in the 10 years since they've had a hit, yet still manage absurdly high placements at Coachella.

Edited February 14, 2019 by ghostdancer1