2023 Festival

[andyrhodes24]

On 5/27/2023 at 9:15 AM, charlierc said:

It's that bad at Leeds? I was surprised my contactless payment card worked on an EasyJet flight the other week, though I'm guessing if this is referring to pay-by-phone apps, that might be it's own problem.

In 2021 at Leeds the food stalls gave up and started taking cash because the queues were so long waiting for the card machines to work. Honestly can’t remember if it worked better last year. Rural Yorkshire for you

[Chad888]

On 5/29/2023 at 10:41 AM, gfa said:

Honestly have no idea what the bold bit means mate

funny how the announcement of a silent disco has spurred more chatter in here than the last set of actual names

I'm talking about the bands that would cut their teeth slowly rising through the ranks of the stages, i.e. opening MS to the crowd filtering in, getting into a tent early in the day, getting a spot on the R1 stage, headlining the FR stage and then headlining the R1 stage. All of it developing their sound and proving resilience to actually pack out tents against the happy clapper MS attendees that just go to stand in the sun and drink.

 

Now the Pit, Lockup, FR, R1 have all been merged into a single FR stage, and the bookings for that one are very much a rocky version of BBC introducing. Bands will be put on MS to rise but when they play to a crowd that will be there no matter what and dont frankly care, they will never develop and never prove themselves to be given higher slots.

 

Or maybe i'm just parroting Benjis points over the last 200 pages.

[Benj]

2 hours ago, Chad888 said:

I'm talking about the bands that would cut their teeth slowly rising through the ranks of the stages, i.e. opening MS to the crowd filtering in, getting into a tent early in the day, getting a spot on the R1 stage, headlining the FR stage and then headlining the R1 stage. All of it developing their sound and proving resilience to actually pack out tents against the happy clapper MS attendees that just go to stand in the sun and drink.

 

Now the Pit, Lockup, FR, R1 have all been merged into a single FR stage, and the bookings for that one are very much a rocky version of BBC introducing. Bands will be put on MS to rise but when they play to a crowd that will be there no matter what and dont frankly care, they will never develop and never prove themselves to be given higher slots.

 

Or maybe i'm just parroting Benjis points over the last 200 pages.

Bands will just cut their teeth elsewhere. 

It’s Reading’s loss, well the paying punters’ I guess but over time when people are looking back, old lineups won’t look stacked like they do now, they’ll just be Sea Girls, Wombats etc playing 4thish over and over and it will lessen the appeal.

They may get lucky with an Eilish or Post Malone booked long before they blow up. They’ve worsened their odds considerably though, with maybe 2-3 slots a day available to book that kind of act as opposed to the 10-12 they used to have. 

[gfa]

5 hours ago, Chad888 said:

I'm talking about the bands that would cut their teeth slowly rising through the ranks of the stages, i.e. opening MS to the crowd filtering in, getting into a tent early in the day, getting a spot on the R1 stage, headlining the FR stage and then headlining the R1 stage. All of it developing their sound and proving resilience to actually pack out tents against the happy clapper MS attendees that just go to stand in the sun and drink.

Very few bands play 5 times before headlining.

Generally you either shoot up or will never get there

if your feeling bored would be super interesting to see how many slots each headliner play on average before doing the headline slot

Edited May 30, 2023 by gfa

[TKOCF]

3 hours ago, gfa said:

Very few bands play 5 times before headlining.

Generally you either shoot up or will never get there

if your feeling bored would be super interesting to see how many slots each headliner play on average before doing the headline slot

From this year’s lot:

Sam Fender: 2 (2018 & 2021)

Foals (before headlining in 2016): 5 (2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015 secret set)

Billie Eilish: 1 (2019)

Imagine Dragons: 3 (2013, 2014, 2016)

The Killers (before headlining in 2008) : 1 (2005)

Lewis Capaldi: 1 (2018)

[Paul ™]

On 5/26/2023 at 6:13 PM, gregory said:

If it's designed to curtail the f**kwads that set fire to everything on Sunday nights then I'm all for it. But it seems like a logistical nightmare.

Hopefully with no fires allowed it will be easier to enforce anyone having one will be ejected 

[gfa]

12 hours ago, TKOCF said:

From this year’s lot:

Sam Fender: 2 (2018 & 2021)

Foals (before headlining in 2016): 5 (2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015 secret set)

Billie Eilish: 1 (2019)

Imagine Dragons: 3 (2013, 2014, 2016)

The Killers (before headlining in 2008) : 1 (2005)

Lewis Capaldi: 1 (2018)

This does show everyone this year did do it when small to be fair (maybe not Killers / Imagine Dragons, the two older acts if anyone!)

Capaldi and Fender in tiny slots - and Billie Eillish blew up just before her first time in 2019

Edited May 31, 2023 by gfa

[Benj]

23 hours ago, gfa said:

Very few bands play 5 times before headlining.

Generally you either shoot up or will never get there

if your feeling bored would be super interesting to see how many slots each headliner play on average before doing the headline slot

Biffy had a load 5-6 at least

BMTH may have 5 as may have CATBM if we’re counting “headliners”

Muse had 3

1975 3 I think

Only ones I can think of with more than 2 off the top of my head

suspect 2 is probably about average

 

 

 

[VCK]

On 5/31/2023 at 7:09 PM, Benj said:

Biffy had a load 5-6 at least

BMTH may have 5 as may have CATBM if we’re counting “headliners”

Muse had 3

1975 3 I think

Only ones I can think of with more than 2 off the top of my head

suspect 2 is probably about average

 

 

 

4 times for Foals and The Libertines. 5 for QOTSA. 5 for Fall Out Boy (I don't count 2016 as a headline set as they subbed both sites). Then 3 times for Foo Fighters and Paramore.

Bands playing a good number of times before being pushed up to headline isn't as uncommon as people think, especially if they're artists who have a good history with the festival and are crowd favourites.

[Benj]

2 minutes ago, VCK said:

4 times for Foals and The Libertines. 5 for QOTSA. 5 for Fall Out Boy (I don't count 2016 as a headline set as they subbed both sites). Then 3 times for Foo Fighters and Paramore.

Bands playing a good number of times before being pushed up to headline isn't as uncommon as people think, especially if they're artists who have a good history with the festival and are crowd favourites.

Thought Foo fighters headlined on their 3rd timE, forgot they played in 2000

cant remember that show at all but assume I was there!

[VCK]

1 minute ago, Benj said:

Thought Foo fighters headlined on their 3rd timE, forgot they played in 2000

cant remember that show at all but assume I was there!

3rd down, then bumped straight up to headline two years later, before any new material had been released.

Imagine the outcry if something like that happened nowadays.

[Benj]

Just now, VCK said:

3rd down, then bumped straight up to headline two years later, before any new material had been released.

Imagine the outcry if something like that happened nowadays.

Pretty sure one by one etc was out for 2002, it was that already out by 2000?

Or was One by One 2004. All a bit of a blur now it’s 20+ years ago 👨🏻‍🦯

Edited June 2, 2023 by Benj

[thetime]

3 minutes ago, VCK said:

3rd down, then bumped straight up to headline two years later, before any new material had been released.

Imagine the outcry if something like that happened nowadays.

 

2 minutes ago, Benj said:

Pretty sure one by one etc was out for 2002, it was that already out by 2000?

Or was One by One 2004. All a bit of a blur now it’s 20+ years ago 👨🏻‍🦯

How many have headlined on there debut, probably more common pre 1998(when fests went mainstream). Darkness rings a bell, probably the likes of Metallica and Pearl Jam as well. 

[wro_lap]

10 minutes ago, VCK said:

3rd down, then bumped straight up to headline two years later, before any new material had been released.

Imagine the outcry if something like that happened nowadays.

Isn't that more or less what's happened with Sam Fender? It just took a year or so for his new stuff to really blow up and elevate him to one of the biggest artists in the country

[Benj]

32 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

How many have headlined on there debut, probably more common pre 1998(when fests went mainstream). Darkness rings a bell, probably the likes of Metallica and Pearl Jam as well. 

Darkness didn’t headline on debut, they played 03

Did Oasis ever play pre headlining?

 

 

[BenG92]

This is definitely gonna be one to think about going to on the day. You can already get weekend entry at 16% off on Twickets and it's months away.

Lineup is bobbins for the price, but for half that..? Less so.

[VCK]

3 hours ago, Benj said:

Pretty sure one by one etc was out for 2002, it was that already out by 2000?

Or was One by One 2004. All a bit of a blur now it’s 20+ years ago 👨🏻‍🦯

It came out Autumn of that year, so a couple of months after headlining R&L.

3 hours ago, thetime said:

 

How many have headlined on there debut, probably more common pre 1998(when fests went mainstream). Darkness rings a bell, probably the likes of Metallica and Pearl Jam as well. 

Off the top of my head, I can only think of Eminem and Linkin Park. I suppose The Cure and Guns N' Roses too. The 1975, Stormzy, Kasabian, Dave and Mumford & Sons all headlined on their main stage debuts too. The Darkness played 4th down the previous year (after being bumped up).

Not a debut performance, but like The Darkness, The Strokes headlined in 2002 off just one album following a Main Stage bump up the previous year. The 2002 line-up is regarded to be one of the all time greats but like I said, imagine if a set of headliners of that calibre were announced today. A "hype band" with one album that hadn't been out for an entire year yet in The Strokes, an unproven headliner who got bumped up from 3rd in the Foo Fighters, and then a "past it" Prodigy and a GNR who weren't really GNR. Mass furore, I'd imagine!

[VCK]

3 hours ago, wro_lap said:

Isn't that more or less what's happened with Sam Fender? It just took a year or so for his new stuff to really blow up and elevate him to one of the biggest artists in the country

I suppose Fender was booked to headline off the success of Seventeen Going Under which was released after the last time he played the festival in 2021. A similar comparison really would be Biffy's booking in 2013, who were also bumped up from 3rd down. They were announced to headline after Opposites came out (and reached number 1) but I would imagine they had already been booked to headline for a while prior to that. IIRC a lot of people were tipping them to headline the next time they played because they were maybe the biggest rock band in the UK in the early '10s.

Edited June 2, 2023 by VCK

[stanh]

New music from Olivia Rodrigo at the end of the month, would expect to see her headlining next year if she hits festivals up.

[Benj]

7 hours ago, BenG92 said:

This is definitely gonna be one to think about going to on the day. You can already get weekend entry at 16% off on Twickets and it's months away.

Lineup is bobbins for the price, but for half that..? Less so.

150 quid no brainer

[Benj]

9 hours ago, wro_lap said:

Isn't that more or less what's happened with Sam Fender? It just took a year or so for his new stuff to really blow up and elevate him to one of the biggest artists in the country

Reckon he could’ve headlined last year. 

Indeed now it’s a properly stale booking really…been there done that…over and over

[wro_lap]

9 hours ago, Benj said:

Reckon he could’ve headlined last year. 

Indeed now it’s a properly stale booking really…been there done that…over and over

Stale? He's sold out two dates at St James' Park which have a lot of buzz around them. People seem willing to see him over and over again and I know multiple groups of people who are travelling to Ireland to see him. He's a really exciting (even if slightly obvious) booking

Edited June 3, 2023 by wro_lap

[Benj]

17 minutes ago, wro_lap said:

Stale? He's sold out two dates at St James' Park which have a lot of buzz around them. People seem willing to see him over and over again and I know multiple groups of people who are travelling to Ireland to see him. He's a really exciting (even if slightly obvious) booking

Shame for Festival Republic no one is buying Readign / Leeds tickets to see him…

It’s the fact that he’s playing/ played all these other venues why it’s stale

Same with Eilish. Both with pretty much 2 year old LPs by the time of the festival and toured/ touring everywhere and beyond the last couple of years

[Chad888]

Sam Fender is a generic man with a guitar that will be exclusive on BBC R2 by 2025.

I firmly believe he will be one of those acts that we will look back and say "oh yeah, he played didn't he".

Billie Eilish will be THE one for this year, and I firmly believe Capaldi too.

 

Last year, Dave showed he was a headlining artist, Arctic Monkeys were the draw, and 1975 put on a hell of a show.

 

I can't see that this this year to be honest. Last year I went with my pregnant wife, so we stayed relatively sober, listened to some acts then went back to bed. The baby will be 5m this year, so I wanted to go and have a blast while she's still in her 20s. Not with this line up.

[gfa]

19 minutes ago, Chad888 said:

Sam Fender is a generic man with a guitar that will be exclusive on BBC R2 by 2025.

I firmly believe he will be one of those acts that we will look back and say "oh yeah, he played didn't he".

Billie Eilish will be THE one for this year, and I firmly believe Capaldi too.

 

Last year, Dave showed he was a headlining artist, Arctic Monkeys were the draw, and 1975 put on a hell of a show.

 

I can't see that this this year to be honest. Last year I went with my pregnant wife, so we stayed relatively sober, listened to some acts then went back to bed. The baby will be 5m this year, so I wanted to go and have a blast while she's still in her 20s. Not with this line up.

I can't see Capaldi getting bigger than he already is. he's the new george ezra, sure he's big in the UK but don't think hes got room for growth elsewhere

Guess we'll see - i think all 3 proper headliners will put on a great show