2023 Festival

[Tom Connolly]

Just now, Rotinajer said:

Reminder that MTS headlined this year..

MTS is infinitely bigger than all 3 of those acts and she still probably shouldn’t have headlined (although she was fucking outstanding) 

[Rotinajer]

9 minutes ago, Tom Connolly said:

MTS is infinitely bigger than all 3 of those acts and she still probably shouldn’t have headlined (although she was fucking outstanding) 

I suppose this comes down to your own opinion. Pretty sure she couldn’t sell out Brixton, meanwhile Sam Fender has just sold out back to back dates at St James’ Park. MGK is currently on a sold out arena tour + Hasn’t KSI also sold out arenas recently?

[BenG92]

[gfa]

14 hours ago, VCK said:

To be fair I think Foals are still more in demand among your average R&L attendee than the likes of Two Door, The Wombats, The Vaccines, The Kooks, et al.

I reckon they are fairly similar honestly - and even so, Foals will want a headline slot whereas the others will be far cheaper and fill the undercard.

6 hours ago, Chad888 said:

We're all turning in to our parents. Paramore and MCR aren't it anymore. We're at a point in music where the 2026 lineup will be

 

KSI | Megan the Stallion | Glass Animals

MGK | Lewis Capaldi | Sam Smith 

 

And the kids will fucking love it. The kids are up 95% of the attendance. 

 

The charts aren't music that you hear on the radio and buy at your HMV, or what you see on 4music it isn't even Spotify play lists. Popular music is whatever fits over a 9 second tik tok clip. Band album sales and charts mean nothing because albums are given out at concerts for free and tallied up as sales.

We think acts like Don Broco and Yungblud are bigger than they are because they have album sales, but that's like being a dwarf amongst midgets.

Reading and Leeds book what's popular with the people buying tickets, and thats what the kids want. The theme songs to the latest Netflix Gossip Girl spin off, or Tik Tok clips.

Your trying too hard to not be an old man here... Sam Smith this isn't 2015 😂

33 minutes ago, Tom Connolly said:

i hope i don’t get proven wrong but i’m genuinely laughing at the thought of people believing those are the 6 headliners. Sam Fender is MS2 at most and KSI & MGK are not headliners

Just look at Sam Fenders tour. Home run headliner and good value too i bet

[Tom Connolly]

6 minutes ago, Rotinajer said:

I suppose this comes down to your own opinion. Pretty sure she couldn’t sell out Brixton, meanwhile Sam Fender has just sold out back to back dates at St James’ Park. MGK is currently on a sold out arena tour + Hasn’t KSI also sold out arenas recently?

you make a fantastic point. i think Meg is just a bigger name. 

[Rotinajer]

21 minutes ago, Tom Connolly said:

you make a fantastic point. i think Meg is just a bigger name. 

Definitely agree. She’s a household name for teenagers since WAP was released. 
 

couldn’t tell you any other songs by her. However I’m very much not in the above category of teenager.

[Chad888]

3 hours ago, Andre91 said:

They have and do play arenas. Tickets sales are, and always will be, the #1 measure of an artists size and selling abilities. That is objective fact. 

I respectfully disagree, and think the opposite.

Any artist can go to an area with a population of a million and draw in 15,000 people to come and watch. An artists size is proportionate to how many people want to play their music and share it with their friends, and the chart is the number 1 indicator of that, every single bump, stream, play is counted.

 

[gfa]

New brockhampton album coming

8 minutes ago, Chad888 said:

I respectfully disagree, and think the opposite.

Any artist can go to an area with a population of a million and draw in 15,000 people to come and watch. An artists size is proportionate to how many people want to play their music and share it with their friends, and the chart is the number 1 indicator of that, every single bump, stream, play is counted.

 

About 1% of artists can do this 😂

[Chad888]

48 minutes ago, gfa said:

 

Your trying too hard to not be an old man here... Sam Smith this isn't 2015 😂

 

Sam Smith has the number 1 single and is about to get number 1 album. His new stuff is definitely not for anybody over 16.

[thewayiam]

36 minutes ago, Chad888 said:

I respectfully disagree, and think the opposite.

Any artist can go to an area with a population of a million and draw in 15,000 people to come and watch. An artists size is proportionate to how many people want to play their music and share it with their friends, and the chart is the number 1 indicator of that, every single bump, stream, play is counted.

 

Unfortunately the person above doesn't speak a lot of sense usually but this time he's just about on the money.

[WhoOdyssey]

The NME have posted a review of MGK at Wembley, and the exact quote does kinda sound like a self-confirmation tbh:

Quote

At one point, MGK tells the crowd the owner of Reading & Leeds is watching tonight’s show (“I think one day very, very soon, Machine Gun Kelly should be headlining that festival”)

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by WhoOdyssey

[WhoOdyssey]

KSI headlining is 100% btw, deny all you want! My source has got things right two years in a row now so I'm not doubting.
 

56 minutes ago, Chad888 said:

Sam Smith has the number 1 single and is about to get number 1 album. His new stuff is definitely not for anybody over 16.

 

You're right about the single, but he doesn't even have an album announced yet! I'm sure he will do though.

Edited October 3, 2022 by WhoOdyssey

[BenG92]

1 hour ago, gfa said:

New brockhampton album coming

Then you remember they won't be touring and you get sad again

[gfa]

1 hour ago, Chad888 said:

Sam Smith has the number 1 single and is about to get number 1 album. His new stuff is definitely not for anybody over 16.

[Andre91]

44 minutes ago, WhoOdyssey said:

KSI headlining is 100% btw, deny all you want! My source has got things right two years in a row now so I'm not doubting.
 

 

You're right about the single, but he doesn't even have an album announced yet! I'm sure he will do though.

MGK as the elusive last headliner? 

[WhoOdyssey]

MGK’s crowd demographics at Wembley seemed perfect for R&L too. It seemed about half emo-ish people and half “football lads”, all about 16-24.

[gfa]

this article repeats what he says about R&L. says melvin was in the crowd too

https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/machine-gun-kelly-wembley-arena-review-setlist-photos-3321332

[SleepingGiants]

Surely KSI can't be headlining? He doesn't have the streams, sales or musical credibility to warrant anywhere near headline. 

Would be a disaster and a joke. 

[SleepingGiants]

1 minute ago, SleepingGiants said:

Surely KSI can't be headlining? He doesn't have the streams, sales or musical credibility to warrant anywhere near headline. 

Would be a disaster and a joke. 

Swap KSI for a top calibre Rap/RnB artist - e.g. Kendrick Lamar/Travis Scott - and then we're talking a real mean set of headliners with a large and vast range of appeal.

MSE : Billie Eillish

MSW: Sam Fender

 

MSE: Kendrick Lamar

MSW: Foals

 

MSE: Green Day

MSW: MGK

With KSI however, it just really paints such a bad image of this year, and the fest as a whole.

[Andre91]

10 minutes ago, SleepingGiants said:

Surely KSI can't be headlining? He doesn't have the streams, sales or musical credibility to warrant anywhere near headline. 

Would be a disaster and a joke. 

His crowd wouldn’t be a joke. 

[Matt42]

Nah KSI deffo a headliner at R&L. R&L plays by different metrics. Stick him on the Billie day that will deffo sell out and it will work fine.

I reckon MGK is in and we don’t have Paramore. We were being far too optimistic thinking R&L have two female headliners.

Sam Fender // Machine Gun Kelly

Billie Eilish // KSI

Green Day // Foals

Reckon they will mix it up so people buy weekend tickets.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Matt42

[gfa]

10 minutes ago, SleepingGiants said:

Swap KSI for a top calibre Rap/RnB artist - e.g. Kendrick Lamar/Travis Scott - and then we're talking a real mean set of headliners with a large and vast range of appeal.

MSE : Billie Eillish

MSW: Sam Fender

 

MSE: Kendrick Lamar

MSW: Foals

 

MSE: Green Day

MSW: MGK

With KSI however, it just really paints such a bad image of this year, and the fest as a whole.

Far too strong this

3 pretty big MSE headliners and then to have Foals and Fender on MSW is just ridiculous. Fender won't return unless he's doing MSE imo

[Newjem]

2 minutes ago, SleepingGiants said:

Surely KSI can't be headlining? He doesn't have the streams, sales or musical credibility to warrant anywhere near headline. 

Would be a disaster and a joke. 

He will probably be the smallest headliner but still... this guy will most likely have a boxing match at Wembley stadium next year, most of his shows sold out in the past year including a date in Wembley Arena (and thats the same place MGK played a few days ago). Teenagers love him and he will have one of the biggest crowds unless they pair him with someone like Billie and half of the crowd will leave half through the show.

[WhoOdyssey]

I’m surprised MGK didn’t do the O2 this time tbh, tickets seemed to go almost straight away back in March for Wembley. 
 

I suppose it gives him something to build up to next time though.

[andyrhodes24]

35 minutes ago, SleepingGiants said:

Surely KSI can't be headlining? He doesn't have the streams, sales or musical credibility to warrant anywhere near headline. 

Would be a disaster and a joke. 

I do agree but I see both sides, he’ll be as much of a joke to the older R&L goer as he is to the boxing purists but you can’t argue he isn’t popular amongst the next generation in both worlds, as much as it pains me to say it. The whole YouTuber boxing circus is laughable mind you.