Green Man 2023

[Enkidu]

6 hours ago, CANTON93 said:

Still praying for Pavement but very unlikely because of Bluedot. What about Yo La Tengo?

Pavement are an exclusive at Bluedot, and it's too soon for YLT.

[Justiceforcedave]

1 hour ago, timeforheroes said:

I really don't think it's as clear cut as that though. If they get announced as headlining loads of people with tickets are going to say "who?" and loads without are going to start hitting up resale sites saying "Please!", and if the album is just OK, it could be a fairly quiet main stage area. 

There's a reason bands like Hot Chip occupy a higher billing than their current popularity, it's safe reliable recognition for a variety of punters. Boygenius is the absolute opposite of that right now. I'm not saying they won't or shouldn't headline, I just think there's more to consider here than how many people would buy a ticket to their own show at this present moment.

 

Awesome! So get a ‘Hot Chip’ for two of the days and a new/up and coming buzz act for the other.

Safe, reliable, name recognition is all well and good (and needed to sell tickets) but if that’s exclusively your MO as a festival you become Download! 

Also… talking specifically about Hot Chip, I love them. I’d go and watch them at any festival, but I have seen them plenty of times before and I’d be unlikely to pick a festival exclusively on them being their. Boy Genius however, would make me choose Green Man over another festival easy. I appreciate not everyone is like me, just saying it works the other way too!

[collectivisedfarming]

1 hour ago, lessthanwill1 said:

Whether or not they put on a good headline show in reality is another matter…I will probably be elsewhere.  Hopefully caroline headlining Walled Garden or Fever Ray headlining Far Out.  

Caroline as in band Caroline (not Polacheck who I'd also like to see there) would be ideal for the garden. I saw them at earth in Dalston last year and it was an amazing show. 

[SweepingTheNation]

I do think some people are underestimating how many people in the Green Man demographic already know of Boygenius, not least because whoever is promoting the Gunnersbury Park gig is clearly expecting enough people to know about them to sell 20k tickets from scratch. Even if they haven't heard their records all GM need to say is "Phoebe Bridgers has formed a supergroup with these two singer-songwriters you may also have heard of, their upcoming record is all over the music press and 6 Music, this will be a huge deal by August; also, here are three other headliners and a full supporting line-up."

[lessthanwill1]

1 hour ago, collectivisedfarming said:

Caroline as in band Caroline (not Polacheck who I'd also like to see there) would be ideal for the garden. I saw them at earth in Dalston last year and it was an amazing show. 

Yep that’s what I meant! They’d be amazing in that slot. 

[timeforheroes]

2 hours ago, Justiceforcedave said:

 

Awesome! So get a ‘Hot Chip’ for two of the days and a new/up and coming buzz act for the other.

Safe, reliable, name recognition is all well and good (and needed to sell tickets) but if that’s exclusively your MO as a festival you become Download! 

Also… talking specifically about Hot Chip, I love them. I’d go and watch them at any festival, but I have seen them plenty of times before and I’d be unlikely to pick a festival exclusively on them being their. Boy Genius however, would make me choose Green Man over another festival easy. I appreciate not everyone is like me, just saying it works the other way too!

Out the two I would much rather watch Boygenius, I've lost count of how many times I've seen HC.

Festivals are by and large pretty risk averse though. I wish more festivals took a punt on headliners. It doesn't really happen though. As I said above, I'm not saying they won't or shouldn't, but no one has headlined the festival with less than two records out and we could be getting a headliner announced 4 weeks before their debut. The reaction will be interesting, some very supportive and vocal underwhelm I imagine.

Edited February 24, 2023 by timeforheroes

[NotAnInsider]

I reckon a few will be underwhelmed if boygenius are announced as headliners. But there is no doubt that Phoebe could headline on her own & there is a real chance that boygenius could become huge once their album is out.

Green man has a habit of putting a lot of weight behind fairly unknown acts - they booked Courtney Barnett quite high on the bill in similar circumstances and were early to Wet Leg as well (who were there for most of settlers being anonymous, no chance of that happening these days)

Might just pay off.

[benali]

Whoever headlines doesn't really bother me, I barely ever watch them anyway.

I know who boygenius are, just had never knowingly heard them. Just had a listen and they sound alright.

[SweepingTheNation]

Might be coincidence, I know, but before the two dates (for which presale starts on the 1st) were announced by there was a good strength rumour Boygenius were playing one other festival - and look at the date of their announcement:

 

[Cherrytree13]

Boy genius would be a good booking, but a little weird giving their limited output. They probably are big enough though, and been well known for years through their main projects. If they were to headline one night, there’d have to be a band with a big discog to headline another night; a flaming lips type booking. 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Cherrytree13

[rug568]

Find it quite funny people are debating whether boygenius would headline or not. Fontaines dc and yo la tengo have headlined recently ffs. 

If three men formed a supergroup and one of them had sold out Brixton for four nights I don’t think we’d be having this conversation 

*ducks for cover*

[Enkidu]

Yeah man I find it really weird that a band that's almost 40 years old, has 15 studio albums, much critical acclaim and a strong cult following headlined Green Man! 🥴

[retromoz]

3 hours ago, rug568 said:

Find it quite funny people are debating whether boygenius would headline or not. Fontaines dc and yo la tengo have headlined recently ffs. 

If three men formed a supergroup and one of them had sold out Brixton for four nights I don’t think we’d be having this conversation 

*ducks for cover*

OK, I'll bite. 😜

Realising this MIGHT sound a bit like im a silly man not knowing any better (I think i'm not. Some of my past posts would attest to this....), I don't think its out of order to ask if an act who haven't even had an album out yet is a good fit to headline a festival. It doesn't matter what gender that act is or identifies as. 

There IS a problem with gender equality in many festivals. And I'm, frankly, tired of having the SAME arguements with men about it. I don't understand why organisers arn't able/willing to put on more females. I think Green Man is one of the better events in this regard, but elsewhere its a travesty. HOWEVER......if Boygenius are a headliner, it would be.....odd. 

Course, I'd never heard of them until looking on this forum. I have now listened, and reckon they would be quite good. 

Ultimately, I trust the Green Man bookers. So......we will all find out soon enough. x

[timeforheroes]

3 hours ago, rug568 said:

Find it quite funny people are debating whether boygenius would headline or not. Fontaines dc and yo la tengo have headlined recently ffs. 

If three men formed a supergroup and one of them had sold out Brixton for four nights I don’t think we’d be having this conversation 

*ducks for cover*

History is full of side projects and supergroups (Velvet Revolver, Raconteurs) who don't just assume the festival billing of their most popular member. The interest is usually diluted from that base of popularity.

Fontaines sold out 3x nights at Hammersmith, if Grian forms a supergroup he's on at 2pm in Far Out. So there's no gender bias to the point I'm making here.

Boygenius announced as a headliner would buck the trends of both the festival itself and also supergroups more generally. Maybe that has happened. But you're wrong to scoff at us for countering that assumption based on history.

[gfa]

hi - not my main board but in the glasto chat ticketboy69 (good source name that lol) has said Orbital are announcing a festival headline slot somewhere this week. He got Lorde for boardmasters i'm pretty sure so a decent source i guess. Connect also announcing of course but seems their headliners are covered

[SweepingTheNation]

2 hours ago, timeforheroes said:

History is full of side projects and supergroups (Velvet Revolver, Raconteurs) who don't just assume the festival billing of their most popular member. The interest is usually diluted from that base of popularity.

Fontaines sold out 3x nights at Hammersmith, if Grian forms a supergroup he's on at 2pm in Far Out. So there's no gender bias to the point I'm making here.

Boygenius announced as a headliner would buck the trends of both the festival itself and also supergroups more generally. Maybe that has happened. But you're wrong to scoff at us for countering that assumption based on history.

Just to point out Boygenius are fifth billed overall for their day at Coachella, above Charli XCX, just below Rosalia and Eric Prydz. Nobody seems to be questioning that positioning for a festival five times the capacity of Green Man.

[Enkidu]

16 minutes ago, SweepingTheNation said:

Just to point out Boygenius are fifth billed overall for their day at Coachella, above Charli XCX, just below Rosalia and Eric Prydz. Nobody seems to be questioning that positioning for a festival five times the capacity of Green Man.

Yes and coachella is an absolute embarrassment that cares more about booking acts for their "tiktok" popularity and other silly measures, rather than being a proper music festival.

[timeforheroes]

51 minutes ago, SweepingTheNation said:

Just to point out Boygenius are fifth billed overall for their day at Coachella, above Charli XCX, just below Rosalia and Eric Prydz. Nobody seems to be questioning that positioning for a festival five times the capacity of Green Man.

That's the real quiz

[CANTON93]

Boygenius are 100% big enough and well-know enough to headline. I just find them and Phoebe Bridgers pretty bland. Quite like Lucy Dacus though so I'd probably still check them out. There's always something just as good at Far Out or Walled Garden so it's all good.

[SweepingTheNation]

10 hours ago, Enkidu said:

Yes and coachella is an absolute embarrassment that cares more about booking acts for their "tiktok" popularity and other silly measures, rather than being a proper music festival.

Popularity is still popularity, though. And it's not TikTok that makes promoters feel Boygenius are already popular enough, album or not, to have a 20,000 capacity outdoor gig in London based around them and to headline a day-long 15,000 strong festival in Scotland (their headlining Connect is basically an open secret and they're announcing on Wednesday morning too)

God, if it's not already (and this is partly my fault, I admit) this thread is going to be insufferable if/when it's actually announced.

[SweepingTheNation]

Aaaaaanyway... we've not even talked about potential other headliners. The possibility of Orbital is very interesting, and if that's the case I assume they'll be Saturday with Boygenius Friday (as their London date is Sunday), but it'd be someone dancey on Saturday regardless which means there'd have to be another marquee experienced headliner on Sunday but with a lot of names being ruled out I'm not sure who that would be right now.

[lessthanwill1]

15 minutes ago, SweepingTheNation said:

Aaaaaanyway... we've not even talked about potential other headliners. The possibility of Orbital is very interesting, and if that's the case I assume they'll be Saturday with Boygenius Friday (as their London date is Sunday), but it'd be someone dancey on Saturday regardless which means there'd have to be another marquee experienced headliner on Sunday but with a lot of names being ruled out I'm not sure who that would be right now.

If two of them are Boygenius and Orbital, then I think that rules out Jamie XX and Bonobo as headliners, although I think Bonobo could maybe do FO one evening potentially.

I think that leaves: Simz, First Aid Kit, Jessie Ware, Loyle Carner, FKA Twigs, Iggy Pop, Aphex Twin, Young Fathers, Devo, Slowdive and Suede as potential headliners in terms of them being around at the right time.  Some of those are more likely than others.  I think Simz or First Aid Kit are the most likely.  It could also be someone more out the blue as well of course and I still think there’s a remote chance of The Smile given the GM band booker’s twitter activity. 

Looking forward to some clues, which might start today.

EDIT: First Aid Kit now have a show in Ireland on 21 August so I reckon they’re even more likely now…

Edited February 27, 2023 by lessthanwill1

[Coopa]

Oooff Orbital would be a great call, very much doubt id be watching first aid kit or boygenius (just not my vibe) but always glad of the opportunity to catch some headliners on other stages anyway. Would love iggy or suede from those suggested as possibilities, are pulp definitely not an option? Be happy with sims/loyle just saw them both several times in recent years. 

[thespiral]

First Aid Kit just announced big show in Dublin on Monday 21st August.

Seeing they are in London the weekend before ….It’s not hard to join the dots 🙂

[lessthanwill1]

No Boygenius for GM this year. See twitter replies