2024 Festival

[gfa]

9 minutes ago, Benj said:

Even Im not saying he should headline the Tent!

I too thought AJ Tracey had kind of peaked, Im clearly not in the know though! Blunt metric but Central Cee has 6x the monthly Spotify listeners to Tracey

very blunt as AJ Tracey hasn't released anything for over a year vs Central Cee just releasing one of the biggest songs of the summer with Dave lol

[WhoOdyssey]

1 hour ago, Benj said:

Yup, Im not sure people are working off post 2020 experience and not understanding how a proper alternative option would draw much of the crowd away

He's drawn massive crowds when he last played -He was up against Luude in the Dance tent and Sueco in the FR...

When he played it 2021 - He was up against Dom Dolla in the Dance tent and Yonaka in the FR...

 

That said he may 4 years on be MUCH bigger than when planned to schedule him in that very slot against RATM, he's not released anything big in a long time so its hard to guage. If his next LP is massive then its obv not possible, if the kids suddenly decide he's a bit stale, it could even be massively flat against Rodrigo flying high on a well received LP...

 

 

Correct, I think AJ has peaked at this point tbh. He had a string of Top 10 hits in 2020 and 2021, but his last 4 singles charted at #34, #21 and #58 - with one not making the chart at all.

Edited September 1, 2023 by WhoOdyssey

[Benj]

3 minutes ago, gfa said:

very blunt as AJ Tracey hasn't released anything for over a year vs Central Cee just releasing one of the biggest songs of the summer with Dave lol

Yup but if he’s THAT massive with the kids why are only twice as many listening to him than Wolf Alice 

[gfa]

6 minutes ago, Benj said:

Yup but if he’s THAT massive with the kids why are only twice as many listening to him than Wolf Alice 

Please can some people from the UK back me up that AJ Tracey is a big draw for the school leavers crowd - he may not be a headliner but almost all of that lot will want to see him

Lets not stoop to spotify listener comparisons...

[Benj]

Just now, gfa said:

Please can some people from the UK back me up that AJ Tracey is a big draw for the school leavers crowd - he may not be a headliner but almost all of that lot will want to see him

Lets not stoop to spotify listener comparisons...

Yup its a fair point, esp as he's been having a break for a year.

What is once fresh and new can quickly become stale and lame in the eyes of the youth though.  Either way it seems he'll be popular draw, although one I know realise isnt really fit for that up and coming exciting slot, headlinging the tent as he's A. Too big and B. Clearly not an up and comer 4 years on now from when he was last titled there (jeez time flies).

It will be a good discussion on here when he finally comes out with new stuff if nothing else now!

[nathanh]

4 minutes ago, gfa said:

Please can some people from the UK back me up that AJ Tracey is a big draw for the school leavers crowd - he may not be a headliner but almost all of that lot will want to see him

Lets not stoop to spotify listener comparisons...

As somebody closer to that age demographic at 19 than a lot of you, I can back up that whilst he seemingly appears to have peaked his crowd would still be HUGE if he was there, hes mainstage or nothing I would say especially against someone like Blink the crowd in a tent would be highly dangerous

[Benj]

Here we go then nice crowd splitting counter programming allowing loads to be happy with a some tough decisions for a few. Bolded my selections but the 2nd and 3rd ones would be a pain.

 

MS-Blink / Scott / Rodrigo

AJ Tracey / Royal Blood / Yungblud

 

BT-Little Simz / Boy Genius/ Sleep Token

 

FR-Beabadoobee/ Fever333/ Frank Turner

 

Dance- XXXXX/XXXXX/XXXXXX

[gfa]

AJ Tracey subbing wasn't quite what i was saying ... but general point seems to have got across re programming a hypothetical big tent

going to be anarchy on here when theres two main stages again lol

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, gfa said:

AJ Tracey subbing wasn't quite what i was saying ... but general point seems to have got across re programming a hypothetical big tent

going to be anarchy on here when theres two main stages again lol

So what are you saying then 😅 either he's too big to play the tent (sub sized) or he's not big enough to sub (tent headliner sized).

[Benj]

11 minutes ago, gfa said:

AJ Tracey subbing wasn't quite what i was saying ... but general point seems to have got across re programming a hypothetical big tent

going to be anarchy on here when theres two main stages again lol

Are you saying he’s not big enough to sub? 

It’s an interesting conundrum, if these acts like Tracey and Becky Hill draw in the biggest crowds, should they not be up there?  If not why not? 

It’s a bizarre situation but one that’s always existed

Where would you put him, 3rd?

[Benj]

9 minutes ago, SomeoneListeningIn said:

So what are you saying then 😅 either he's too big to play the tent (sub sized) or he's not big enough to sub (tent headliner sized).

It’s an interesting one and I think more complicated than that.

There are deffo crowd pleasing acts that you know are gonna draw massive crowds, despite the fact that no one would actually pay to see them.

…when put up against a proper alternative though they’d get pretty much no one. Tracey is clearly not one of them

Im still pretty confident that up against the likes of Rodrigo or Eilish he’d get a standard sized tent headliner crowd but it sounds like you’d deffo need someone of that demographic to draw enough kids away and it wouldn’t be the best counter programming

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Benj said:

It’s an interesting one and I think more complicated than that.

There are deffo crowd pleasing acts that you know are gonna draw massive crowds, despite the fact that no one would actually pay to see them.

…when put up against a proper alternative though they’d get pretty much no one. Tracey is clearly not one of them

Im still pretty confident that up against the likes of Rodrigo or Eilish he’d get a standard sized tent headliner crowd but it sounds like you’d deffo need someone of that demographic to draw enough kids away and it wouldn’t be the best counter programming

What do you mean no one would pay to see them? He sold out 2 nights at Ally Pally before.

[Benj]

26 minutes ago, gfa said:

going to be anarchy on here when theres two main stages again lol

Hahaha.

Cried of anguish from everywhere from loads of when folk have to sit through Yungblud then Blink for 3 hours of their lives! 

[Benj]

Just now, SomeoneListeningIn said:

What do you mean no one would pay to see them? He sold out 2 nights at Ally Pally before.

You seem to miss the hit where I said Tracey is clearly not one of them…

I was thinking more novelty type acts/ one big song types. They’d can obv sell their own smaller shows but are never gonna tent pole a festival despite getting massive crowds at Festivals

Trying to think of some modern examples but can’t but the likes of GLC back in the day, that Jack Black band etc.  Huge festival crowds of appreciative punters who would never consider paying actual cash to see them at their own shows

[gfa]

AJ Tracey would pack out the tent but 2 nights at ally pally is clearly not a sub in the old format - that was almost 4 years ago though i'll note

3rd or possibly even 4th is a safe bet i reckon - its quite hard to say as last time he did the fest was in a special slot and he hasn't really been touring since then so theres not much to base it off other fests wise

[Benj]

8 minutes ago, gfa said:

AJ Tracey would pack out the tent but 2 nights at ally pally is clearly not a sub in the old format - that was almost 4 years ago though i'll note

3rd or possibly even 4th is a safe bet i reckon - its quite hard to say as last time he did the fest was in a special slot and he hasn't really been touring since then so theres not much to base it off other fests wise

He got a big old crowd in at Glastonbury too didn’t he

[CG31]

The old special guest slot surely. Not a sub, too big for 3rd. Dare I say similar size to Capaldi in 2020.

a day with Travis Scott headlining, a Royal Blood sub, Streets third (might be too low) and then later on AJ Tracey announced as a special guest

[gblock]

1 minute ago, CG31 said:

The old special guest slot surely. Not a sub, too big for 3rd. Dare I say similar size to Capaldi in 2020.

a day with Travis Scott headlining, a Royal Blood sub, Streets third (might be too low) and then later on AJ Tracey announced as a special guest

The Streets are the sort of act to headline the Big Tent I reckon, agree that AJ Tracey has gotta be main stage now

[CG31]

11 minutes ago, gblock said:

The Streets are the sort of act to headline the Big Tent I reckon, agree that AJ Tracey has gotta be main stage now

Yh once I wrote it I thought that, would be all over that 

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, gfa said:

AJ Tracey would pack out the tent but 2 nights at ally pally is clearly not a sub in the old format - that was almost 4 years ago though i'll note

3rd or possibly even 4th is a safe bet i reckon - its quite hard to say as last time he did the fest was in a special slot and he hasn't really been touring since then so theres not much to base it off other fests wise

This is so pedantic lol. Mad that you've spent this long arguing that he's too big to headline the tent but then he'd play 3rd or 4th main.

[gfa]

50 minutes ago, CG31 said:

The old special guest slot surely. Not a sub, too big for 3rd. Dare I say similar size to Capaldi in 2020.

a day with Travis Scott headlining, a Royal Blood sub, Streets third (might be too low) and then later on AJ Tracey announced as a special guest

He did special guest last time so seems unlikely

44 minutes ago, gblock said:

The Streets are the sort of act to headline the Big Tent I reckon, agree that AJ Tracey has gotta be main stage now

The Streets could end up with a very pitiful crowd i reckon, would go off tho

32 minutes ago, SomeoneListeningIn said:

This is so pedantic lol. Mad that you've spent this long arguing that he's too big to headline the tent but then he'd play 3rd or 4th main.

I don't think i ever said hes too big - size wise he is about right re sales, other shows. With the R&L audience it just makes no sense to clash him with headliners when he could just have a monster crowd a bit earlier on

[Hart Attack]

Everyone's predicting Blink or Paramore as the rock headliner, but not seeing much talk around My Chemical Romance.

[Andre91]

3 hours ago, Benj said:

Fair point that they may not want to reset themselves to that kind of level. The Big Tent is BIG though, as in HUGE, it's easily managed BMTH and QOTSA secret sets

Dunno if it can hold 40K but is not far off arena levels. Bastille made the move from playing above Two Door in 2017 to headlining the tent in 2019.   Two door played a slot above them in 21 than Bastille did in 22 though...

 

Neither of which were particularly rammed. 

[Andre91]

3 hours ago, Benj said:

Here we go then nice crowd splitting counter programming allowing loads to be happy with a some tough decisions for a few. Bolded my selections but the 2nd and 3rd ones would be a pain.

 

MS-Blink / Scott / Rodrigo

AJ Tracey / Royal Blood / Yungblud

 

BT-Little Simz / Boy Genius/ Sleep Token

 

FR-Beabadoobee/ Fever333/ Frank Turner

 

Dance- XXXXX/XXXXX/XXXXXX

Sleep Token didn’t even half fill the FR tent this year. They aren’t headlining a bigger tent.
 

They are not going to cross over to pop music fans. They just aren’t. ‘They’re a metal band for pop fans’ no, no they aren’t. They’re a pop band for metal fans. It’s amazing they’ve sold Wembley out but they are not penetrating the mainstream like some people have been saying. Their songs are too long and too ‘odd’ for pop music fans. It isn’t happening. 

[jonnyisRFC]

6 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

Sleep Token didn’t even half fill the FR tent this year. They aren’t headlining a bigger tent.
 

They are not going to cross over to pop music fans. They just aren’t. ‘They’re a metal band for pop fans’ no, no they aren’t. They’re a pop band for metal fans. It’s amazing they’ve sold Wembley out but they are not penetrating the mainstream like some people have been saying. Their songs are too long and too ‘odd’ for pop music fans. It isn’t happening. 

It was busy at Reading I thought? Maybe 80% full. I Still can’t put my finger on that band, the crowd surprised me too, loads of people filmed the whole thing on their phone, unusual to see that in the FR tent! Are they big on TikTok or something?