Headliners 2023

[Rose-Colored Boy]

1 hour ago, Matt42 said:

Exactly - people talk about headline sets as if they will be something more than that. It will be what the artist does 90% of the time. Their current show with a few more hits thrown in.

Doing something special for glastonbury is a bit of a nothing point. I don’t know what people mean. You compare their usual sets to their glastonbury set and it’s pretty much the same set aside from maybe one or two more hits than usual.

The deep cuts and Bon Iver covers Kanye played were by a distance the worst received parts of the set. Ultimately hits are what the crowd comes for so it makes sense to just get on with playing them. 

[maelzoid]

1 hour ago, Quark said:

Always seemed to be in a minority on this, but I loved Outlaw Pete

Fair enough. But if we’re taking about Bruce’s epics, I do hate Outlaw Pete, but probably more because of what it’s not; Jungleland, Backstreets, incident, NYC serenade, Rosalita or Racing in the Street.

[Punksnotdead]

1 hour ago, Quark said:

Always seemed to be in a minority on this, but I loved Outlaw Pete

So did I, but there were too many songs from that album and not enough classics!

[ghostdancer1]

2 hours ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

The deep cuts and Bon Iver covers Kanye played were by a distance the worst received parts of the set. Ultimately hits are what the crowd comes for so it makes sense to just get on with playing them. 

Yep, take out the 15minute Bon Iver cryfest and the Kanye set was pure bangers

 

Stronger
Power
Niggas in Paris(JAY Z & Kanye West cover)
Black Skinhead(Aborted and re-started due to stage invader)
All Day(Kanye West feat. Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom & Paul McCartney cover)
Cold as Ice(Foreigner song)
Cold(Kanye West feat. DJ Khaled cover)
Clique(Kanye West, Jay-Z & Big Sean cover)
I Don't Like(Chief Keef cover) (Remix)
Mercy(Kanye West feat. Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz cover)
New Slaves
Blood on the Leaves
Heartless(verse 2 and 3 were performed)
I Wonder(first time since 2013)
FourFiveSeconds(Rihanna and Kanye West and Paul McCartney cover) (Kanye solo live debut)
Woods(Bon Iver cover)
Lost in the World(with Justin Vernon) (Extended version. 1st time… more )
Hold My Liquor(with Justin Vernon) (first time that he performed… more )
No Church in the Wild(JAY Z & Kanye West cover) (Kanye solo live debut)
Jesus Walks
Diamonds From Sierra Leone
Bound 2
Runaway
Only One(Kanye West featuring Paul McCartney cover)
Touch the Sky(Aborted and re-started)
All of the Lights
Good Life
Bohemian Rhapsody(Queen song) (Kanye / crowd singalong until… more )
Can't Tell Me Nothing

Encore:
Gold Digger
All Falls Down

[GeezLouise]

22 hours ago, Suprefan said:

Bad Bunny vs this years glasto headliners. 
 

lets not forget he broke the  touring gross record for a year which was held by the mighty ed sheeran. But it doesnt count though cause its bad bunny

A beautiful Canadian destroyer. 

[fraybentos1]

6 hours ago, Matt42 said:

Exactly - people talk about headline sets as if they will be something more than that. It will be what the artist does 90% of the time. Their current show with a few more hits thrown in.

Doing something special for glastonbury is a bit of a nothing point. I don’t know what people mean. You compare their usual sets to their glastonbury set and it’s pretty much the same set aside from maybe one or two more hits than usual.

Monkeys got out strings last time they played and are meant to be again this time, they only do it for glasto. That’s the sort of thing people mean

[CaledonianGonzo]

Please stop with all the examples 

 

[CaledonianGonzo]

it's 

getting

ridiculous 

now

 

 

[Suprefan]

23 hours ago, AnonAnon said:

Yeah, namely Billie and Stormzy had about an hour of recorded material between them and, as big as they are, and I do think Billie in particular is legitimately an incredibly talented singer and writer in her genre, it just felt 'too soon'.  

Both Kendrick and Billie's sets felt 'short' last year, with weak spots because a larger % of the set is taken up with 'album filler' or 'deep cuts' than knock out tracks.  

That's no sleight on them, I have  records by each of them, it's just a tall ask.  There are very few artists in history who could fill what is traditionally a two/three hour slot with their first two albums of material.  Bob Dylan would've done an hour of niche folk covers and then admittedly pretty decent hour of his early songs, as an example.

It's why I sort of believe you need at least 5 maybe even 6 albums to headline the pyramid.  At least that way you're guaranteed between 10-20  A grade songs per set. 

So then you wouldve not had Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Radiohead, Billie, Stormzy, Arcade Fire, Travis, Ed Sheeran , Adele and a lot of others headline  when they did because you thought they needed to keep proving they were "worthy" cause you have to have a lot of songs. Yeah ok, so you wouldve had a really small pool of artists to even try and book if thats your rule. You also wouldve had lots of acts end up headlining not in their prime cause of this thinking.  So yeah, Guns N Roses and Elton pretty much are the right acts you could have headline this year cause there was nobody else available via your criteria. So Dua or Sam Fender will have to wait til theyre in their 30's to headline even though theyre on the path. 
 

At minimum its 3 albums. Or going into album 3. Obviously exceptions happen and theyre rare anyway. Harry Styles apparently wont qualify for a while even though he will keep on selling out stadiums with just the 3 releases he even has. 

Edited January 22, 2023 by Suprefan

[mike46]

I always like it when headliners do ‘something’ to mark the occasion. Off the top of my head from the years I’ve been going:

Jay Z - Oasis cover walk on

Muse - had the Edge join them

U2 - had a video link from space 

Coldplay (2011) - turned the pyramid different colours

Arctics - used strings 

Stones - reworked Factory Girl into Glastonbury Girl. Also played 2,000 Light Years for the first time in years in a nod to the arctics

Mumfords - invited a load of guests for a big singalong 

Kanye - had the crane 

Coldplay (2016) - had the bracelets, although I think they used these in their tour too

Radiohead - hits setlist

Stormzy - special guests and the ballet dancers

Killers - special guests

The Cure - hits setlist (although that might be common, I’m not sure)

McCartney - special guests

Kendrick - unique setlist and show 

 

Any I missed?

 

 

[lukey_82]

11 minutes ago, mike46 said:

I always like it when headliners do ‘something’ to mark the occasion. Off the top of my head from the years I’ve been going:

Jay Z - Oasis cover walk on

Muse - had the Edge join them

U2 - had a video link from space 

Coldplay (2011) - turned the pyramid different colours

Arctics - used strings 

Stones - reworked Factory Girl into Glastonbury Girl. Also played 2,000 Light Years for the first time in years in a nod to the arctics

Mumfords - invited a load of guests for a big singalong 

Kanye - had the crane 

Coldplay (2016) - had the bracelets, although I think they used these in their tour too

Radiohead - hits setlist

Stormzy - special guests and the ballet dancers

Killers - special guests

The Cure - hits setlist (although that might be common, I’m not sure)

McCartney - special guests

Kendrick - unique setlist and show 

 

Any I missed?

 

 

Arctic monkeys in 2007 covering  ‘diamonds are forever’ in a nod to Shirley basseys legends slot and also bringing out dizzee rascal for ‘temptation greets you like a naughty friend’

[Jose Pose]

19 minutes ago, mike46 said:

I always like it when headliners do ‘something’ to mark the occasion. Off the top of my head from the years I’ve been going:

Jay Z - Oasis cover walk on

Muse - had the Edge join them

U2 - had a video link from space 

Coldplay (2011) - turned the pyramid different colours

Arctics - used strings 

Stones - reworked Factory Girl into Glastonbury Girl. Also played 2,000 Light Years for the first time in years in a nod to the arctics

Mumfords - invited a load of guests for a big singalong 

Kanye - had the crane 

Coldplay (2016) - had the bracelets, although I think they used these in their tour too

Radiohead - hits setlist

Stormzy - special guests and the ballet dancers

Killers - special guests

The Cure - hits setlist (although that might be common, I’m not sure)

McCartney - special guests

Kendrick - unique setlist and show 

 

Any I missed?

 

 

Good list, but re: Kanye, I’m not a huge fan so maybe someone who is can confirm, but it was a cherry picker he had and I’m pretty sure on his tour he got on top of his light rig which wasn’t possible at Glasto, so this was just to try and replicate that, so nothing special to Glasto as such.

Edit: Yeah:

Edited January 22, 2023 by Jose Pose

[mike46]

8 minutes ago, Jose Pose said:

Good list, but re: Kanye, I’m not a huge fan so maybe someone who is can confirm, but it was a cherry picker he had and I’m pretty sure on his tour he got on top of his light rig which wasn’t possible at Glasto, so this was just to try and replicate that, so nothing special to Glasto as such.

Edit: Yeah:

Ah fair enough! I’m not au fait with a lot of these headliners outside of the festival so might be a few tenuous ones on that list that are actually pretty standard for their shows. 

[Hugh Jass II]

11 hours ago, Matt42 said:

Exactly - people talk about headline sets as if they will be something more than that. It will be what the artist does 90% of the time. Their current show with a few more hits thrown in.

Doing something special for glastonbury is a bit of a nothing point. I don’t know what people mean. You compare their usual sets to their glastonbury set and it’s pretty much the same set aside from maybe one or two more hits than usual.

Kendrick’s set was unique to Glastonbury (yes, there was an Italy gig that was a practice run).

I was there and was also at his O2 gig, which was a huge production with props, effects, catwalk staging, a massive glass box… none of that would fit on the Pyramid stage.

It was obvious to anyone watching that night the amount of thought and craft that had gone into that show. The staging, the lighting, the set list, the costumes, the choreography, the crown… it was all designed to get the best out of the space they had.

That’s why it was special to Glastonbury.

[Matt42]

4 hours ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

Pretty sure Bey had exactly the same stage set up as she did for TITP and the other festivals she did.

[kingcrawler]

25 minutes ago, mike46 said:

I always like it when headliners do ‘something’ to mark the occasion. Off the top of my head from the years I’ve been going:

Jay Z - Oasis cover walk on

Muse - had the Edge join them

U2 - had a video link from space 

Coldplay (2011) - turned the pyramid different colours

Arctics - used strings 

Stones - reworked Factory Girl into Glastonbury Girl. Also played 2,000 Light Years for the first time in years in a nod to the arctics

Mumfords - invited a load of guests for a big singalong 

Kanye - had the crane 

Coldplay (2016) - had the bracelets, although I think they used these in their tour too

Radiohead - hits setlist

Stormzy - special guests and the ballet dancers

Killers - special guests

The Cure - hits setlist (although that might be common, I’m not sure)

McCartney - special guests

Kendrick - unique setlist and show 

 

Any I missed?

 

 

Coldplay did a few things in 2016. They got Barry Gibb and Michael Eavis on to sing and also covered Viola Beach. 

Florence covered Times Like These by Foo Fighters in 2015.

Arcade Fire did a thing on that tour where their bobbleheads came on stage and before the encore and music played. For Glastonbury they had Wonderwall, 99 Problems, Common People and a few others since it was Glastonbury. 

They’d done this a couple of times before but Kasabian brought Noel Fielding or Vlad the Impaler. They also covered Crazy by Gnarls Barkley for some reason, which I think was their first time doing it live.

[Hugh Jass II]

Doing “something special” isn’t just about wheeling some guests out.

As I said about Kendrick, he wrote and prepared a show specifically for that stage.

[mike46]

7 minutes ago, kingcrawler said:

Coldplay did a few things in 2016. They got Barry Gibb and Michael Eavis on to sing and also covered Viola Beach. 

Florence covered Times Like These by Foo Fighters in 2015.

Arcade Fire did a thing on that tour where their bobbleheads came on stage and before the encore and music played. For Glastonbury they had Wonderwall, 99 Problems, Common People and a few others since it was Glastonbury. 

They’d done this a couple of times before but Kasabian brought Noel Fielding or Vlad the Impaler. They also covered Crazy by Gnarls Barkley for some reason, which I think was their first time doing it live.

Great additions! Completely forgot about that Viola Beach cover, that was beautiful. 

[kingbadger]

 

1 hour ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Doing “something special” isn’t just about wheeling some guests out.

As I said about Kendrick, he wrote and prepared a show specifically for that stage.

Agree to an extent, but then compare Miley's Primavera set to her Glastonbury one:

She clearly changed everything up for Glastonbury, went full on rock and shipped over Lil Nas X and her old man for her 3rd down slot. She knew the significance and did something special for it. It'd be more surprising these days if a headliner didn't bring out a guest or two.

Edited January 22, 2023 by kingbadger

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, Suprefan said:

At minimum its 3 albums. Or going into album 3. Obviously exceptions happen and theyre rare anyway. Harry Styles apparently wont qualify for a while even though he will keep on selling out stadiums with just the 3 releases he even has. 

Tbf I think the challenge with getting Styles on that stage isn't so much that and more that he seems to just always be elsewhere that weekend. Maybe 2024 they'll get lucky.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Hazza feels like a when and not an if.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, mike46 said:

U2 - had a video link from space 

I think that was a regular bit on the U2 360 Tour in 2011 giving that Bono knew the astronaut in question. Though it's also fair to note that the tour they had at that time would've been impractical to bring to Glastonbury given both that it used a fucking massive stage designed for stadiums and that all the apparatus for it was in the USA as Glasto was plonked in-between 2 US stadium shows.

I think the setlist idea was right - started with 5 Achtung Baby songs with Zoo TV style imagery, then Joshua Tree Tour opening, 2000's hits, Live Aid set and then a few odds & sods at the end. What they got wrong imo was thinking they could just fly in from a US show on a Wednesday night, do Glasto on the Friday, then back on a Sunday. Even if it was pissing it down, I doubt it was exactly fresh. That and looking back at it, they were out of sync with the backing track on the opening song, making it a bit of a messy start.

Someone said they think U2 could do another crack at this but that it would be funny if it was as rainy, which... fair. I think they themselves would be amused to come back only to get soggy again.

Edited January 22, 2023 by charlierc

[Hugh Jass II]

5 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Hazza feels like a when and not an if.

Looks like the door is closing on him doing it on Harry’s House, but chalk him down for 25 on album #3.

[Hugh Jass II]

Although it may also depend on his acting commitments.

[Florian Saucer Attack]

12 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Although it may also depend on his acting commitments.

having seen don't worry darling I don't think we need to worry about him getting any more acting roles