Headliners 2023

[Hugh Jass II]

11 minutes ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

Used to buy into the belief that - back when they were at their simultaneous peak of attendance - you could argue for any headliner at the five other major UK festivals (R+L, V Festival, T in the Park, Isle of Wight and Download)  to be potentially big enough to top the Pyramid Stage.

Obviously, not the case anymore - V Festival and T in the Park are gone, Isle of Wight tends to have diminishing returns on bill-topper levels here and there, R+L have split themselves to bump up those who you probably wouldn't consider at all beyond a sub-slot and Download's metal heritage run walks a fine line.

This is something that has popped back into my mind with the announcement Boardmasters have Lorde, Liam Gallagher and Florence and the Machine as bill-toppers.

If you look at the R/L headliners this year (East Stage, which is the main one - headlining West is basically subbing) you have two headliners who have headlined very recently - Billie and Killers and one who almost certainly will in the future - Fender.

Download have a former headliner in Metallica and another act in Slipknot who would be high up the bill.

Even IOW have Robbie Williams who would still at least be in the headliner conversation.

[Gnomicide]

8 minutes ago, moogster said:

Oooh my work laptop secret excel file !

I will update it a bit when we get closer to the fest (I have an extra table ready) and when the map is out.

Ah, it must have been you @moogster

Sterling work, particularly with the different walking speeds!

[dreams_burn_down]

12 minutes ago, Xeph1995 said:

Do we think The Weekend are big enough to headline the Pyramid?

Yes, 100%. It would be a proper spectacle.

The album cuts on After Hours converted me from casual listener to big fan. I really hope the Eavii would consider him.

[NorthernSoul52]

2 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

If you look at the R/L headliners this year (East Stage, which is the main one - headlining West is basically subbing) you have two headliners who have headlined very recently - Billie and Killers and one who almost certainly will in the future - Fender.

Download have a former headliner in Metallica and another act in Slipknot who would be high up the bill.

Even IOW have Robbie Williams who would still at least be in the headliner conversation.

Absolutely - and they still do! I guess it is just that a decade ago, it felt almost iron-clad, in a sense. There's some who wouldn't, but the majority likely would have been at the level or have indeed topped the Pyramid.

Take 2012, for a stab in the dark. No Glastonbury that year, which you may argue helped elsewhere, but even so.

R+L: The Cure, Kasabian, Foo Fighters
IOW: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Pearl Jam
V Festival: The Stone Roses, The Killers
T in the Park: Snow Patrol, The Stone Roses, Kasabian
Download: The Prodigy, Metallica, Black Sabbath

Or 2011:

R+L: My Chemical Romance, The Strokes, Pulp, Muse
IOW: Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, Kasabian
V Festival: Arctic Monkeys, Eminem
T in the Park: Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Beyonce, Foo Fighters
Download: Def Leppard, System of a Down, Linkin Park.

(Bad year to compare Download there, granted.)

It's not that I don't feel acts headlining those festivals these days are not Glastonbury headliners, because they absolutely are! 

It's more that it feels like there are... less of them, maybe?

[Tranquility of Solitude]

2 hours ago, Justcalledtosay said:

Well this was me and some friends late Thursday night as we stopped on our way somewhere else. We mingled and danced with quite a varied demographic. Had a chat with quite a few poeple we'd never met before and we also got a bit of limbo queue going after someone with a flag offered it up. I don't know if that makes us all knob heads but everyone was having a great time in a respectful manner 🤷‍♂️

 

Edit: For reference my gang were 37 and over.

Not at all! I was referring to the littering mainly.

[clasher]

Well that's a load of pages to go through, and some proper, constructive debate as well, which is a pleasant surprise. I certainly agree with how nonsensical "I don’t like them therefore they shouldn’t headline" and "I've never listened to a single song of theirs but they are a shit booking" are, as has been pointed out by some reasonable posters here.

More importantly, on the topic of biscuits, these are my absolute all time favourites. I suppose you can get them somewhere in the UK too.

Also, Fred Again. Hasn't been mentioned in a while.

Edited February 22, 2023 by clasher

[JoeyT]

2 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

Just think, you could have stood in vain waiting for Toots to turn up like the rest of us.

Forgot about that. I too was in that crowd waiting.

Heart breaking that they didn’t ever make it back to the farm after that.

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, JoeyT said:

Forgot about that. I too was in that crowd waiting.

Heart breaking that they didn’t ever make it back to the farm after that.

Apparently they did a set later on in Shangri La

[fred quimby]

11 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Apparently they did a set later on in Shangri La

Yep, turned up late and played on Thruth stage, shame I missed the memo

[Fishinginthelongdrops]

4 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

West Holts Bar is great Wednesday & Thursday night.

I think West Holts stage is a lot more interesting during the day, recent years seem to have concentrated on (though not exclusively) dance headliners which hold zero interest for me. Whenever there is someone who I might be interested in, they always clash so i'm yet to see a headliner there. I'd hoped The Specials might do it one year but that ship has sailed.

Neville Staple has self confirmed which may soften the blow, a tiny bit.  

[Gnomicide]

39 minutes ago, Fishinginthelongdrops said:

Neville Staple has self confirmed which may soften the blow, a tiny bit.  

Good stuff. His TBA did look more than a little suspicious. 

[Neil]

9 hours ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

...I quite like Fuh You.

ducks for cover

I thought maccas choice of aquatic animal is frog. 

[gfa]

3 hours ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

Used to buy into the belief that - back when they were at their simultaneous peak of attendance - you could argue for any headliner at the five other major UK festivals (R+L, V Festival, T in the Park, Isle of Wight and Download)  to be potentially big enough to top the Pyramid Stage.

Obviously, not the case anymore - V Festival and T in the Park are gone, Isle of Wight tends to have diminishing returns on bill-topper levels here and there, R+L have split themselves to bump up those who you probably wouldn't consider at all beyond a sub-slot and Download's metal heritage run walks a fine line.

This is something that has popped back into my mind with the announcement Boardmasters have Lorde, Liam Gallagher and Florence and the Machine as bill-toppers.

Reading's main 3 every year pretty much are pyramid standard, only recent ones who haven't been was like fall out boy a few years ago but that was the old (arguably should be stronger)  format anyway

arguably need to be looking at Wireless, while glasto doesn't book too much rap generally they have artists the size for it e.g. Travis Scott, Dave. They mostly just choose to not book the proper expensive ones tbh

3 hours ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

Absolutely - and they still do! I guess it is just that a decade ago, it felt almost iron-clad, in a sense. There's some who wouldn't, but the majority likely would have been at the level or have indeed topped the Pyramid.

Take 2012, for a stab in the dark. No Glastonbury that year, which you may argue helped elsewhere, but even so.

R+L: The Cure, Kasabian, Foo Fighters
IOW: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Pearl Jam
V Festival: The Stone Roses, The Killers
T in the Park: Snow Patrol, The Stone Roses, Kasabian
Download: The Prodigy, Metallica, Black Sabbath

Or 2011:

R+L: My Chemical Romance, The Strokes, Pulp, Muse
IOW: Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, Kasabian
V Festival: Arctic Monkeys, Eminem
T in the Park: Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Beyonce, Foo Fighters
Download: Def Leppard, System of a Down, Linkin Park.

(Bad year to compare Download there, granted.)

It's not that I don't feel acts headlining those festivals these days are not Glastonbury headliners, because they absolutely are! 

It's more that it feels like there are... less of them, maybe?

Strokes and Stone Roses may as well count too considering both were booked (strokes supposedly and roses dropped out didn't they?)

[Zoo Music Girl]

4 hours ago, FrancisH said:

I'm all for WH love in to be honest, It holds a lot of very happy memories for me, so much so I burst into tears when I walked into that field last year having not been since 2017!

Aways always make a point of getting in at least one WH headliner, you're going to love it. It's a large stage but still feels intimate at night, the crowd are also usually pretty dedicated fans for the headliners and so the vibe always feels extremely positive and friendly.

All of this. It's a great stage.

[Zoo Music Girl]

2 hours ago, clasher said:

Well that's a load of pages to go through, and some proper, constructive debate as well, which is a pleasant surprise. I certainly agree with how nonsensical "I don’t like them therefore they shouldn’t headline" and "I've never listened to a single song of theirs but they are a shit booking" are, as has been pointed out by some reasonable posters here.

More importantly, on the topic of biscuits, these are my absolute all time favourites. I suppose you can get them somewhere in the UK too.

Also, Fred Again. Hasn't been mentioned in a while.

Can't say I've ever seen these but I've had things in that ballpark and approve.

[Justiceforcedave]

10 hours ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

...I quite like Fuh You.

ducks for cover

When I first heard the title, I legitimately thought it was some abbreviation of "Fuck You" and that Macca was just too polite and doddery to actually swear. I mainly blame CeeLo Green for that one... but also my own stupidity.

[stuartbert two hats]

8 hours ago, anditmakesmesmile said:

or, perhaps like me, born well before GnR (55) but last listened to commercial radio with John Peel under the bedclothes.

The dirty old fucker got everywhere didn't he?

 

Five hours late, I suspect I'm not the first to crack that joke! 

[stuartbert two hats]

7 hours ago, balti-pie said:

Much more of a Glastonbury booking, with how the pyramid stage loved a bit of zauberflote back in the day 😄

Beethoven would definitely have been a Download act.

[stuartbert two hats]

7 hours ago, Tranquility of Solitude said:

With all this West Holts love in..... and ever the contrary knobhead..... what’s folks views of that field before the stage opens, on the Wed and Thu? My own view (prepared to be shot down) is that the knobhead ratio in it is far higher than found elsewhere, largely due to the Brothers Bar crowd. West Holts is a lovely bar, and the crowd split between the two types of patrons is pretty obvious by looking at the rubbish strewn around that field. Around Brothers it’s a bombsite, usually pretty ok around West Holts.

Fair.

[stuie]

8 hours ago, DeanoL said:

Genuine question: are there not other cheaper options for house/techno events/festivals? There might not be, when I first started going Glastonbury *was* totally unique: very few festivals even had a comedy stage and Edinburgh was the only comedy festival in the UK.

But certainly now, for the bits of the festival I like the most, there are other places that do it better. There are comedy festivals everywhere, Outcider festival is very much just like Avalon but a few miles down the road...

I also get if you have massively wide interests, it offers something unique: if you are into the sort of acts on the Pyramid, but also Avalon, and also West Holts, and also The Park, and also the South East corner, and you want to see a bit of circus and comedy too... then yeah, you can get all that in one event, which you can't elsewhere.

But for anyone who basically spends the majority of their time in just one, two or three areas, there's probably a better option for you. Unless that one area is the Pyramid, because the one thing £350 is cheaper than is seeing three stadium acts.

Sure, there’s other / bigger / cheaper and better house and techno events but that’s what they are.  Glasto is the sum of its parts and it’s great to mix things up. I’m 42 and I don’t want just techno for 4 days - mix it up with a headliner or two, some afternoon sets, exploring, circus etc etc.

I go to some other smaller festivals too but it’s the full feast that glasto offers that keeps me coming and I expect it’s the same for a lot of people - it’s not just about the headliners and that’s why glasto sells out all the time. 

Glasto’s stages also go on later than most other comparable electronic festivals! 

[stuartbert two hats]

7 hours ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

Repeat headliners always come with an element of disappointment for me. 

Question: has a headliner ever returned and been better than their original headline slot? 

Coldplay undoubtedly put  on way better shows in their last two outings compared to their first two.

I know Radiohead's 1997 slot is legendary, but if you watch them back, it doesn't hold up compared to the more recent showings with a far deeper back catalogue.

The Cure's early headline slots are lost in the mists of time, but they were very well received in 2019.

The Killers were definitely better second time around, without "unusual atmospheric conditions".

I cannot judge Muse and Van Morrison and Elvis Costello headlining are before my time.

So it's just AM who weren't judged to be as good next time around? But even that might be because of expectations - they did feel a bit like a pub band done good the first time, rather than a headliner with humour that fell flat.

Oh yeah, The Who. Pissing it down so everyone was miserable first time, not very good performance the second time. About a draw.

Who have I forgotten? Basically I'd say that there's probably a better than average chance returning headliners will improve.

Edit: so people who were there seem to prefer AM second time around.  The question should surely be, has any returning headline slot been indisputably worse?

Edited February 22, 2023 by stuartbert two hats

[stuartbert two hats]

6 hours ago, The Nal said:

Macca

Really?

[scaryclaireyfairy]

16 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

The question should surely be, has any returning headline slot been indisputably worse?

As a long standing Radiohead fan, Radiohead. '17 was dismal compared to '03. I will die on this hill so be prepared to fight.

[stuartbert two hats]

2 minutes ago, scaryclaireyfairy said:

As a long standing Radiohead fan, Radiohead. '17 was dismal compared to '03. I will die on this hill so be prepared to fight.

Where were you stood?

Did you not hear Pyramid Song or Myxomatosis? I was only in the field for 2017, so can't really judge, but I prefer 2017 on video far more. However, it's not really a fair fight - 2017 was in HD and I have memories of being there.

[clasher]

1 hour ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

Can't say I've ever seen these but I've had things in that ballpark and approve.

It's a Yugoslav staple, going back to late 50s I think. Popular so much that you even have reddit posts about calculating which of the five shapes is the biggest 😂
The (now) Croatian company that makes it (and a couple of other legendary sweets) goes back even further. I say "now" - it was founded in what was then Austro-Hungary in *googles quickly* 1911 and survived the monarchy, socialism and the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Thankfully still going strong.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that the biscuit is not revolutionary, but gets the basics juuuuuust right. It's the Highway to Hell or I love Rock'n'Roll of biscuits, If you will. No pretentious guitar solos, no lavish orchestral parts. A riff, a beat and a catchy chorus, but done just right.