2025 Headliners

[Dales]

2 hours ago, emmanuel said:

Sure.

But personally I prefer to use an international metric for how good they are. I find it suspicious when is someone is presumably so good (Fender), but yet no one in continental Europe or USA seem to bother. I mean half of the bands playing at Glastonbury could probably also play the Forest National in Brussels or Roseland Theater in Portland.

I'm not judging if they pick him, I just find it weird. All the music I've ever listened was "international", so it is just a phenomena I don't really understand.

 

I totally get where you are coming from, but surely to headline a UK festival all that matters is how popular they are in the UK.

 

Whether Fender is popular or not any where else in the world is irelevant to how big a slot he is in the UK.

[Ayrshire Chris]

It would be nice to get a pre Xmas announcement of a headliner. Just something tangible to argue about😉😊

[fullfathom5]

1 hour ago, Dales said:

 

I totally get where you are coming from, but surely to headline a UK festival all that matters is how popular they are in the UK.

 

Whether Fender is popular or not any where else in the world is irelevant to how big a slot he is in the UK.

Exactly, which is one of the reasons SZA didn’t work, I think.

[Dales]

Just now, fullfathom5 said:

Exactly, which is one of the reasons SZA didn’t work, I think.

 

Yeah, I wonder if thats why home grown popular names like Fender and The 1975 seem to be in the mix.

[fullfathom5]

Quite possibly mate, yeah.

[NorthernSoul52]

To be fair, SZA had the chart clout. She had one of the ten best-selling songs and one of the ten best-selling albums of the year. 

 

But beyond that, her footprint was soft. A lot of lessons to be learned, I guess. 

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

Just trying to think of people nobody in the UK gives a sh*t about but are big internationally. Maybe Garth Brooks. 

We used to have this discussion a lot around Bad Bunny - enormous in the US market and playing huge concerts out there but not been to the UK in years. Could just be the language barrier, given I can't recall if there's been many Spanish language pop songs in the UK in the last decade or so.

[MEGABOWL]

16 hours ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

The studio version doesn't do this interpretation justice.

 

I know Snow Patrol do get a lot of flack, but I remember reading 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, with Run in there, and I was like "Yep. That absolutely tracks."

 

Probably up there for the best of the post-Britpop ballads that populated the noughties charts, long before Leona Lewis made it an The X Factor-era hit to boot.

 

But Boe absolutely gives it the beans there. The occasion probably helps too.

Oh Run is a classic, no doubt about that. I’m not a huge fan (that, Chocolate, Crack the Shutters pretty much) but Run is in the upper echelons, an indisputable tune. I wouldn’t expect anything else from Boe but that’s magnificent.

[MEGABOWL]

16 hours ago, DomDom1984 said:

Ball and Boe would be a terrific afternoon act on Pyramid I reckon and would probably go down a treat.

I would absolutely be there for that

[NorthernSoul52]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

We used to have this discussion a lot around Bad Bunny

And while I fully encourage freedom of discussion, we're not having it again.

[stuie]

12 hours ago, Suprefan said:

they have to at one point. This aint your mum's glasto anymore. Its not Sza's fault they did her dirty. And blame Madonna more than anyone. They did the best they could. Artists do say no, this fest isnt invincible and last year really showed that. Theres no deep pockets to pull a miracle.

 

It's so weird how you travel all the way here for Glastonbury but your posts about it are negative, like it did you dirty and you're just waiting for it to f**k up or fail at things. 

[NorthernSoul52]

1 hour ago, MEGABOWL said:

I would absolutely be there for that

 

You'd need to get the showtunes balance right, but absolutely.

[charlierc]

22 minutes ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

And while I fully encourage freedom of discussion, we're not having it again.

Yeah I'm aware that got over the top.

[assorted]

To bring back that international lens, Charli right now is a lot bigger than either Sam fender or even the 1975 are. 
 

Keeping both that in mind and Emily’s past comments on gender and pipeline, it’s going to look very strange when she’s not headlining the pyramid but those two are. And of course she should refuse other headliner the offer itself would feel borderline sexist when in this moment she’s so much biggger than both (at least outside of England, I guess).

[Suprefan]

2 hours ago, fullfathom5 said:

Exactly, which is one of the reasons SZA didn’t work, I think.

 

sza had sold out her arena shows in the uk  and had the bst date. So its not like she wasnt popular to begin with. Sza didnt work because nobody wanted an artist that connected more with people half their age than themselves. And a r&b act on Sunday isnt the best thing either. It also shows you what the core audience gives a sh*t about. They truly dont want the fest to progress farther than like 2010.  If she was british I bet you nobody would say a word. Or if it was Little Simz. 
 

And if you want to gatekeep the festival headliners then be my guest. Maybe where I live should stop lending you talent and we'll see how far these top names go in quality. No Billie, Kendrick, Olivia, Guns N Roses or  Foo Fighters just from the last few. 

[MEGABOWL]

7 minutes ago, assorted said:

To bring back that international lens, Charli right now is a lot bigger than either Sam fender or even the 1975 are. 
 

Keeping both that in mind and Emily’s past comments on gender and pipeline, it’s going to look very strange when she’s not headlining the pyramid but those two are. And of course she should refuse other headliner the offer itself would feel borderline sexist when in this moment she’s so much biggger than both (at least outside of England, I guess).

Glastonbury doesn’t really book headliners based on international success though. That wouldn’t make sense when the majority of attendees are from the U.K. and the festival is in the U.K.

[Skip997]

19 minutes ago, assorted said:

To bring back that international lens, Charli right now is a lot bigger than either Sam fender or even the 1975 are. 
 

Keeping both that in mind and Emily’s past comments on gender and pipeline, it’s going to look very strange when she’s not headlining the pyramid but those two are. And of course she should refuse other headliner the offer itself would feel borderline sexist when in this moment she’s so much biggger than both (at least outside of England, I guess).

Regardless of any of this she’s so much more fun than Fender or The 1975

[Skip997]

Again I’m with Suprefan on this 

[Gnomicide]

I think he's talking bollocks.

[MEGABOWL]

32 minutes ago, Suprefan said:

 

sza had sold out her arena shows in the uk  and had the bst date. So its not like she wasnt popular to begin with. Sza didnt work because nobody wanted an artist that connected more with people half their age than themselves. And a r&b act on Sunday isnt the best thing either. It also shows you what the core audience gives a sh*t about. They truly dont want the fest to progress farther than like 2010.  If she was british I bet you nobody would say a word. Or if it was Little Simz. 
 

And if you want to gatekeep the festival headliners then be my guest. Maybe where I live should stop lending you talent and we'll see how far these top names go in quality. No Billie, Kendrick, Olivia, Guns N Roses or  Foo Fighters just from the last few. 

It was a gamble of a booking and it didn’t work out. Thats it. Your constant need to try and start arguments based on things you’ve imagined is getting really boring, and a touch unpleasant.

[MEGABOWL]

20 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Regardless of any of this she’s so much more fun than Fender or The 1975

To you. Subjectively. Which doesn’t mean very much at all.

[Skip997]

4 minutes ago, MEGABOWL said:

To you. Subjectively. Which doesn’t mean very much at all.

No

 

She clearly actually is. 

[assorted]

1 hour ago, MEGABOWL said:

Glastonbury doesn’t really book headliners based on international success though. That wouldn’t make sense when the majority of attendees are from the U.K. and the festival is in the U.K.

 

Sure, but you have a female that is headlining other festivals and one of the hottest acts that’s from your country and she loves the festival and you just ignore all of that to choose 2 white guy acts that aren’t as famous anywhere else - that’s pretty weird for a festival saying they want to be the change they want to see in terms of gender and pipeline.

 

I just think this means It won’t be both Fender and 1975 headlining. 

[Skip997]

20 minutes ago, assorted said:

 

Sure, but you have a female that is headlining other festivals and one of the hottest acts that’s from your country and she loves the festival and you just ignore all of that to choose 2 white guy acts that aren’t as famous anywhere else - that’s pretty weird for a festival saying they want to be the change they want to see in terms of gender and pipeline.

 

I just think this means It won’t be both Fender and 1975 headlining. 

Brilliant post, made the point I wanted to better than I could have.

 

There’s still an element of “stuck in the past” when it comes to booking artists for the Pyramid. Yes I know we’ve had the likes of Stormzy, Billie and Dua Lipa in recent years, but headliner bookings of that nature are in the minority 

[emmanuel]

1 hour ago, MEGABOWL said:

Glastonbury doesn’t really book headliners based on international success though. That wouldn’t make sense when the majority of attendees are from the U.K. and the festival is in the U.K.

Sure, but maybe they should. Regional festivals working in closed circles are hardly the most exciting. None of the bigger European festivals use this regional thinking.