2025 Headliners

[CaledonianGonzo]

Starting to feel relieved I was a Two Bar Bawbag in November given the risk to life posed by intergalactic superstar Charli XCX doing a terrestrial show at Glastonbury in June.

[northernangel]

35 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

Kanye, Stormzy

 

Ah yes, I'm got nothing to say on the first one lol. Pathetic booking. Stormzy headlined TRNSMT, played Big Weekend and did Belsonic so it was an English exclusive.

 

Florence actually played big weekend too but we can add U2 to that. Jack did no other British festival that year.

[Gnomicide]

2 hours ago, ac123 said:

Yeah they do. I f**king hate metal music, they were big in the 90s when I was born, but they're massive so I'd go see them.

 

Why would you go and see something you hate? I mean, fair do's for giving it a go but why waste a couple of hours when you could be watching something you enjoy?

[FKA SOSOTWS]

27 minutes ago, Suprefan said:

So do you disagree on Arctic Monkeys headlining in 2007 with one album? Or does it change because theyre men and play guitars. I thought so.

 

Chappell will likely have the biggest non headliner crowd of the weekend but lots of folks are in denial about it.

 

1) AM had two albums out in 2007.

2) IDPOL trolling is lame as sh*t in 2025.

3) As long as there's no overcrowding bullshit with scheduling, who cares.

[MEGABOWL]

2 hours ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

I do like a bit of Neil Young, but I'll be honest, I watch this and wonder how people thought he blew the socks off Springsteen that weekend.

 

This comes with some big caveats - I wasn't at the festival that year, it was long before I was particularly invested in the minutiae and I am a bigger Springsteen fan than I am a Young fan. I'll accept quite happily that Springsteen broadly fumbled his setlist choices for Glastonbury, but I don't think Young's looked like an all-timer on paper to me either.

 

But, it is very much each to their own, of course!

My take is it was expectation. People thought Springsteen would smash all his hits out, there was plenty of hype for his set beforehand. Instead he left out BITUSA, Philadelphia, Bobby Jean and Hungry Heart in favour of Outlaw Pete and Hard Times and made people wait 2 hours before playing The River. OTOH there’s always a risk with the Neiler that he just noodles for 90 minutes and plays like he’s no idea where he is, but by his standards he played a lot of well known tracks.

[charlierc]

35 minutes ago, Suprefan said:

So do you disagree on Arctic Monkeys headlining in 2007 with one album? Or does it change because theyre men and play guitars. I thought so.

 

Chappell will likely have the biggest non headliner crowd of the weekend but lots of folks are in denial about it.

AM had two albums in 2007 so I'm not sure if the comparison is as strong there. Maybe it would've been if in 2005, The Killers had been bumped up to replace Kylie as they were apparently offered and turned down as they themselves said it was too soon and wanted to stay as sub-heads.

[MEGABOWL]

3 hours ago, ac123 said:

Yeah and the bands that headline Truck Festival are headliner size too, doesn't mean I want to pay £400, book a week off work, spend hundreds on travel and accom to go to Truck. Like it or not, Glastonbury is meant to be the best. This isn't the best. Music is subjective, but what isn't subjective is popularity. There are far more popular acts that would have been a bigger spectacle than probably 4 out of the 6 mooted headliners. Even if I don't like them! I'm not bothered about me, I just like Glastonbury being a heavyweight festival. 

Actually there are lots of different measures of popularity. Which one do you think they should use? Album sales, singles chart positions, Spotify listens, TikTok followers, ticket sales? Historic ticket sales or last couple of years? You’ll get different measures on all of them. 
 

Where were promises made about Glasto being ‘the best?’ How do you definite ‘the best?’ What makes this set of headliners not ‘the best?’ Which more “popular” acts should they have booked instead? What kind of ‘spectacle’ would they provide? How important is ‘spectacle’ in terms of booking a headliner? Would they be a balanced set of headliners in terms of crowd appeal, ‘popularity’ and ‘spectacle?’ 
 

Even before you start on other questions (If the festival decides to bin one of the 3 headliners is there a guarantee they’ll be able to book them again? How much do your alternate set of headliners cost and how does that affect the budget elsewhere?) a lot of it is subjective, and you’re trying to apply objective measure to subjective things.

[Superscally]

2 hours ago, Suprefan said:

 

Sabrina has 5 albums btw. She has been making music since she was 14. Maybe check her discography.....

I have. She's got 6, by the way. Maybe check that discography?

4 of them are complete shite and two that have branched out a bit from DisPop aren't much cop. Few decent songs. That's it.

[Superscally]

2 hours ago, joshgardna said:

Chappell shouldn't be anywhere near headlining other - one album = tea time slot at best in my opinion

I wouldn't argue with that.

[MEGABOWL]

1 hour ago, joshgardna said:

Yeah - I have to agree. Headlined 'Forwards Festival' last year in Bristol - HUGE step up to headline it

When I saw him mentioned I didn’t read it properly and assumed they meant West Holts.

[Superscally]

2 hours ago, richarddep said:

How good is the info on The 1975? I think they are the w*nk choice among mooted headliners.

I'm not a 1975 fan, but don't actively dislike em. Genuinely intrigued for their set though. Will take some decent to have me elsewhere.

[Jamm]

For what it’s worth I don’t think the three rumoured headliners will cost “that” much.

 

The 1975 will be grateful to do it full stop, and probably wouldn’t command a massive fee.

 

O Rod is already touring in the country and on the way up. The performance will be an extension of her tour set up.

 

Neil doesn’t strike me as an exorbitantly expensive act - just one that is selective of when and where he plays on personal grounds and totally buys into the charity aspect of the festival.

 

Probably explains the rumoured strength of some of the other acts rumoured. Also a bit of a pre-fallow blow out as it were.

[Superscally]

1 hour ago, joshgardna said:

Would be interesting to understand why Fred pulled out 

He didn’t. People assumed he did. No way would he pull out.

[Superscally]

55 minutes ago, Suprefan said:

So do you disagree on Arctic Monkeys headlining in 2007 with one album? Or does it change because theyre men and play guitars. I thought so.

 

Chappell will likely have the biggest non headliner crowd of the weekend but lots of folks are in denial about it.

I didn't they should have headlined and judging by the performance, neither did they.

[TheSheriff]

5 hours ago, itsfomas said:

I have asked every friend I've seen in the past few weeks, out of curiosity to see if i was just out of touch. Let's say 20+ all aged 30-40... not a single person knew about him.

The problem with the youth of today they’ve never listened to an Neil Young album

[northernangel]

16 minutes ago, TheSheriff said:

The problem with the youth of today they’ve never listened to an Neil Young album

To be honest I only know one friend who would know him and like him myself. None or my parents would because it wasn't their thing growing up.

[Andre91]

Is Neil Young really going to be any more or less popular than he was in 2009? 

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, Andre91 said:

Is Neil Young really going to be any more or less popular than he was in 2009? 

 

He's probablh gonna be about the same.

[fantomas]

1 minute ago, Andre91 said:

Is Neil Young really going to be any more or less popular than he was in 2009? 

No, people were saying all this stuff about pre-2009 too (who? etc etc)

[FKA SOSOTWS]

46 minutes ago, Jamm said:

For what it’s worth I don’t think the three rumoured headliners will cost “that” much.

 

The 1975 will be grateful to do it full stop, and probably wouldn’t command a massive fee.

 

O Rod is already touring in the country and on the way up. The performance will be an extension of her tour set up.

 

Neil doesn’t strike me as an exorbitantly expensive act - just one that is selective of when and where he plays on personal grounds and totally buys into the charity aspect of the festival.

 

Probably explains the rumoured strength of some of the other acts rumoured. Also a bit of a pre-fallow blow out as it were.

 

Neil Young is generally expensive to book. Who knows what Glasto is paying him though.

[Drew3232]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

 

That's essentially what these Lido events are - a headliner and the rest of the line-up curated by the headliner for that day * 

 

And yes, some APE events sell ridiculously slow but I wouldn't expect that for someone who's been described on here as the biggest act in the world right now (lol) or someone who's expected to fill the Other field beyond capacity.  Just adding some balance to the hysteria really. 

 

 

 

* Just googled to check what I was saying, and it's basically her show with her 'Brat' collaborators.

https://mixmag.net/read/charli-xcx-headline-curate-lido-festival-2025-news

 

On Saturday June 14, Charli will bring ‘Party Girl’ to East London along with a specially curated line-up — this includes a number of 'Brat' collaborators such A. G. Cook, Bladee, The Dare, Japanese House, 070 Shake and Kelly Lee Owens.

Curated. On my list of least fave words, right up there with 'inappropriate'

[jonnytee1]

1 hour ago, northernangel said:

 

Ah yes, I'm got nothing to say on the first one lol. Pathetic booking. Stormzy headlined TRNSMT, played Big Weekend and did Belsonic so it was an English exclusive.

 

Florence actually played big weekend too but we can add U2 to that. Jack did no other British festival that year.

I would say without doubt that at the time of booking Kanye was more of a global superstar and had just release Yeezus and MBDTF which were both exceptional albums. 

[Drew3232]

Aren't the 1975 sh*t? Noel Gallagher said so.

[stuie]

17 minutes ago, Drew3232 said:

Curated. On my list of least fave words, right up there with 'inappropriate'

What would you replace it with, just out of interest?

 

 

[Drew3232]

Carefully chosen for their quality brown-nosing.