2025 Headliners

[CaledonianGonzo]

Definitely time to get Little Simz on the phone at that point.

[NorthernSoul52]

18 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Definitely time to get Little Simz on the phone at that point.

Honestly, if you've booked two absolute slam-dunk draws, I think Glastonbury can afford to gamble. Certainly, if we did no repeats going forward after next year, she might well be in the conversation. (There'll be plenty of acts who would fit the bill, but Glastonbury would hold no interest.)

Then again, if we lower relative thresholds to headline, Simon Le Bon will be everywhere again. Saw his most recent comments that it's "got to be on the Pyramid stage" in a "night-time slot", which is pretty much him dancing around stating outright they should headline or nothing.

[gfa]

There's 100 better options than Little Simz currently.

Outside of the Radio 6 bubble she is basically unheard of.

could she release an album that pushes her to sub or something with a glasto boost, possibly - but headliner no chance without a massive change to either her style or the general public's listening habits.

[The Nal]

6 minutes ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

Honestly, if you've booked two absolute slam-dunk draws, I think Glastonbury can afford to gamble. Certainly, if we did no repeats going forward after next year, she might well be in the conversation. (There'll be plenty of acts who would fit the bill, but Glastonbury would hold no interest.)

Then again, if we lower relative thresholds to headline, Simon Le Bon will be everywhere again. Saw his most recent comments that it's "got to be on the Pyramid stage" in a "night-time slot", which is pretty much him dancing around stating outright they should headline or nothing.

And why not? Far more bangers than a lot of people who've headlined.

Im a Simz fan but most couldnt name 1 tune. A lot of people dont even know who she is. Crowd at her gig last year was... ok. 

DD though........

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/duran-duran/2023/ovation-hall-atlantic-city-nj-7ba3be20.html

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by The Nal

[anditmakesmesmile]

21 minutes ago, The Nal said:

 

Im a Simz fan but most couldnt name 1 tune. A lot of people dont even know who she is. Crowd at her gig last year was... ok. 

 

 

 

Most people couldn’t name a single Stormzy track before he’d headlined. He’d only released one album (compared to Simz’s five - two of which were nominated for the Mercury, one of which won). Surely a lot of it has to be about how big a show it will be. Anyone at Ally Pally last weekend knows that Little Simz would carry it off.  

[FloopFiller]

Just now, anditmakesmesmile said:

Most people couldn’t name a single Stormzy track before he’d headlined. He’d only released one album (compared to Simz’s five - two of which were nominated for the Mercury, one of which won). Surely a lot of it has to be about how big a show it will be. Anyone at Ally Pally last weekend knows that Little Simz would carry it off.  

Just not true. Shut Up, Big For Your Boots and Blinded by Your Grace at least were massive hit singles for Stormzy before being announced, and then Vossi Bop hit number one before the festival. 

It’s not about critical acclaim, awards or being able to carry it off - it’s about being big enough, which she isn’t close to being at this point. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

But she wouldnt d@b down and thus spawn the phrase d@b down.

Edited November 15, 2023 by CaledonianGonzo

[NorthernSoul52]

22 minutes ago, The Nal said:

And why not? Far more bangers than a lot of people who've headlined.

Im a Simz fan but most couldnt name 1 tune. A lot of people dont even know who she is. Crowd at her gig last year was... ok. 

DD though........

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/duran-duran/2023/ovation-hall-atlantic-city-nj-7ba3be20.html

 

I'll be honest, Duran Duran possibly suffer from a loose bias against "eighties pop" as a headliner concept - and then there's the fact that if you were to take such an artist, Depeche Mode arguably hold stronger credentials by dint of being an occasional stadium band too.

But with BST and IOW slots under their belt, Le Bon and company probably have credible reason to feel they are big enough, even if Glastonbury does not. Latitude next year is a fascinating one.

I think, for a square ninety minutes:

1 The Wild Boys
2 Hungry Like the Wolf
3 Union of the Snake
4 Notorious
5 Come Undone
6 Danse Macabre
7 A View to a Kill
8 Is There Something I Should Know?
9 Careless Memories
10 The Reflex
11 (Reach Up for the) Sunrise
12 Ordinary World
13 White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)
14 Girls on Film

15 Planet Earth
16 Save a Prayer
17 Rio

[The Nal]

7 minutes ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

I'll be honest, Duran Duran possibly suffer from a loose bias against "eighties pop" as a headliner concept - and then there's the fact that if you were to take such an artist, Depeche Mode arguably hold stronger credentials by dint of being an occasional stadium band too.

But with BST and IOW slots under their belt, Le Bon and company probably have credible reason to feel they are big enough, even if Glastonbury does not. Latitude next year is a fascinating one.

I think, for a square ninety minutes:

1 The Wild Boys
2 Hungry Like the Wolf
3 Union of the Snake
4 Notorious
5 Come Undone
6 Danse Macabre
7 A View to a Kill
8 Is There Something I Should Know?
9 Careless Memories
10 The Reflex
11 (Reach Up for the) Sunrise
12 Ordinary World
13 White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)
14 Girls on Film

15 Planet Earth
16 Save a Prayer
17 Rio

Throw in a guest or two and they could beef that up to 2 hours.

But 90 mins works. Stormzy, Billie and the Arctics played 90 min sets.  

  

14 minutes ago, anditmakesmesmile said:

Surely a lot of it has to be about how big a show it will be. Anyone at Ally Pally last weekend knows that Little Simz would carry it off.  

The other dates on the tour were 3000 seaters. 

One day, but not yet.

Edited November 15, 2023 by The Nal

[tomf3]

If glasto was return to it's previous booking format of Friday: up and coming, Saturday: someone at their peak and Sunday: a legend. Simz - Dua Lipa - Madonna , would be an unbelievably strong lineup

[FloopFiller]

23 minutes ago, tomf3 said:

If glasto was return to it's previous booking format of Friday: up and coming, Saturday: someone at their peak and Sunday: a legend. Simz - Dua Lipa - Madonna , would be an unbelievably strong lineup

Completely making up a former booking format of Glastonbury’s isn’t helping your cause. Even the times they booked up and coming acts, those acts had hit singles and number one albums and were well on their way to being major festival headliners. Simz just isn’t close to that.  

[tomf3]

The day format may not be correct (although I'm sure in the early 2000s there were some years like that), but it's obvious from some years that's the type of bookings they're going for. Anywho if expressing an opinion on live music bookings is regarded as a "cause" and triggers such hostile responses, then I'll gladly bow out.

[gfa]

We're five pages in i really hope this Little Simz headlining shite isn't becoming the new foals

[FloopFiller]

9 minutes ago, gfa said:

We're five pages in i really hope this Little Simz headlining shite isn't becoming the new foals

That’s how these things go. An act is floated as a potential headliner and then it’s hammered to death for a couple of years on here by a couple of posters until 1. They headline or, the most frequent outcome, 2. It becomes increasingly obvious that they’re never gonna headline as they accept a lower slot in defeat. Foals, Biffy, George Ezra, still in the waiting to find out phase for The 1975, and now, for some reason, Little Simz has entered the fold. 

[NorthernSoul52]

Right now, I'd say that - once Dua Lipa does it - the current trio of younger British artists firmly in the mix are Dave, Sam Fender and The 1975.

But after that, who is there? Lewis Capaldi and George Ezra still shift singles and albums but neither seem likely to step up. Harry Styles is already at full stadium level, so there's no doubt for his credentials. Bring Me the Horizon seem set to top the Other.

It is a very curious matter to mull. Maybe next year, somebody will achieve the serious breakout or crossover success that adds them to the conversation.

[PDAD]

4 minutes ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

Right now, I'd say that - once Dua Lipa does it - the current trio of younger British artists firmly in the mix are Dave, Sam Fender and The 1975.

But after that, who is there? Lewis Capaldi and George Ezra still shift singles and albums but neither seem likely to step up. Harry Styles is already at full stadium level, so there's no doubt for his credentials. Bring Me the Horizon seem set to top the Other.

It is a very curious matter to mull. Maybe next year, somebody will achieve the serious breakout or crossover success that adds them to the conversation.

Agreed, but things move at a very quick pace. 5 years ago, none of us had much of a clue about Billie Elilsh, or Dave, or Sam Fender, and Dua Lipa was playing the tent. Things move quickly. In 5 years Olivia Rodrigo may have missed the boat and we are talking about the next new upstart. 

Bands like Foo Fighters / Coldplay / Arctics will always be in the mix but who joins them will always be fluid. I think Billie / Macca / Kendrick was one of the best mixes of headliners they've ever done. In 2017 that would have sounded pretty feeble...

[NorthernSoul52]

4 minutes ago, PDAD said:

I think Billie / Macca / Kendrick was one of the best mixes of headliners they've ever done. In 2017 that would have sounded pretty feeble...

That's true. Always in motion, the future is, as they say.

I'll be very interested to see who misses the boat from Dave, Sam Fender and The 1975. Certainly feel one - maybe two of them - may never get that shot.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

I'll be very interested to see who misses the boat from Dave, Sam Fender and The 1975. Certainly feel one - maybe two of them - may never get that shot.

Why? I reckon all of them will have headlined by the end of the decade.

[PDAD]

Nah, 1975 will do a Biffy. Could they have headlined? Probably. Did they? Nah. Sam Fender and Dave I reckon will.

[NorthernSoul52]

2 minutes ago, SomeoneListeningIn said:

Why? I reckon all of them will have headlined by the end of the decade.

I firmly hope they will do. But it goes back to who's on tour, who's available and whether they feel they can get a bigger fish, so to speak.

One of them will be there in 2025. I'd stake a biscuit on that. But then who knows about 2026, then we'll have the year off in 2027 and by 2028 - five years down the line - a lot of that energy may have dissipated for one or more of them.

I maintain there's absolutely no reason to not book all three before the fallow year, but I just have not too much belief they would all rock up.

[PDAD]

Biffy Clyro were the Mark Webber / Felipe Massa of Glastonbury and the 1975 are the Sergio Perez / Valtteri Bottas.. not half bad, but got 'nearly' tattooed on their foreheads 

Edited November 16, 2023 by PDAD

[NorthernSoul52]

2 hours ago, PDAD said:

Biffy Clyro were the Mark Webber / Felipe Massa of Glastonbury and the 1975 are the Sergio Perez / Valtteri Bottas.. not half bad, but got 'nearly' tattooed on their foreheads 

What a comparison!

But I don't know. With Ellipsis - the record that would have cemented them - Biffy Clyro stumbled in terms of shifting tickets. That was the point we knew it was probably over. 

The 1975 may well go the same way, but Being Funny in a Foreign Language isn't a stumble. If anything, it's a recovery after Notes on a Conditional Form stumbled to a point, and it's spawned the biggest tours of their career both at home and abroad. They might not be packing top-ten singles like Dave, but they're certainly not at the plateau Biffy Clyro were with Ellipsis.

[FloopFiller]

5 hours ago, SomeoneListeningIn said:

Why? I reckon all of them will have headlined by the end of the decade.

Because timing means everything and it can basically come down to an act releasing an album/touring when the festival already has three stronger headliners booked, or even when the festival takes a fallow year, and then bam, you’ve missed your shot. If rumours are to be believed of The 1975 being lined up for 2021 then there’s still every chance things won’t fall in to place for them again, and same goes for any other ‘sure fire’ future headliner. 

[NorthernSoul52]

42 minutes ago, FloopFiller said:

Because timing means everything and it can basically come down to an act releasing an album/touring when the festival already has three stronger headliners booked, or even when the festival takes a fallow year, and then bam, you’ve missed your shot. If rumours are to be believed of The 1975 being lined up for 2021 then there’s still every chance things won’t fall in to place for them again, and same goes for any other ‘sure fire’ future headliner. 

I keep forgetting about The 1975 being likely on the cards for the 2021 that never was. I seem to recollect there was chatter Elton may well have been booked for 2021 too, given his tour would have originally wrapped up with British stadiums then.

Again, you can't argue against Arctic Monkeys as a draw, and with a decade of distance, it certainly wasn't a "blimey, they're back already" booking. But still, it's a shame.

[nikkic]

I love Little Simz but she isn’t headlining Glastonbury. 

Half the people in the crowd would be saying “what’s Shelley from Top Boy doing on stage”?

Edited November 16, 2023 by nikkic