2025 R&L Festival

[andyrhodes24]

2 hours ago, FeverDream said:

BMTH before anyone else is such an anticlimax on the night. They were absolutely amazing in 2022. Proper energetic show. Then I trudged over to see Arctic Monkeys (who I’d never seen before so was buzzing) only to leave their set feeling a bit disappointed. I did half expect that from AM in fairness, but my god did BMTH upstage them. BMTH absolutely must close the night if they are there next year.

My thoughts exactly, it was one band that wanted to be there and one band that didn’t. Really hope FR take the plunge and book them at the top. Imagine closing the weekend with Throne, that would be worth the ticket money alone.

[gfa]

20 hours ago, Andre91 said:

KSI is one of the most famous people in the world for teenagers. He would pull a gigantic crowd on name alone. 

Bang on this.

 

He's like the Kim Kardashian of 16-24 year old guys

 

doesn't matter if he's shite - will get a big crowd and have some kind of guest im sure

Edited 10 hours ago by gfa

[gfa]

1 hour ago, tomarchbold said:

i still really do not think bmth will be a second down headliner, despite it coming up. 

 

theyre way too big and expensive to be second down

 

if they go, they headline

 

I really don't think they are too expensive nor big for it. It could definitely go either way depending on how they've managed on the main 3.

[northernangel]

KSI is also someone that makes Reading look like a dead festical living off tiktok

[Andre91]

27 minutes ago, northernangel said:

KSI is also someone that makes Reading look like a dead festical living off tiktok

Even though his fame predates TikTok by about a decade and is from a completely different platform? 

[northernangel]

5 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

Even though his fame predates TikTok by about a decade and is from a completely different platform? 

He's a social media influence, YouTube, boxing company owner and his songs are trash. They might as well him Jake Paul a mic to spit some bars and book him. He founded the energy drink Prime lol, so we'll go and find all the people who founded energy drinks now and put them on the bill.

 

This is the kids though I guess.

Edited 10 hours ago by northernangel

[charlierc]

16 hours ago, wghennessy said:

Hardly the first musical artist to have a product come out tbh

Is KSI a musical artist? Seems like he tries to be a little bit of everything. Must be knackering trying to be a boxer, YouTuber, sports pundit, musician, drinks businessman and all the rest at once.

Edited 10 hours ago by charlierc

[wghennessy]

1 minute ago, charlierc said:

Is KSI a musical artist? Seems like he tries to be a little bit of everything. Must be knackering trying to be a boxer, YouTuber, sports pundit, musician, drinks businessman and all the rest at once.

I mean what is he then?

 

You dont have to like him, but hes just as much a musical artist as "cench" is.

[LazyDavid]

He had a big crowd in 2021, can only presume he'll be back at some point in a higher slot

 

 

[Chad888]

 

1 hour ago, gfa said:

Bang on this.

 

He's like the Kim Kardashian of 16-24 year old guys

 

doesn't matter if he's shite - will get a big crowd and have some kind of guest im sure

 

So how would the festival look if Kim Kardashian released an album, and they booked her for a prominent spot? Or better yet, Jake Paul and Logan Paul.

 

Sure she'd get a big crowd, but the concept of booking her would reduce the festival to a joke. 

 

Music and pop culture are two different things. Booking a gimmick act because they're viral on social media is below where the festival has been and is.

 

KSI as a musician is seen the same as KSI the boxer and KSI the business man, all a bit of a joke and a spectacle from some YouTuber LARPing, and something to be kept seperate from the 'adult' things.

 

You wouldn't expect to see WWE wrestling at the Olympics. Having KSI high on the bill is like having Raygun represent your country Breakdancing at the Olympics.

 

 

[Chad888]

1 hour ago, wghennessy said:

I mean what is he then?

 

You dont have to like him, but hes just as much a musical artist as "cench" is.

And just as much a musical artist as Big Shaq is too, I guess.

 

If the bar is getting a song out that gets airplay, heck Khloe Kardashian should be booked as well.

[Benj]

2 hours ago, tomarchbold said:

i still really do not think bmth will be a second down headliner, despite it coming up. 

 

theyre way too big and expensive to be second down

 

if they go, they headline

 

Still not quite sure why they’re so much bigger than they were in ‘22

 

Is it simply a longevity thing? Or have they actually got bigger?

 

Why are they too expensive now when they afford them AND Arctic Monkeys in 22?

[Andre91]

8 minutes ago, Benj said:

Still not quite sure why they’re so much bigger than they were in ‘22

 

Is it simply a longevity thing? Or have they actually got bigger?

 

Why are they too expensive now when they afford them AND Arctic Monkeys in 22?

Because they did a sold out arena tour almost double the size of their previous one and put on an all-timer Download headline set to a properly packed out field. That’s it. 

[tomarchbold]

58 minutes ago, Benj said:

Still not quite sure why they’re so much bigger than they were in ‘22

 

Is it simply a longevity thing? Or have they actually got bigger?

 

Why are they too expensive now when they afford them AND Arctic Monkeys in 22?

as @Andre91has already said 

 

they are undoubtably bigger than they were in 2022, half the reason they were a second down headliner was for crowd management for AM i believe. having a bigger 2nd to AM stops the issue with the two stages back then. if halsey/megan the stalion was beneath AM, she would have had no crowd 

 

they are a big booking. no way they put them 2nd down if they go

 

same with chase & status, if they go - they headline

[Andre91]

They will also pull in the punters because they’re a proven ticker seller. I saw a lot of BMTH merchandise at the festival this year (I’m not just saying that). A fair chunk of that was on Blink day but there was plenty outside of that day, showing how there are BMTH fans at the festival for the weekend. 
 

They’re the biggest metal band this country has produced since Iron Maiden and they’ve only been around in the 2000s. They’re very popular (as evidenced by their massive sell out tours).

Edited 4 hours ago by Andre91

[andyrhodes24]

12 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

They will also pull in the punters because they’re a proven ticker seller. I saw a lot of BMTH merchandise at the festival this year (I’m not just saying that). A fair chunk of that was on Blink day but there was plenty outside of that day, showing how there are BMTH fans at the festival for the weekend. 
 

They’re the biggest metal band this country has produced since Iron Maiden and they’ve only been around in the 2000s. They’re very popular (as evidenced by their massive sell out tours).

I saw an absolute ton of BMTH merch also at Leeds this year. Way more than any other band. Give them a decent lineup with a few similar acts thrown in and they’d do it no problem.

[Chad888]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

They’re the biggest metal band this country has produced since Iron Maiden and they’ve only been around in the 2000s. They’re very popular (as evidenced by their massive sell out tours).

 

Is this more testament to how rock and metal music is slowly becoming more obscure in this country, and the continent has a better production line and market for it?

 

Looking at the charts, I don't think I've ever seen it so ... I don't even know the word—Netflixy? It just all seems so manufactured for teen consumers with mild existential angst and an addiction to phone scrolling.

 

There's no variety, 14 of the top 20 are young women singing about breakups with a disney-esque punk pop vibe. The rest are cookie cutter solo men that sing about how love makes them feel, like Noah Kahan, Hozier, Benson Boone, Myles Smith.

 

 

Or maybe I just think of the charts when I was younger with rose tinted glasses.

Edited 2 hours ago by Chad888

[Andre91]

30 minutes ago, Chad888 said:

 

Is this more testament to how rock and metal music is slowly becoming more obscure in this country, and the continent has a better production line and market for it?

 

Looking at the charts, I don't think I've ever seen it so ... I don't even know the word—Netflixy? It just all seems so manufactured for teen consumers with mild existential angst and an addiction to phone scrolling.

 

 

There's no variety, 14 of the top 20 are young women singing about breakups with a disney-esque punk pop vibe. The rest are cookie cutter solo men that sing about how love makes them feel, like Noah Kahan, Hozier, Benson Boone, Myles Smith.

 

 

Or maybe I just think of the charts when I was younger with rose tinted glasses.

The charts have always been full of sh*t at any given point; people just tend to focus on the stuff the liked and knew when looking back. 
 

Re: BMTH, with respect, I don’t think there’s much merit spending time speculating on bands you don’t really know much about.

Edited 2 hours ago by Andre91

[OddRon]

I feel so out of the loop when I hear things like Chase and Status are popular again and Bring me the Horizon are at their peak. I think it’s just because I really liked those acts probably a decade ago and just figured they petered out but clearly I just stopped listening to them.

[Andre91]

5 minutes ago, OddRon said:

I feel so out of the loop when I hear things like Chase and Status are popular again and Bring me the Horizon are at their peak. I think it’s just because I really liked those acts probably a decade ago and just figured they petered out but clearly I just stopped listening to them.

10 years ago, BMTH played their first arena show at Wembley Arena. This year, they sold out 11 arena dates and sold upwards of 120,000 tickets. They’ve never been bigger and they’re only moving upwards. They will try stadiums before long and they will do well when they do.

[Chad888]

16 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

Re: BMTH, with respect, I don’t think there’s much merit spending time speculating on bands you don’t really know much about.

 

I know a lot about them, I enjoy their music. I know that in terms of their output, they peaked around 21/22 when they put out an album that was more poppy and mainstream compared to their previous sound. As somebody that isn't in to hard hard rock, that was something that got me interested.

 

Since then they went back into their lane and whilst getting the dedicated fans, they aren't getting the commercial movements that a festival does look at when booking headliners. 

 

They've been unable to generate and hold the generic mass appeal that acts like Sam Fender, Arctic Monkeys, 1975 etc have built in terms of family friendly pop rock that people will think "holy s*** they're headlining, I have to book!".

 

I'd put it this way—the last 5 Readings I've been to, EVERYBODY I spoke with came to see a specific headliner and the rest of the weekend was a plus - Red Hot Chilis, Eminem, Post Malone, Arctic Monkeys & Dave, Blink-182 & Fred. BMTH will never be the band that people come out of their way to get weekend tickets to see. The people that want to go and see BMTH specifically would be more likely to go to a dedicated show, and not a BBC Radio 1-esque, family weekend out with conformist teens getting wasted in tents.

Edited 1 hour ago by Chad888

[OddRon]

5 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

10 years ago, BMTH played their first arena show at Wembley Arena. This year, they sold out 11 arena dates and sold upwards of 120,000 tickets. They’ve never been bigger and they’re only moving upwards. They will try stadiums before long and they will do well when they do.

Oh I don’t doubt it, I just meant like I remember being obsessed with Sempiternal and I didn’t really listen to much more after that and haven’t really followed their career since so it’s crazy that they’ve got bigger after that. 

[Dukey]

Would love it if they actual catered a day around BMTH:

 

BMtH // Paramore // Bad Omens // Architects // Enter Shikari // Holding Absence // Fever 333 // Wargasm // Scene Queen

[FeverDream]

11 minutes ago, Chad888 said:

Since then they went back into their lane and whilst getting the dedicated fans, they aren't getting the commercial movements that a festival does look at when booking headliners. 

 

They've been unable to generate and hold the generic mass appeal that acts like Sam Fender, Arctic Monkeys, 1975 etc have built in terms of family friendly pop rock that people will think "holy s*** they're headlining, I have to book!".

They’ve had 8 top 50 singles (6 top 40) since 2020. Their albums since That’s The Spirit have peaked at 2 or higher. They are literally at the top of their commercial success.

[Andre91]

31 minutes ago, Chad888 said:

 

I know a lot about them, I enjoy their music. I know that in terms of their output, they peaked around 21/22 when they put out an album that was more poppy and mainstream compared to their previous sound. As somebody that isn't in to hard hard rock, that was something that got me interested.

 

Since then they went back into their lane and whilst getting the dedicated fans, they aren't getting the commercial movements that a festival does look at when booking headliners. 

 

They've been unable to generate and hold the generic mass appeal that acts like Sam Fender, Arctic Monkeys, 1975 etc have built in terms of family friendly pop rock that people will think "holy s*** they're headlining, I have to book!".

 

I'd put it this way—the last 5 Readings I've been to, EVERYBODY I spoke with came to see a specific headliner and the rest of the weekend was a plus - Red Hot Chilis, Eminem, Post Malone, Arctic Monkeys & Dave, Blink-182 & Fred. BMTH will never be the band that people come out of their way to get weekend tickets to see. The people that want to go and see BMTH specifically would be more likely to go to a dedicated show, and not a BBC Radio 1-esque, family weekend out with conformist teens getting wasted in tents.

They aren’t going to have the same appeal as Sam Fender, Arctic Monkeys and The 1975 because they’re a bunch of screaming goffs with breakdowns in their songs (yes, even the latest material).