2025 R&L Festival

[Andre91]

2 minutes ago, andyrhodes24 said:

Better view on YouTube

Absolutely dead. 

[andyrhodes24]

1 minute ago, Andre91 said:

Absolutely dead. 

I know right, don’t know why my body’s aching like f**k today, must’ve tripped on the way out

[northernangel]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

I’ve not said it’s fake? I don’t know what else I need to say that I haven’t said already. It was not a dead crowd. 
 

And yes, you would think it sounds awful because your ear isn’t tuned to that type of music. 

You don't need to say anything, it doesn't affect your view.

My ears aren't turned into that type of screaming no 😝😝

[Rusty Spoon]

To be fair, I've been to two BMTH shows on this run and the central pits have been as you'd expect but outside of it the crowds are fairly dead. You can see it in videos from the seats from almost every show.

The band themselves have been excellent however.

[andyrhodes24]

10 minutes ago, Rusty Spoon said:

To be fair, I've been to two BMTH shows on this run and the central pits have been as you'd expect but outside of it the crowds are fairly dead. You can see it in videos from the seats from almost every show.

The band themselves have been excellent however.

From memory the pits at the 2021 Sheff arena gig were bigger than they were last night - Happy Song was pretty much wall to wall. It was the first gig post-lockdown for a lot of people mind

[foolee]

The thing is Oli has stopped encouraging it and the crowd is younger than it used to be and not as experienced. The BMTH crowds used to get much bigger pits and more mental crowds. Not sure whether that’s the youngsters that aren’t as keen or that Oli isn’t telling everyone to push it back, saying wider or calling everyone pussies anymore. Who knows? Something has changed though. BMTH still as good as ever though and ready to take over the world! 

[andyrhodes24]

6 hours ago, foolee said:

The thing is Oli has stopped encouraging it and the crowd is younger than it used to be and not as experienced. The BMTH crowds used to get much bigger pits and more mental crowds. Not sure whether that’s the youngsters that aren’t as keen or that Oli isn’t telling everyone to push it back, saying wider or calling everyone pussies anymore. Who knows? Something has changed though. BMTH still as good as ever though and ready to take over the world! 

It’s a good point, he didn’t encouraged pits as much as he used to on Friday. I wonder if that’s because they’ve had to pause gigs on this tour a few times due to injuries, according to setlist.fm.

Although, my other half says he did egg on the crowd but sounded like he wasn’t supposed to.

Side note, just remembered I saw a lad in the Sheffield pit with his arm in a sling, still going for it. Proper made me laugh

Edited January 21 by andyrhodes24

[northernangel]

11 hours ago, Rusty Spoon said:

To be fair, I've been to two BMTH shows on this run and the central pits have been as you'd expect but outside of it the crowds are fairly dead. You can see it in videos from the seats from almost every show.

The band themselves have been excellent however.

Yes the video I saw produced comments saying it was the same from multiple different venue goers.

For, I couldn't care whether people run around there, only that the video was posted and I saw it randomly. I would have expected even in that video though a bit more movement, similar crowd style gigs I've been to get that.

8 hours ago, foolee said:

The thing is Oli has stopped encouraging it and the crowd is younger than it used to be and not as experienced. The BMTH crowds used to get much bigger pits and more mental crowds. Not sure whether that’s the youngsters that aren’t as keen or that Oli isn’t telling everyone to push it back, saying wider or calling everyone pussies anymore. Who knows? Something has changed though. BMTH still as good as ever though and ready to take over the world! 

They aren't going to take over the world.

[p0sterb0y]

From someone who actually went to see them. The crowd were definitely not dead at the O2. 

[andyrhodes24]

41 minutes ago, p0sterb0y said:

From someone who actually went to see them. The crowd were definitely not dead at the O2. 

Don’t think some of the setlist exactly lended itself to pits but it was far from dead on Friday. No Happy Song was a shame, 2021 tour and Leeds Fest did seem livelier though.

[gfa]

On 1/19/2024 at 11:35 PM, p0sterb0y said:

I don't think BMTH would be a weak MSE headliner. I know monthly listeners arent the best metric to use but they are sitting on 13.5 mill monthly listeners - that is more than other British rock headliners like Sam Fender (3.7 mill), The 1975 (13.1 mill) and even Muse/Blur/Strokes. Currently on a massive UK arena tour which is comparable to other MSE sized bands like the 1975. Plus if you think of the small pool of big British bands, BMTH are one of the few that are still on an upwards trajectory and relevant with a younger audience. Not to mention they are one of the best live bands.

I agree Royal Blood would be a weak headliner but if the likes of Gerry Cinnamon and Van McCann can headline then I am fully expecting the likes of Courteeners, Wolf Alice, Biffy or Kasabian to be a cheap filler headliner. It seems they usually get 4 big names and 2 small names so maybe I'd swap out Lil Nas X for someone like Central Cee or Chase and status.

BMTH x Chase and Status/Central Cee
Paramore x Noah Kahan
Dua Lipa x Royal Blood

The 1975 are without a doubt bigger - its not even up for debate.

Muse, Blur and Sam Fender are all stadium sellers - doing multiple big shows across the country.

The Strokes wouldn't get booked for MSE these days i don't think, not that i suggested they would!

 

Its all well and good BMTH being on an upward trajectory but 2 o2 dates just doesn't cut it for anything but a weak MSE headliner. All other recent ones have been able to do more than that.

BMTH are clearly forum favourites but at this point with their tours they are very much on the weaker end of MSE headliners.

[Andre91]

BMTH have sold around 130,000 tickets on this tour. There’s nothing weak about that. 
 

Implying that only stadium acts can be considered solid MSE headliners is as bad as the people who said the same about Download year after year. 

[charlierc]

I thought there was a consensus after their '22 MSW headline slot where quite a few people felt they outshone Arctic Monkeys on the MSE meant they could be a viable option to top the whole thing.

[gfa]

15 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Implying that only stadium acts can be considered solid MSE headliners is as bad as the people who said the same about Download year after year. 

Download's headliner pool is about 7 acts.

Reading's is at least 5x that for MSE

[northernangel]

16 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Implying that only stadium acts can be considered solid MSE headliners is as bad as the people who said the same about Download year after year. 

I agree on the stadium part of this but I also think it is one thing selling tickets to separate nights but selling to multiple venues or say two as it requires specific dates in one place usually. 

I don't think BMTH are going to hit big stadiums necessarily but they did their tour very quick.

14 minutes ago, gfa said:

Download's headliner pool is about 7 acts.

Reading's is at least 5x that for MSE

He's correct here. Due to the genre Download books on the whole, their headliner pool and stadium fillers are way lower, but I'm not agreeing with the have to be stadium.

 

[gfa]

I don't believe acts need to be stadium sellers to do MSE

Nor do i believe BMTH can't get it on their next album

But they would likely be weaker than many of the other recent MSE headliners - which is completely fine of course

At present they are still on the MSW side of the argument for me, which is no issue given it puts them alongside Lana who is headlining Coachella!

Edited January 22 by gfa

[andyrhodes24]

18 hours ago, charlierc said:

I thought there was a consensus after their '22 MSW headline slot where quite a few people felt they outshone Arctic Monkeys on the MSE meant they could be a viable option to top the whole thing.

It looked like one band wanted to be there and the other didn’t in 2022. Arctics were shocking. BMTH‘s staging is also insane.

[northernangel]

On 1/21/2024 at 12:59 PM, p0sterb0y said:

From someone who actually went to see them. The crowd were definitely not dead at the O2. 

So your defending of it was a gig of people jumping with their hands....90% of gigs, and one bigger pit that most rocks bands would have.

There is no need to go on the defensive of it, though calling people pussies is just being a dickhead! 

[FestivalJamie]

Main stage 2025:

Lorde

Edited January 26 by FestivalJamie

[Benj]

33 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

Main stage 2025:

Lorde

Imagine she'll do MSW at somepoint, so would make sense

[FestivalJamie]

2 hours ago, Benj said:

Imagine she'll do MSW at somepoint, so would make sense

Given she didn't do Reading last year as part of her festivals run, and the new album should come out at the end of this year, I'd put her as a strong candidate for a 2025 headline slot.

[gfa]

Not sure she's there size wise for it

Only fest slot i can think of here post covid was Boardmasters headline and she defo was the weak one

Would follow on from Lana well i guess

[Benj]

39 minutes ago, gfa said:

Not sure she's there size wise for it

Only fest slot i can think of here post covid was Boardmasters headline and she defo was the weak one

Would follow on from Lana well i guess

Yup, not a massive ticket hurler on her own but a nice choice to add some diversity to the sounds on offer of some stronger names.

[Guest]

MSE: Noah Kahan
MSW: Central Cee

MSE: Foo Fighters
MSW: Kasabian

MSE: Dua Lipa
MSE: Bring Me The Horizon

[stanh]

Adding on to the previous discussion on Central Cee, been announced today as a headliner (Doja as the other) for Longitude in Ireland.