SZA

[4AssedMonkey]

2 hours ago, Colorblindjames said:

I loved it and the Guardian review was 5 stars. 

Sure you aren’t actually Tonedeafjames? 😜

 

All subjective at the end of the day. Glad you enjoyed it. Not for me. 

[Ready2Spray]

6 hours ago, gizmoman said:

Maybe he/she is a fascist, I've no idea, but the post was hardly extreme, suggesting the festival have a positive discrimination agenda is not that bad IMO even if it is wrong. can't see any harm in discussing it.

 

Thankyou 🙂

[Bike_Like_A_Mum]

8 hours ago, Colorblindjames said:

I didn’t know there was a specific vibe required for Sunday night. This comment highlights exactly the point I was making. Everyone thinks the Pyramid should be a specific thing when what it should be is a complete mix of artists. 

The crowds say you're delulu my friend. This is not speculation any more... even the seagulls came down like it was all over.

 

The pyramid was a mix. Even without SZA headlining. Don't know what you're on about. Still got to get the right time and place. No one is saying she wasn't good. Glad you enjoyed it but it was still an empty flop overall and that was completely predictable and a shame for all after the effort that goes in

Edited July 3 by Bike_Like_A_Mum

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

The seagulls.

 

God, I hate those ticketless scroungers. 

[internetjef]

2 hours ago, Wooderson said:

 

Was at both. SZA had 4 times Janelle's crowd.

I went to watch Janelle and couldn’t fathom how small the crowd was. I knew avril lavigne would draw a fair bit of fire but Janelle is a pretty big star these days and known to have a great live rep. Heart sank a bit at how small it was considering she might have peeped out before at Shanias crowd then walked out to that. 
 

comfortably strolled inside the crash barrier and there was room there all through the set. Don’t think I’ve ever seen such a small pyramid crowd for anyone later than 1st or 2nd on each day. 
 

She was brilliant also so a real shame more people weren’t around to see her. 
 

im guessing maybe a few more would have stayed if one of the two acts beyond her had more ‘traditional’ glasto  appeal (ie guitar band or a radio 2 friendly act for the Sunday crowd). 
 

glad to hear Sza’s crowd was substantially bigger even though still very small comparative to most pyramid headliners.

 

I hope these small crowds don’t put off future US acts from taking up Glasto’s offers 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Any floating voters who hung around for Janelle would have left as fans. Insane set.

[Suprefan]

3 hours ago, AdrianH said:

SZA was a risky booking but also on the wrong day imo. Should have been SZA/Dua/Coldplay (Sunday sing along).

 

Worse was the Pyramid line up as a whole. Very weak down the bill and contributed to bigger crowds everywhere else.

The problem here is that you couldnt move anyone. Dua said she was booked in Nov 2022. And she even mentioned during her set she wanted Friday night. Coldplay was a no brainer Saturday night for them at the time. With them gunning for Madonna and only having Sunday open that was all they could do. Considering how late Sza got placed onto the lineup they had no choice in the matter. 

[Colorblindjames]

11 hours ago, Bike_Like_A_Mum said:

The crowds say you're delulu my friend. This is not speculation any more... even the seagulls came down like it was all over.

 

The pyramid was a mix. Even without SZA headlining. Don't know what you're on about. Still got to get the right time and place. No one is saying she wasn't good. Glad you enjoyed it but it was still an empty flop overall and that was completely predictable and a shame for all after the effort that goes in

Ummm people are actually saying she’s no good. They were slagging her off from the original booking. If you only judge an artist performance by the size of the crowd then I can see why you’d call it a flop. But you’d be wrong. 
 

The fools were the masses heading home early saying there was no one on they wanted to watch or watching football after paying 350 for a ticket. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

18 minutes ago, Colorblindjames said:

The fools were the masses heading home early saying there was no one on they wanted to watch or watching football after paying 350 for a ticket. 

 

Yeah - this is grade A dweeb behaviour.  Doesn't indicate a particularly switched on or open minded demographic of ticket-holders.

[Wooderson]

Left Janelle wondering to myself was there a more talented artist at the festival that weekend. To lash that out to a 10% full field??? Internal monologue arrived at a resounding "No.".

[CaledonianGonzo]

She's got it all*

 

 

*Except for big hits

[gigpusher]

11 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

She's got it all*

 

 

*Except for big hits

Even that is a mystery to me as she has lots of tunes that I think should be big hits. Subject to a negative covid test I'll be seeing her tonight.

[CaledonianGonzo]

She doesn't have a Billie Jean or a Purple Rain - but she's got her share of Working Day & Nights and Alphabet Streets

[MEGABOWL]

11 hours ago, incident said:

 

The bit about stages being run by different bookers can apply moving acts to/from West Holts. But Pyramid and Other (and Woodsies) are booked centrally by a single team so they should be able to place acts better within that.

 

That's part of the reason I actually don't have a problem with Sugababes on WH so much - in isolation that booking would have been fine, if the Pyramid and Other had been up to their usual strength. Put them in the same slot last year, and they'd have been up against the end of Texas and the changeover before Foo Fighters - and WH wouldn't have been nearly as rammed.

 

But the Avril placement looked insane regardless of what was on elsewhere at the same time, and that would still apply if she had played the same slot in almost any previous year. Everyone with half a clue saw it coming. The festival absolutely could and should have seen the issues coming, and definitely do deserve the slating they're getting for it. That one isn't even about moving acts about - she should have been booked on the Pyramid (or at a stretch higher on the Other) from day one.

I said beforehand when my group were discussing it we thought Lavigne would get a bigger crowd than Monae but we didn’t think the difference would be that big. I personally would have moved her up a slot which would have eased the rush from Shania Twain.

But again, everyone’s an armchair expert and we have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. What if Janelle, Paloma and/or Burna Boy would only take Pyramid? I personally think they were worried about the huge crowd that never really moved from the Pyramid last year and aimed for a bit of churn post-Legend. They just underestimated how much they’d get (and on another year with another crowd it may not be as much) and no festival gets it right every time.

 

I don’t want to get backed into a corner where I’m defending a bad decision but a friend of a friend works for DF Concerts here and so I do hear stories about how complex these things are. My point that we don’t know the motivations behind these decisions stands, as does me saying it isn’t as simple as moving names around on a list.

[CaledonianGonzo]

If, say, a more well known act was subbing like - I dunno Noel Gallagher (again) or something, there'd probably have been more folk opting to hang around.  The one two combo of Janelle and Burna Boy probably doesn't appeal all too much to folk with a Radio 2 sort of taste.

[MEGABOWL]

23 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

If, say, a more well known act was subbing like - I dunno Noel Gallagher (again) or something, there'd probably have been more folk opting to hang around.  The one two combo of Janelle and Burna Boy probably doesn't appeal all too much to folk with a Radio 2 sort of taste.

It did make it look very much like a Wireless bill.

 

I wonder how much of a difference we’d have seen if it was SZA Friday and Dua or Coldplay Sunday

[MEGABOWL]

1 hour ago, Wooderson said:

Left Janelle wondering to myself was there a more talented artist at the festival that weekend. To lash that out to a 10% full field??? Internal monologue arrived at a resounding "No.".

She was superb 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

Ah yeah, I'm so gutted for Janelle. Caught her in 2011 before Big Boi. Was one of the best one-twos I've seen at the festival.

 

EDIT: Just realised I saw Aloe Blacc before Janelle/Big Boi as well. What a great run that was.

 

Maybe they overestimated her appeal since then?

 

 

Edited July 4 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[The Nal]

5 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

Ah yeah, I'm so gutted for Janelle. Caught her in 2011 before Big Boi. Was one of the best one-twos I've seen at the festival.

 

Maybe they overestimated her appeal since then?

 

 

I just think that her appeal is becoming more selective.

[CaledonianGonzo]

In 2011 she had buzz / hype as a hot new name, had recently killed on Letterman and so WH was the perfect place for her.   

 

This time around, all a bit less so.

[panda97]

Whilst I don't think it was a good booking, it absolutely wasn't a bad one.

The festival taking a chance on a different artist is a good thing and they aren't always going to work out, so far they have had a very strong hit rate but there are always going to be times when it doesn't. 

But ultimately does it matter that much? I've been critical of the booking and was before the festival too, but with Glastonbury there are tonnes of stages to go and see stuff on, if you don't like the headliner on the Pyramid then go elsewhere.

I think there is an important distinction between a booking that wasn't ideal and a booking that shouldn't have happened. I think SZA headlining was a perfectly fine gamble to take from the festival. Would I have done it? No, but on reflection I find it hard to criticise them too much for doing so. We should be encouraging the festival to continue taking risks and promoting a variety of headliners rather than falling into a cycle of repeat bookings that almost every other festival does.

[DeanoL]

17 hours ago, clarkete said:

 

Aye, I had a cracking year and that goes for pretty much everyone I know who went.

 

There have always been some acts who attracted huge audiences and some who received surprisingly smaller ones - it's as true as it ever has been.

 

To then open this thread and read so much tedious pearl clutching is a tad depressing.

 

I don't see where you are seeing this massive amount of negativity? People are saying SZA as Pyramid headliner didn't work. I don't really see that as arguable, given the tiny crowd. People are discussing why that happened, and the vast majority of people don't think it's because SZA is sh*t. Most of us want her to have had a bigger crowd. So it's a question of why that didn't happen? It's not coming from a negative place.

Same for the Janelle and Avril situation. What we all want was for 1) Janelle to have had a bigger crowd because she's great and 2) for everyone who wanted to see Avril to have been able to see Avril.

This isn't mostly coming from a place of negativity, it's what went wrong and what can be improved. It's not saying it was a bad festival. 

 

3 hours ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Yeah - this is grade A dweeb behaviour.  Doesn't indicate a particularly switched on or open minded demographic of ticket-holders.

Indeed, but you have to play the hand you're dealt right? You can't just blame the audience and carry on regardless. They tried something on the Sunday and, sorry to say, it didn't work. They figured SZA would get a much bigger crowd if they made her headliner, and she didn't. 

The vast majority of people here aren't saying "therefore please just book 90s/00s rock bands for headliners". We're saying we want the festival to be able to elevate new, exciting acts up to headliner status, but that didn't work here. There's no point them just doing the same thing next year, because most likely it just won't work again. I want it to work. And it has worked before. So the question is why it didn't work this year, and how that can be fixed so it can work in the future. 

 

But just pretending it was all fine doesn't help. If the festival has that attitude, they'll book a similar act next year, put them in the same slot, and have another mostly empty field. That benefits no-one. 

Edited July 4 by DeanoL

[FakeEmpire]

I often avoid the Pyramid because it gets far too busy for me. Really appreciated the space at SZA's set and it just seemed to be full of nicer people. Chilled vibe, everyone into it, not full of talkers or coked up idiots. Enjoyed it a lot.

[DeanoL]

15 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

 

It's a bit strong as well to describe the situation as poison, definitely. Perhaps as a new poster on the boards they wanted to make a statement comment and didn't think too carefully about the wording. 

 

I think I see where you are coming from and I'd ask if you hang around many other internet forums? Because I can see how in isolation that post could be seen as fairly innocent and "not too bad" but I'd urge you to go look at some YouTube videos or Reddit threads about Star Wars or Marvel and I'm sure many other things, and you'll see that same message and attitude come out over and over again. How the "woke agenda" is ruining all our favourite things by having film and TV series with female leads and some LGBT characters. It's honestly instantly recognisable the second you see the word "woke". It's indicative that someone has gone down a rabbit hole and just things all of society and media is being ruined by women and gay people having representation.

 

I think we've all at some point been where you are, and seen a single comment that doesn't seem too bad and thought "well, maybe we should try talking to them and changing their minds?" - and indeed we may well have tried. But trust me, you won't get anywhere. And such "discussions" swiftly degenerate into absolutely awful exchanges. I can absolutely see why the mods would want to just cut that off before it starts. Like I say, look around elsewhere, you'll see plenty of evidence for that. That person was not open to having their viewpoint challenged at all. 

 

I'm normally all for debate and convincing people and winning the argument, but that was unwinnable.

[CaledonianGonzo]

47 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Indeed, but you have to play the hand you're dealt right? You can't just blame the audience and carry on regardless. They tried something on the Sunday and, sorry to say, it didn't work. They figured SZA would get a much bigger crowd if they made her headliner, and she didn't. 

 

That comment was more in regards to the oft-touted 100 plus other stages.  Missing a third of the festival because you don't fancy what's on the Pyramid is cutting your nose off to spite your face.