It makes me feel like an old git but it does amaze me how few of the acts high on the bill I have heard of. Precisely none of the Liam Gallagher day on the main stage for example.
Would have been interested to hear some dirty demos of Fender’s album. It’s just so insanely overblown. He’s the textbook definition of a guy who should have come up on a shoestring over three indie albums before getting where he is - and it’s gonna be a very difficult Jake Bugg-ish few years for him from here.
he sold out Hampden which is pretty wild. Even in his home city.
At least he seems to have a more likeable personality than Baked Jug. Enjoyed the album (even for the bombast) and he was good live at R1BW last year, I just doubt if he’ll still be making music in 5 years’ time…
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100% on the likability, which is why it feels like a shame. Seems like if he didn’t have that jawline he might have avoided the majors for a few more years while he developed at his own pace.
No idea how he can back out of the Everything On Ten-ness of his debut, or possibly build a career from it. I’m rooting for him, though.
Edit to say: I googled Jake Bugg to check he was the guy I meant in my first post, and his pictures are fucking HILARIOUS. Little boy hard man in his thousand pound leather jacket.
Probably said this the last few years, but this is clearly aimed at providing lots of sets for people with 5 or so songs with millions of streams that people can enjoy, because they are that sort of streamer. It’s not like it was 20 years ago, where you needed a few albums to get a fanbase. I’m not saying all of these acts are bad. I prefer it to last year, so far for example. But it is overly focussed on the here and now, with a sprinkling of pedigree artists. Also, it does therefore leave a focus on not having bands needing a variety of sounds to be liked, which is a particular problem when it comes to the types of indie they highlight.
Bottom line is I assume the majority of us are in our 30s/late 20s. I’m sure older people were horrified at the Reading line up when I went for the first time in 2004. If I was doing my A-Levels now I’d probably love this line up.
The main issue for me is the massive contrast between acts following each other on stages. For example you could have a great ‘urban’ day on the main stage for example. Stormzy, Migos, Run The Jewels, D-Block Europe, Slowthai, Aitch, Mabel and Lady Leshurr would be a great main stage day for fans of that genre. Then you could have Liam, The Courteeners (how are they so popular?!), Gerry Cinnamon, Two Door Cinema Club etc on another day together. Just seems too random and badly organised.
Organising of things in this kind of ways is boring though. I’d rather have a bit of everything over each of the days. Bit of breathing time, but also a spread of genres, especially when the reasons for liking genres like ‘indie’ vs ‘urban’ have various deeper rooted problematic causes. Like, i loved ATG last year, but by the end of the teo days i was there for, i was crying out for something else. Primavera works because you can watch Solange, followed by Bon Iver followed by Slayer.
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The kids going this year will be saying “who?” about the lineup in 20 years, and that’s as it should be. The lack of women on the bill, on the other hand, is not.
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Not really
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Fair play (if they actually do this)
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This is a joke:
At least we’ll be able to swerve The 1975 easily in future / this will lead to increased ticket sales for non-gender balanced festivals.
I’ve never been a big fan of The 1975’s music, but time and again Matt Healy seems like one of the best people operating at that level.
The kids aren’t impressed either Some Reading & Leeds fans confused about "goths" Rage Against The Machine headlining
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Hahaha.
Boomers to the top of me, Drake stans down below, here I am, so glad that I’m 34.
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Talked a good game politically right up til the election was called and then went missing so I wouldn’t expect much once his manager’s explained how this’ll hit the bottom line
Or they started a tour in the USA at the beginning of November, so weren’t getting as much UK news/were busy. He did tweet to not vote Tory on election day.
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They must have been really busy, then. Stormzy’s message on Instagram (two weeks before the election) had a proven impact in terms of driving voter registration and I can’t imagine it took him more than ten minutes. They could have done something similar and they chose not to. Which is fine, they don’t owe me anything, but it felt a touch hypocritical when they were crowing a few months earlier about how other bands had the chance to work with Greta Thunberg and chose not to for fear of a commercial backlash. There was a very clear choice in terms of climate policy at the election. I find it really weird they said nothing about that until the very last minute.