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Glastonbury 2023

Funnily enough I listened to Slowdive on Spotify today, their latest album and their previous one..... Only a 23 year gap! And no detectable difference in style. But very much a pleasant listen.
 
manicatel said:
Some of the main acts, EJ, Blondie, Christie hynde, Sparks…….. all in their high 70’s.
So who are the new young acts capable of commanding the headline slot in front of 100,000+ crowd & taking over from the old guard?
Arctic Monkeys, hmm,
The Foo’s ok yep but they can’t do it every year.
Muse?
RHCP…. Not exactly a new act.
Lewis Capaldi, Ed Sheeran.
My daughter reckons Chris Brown could do it.
But they need 3 headline acts for each Glastonbury. They can’t just keep on wheeling out the same old geriatrics, but there don’t seem to be that many capable alternatives?
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The Arctics have headlined Glastonbury 3 times & are an established world draw so they absolutely can. Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Coldplay, Radiohead - plenty of big acts around. They may or may not be to your taste but I don’t think we need to rely on 70+ artists.

Who knows what other acts are round the corner & how big current acts will become.
 
Tony L said:
Glastonbury is a very expensive festival attended by many middle-aged and elderly punters. They demand their dad/grandad rock. Ever since the festival was gentrified decades ago and became the pop/rock equivalent of the Proms to the BBC it has relied on a very safe main stage playlist. There is always a lot of amazing stuff on the small stages, but the main one is just a corporate big-ticket event and in most respects dull as ditchwater. It is the gig equivalent of a 300 quid DSOTM anniversary box set. To my mind the best headliners in recent years have been rap/r&b on the other stages, e.g. last year Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion both knocked it right out of the park, this year Lizzo was right up there as one of the best. I really liked Christine & The Queens this year too, that was the other big ticket act that made an impression.

To be honest I don’t see the point of Glastonbury despite spending so many hours sifting through iPlayer looking for new artists I may have missed. In that context it does work to a degree. Every year I find a few cool new things (this year Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul, Fred Again, Sudan Archives and Nova Twins), but in every case I’d far prefer to see them in a conventional small venue if I wanted to see them live. Sure, I enjoyed some old stuff such as The Pretenders as I like Chrissie’s attitude, but their first album is the only essential one and that was 44 years ago now. I have my UK 1st press bought at the time. Even Leftfield are dad-rock now. Scary but true.
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Much of this is true but it’s a bit of chicken & egg situation, plenty of Gen Z at front for Arctic Monkeys. It’s Spotify though, kids listen to all eras.
 
tricky1 said:
They have been around 30 years + so they will be familiar. Not much has changed in their sound in that time but I like it ☺️
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familiar was the wrong word, I know they've been around for 30 years.

I find them bland, did 30 years ago and still do
 
I really like the original Slowdive albums (I am a bit of a shoegaze fan), but I’m not convinced they brought anything I need with reforming. I haven’t ordered the new album. It is very rare a band can take a long break and still appear in anyway relevant. Only recent example that comes to mind is EBTG, their current album is surprisingly good and uses increasing age as a perspective.

PS Did anyone watch the 1979 Blondie gig on BBC4 last night? A useful point of contrast!
 
alanbeeb said:
Funnily enough I listened to Slowdive on Spotify today, their latest album and their previous one..... Only a 23 year gap! And no detectable difference in style. But very much a pleasant listen.
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Well, to be fair, in that 23 year gap, the band members were doing rather different things in acts like Mojave 3 and Televise.
 
Woodface said:
Much of this is true but it’s a bit of chicken & egg situation, plenty of Gen Z at front for Arctic Monkeys. It’s Spotify though, kids listen to all eras.
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Totally.
On the Sunday night while Elton was playing at Glasto, I was driving through to Glasgow to pick up my 17 yr old daughter and her pals from the Arctic Monkeys.
I'm sure dad of the year award is coming :)

They really enjoyed it, but it was actually The Hives, who were supporting, that they were most excited about.... And they are 5-10 years older than Arctic Monkeys.

Later this month she is going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Hampden.
 
Woodface said:
The Arctics have headlined Glastonbury 3 times & are an established world draw so they absolutely can. Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Coldplay, Radiohead - plenty of big acts around.

Who knows what other acts are round the corner & how big current acts will become.
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I’d love to see Radiohead do a rock show again.
Harry Styles…. Not my cuppa, but yes I’m sure he could absolutely put on a superb show. Good shout.
Coldplay again not for me but no doubt they’d be a top show & would fit in with the glasto ethos.
It’s not that the new bands aren’t for me ( a lot of them aren’t, I was bought up on Elvis Costello & XTC for example),but I posted after a conversation with my family saying that even though blondie, the pretenders etc were my era, I just think it’s a bit sad seeing them in their late 70’s, & they’re still the fall back option for headline slots. As Tony says, the main stage has become very much for the older mainstream crowd & the interesting emerging stuff is to be found on the smaller stages. Just wondering how many of them will graduate to be truly top acts.
 
Boomers holding back the success of younger generations so they can continue to get the largest pieces of the pie? I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!
 
alanbeeb said:
Totally.
On the Sunday night while Elton was playing at Glasto, I was driving through to Glasgow to pick up my 17 yr old daughter and her pals from the Arctic Monkeys.
I'm sure dad of the year award is coming :)

They really enjoyed it, but it was actually The Hives, who were supporting, that they were most excited about.... And they are 5-10 years older than Arctic Monkeys.

Later this month she is going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Hampden.
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It's interesting isn't it. I don't have anything insightful to add to that! But perhaps a major shift away from prior generations who generally listened to (and then stick to) their era.
 
alanbeeb said:
Totally.
On the Sunday night while Elton was playing at Glasto, I was driving through to Glasgow to pick up my 17 yr old daughter and her pals from the Arctic Monkeys.
I'm sure dad of the year award is coming :)

They really enjoyed it, but it was actually The Hives, who were supporting, that they were most excited about.... And they are 5-10 years older than Arctic Monkeys.

Later this month she is going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Hampden.
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We also saw the Hives, obviously I remember them first time round, they had a mixed reception, too much chatter.
 
manicatel said:
I’d love to see Radiohead do a rock show again.
Harry Styles…. Not my cuppa, but yes I’m sure he could absolutely put on a superb show. Good shout.
Coldplay again not for me but no doubt they’d be a top show & would fit in with the glasto ethos.
It’s not that the new bands aren’t for me ( a lot of them aren’t, I was bought up on Elvis Costello & XTC for example),but I posted after a conversation with my family saying that even though blondie, the pretenders etc were my era, I just think it’s a bit sad seeing them in their late 70’s, & they’re still the fall back option for headline slots. As Tony says, the main stage has become very much for the older mainstream crowd & the interesting emerging stuff is to be found on the smaller stages. Just wondering how many of them will graduate to be truly top acts.
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Well we don’t know but look at who are selling out Arenas currently. My daughter went to see Harry Styles & the Arctic Monkeys, she is desperate to see Taylor Swift also. I really don’t like Coldplay but lots of people do. Oasis will probably reform soon.
 
Woodface said:
Well we don’t know but look at who are selling out Arenas currently. My daughter went to see Harry Styles & the Arctic Monkeys, she is desperate to see Taylor Swift also. I really don’t like Coldplay but lots of people do. Oasis will probably reform soon.
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Pulp and Blur too.
 
I imagine it would be quite a difficult job booking 'headliners' for Glastonbury, although I would assume most acts would like too given the history, etc , but perhaps other commitments and tours means they're not always available, previous headliners like Metallica or Petshop boys for example are playing a tour at present .
Quite a few of the bands or artists named upthread have already headlined and may or may not wish to do it again.
Given some of the performances this year perhaps it's better to book acts that are in their prime though I'm sure the 'legends' like Elton do have an attraction for alot of attendees.
 
My wife and daughter would like to go to Glastonbury and I've said no problem, you'll need to go on your own, I look at the lineup and the subsequent coverage every year and I think nah not for me, even this year I watched maybe 1 or 2 acts that I would like to see and the rest were poor, it's not an event that's aimed at me of course so fair enough.

Ok I can watch most of it on the TV and I'm not too bothered if it's someone I don't follow, but I like live music so it's watchable, however not watchable enough to want to attend it in person, the journey from central Scotland would be a bugger too.
 
Darren L said:
I imagine it would be quite a difficult job booking 'headliners' for Glastonbury, although I would assume most acts would like too given the history, etc , but perhaps other commitments and tours means they're not always available, previous headliners like Metallica or Petshop boys for example are playing a tour at present .
Quite a few of the bands or artists named upthread have already headlined and may or may not wish to do it again.
Given some of the performances this year perhaps it's better to book acts that are in their prime though I'm sure the 'legends' like Elton do have an attraction for alot of attendees.
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Glastonbury doesn’t pay that well so if you don’t need the profile then it’s not a given that the big acts are queuing up. I believe Beyoncé was going to headline on Saturday but ended up with other plans.
 
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