Another money saving tip from No7. If you are struggling to justify a holiday and want your friends to think you are going abroad.
My wife and kids are leaving me because of my obsession with horse racing.....they're at the door now...... ....and they're off.
Funny thing is Tom Selleck got the part of Indiana Jones but CBs said no because of his Magnum commitment's
I might be on my own here but 76 year old Elton John headlining Glastonbury does nothing for me. As a true Saints fan, I would be leaving early to "beat the rush" if that was the best they could come up with. I know there are loads to choose from and I won't have heard of most of them but headliners such as Elton John (76), Paul McCartney (81), Kylie (55) Debby Harry (77) and Jeremy Corbyn (74) makes you think that present day superstars are a bit thin on the ground. So the question is, is it worth it? I've heard people say it's all about the event and the fact that tickets are sold out before the line up is even announced seems to bear that out. But Rick Astley? Ffs. When you consider that the 1970 Isle of Wight festival included Super Tramp, Groundhogs, Rory Gallagher, Chicago, Procol Harum, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, Ten Years After, Emerson Lake and Palmer, The Doors, The Who, Sly and the Family Stone, Free, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Joan Baez, Ritchie Havens and Jimi Hendrix, a who's who (not The Who) of the world's best bands over the five days, at one event! Well, THAT was a festival and what a time to be alive man. I'm sure they could do a turn now if they hadn't all died at 27. (Youngsters will have to look that up).
Ah. A discussion I was having just earlier. The trouble is, and for all the moans about GnR, Elton, Blondie etc “not sounding like they used to” (who would have thought), because of the way music is consumed these days, the potential for new superstars of that ilk is severely diminishing. It’s eating itself.
You would obviously know more about the current music scene than me but I was just bemoaning the fact that the headliners are over 70! It's not just that I would expect mostly young audiences to want more contemporary performers but as you say, the old fogeys have quite often lost it. Surely there are younger performers who could take that role on? My view is that festivals should be by the young, for the young. If old rockers (like me) want to experience modern festivals they should expect modern music. We've had our day. Those names I listed from the IoW were mostly under 30 at the time (Leonard Cohen was an ancient 36). Explain if you would, because of how music today is consumed it stops artists becoming superstars.
It's more a discussion for a beer tbh, but largely the artist is far more inclined these days to work (by necessity) on a song-by-song basis, which in itself leads to a here today, gone tomorrow problem. Because people listen to music by streaming now, the album is pretty much defunct, and it's on the album that long-term, legacy careers are built. Short term, quick fix money is built on single songs. The industry and streaming services need to sort this out, because as you can see through the resurgence of legacy acts (my god, it's a good time to be a 50+ year old musician with a catalogue right now) there is still an appetite for that way of doing things. Without a reversion to that, I don't see how festivals can continue, at least in the form they have now. Glastonbury is slightly different as it's not all about music, but the days of classic headliners are going to abruptly come up against some problems very soon.
Did you see the audience at these festivals, there is a lot of over 40's. Lets face it, who else can afford the tickets. I recently went to one of those Fake Festivals - including a Blondie tribute band. I have to say the energy shown by these younger tribute acts was better than what I saw at Glastonbury/IoW (on telly)
