Worst band to have headlined the Glastonbury Festival in the last 20 years

not, but they are Stereophonics

Stereophonics have that combination of the worst music plus the worst fans (see also Oasis). The Levellers probably had that as well but hating on filthy hippies/Levellers fans is like hating on the festival itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwN2uOFcpHg

never forget

Seahorses never headlined? Shame.

― HI DERE, Monday, June 21, 2010 2:00 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol

Deadly? That's nuts
well it bored the piss out of me, sorry.

They are not filthy hippies.

― ô_o (Nicole),

Unarguably true!

Matt and Dan make some compelling arguments in favor of the Stereophonics. And I do remember the one one roadtrip I took with my sister where she played one of the Stereophonics albums.

I should have thrown her out of my car.

Seahorses never headlined? Shame.

I don't think they were ever allowed back after this.

It's Skunk Anansie, though Muse make the worst music

^^^ Well worth watching for how hilariously inept it is. (xpost)

hahahaha Matt

Muse make the worst music

They were also one of Stephenie Meyer's sources of inspiration for writing Twilight, thus making them one of the most evil bands to have ever existed.

Muse + Mormonism = Twilight?

brrrr

Actually lolling at the out-of-tune vocals on Love Is the Law. That's the death throes of Britpop right there.

You either have to laugh or cry at that one.

Started off laughing, ended up crying during the guitar solo. What a fucking abomination that band were.

jeez. this is why i hate glastonbury and just have to go o_0 at people getting excited about it. especially having just returned from sónar which is a million times better in every conceivable way, why would you ever choose glastonbury over it?

also skunk anansie are soooooo not the worst band on that list, though the vast majority fit somewhere between "bad" and "execrable".

Stereophonics (2002)
Rod Stewart (2002)

for a same-year double whammy that will take some beating.

prob voting oasis.

Stereophonics (2002)
Rod Stewart (2002)

for a same-year double whammy that will take some beating.

*cough*

The Black Crowes (1993)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (1993)

leaning kings of leon or stereophonics

Red Hots in 1993 still were not terrible

yeah that's an insult to rhcp

Gotta be Black Crowes.

Got to be The Levellers.

Can I just say - I saw that Black Crowes headline set and they were great! I wasn't on drugs or anything. They totally won me over.

I don't think I've ever heard Ash despite seeing their name about a bazillion times

Oh you should hear Girl From Mars

I've never heard Arctic Monkeys or Kings Of Leon

I saw that Black Crowes headline set and they were great! I wasn't on drugs or anything.

The first step is admitting you have a problem...

oh I've always had a problem

I mean, okay, I had been on drugs for four days prior to that. But they were awesome

i would file all of these under ACTIVELY AWFUL AND SHOULD NOT BE INVITED TO FESTIVALS IN ANY CAPACITY APART FROM MAYBE TOILET CLEANERS:

Happy Mondays (1990)
Carter USM (1992)
The Black Crowes (1993)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (1993)
The Levellers (1994)
Oasis (1995, 2004)
Pulp (1995, 1998)
Radiohead (1997, 2003)
Ash (1997)
Primal Scream (1998)
Blur (1998, 2009)
REM (1999, 2003)
Manic Street Preachers (1999)
Travis (2000)
David Bowie (2000)
Coldplay (2002, 2005)
Stereophonics (2002)
Rod Stewart (2002)
Moby (2003)
Paul McCartney (2004)
Muse (2004, 2010)
Arctic Monkeys (2007)
The Killers (2007)
The Who (2007)
Kings of Leon (2008)
The Verve (2008)
Neil Young (2009)
Bruce Springsteen (2009)
Gorillaz (2010)

you'd have to pay me serious £££ to even sit through their records let alone a live show surrounded by *brr* their fans

Black Crowes aren't anywhere near the worst band on here. As annoying as they and their songs may be, they can play their instruments and sing their material convincingly; that alone puts them above Travis and MSP.

Man I used to love The Manic Street Preachers. A lot of girls liked them, you know.

I always knew you were a fan of The Cure, Lex.

I don't get why The Prodigy gets a pass and Moby doesn't...?

Moby is American

Artists remaining after the lex's mass damning of Glastonbury lineups:

The Cure (1990, 1995)
Sinead O'Connor (1990)
Shakespeare's Sister (1992)
Youssou N'Dour (1992)
Christy Moore (1993)
Elvis Costello (1994)
Peter Gabriel (1994)
The Prodigy (1997)
Skunk Anansie (1999)
The Chemical Brothers (2000)
The White Stripes (2005)
Basement Jaxx (2005)
Jay-Z (2008)
Stevie Wonder (2010)

Skunk Anansie Ugh

fun thread

To which I say, how did you not leave Skunk Anansie on your blacklist??

xp

It feels like "Skunk Anansie are headlining Glastonbury" should be a line in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT5gQXZuXAM

Listening to Christy Moore on youtube, I kind of can't believe Lex didn't put him on the toilet-scrubber list.

lex is into elvis costello?

Shakespeare's Sister (1992)

This is astounding.

i have never heard elvis costello
i have never heard OF christy moore
i'm sure i must have heard the cure but i genuinely can't recall what they sound like - free pass for tori amos's cover of "love song"
the prodigy post-fat of the land would assuredly be on the toilet cleaner list, though yeah i guess i can live w/moby being taken off it for the remix of "honey" with kelis
skunk anansie had a couple of decentish songs iirc

nb i've never heard peter gabriel either

apart from the ones i don't know, the festival that's left looks pretty great!

i'm sure i must have heard the cure but i genuinely can't recall what they sound like - free pass for tori amos's cover of "love song"

OMG

Moby post-Play is a very different animal from Moby pre-Play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJCFHw2Y5WQ

Actually this is the better mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeat_4h-x3M&feature=related

I actually only like about 12 of those bands, it's a pretty poor return on headliners considering how amazing the festival is.

I just want to post this link again. This is why Glastonbury is awesome. I have had so many memories like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkdxfgq2ykQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoJ_0UXb7SU&feature=related

I went to this thing in 1993, mostly to see the Velvet Underground who played at like lunchtime or something. Anyway, I think there's some wrong info here. The way I remember it, the show on Sunday finished with the Stereo MCs then the Orb. Not Christy Moore.

FYI Mumford & Sons would walk this poll if we were to rerun it.

i dunno i think it'll be forever difficult to look beyond stereophonics in any 'worst' poll

Re. Steve Winwood. You have to remember that (at least in those days) Glastonbury is not all about bands. And beyond that, it' not remotely focussed about the main stage. In the 80s and 90s the pyramid stage was pretty MOR which was fine because there's like 50 other stages with shit going on.

When Winwood took to the stage there was likely Stereolab raging away at the other (huge) stage, Billy Bragg in a big top and so on.

Last time I was there was '93 where iirc Ultramarine, Stereo MCs and The Orb packed way more in front of the second stage than watched the Black Crowes on the Main Stage. I realise the main stage/headliner thing is way more of a thing now.

My memory is that the 'headliner' as people have it nowadays, was some big act we didn't mind missing as we got the jump on the exiting population going home.

Jesus christ, that Top 3.

Everything - yeah I get that (I've been 14 times, including in the 90s when the atmosphere was *very* different). I suppose what I'm getting at is the specific decision to let Winwood headline over Neil Young, which doesn't make a great deal of sense even by old fart logic.

Glastonbury logic though.

Do you have a source for Winwood being originally billed above Young? I know Neil had to pull out because he cut his finger or something, but the only posters I can find online don't have Young's name on them.

Since TV coverage got bigger, the final band on the last night has become the 'headliner' in feel as well as tradition. Previously, the bigger draw would more likely be mid-evening.

Which would explain why Lou Reed was on before Shakeyspearsies. Because on the last night, tum ti tum etc.

Nah, the really big headlining slot (in both festival and media terms) is the Saturday night one.

But yeah, the mid-evening draw does make some sense. The first time I went, in 1998, Bob Dylan was below Sonic Youth (!!!) on the bill.

I remember Blur playing before Spiritualized in 1994 and it felt like they were the real headliners with Spiritualized the blissed-out coda. I would love to know if there was real logic behind the bills in those days or whether they were just disorganised.

Other stages would be disorganised, certainly.

Spiritualized were identifiably night-time music in a way that 1994-era Blur weren't maybe? Didn't Bjork offer to swap places with Orbital in 94 because she knew their set would be much cooler in the dark?

At the Phoenix Festival in 1995 Suede refused to play unless they went on after Bob Dylan. IIRC the official billing had Dylan top of the bill and Suede second but the actual running order was the other way round.

Arctic Monkeys, 0? really?

So, it would seem like Coldplay are headlining Glastonbury this year. AGAIN.

a popular MOR rock band high up the bill at Glastonbury? surely not?

Huh, I didn't know Glastonbury was still a thing.

Classic Snrub.

They're gonna go super conservative and Xfm this year, overcompensating for Kanye tanking it last year. The other headliners will end up being the Foo Fighters and Muse or something. Maybe Adele.

I saw Skunk Anansie live in 1995, halfway through the afternoon at the Heineken festival in Leeds and they were ferocious and thrilling. Then everything they did after that seemed like a massive letdown.

There was a multi-part documentary on TV about Glastonbury in1992 or 1993 and every episode ended with a clip of the Shakespeare's Sister set, so it's odd if Eavis doesn't remember it.

Lol at the Skunk Anansie discussion upthread where American people are shocked that a British band popular in Britain would headline a British festival, when they haven't even heard about it!

After their second album, Skunk Anansie were huge in Finland too. I saw them at a local festival in 1997, and even though the music isn't really to my taste, their performance was totally electrifying. I don't get why people here hate them so much?

think it's mainly cos they are shit

They're gonna go super conservative and Xfm this year, overcompensating for Kanye tanking it last year. The other headliners will end up being the Foo Fighters and Muse or something. Maybe Adele.

― Matt DC, Thursday, February 18, 2016 3:52 AM (19 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No Foo Fighters (or Muse I think but not sure). Radiohead (pretty sure). Adele. Jeff Lynne's ELO before Coldplay on Sunday.

Muse & Adele I reckon

boring headliners, but more diversity in the full line up (compared to the 90s britpop and 00s landfill eras)

GLASTONBURY REVEAL FULL 2016 LINE-UP
http://crackmagazine.net/2016/03/glastonbury-reveal-full-2016-line-up/

zz top in 2016 does seem rather strange though...i remember than on the Whistle Test in 1985

LCD Soundsystem, Skepta and ZZ Top added to Glastonbury lineup
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/29/glastonbury-festival-lineup-announcement-lcd-soundsystem-skepta-zz-top

The other headliners will end up being the Foo Fighters and Muse or something. Maybe Adele.

kind of impressively prescient, but also kind of not

zz top in 2016 does seem rather strange though...i remember than on the Whistle Test in 1985

a good band at glastonbury does seem a bit odd tbh

ZZ Top are exactly the sort of band they wheel out to play a Sunday afternoon slot, it's not remotely surprising.

This is among the worst set of Pyramid headliners I can remember, although 2002's hat-trick of Coldplay, Stereophonics and Rod Stewart takes some beating. The weekend will still rule.