Reading And Leeds 2021 First Announcement Review

Reading And Leeds 2021 First Announcement Review

 

So Reading and Leeds have released their lineup for 2021... God I'm so dissappointed. In this interview with the head of Reading and Leeds, Melvin Benn said that there would be 6 brand new headliners with only one carrying over from 2020, we pretty much knew that was going to be Liam Gallagher (God why?) but the other 5 were brand new headliners. Nope, Queens Of The Stone Age, Disclosure and Post Malone (last year as well) have headlined before, and when you think about it Liam Gallagher basically has with Oasis. Not only that but there's also Stormzy and Liam Gallagher from last year, not just one. I think a lot of the reason this lineup looks so crap is because of the promise of new names, and the fact that having 6 headliners surely leads the way for a metal act, and a female act. Also, Benn said the whole lineup would be out, not like 15 names, so even more disappointing, anyway let's get into it. 

Headliners

Stormzy 

Yeah that's not awful, he's a good rapper who seems to put on a good show and fills the gap of a Hip-hop artist while also having the bonus points of being British. I'm not mad about this one but also don't really love it, I wouldn't kill to see him but it's a solid addition to the lineup.

Catfish And The Bottlemen

I predicted this one, and again I'm not mad, I'd probably see them if I had nothing else to drop in to see so yeah that's not a bad booking, they've been making their way up the lineup and now have 3 albums to their name, I think maybe it's still a little early for them but hey, good on them.

Post Malone

Look he's not bad, he had a new album which was okay, his first 2 were pretty good and he was pretty  good at Reading 2019 but seriously? Again? He was only just there, he's not that incredible and just honestly why is he playing again? 

Liam Gallagher

The bloke can barely sing, his solo stuff has been underwhelming, he half-asses Oasis stuff live because he knows he doesn't need to do it well and honestly he's just an old bloke who makes sense at Glasto but not Reading

Disclosure

Can't comment too much because I'm not hugely into dance music but I don't think its the most interesting dance act they could have chosen, could have gone for Orbital or Chemical Brothers or even someone like Annie Mac for a female option. Also they've headlined before, albeit co-headlined and they do have another album now... oh well. 

Queens Of The Stone Age

Again they've headlined before but they're an iconic and very good band, normally I wouldn't be dissappointed but the promise of what could have been makes this one another dissappointment.

I don't think the headliners are like objectively bad I just think it's a huge missed opportunity, with 6 headliners they could have gone out there with it, bring in a female headliner so easily, get in bands like Slipknot, someone like The Streets rather than having 2 the same as 2020 and 3 who've headlined before. Oh Festival Republic you boring idiots, oh and sexist. 

The rest of the lineup

This is far worse than the headliners, there's one rock name on there and yeah I'm not expecting anything too heavy from Reading anymore but still, and what is there is utter crap. Lewis Capaldi is a decent enough singer but dead boring, depressing and clean. Two Door Cinema Club, AJ Tracey and 100 Gecs aren't bad, they've all got a decent amount of energy and following but honestly the rest is just so uninspiring and just downright boring and mainstream. It's now clear where Festival Republic want to go with the festival and it's away from the shadows. 

Missed opportunities

There are so many missed opportunities here, they should have stuck to the 'All-new headliners' rule because it could have been amazing, oh and get some women in there. Firstly for the women:

Paramore, Evanescence, Billie Eilish, Florence And The Machine, Dua Lipa, Annie Mac - they all would have made genuinely brilliant headliners who would have sold a lot of tickets.

Then there are some more interesting rap names they could have had than Post Malone:

The Streets, Tyler The Creator, Travis Scott, Dave, Childish Gambino, again all would be new headliners, bring something interesting to the table and just not be dull.

There are some other indie names that could have been booked instead of putting in Liam Gallagher:

Tame Impala, Arctic Monkeys (yeah they're boring but still), MGMT, Libertines, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, all a lot more relevant than LG.

Finally there definitely was the opportunity for a proper rock or even metal headliner, like:

Architects, Slipknot, My Chemical Romance (would have sold the festival out easily), Biffy Clyro, Royal Blood, Bring Me The Horizon, even Metallica maybe.

Verdict

At face value the lineup isn't completely awful but when you consider the opportunity and what was promised, this is honestly just such a boring, safe and lackluster lineup.

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