Heard rumours that Prince may be one of the headline acts at this year's Glastonbury festival! After an interview with Michael Eavis on Radio 1 yesterday the presenter said that Prince may have been booked to appear...

[We've heard this rumor before, and I believe it to be false. But if the promoter is saying that, hmmm... -Ben]

i haven't heard Michael Eavis say that myself, BUT if he did he's hardly likley to lead people on and lie to them. You got to understand that Glasto. isn't about the headlining acts. Acts are chosen to relfect the festival's atmosphere, unlike Reading / Lallapalooza (sp) / Big Day Out. He doesn't need to stirr up publicity as Glastonbury sells out every year before they even announce the bill.

I'm no wiser to if this rumour is true and i work within the UK Music Industry so if it was completley made up, i'd no.

i guess we should keep watching this space...

NME said:

hang on a minute, glastonbury sells out each year courtesy of some clever pre-publicity, which sees a load of stars linked to the event...all of which helps shift ticket sales.

yes, it is a success because of the atmosphere, but the organisers are not stupid. They may well have spoken to prince's people and they could say in interviews 'talks are going on with prince about headlining etc' without lying, yet at the same time talking to five other major acts too.

and, i appreciate this will surprise you, but i reckon there may be rumours out there which even you as a 'industry insider' might not know about!

[Inflammatory post and followups removed. --Matt]
[This message was edited Sun Feb 16 18:03:22 PST 2003 by matt]

letsgocrazy said:[quote]

NME said:

letsgocrazy said:

No. They are not pro-active in these rumours. The media like to speculate, but Michael Eavis never say's yay or nay. So over 100,000 tickets are sold on the fact that they 'think' their favourite bands are playing...? Im my opinion it's not clever pre-publicity, but the tradition that whatever the eventual line-up, plus the other attractions, the festival will be a fantasti weekend.

letsgocrazy said:

Yes. i was just saying Michael Eavis is pretty honest and doesn't play games. So if he's talking about P, then there IS a good chance of this rumour being true.

letsgocrazy said:

You're right. I wasn't trying to be a ****, sorry. I just meant i hadn't heard anything other than a few tabliod mentions. That is all. apologies.

[This message was edited Sat Feb 15 11:16:38 PST 2003 by NME]

NME said:

Festival line-ups are pretty predictable plenty of time, since most artists don't turn up for a one-of date but do a whole tour of them. If Eavis gets big names at Glasto that has got far more to do with him paying them enough and whether it fits in their tour schedule. Of course, exceptions are English artists.

And after reading the original post again, it's clear that it wasn't Eavis saying Prince would come, but just a radio host repeating a rumor. It isn't impossible, but it is unlikely IMHO. I doubt Prince would come to Europe for a one-off appearance on a festival, especially when you consider that there's a good chance he might get hit with a bottle of piss (or plenty of mud) before he's halfway through one of the muso funk-jazz doodlings he currently is mistaking for good music.

I can only hope

BVH said "If Eavis gets big names at Glasto that has got far more to do with him paying them enough and whether it fits in their tour schedule. Of course, exceptions are English artists." - WRONG!! That is the case with most festivals, but Glastonbury is different. There are a few artists that have turned down Glastonbury based on the money offered (Oasis being a case in point - their Galstonbury performance in '95 basically lauched their careers to the "masses" (it was one helluva performance, I was there) but they turned it down on 2002 saying that Glasto couldn't afford them, but Leeds or Reading could! - tossers!), but most artists play there for the prestige. Glastonbury, being mainly charity based and supportive, does not pay anywhere near what other festivals (such as Reading) will pay to artists so, in the main, people play there because they want to.

The same "I don't believe it!" attitude occured last year with rumours of a rare Roger Waters performance - nobody believed that, but it happened, with full Floydesque-quadrophonic sound installed especially for the gig! Anything is possible!

BartVanHemelen said:

- I hope not. Although he is not so innovative as before, today he is musically in a much higher level than the Revolution days. In terms of musicianship and organic arrangements, this band kicks ass, not to mention his guitar playing. I am very curious for the next album.

GustavoRibas said:

Baloney. Musicianship is IRRELEVANT if there's no songs. Steve Vai is probably, from a technical viewpoint, one of the best guitarists in the world yet he still isn't worth shit since he mistakes playing guitar with a circus act. Musical worth: ZERO.

Mindflux said:

And even though Eavis has a top limit of what he'll pay, it's still a nice sum. Add to that indeed the prestige factor, but that still doesn't change that it's also a "required stop" in the "European festivals tour" for many bands.

Mindflux said:

Not the same thing.

Add to that Prince's dismal festival performances record (those 1993 German ones) and you'll realise that some artists just don't belong on festivals. Especially Prince in his current incarnation.