EBTM: Festival Season is Coming

The UK traditional summer of festivals is almost upon us.

There will be sell-outs, failures, sunstroke, mud, controversy and scandal each and every weekend between May - September.

A trend that appears to have dominated the UK festival season, for the past number of years, is the newly-reformed bands that stroll right back into the headline spot. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I'm not sure but it seems to be working as a major ticket-shifter!

In recent years we've seen the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine, Faith No More and even the Sex Pistols put their "personal differences" behind them and get back together for a mutual love of reclaiming the limelight and the lure of a fat wad of cash!

Let's take a look at the pick of this year's festival headliners who may or may not be past their prime:

Glastonbury:

Fri: U2 - An interesting choice from Evis, U2 could go either way when they headline Friday night. Old classics, stripped down light show & minimal preaching = WIN! / Elaborate stage props, political rants & any material of their last album = FAIL!

Sun: Stevie Wonder - The soul legend closes the show on Sunday for a safe singalong. Potential goosebumps moments a plenty here.

Download:

Fri: AC/DC - currently riding high with yet another greatest hists album cleverly disguised as the Iron Man 2 soundtrack. You know exactly what you're gonna get with the 3-cord giants - Angus Young hoping around the stage dressed as a schoolboy and lots of songs about young girls ... Classic!

Sat: Rage Against The Machine - When Rage reformed to play Reading/Leeds in 08 it felt really weird. For a band so obsessed with their own credibility and self-worth it seemed pretty hypocritical to milk the corporate cash cow but hey-ho. We all know what's happened since then so expect thousands of kids (who probably weren't born when it was first released) to lose their mind and limbs when "that" Christmas Number 1 finally kicks in!

Sun: Aerosmith - Steven Tyler and Joe Perry on stage together again! Could be mind-blowingly ace / could be mind-numbingly dull, it all depends on the song selection.

Reading & Leeds:

Fri: Guns'n'Roses - Okay, this is either gonna destroy every other performance of the summer or destroy what's left of the G'n'R legacy! Mad Axl returns to the UK a lot heavier (physically!) and angrier than ever before! The last time I saw G'n'R live was on the Use Your Illusion Tour at Wembley Stadium. The full line-up was on fire that day and one of the greatest live spectacles I've ever witnessed. So much has happened since then with Axl sacking the entire band and taking 15 years (and $13 million) to record one underwhelming album. I would love Axl to prove everyone wrong by a) turning up on time & b) delivering an earth-shattering performance ... I somehow doubt he'll do either though!

Sat: The Libertines - Not strictly the headline act (the excellent Arcade Fire have that honour) but the reformation that has both critics & fans frothing at the mouth. We all know that Pete & Carl have had their issues but it looks like they may well have sizable tax bills looming as the offer was "too good to refuse" apparently! The Libs were always an amazing shambolic spectacle in small indoor venues so it'll be interesting to see how they cope with that enormous stage in a big field.

Sun: Blink 182 - The Cali pop-punks close the weekend with a mass-sing-a-long that'll keep the kids (young & old) happy. Anything Travis Barker does is pretty cool with me, the dude's got mad skills!