As you may have heard, Kasabian have once again criticised new bands *YAWN*. This time, they have questioned the new generation's ability to become festival headliners, claiming this is the reason for festivals sticking with the old recipe of repetition.
We've already discussed this, a lot of new bands approaching the 'headliner' stage of their careers maybe aren't good enough. Maybe Kasabian do have a point, to an extent. Catfish and the Bottlemen are making their first big headline appearance at Y Not this summer, however their sophomore record, The Ride, proved there's a way to go before they're good enough to top the bill at Reading & Leeds or Glastonbury.
From the handful of new bands with two albums out, arguably only Wolf Alice have proved they have the quality and variation to produce a show worthy of a huge headline slot. However, there is a large swarm of budding bands ready to rise this year, ready to release their debut LP, ready to prove Kasabian wrong.
Yonaka, Black Honey and The Blinders have already proved they have the potential to keep writing huge rock'n'roll tunes, but also have proved they possess the stage presence and performance know-how to terrorise main stages for years to come. Whilst Kasabian may be right in terms of Catfish, Blossoms and Circa Waves, with a little bit of patience, we believe several bands are about to prove them horribly wrong.
The issue is, there's been a gap between the post-Britpop era of Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys etc. and the new wave of top quality bands, which has meant festival organisers have had to rely on the old-guns for a little longer. However, the new generation have also not been given a chance to prove they're good enough to headline. It seems like Kasabian have forgotten that someone once took a chance on them.
There's two more points worth throwing out there, worth thinking about. There's been a huge change in the way we consume music since Kasabian's era, with streaming platforms placing extreme pressure on new bands to continue producing music at an alarming rate, which may have affected the quality. It has also meant it's much easier to listen to a large number of bands, as they are all available for a monthly subscription fee, rather than paying for each single, EP or LP individually, which has saturated the music industry. Secondly, we've seen a huge nostalgia kick over the last two years, spearheaded by none other than Liam Gallagher himself. People don't want new music, they want the old guns to return. Whilst we may be playing devil's advocate with these two points, they're worth considering.
Either way, Kasabian's criticism are unnecessary and incorrect. They were a new band once upon a time, they should know better than to walk around swinging their dicks about.
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