"To headline a festival, I’d say you need two big albums, three if you’re lucky."
Kasabian‘s Serge Pizzorno has spoken out, after it was suggested that he believed newer bands aren’t good enough to headline festivals. Watch our video interview with him above.
Last month, Pizzorno spoke at the Isle of Wight Festival about why it’s the same legacy acts returning to top the bill at most festivals.
Bandmate Tom Meighan suggested “they ain’t good enough”, while Pizzorno claimed “it’s hard for everyone, anyone that’s a songwriter, anyone that’s in a band, to maintain at a level.”
Now, he’s clarified his comments – and offered some strong advice for the next generation of bands.
“This is the problem with quotes. Someone else’s interpretation of something is quite a different thing”, he told NME backstage at Mad Cool Festival 2018 ahead of their blistering headline set.
“One thing I regret is not having Twitter, because I could come out and say ‘That’s bullshit, I never said that.’
“The question was ‘why are there no bands coming through? Why are there no headliners?’
“To headline a festival, I’d say you need two big albums, three if you’re lucky.
“So you’ve got bands that are capable with maybe one debut album and then the second doesn’t follow up as well. So then you get the third and fourth. Time will tell if that happens but that’s all it is. You can’t go on there with one big single, that’s not how it works.”
He added: “Until you’ve got six or seven songs that have caught through, then you’ve got a shot.”
As for future headliners, Serge is backing Slaves after the punk duo supported them on their arena tour last year.
“We went on tour with Slaves, and my point is that they’re an incredible live band. One of the best I’ve seen. They’re ready, they could go on tomorrow if they get the radio support that they deserve then they could go on tomorrow”, he said.
“That was it! You wanna be careful. People sometimes want to throw their opinion and use you as a medium. Sometimes that ain’t the case.”
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