Interview with... Liam O'Mally
Today, I interviewed festival organiser and all round musical genius Liam O'Mally. As always, Liam came across as a very calm, collected, intelligent and most importantly - down to earth individual. In today's music industry, there are far too many ego's and personalities around. Liam breaks that trend, and comes across as a humble, modest, but confident person. His real life personality is no different to how he is portrayed to the media, and I think that's vital in his popularity - a popularity that has allowed him to haul in some of the biggest names around for his upcoming festival.
Me: So Liam, let's get started with what we all want to know - what bands are we going to see perform at the festival?
Liam: *Laughs* I was expecting this. Well, I can't tell you the exact names or the exact numbers performing - but I will tell you that all the headliners have been chosen, and most of them informed. So we're going to release information about the headliners soon, but not only that we have some massive band names that aren't headliners, and it was really tough choosing who the acts would be! But we're pretty confident we've made the right decisions. Headliners will of course play longer sets than the other bands.
Me: So there is absolutely no artists you can confirm for us?
Liam: Well, there is me. I'll be performing a solo set of a few Lost songs, but I'm not going to be sticking myself as a headliner! I will confirm though, that though she is not headlining, a certain pop queen is making her return. Also we have some really interesting metal musicians performing.
Me: Okay awesome! So what do you say to critics, who are complaining that controversial act's will be performing in Hyde Park - a place owned by the Queen?
Liam: Well, look, I see no problem, Her Majesty see's no problem, so why is there a fuss about this? Metal act's will of course, be schedualed intelligently, so that people who are more likely to want to watch a pop artist, don't have to wait around watching a heavy metal musician. We have different stages for this purpose, and the whole scheduale will allow fans to go and see musicians that they want to see, and also the Breakthrough stage will be schedualed so that you can go and check out bands that are like the ones you've just watched, and possibly open your horizons a bit whilst getting coverage for some fantastic bands!
Me: How's all the organisation going for you, as it's your first festival you've organised?
Liam: Umm, stressful! Usually wherever festivals are involved - if your a big rock band then all you have to worry about is the actual performance - everything else is done for you! But now this is quite big, and it's also a lot of responsibility on me to do this right. It's going to be a huge event with some massive names performing, and although (I don't want to sound cocky) I am generally equal with most of them in terms of popularity, the pressures still on from them. I mean it as in though there are one or two bands who I'm friendly with who just said yeah sure, a lot of them had to be persuaded and it's very complicated. Especially as it's right in the festival and touring season, so a lot of band's have possibly had to give up a few dates for the festival. So yeah, very stressful!
Me: Will there be any other non-musical acts performing?
Liam: Yeah! There will be breaks of course in duration of the day for half an hour to an hour or so, and we've got a fantastic bunch of entertainers from comedians to dancers to circus acts all performing at those breaks so it's really just a long weekend of fun!
Me: Run us through the layout of the whole thing, how much space will be dedicated to each individual stage.
Liam: Well of course the Main Stage will have the most space, and the Second Stage will have the second highest amound and the Breakthrough acts (which will actually be a tent) will have the smallest. But still we're talking enough space for thousends so we're not being stingy on the amount of space. There will also be a lot of bars there, and a record shop that will sell shit loads of music from all the bands that have been performing.
Me: Finally, will we see a The Lost reunion?
Liam: *Laughs* No.
