The San Diego Reader reports the probably not too surprising news that concert sales in the area have been soft, with George Michael’s upcoming concert in particular being something of a bust–the show, which takes place at the Sports Arena on June 17, has reportedly only sold 4,000 tickets out of a possible 15,000. Tickets to upcoming shows by Sheryl Crow and Stone Temple Pilots are selling sluggishly as well. San Diego has been hit particularly hard by the housing bust, and the idea that people are cutting out ever-spiraling ticket prices from their budget isn’t all that far-fetched. But don’t think that a weak market will result in ticket prices–or the surcharges that mark up those prices by as much as 50%–coming down anytime soon!
Pollstar’s list of the top 20 concert tours of 2007 had good news for Sting and bad news for pretty much anyone else trying to figure out if the road life would help make up the money lost by nosediving album sales. The 20 top-grossing tours–which were led by the Police’s reunion jaunt, which grossed $131.9 million–made a total of $996 million, a number that’s down 15% from last year’s top 20 total.
THE GOOD: Despite being shut out of rock radio formats that aren’t saddled with the word “classic,” the aging rock fan still has a place in the big-ticket music industry because he can still spend money. Namely, on tours by classic-rock staples like Genesis, Roger Waters, and Van Halen. OK, this isn’t “the good” as much as it is “the obvious,” but hey, something has to keep the music business hoping that its next gasp for air is slightly worth it, right?
THE BAD: Miley “Hannah Montana” Cyrus–one of only two musicians on the list under the age of 25*–comes in at No. 15, which seems low until you remember that it was the low price of tickets on the legal market (they averaged $54 a seat) that led to the sellouts, the “secondary market” freakouts, and the 400-pound Miley Cyrus statues.
THE WHAAA? Not that I like Genesis all that much, but it has to smart that their big reunion tour (which made $47.6 million) was outgrossed by the umpteenth leg of Rod Freaking Stewart’s “Trampling On Any Legacy I Still Have Left” jaunt ($49 million).
* The other: Wolfgang Van Halen. You forgot about him, didn’t you?
Just when you think Kelly Rowland’s year–which was so bad, her Clash Of The Choirs appearance might actually be one of its highlights–can’t get any worse, it does: She’s now giving away tickets to her upcoming show at the House Of Blues in Atlantic City. More »
One would think that, what with this being the era of the ever-hoisted cameraphone, musicians and their “people” would encourage professional photographers to spend as much time angling for the perfect–or, at the very least, not pixelated!–shot as they possibly could. But one would be wrong; for example, photogs working Saturday night’s Stevie Wonder show at Madison Square Garden were apparently only allowed to shoot the first five to 10 seconds of Stevie’s entrance and the first 60 seconds of his first song before they had to get up and out. And photographers at other shows have noticed that the time they’re given to shoot shows has gone down, even as restrictions on the masses bringing in their own cameras have been loosened:
Not content with letting Lollapalooza promotion company C3 stake a three-day festival claim in Philadelphia, Live Nation has petitioned the city’s Fairmount Park Commission for a -palooza of its own. More »
From a pre-Lollapalooza article in the Chicago Tribune on the first-aid staffs at concerts: “Dr. Jeff Grange, professor of emergency medicine at Loma Linda University in Southern California, said most of the medical situations seen at an Ozzfest concert in mid-July were related to violent dancing. More »
This weekend, two huge summer festivals–Lollapalooza, at Chicago’s Grant Park, and the Virgin Festival, at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course–are taking place, a curious quirk of scheduling that has resulted in the nation’s outdoor-loving music fans to make Big Decisions. While fans of Interpol, Amy Winehouse, Modest Mouse, and TV On The Radio could go to either festival (if Richard Branson was smart, he’d set up a Virgin America-branded shuttle for bands playing both shows), those hoping to hear other artists weren’t so lucky. If you’re still on the fence about where your travel budget for the summer should go, we pit the festivals against each other, head-to-head style, after the jump:
Hey, remember Social@Ross, the $15,000-a-ticket concert series that allowed Hamptons types to sit on ottomans and suck down top-shelf cocktails while they listened to live shows by Prince, James Taylor, Tom Petty, Dave Matthews, and Billy Joel? You may be surprised to hear it, but tickets aren’t selling very well–even though only 1,000 were going to be made available! At least that’s what we’re guessing from this e-mail that went out to the Dave Matthews Band’s fan club and made its way to Bob Lefsetz’s inbox. It’s hawking tickets to this Saturday night’s show for the Crazy-Eddie-low price of $250 a pop. (For those of you who don’t feel like doing the math, that’s a 92% discount–and you still get free parking!)
Opening last night’s Poison show (fun, pyro-filled, CC apparently fluish) was the Swedish heavy-metal outfit Vains of Jenna: Think Buckcherry only with everyone dressing ca. the Sunset Strip in 1989, led by a singer who seemed to have learned his stage patter from the Hives’ Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist. At one point, the frontman–named Lizzy DeVine–pleaded with the crowd to buy some merch because the band was, and I quote, “fucking broke,” and since their set was quite enjoyable, I figured I’d help them out. But the only items available were T-shirts and keychains, and there wasn’t a CD (or even a CD single) to be found among them. What?
Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times reviewed the first night of Prince’s stint at Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel; in addition to performing two full sets and hugging Penelope Cruz, Prince managed to drive away some of hip-hop’s biggest names:
Only one awkward moment emerged during Prince’s forays into the crowd. He approached the daunting bunch on what could have been dubbed the “hip-hop power couch” — it included Diddy, Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, Erykah Badu and Nas, among others — and tried to hand the microphone to Nas.
