Hey Ian. That comment wasn't aimed at you! Having seen Guapo in France I didn't have you down as an offender!
That said, I'd love to get our collective asses Stateside.
All of them.
I remember an interview from a couple of years ago with Ian Gillan. He was asked why Purple doesn't come to the U.S. more often and he said that the audiences were too small. While Purple could sell out 15,000 seaters in South America, Europe and Asia they couldn't get anywhere near those numbers in the U.S. So if visa problems don't bite you on the backside, the apathy of U.S audiences will.
Bill
She'll be standing on the bar soon
With a fish head and a harpoon
and a fake beard plastered on her brow.
I can't picture touring Europe being less expensive than North Am in terms of costs and logistics.... Sure, Europe is more densely populated ** (so travelling between gigs might be shorter... If the tour is well organized), but transport costs are that much more expensive over here than in the US
Now I have no ideas on how tough and expensive are US visas and temporary work permits (furthermore , if you have to double up with Canada)
** Though this is debatable too, because the North East: from Boston to Detroit (or even Chicago) and Toronto/Montreal to Washington, the numbers are probably equivalent to European figures
Last edited by Trane; 12-06-2015 at 03:20 AM.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
^^ I think I'm probably wrong about that. I thought I'd heard it years ago in an interview. Apparently Martin's wife and his son's wife are both from Mississippi. I think they now live in Britain.
Billy Joel came up with the best answer...... he plays Madison Square Garden once or twice a month.
instead of going to the fans- the fans come to him.
Elvis was one of the first "rock n roll" artists to do it, but people like Frank Sinatra had been doing it for years before him.
Branson features more than just country artists. I understand there's a lot of sort of MOR type pop singers and jazz musicians and even comedians who do shows there.
I'm not sure if he's still doing it, but some friends of mine who used to live in St Louis told me that Chuck Berry does a concert once a month in a club he owns there.
Because we don't tour internationally we've had people come from Japan, Ireland, Netherlands and the US to see us - mostly at festivals but because they can see a load of their favourites in one swoop. I think the event/festival type gig is probably the future and just a few gigs a year. I mean i'd love to tour loads but i don't think it's realistic for niche bands.
But the tour consists of a small handful of dates that don't often expand beyond driving distance from PA. I have been patiently waiting for a return to the west coast since 1983 (they cancelled those dates). But snark aside, I get that it is cost prohibitive to tour especially beyond the population clusters of the Mid Atlantic unless you have significant financial resources. You would think that someone might be able to arrange for a live pay per view podcast of a local small club performance. It's not a perfect solution, but it might expand attendance from under served portions of the States (or Europe and South America for that matter). I know it is not the same as the visceral experience as being there, but might be more cost effective than a DVD release. Now someone with more insight might be able to shed light on technical, legal, licensing and logistic issues with the proposal (like YouTube piracy!), but it also could be a way to see your favorite semi-obscure band play live. Am I living in a delusional state?
"So it goes."
-Kurt Vonnegut
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