Summer Cancelled Shows

[SuiteMadameBlue]

I'm back - LOL

A wonderful friend passed this article to me. It's very interesting about shows recently cancelled by bands and singers. The "Styx" reference has been highlighted. Hmmm, very interesting. There are other bands mentioned in here that a few of you like too.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Sa ... 1776093440

Richmond Times-Dispatch
Summertime blues
A raft of cancellations deflates concertgoer's enthusiasm
MELISSA RUGGIERI
MUSIC CRITIC
Thursday, June 17, 2004


Josh Groban got sick and canceled his Landmark Theater show in April.

Understandable. It happens.

Van Halen was announced for a June 15 stop at the Richmond Coliseum, then days after it went on sale, the show was unceremoniously yanked and relocated to Buffalo.

Fine. We wanted to see David Lee Roth anyway.

You thought that was bad?

Then came Fleetwood Mac's canceled Nissan Pavilion concert in May.

The Darkness tour kickoff postponed at the Harbor Center on June 2.

Last Sunday's Maze appearance nixed at Paramount's Kings Dominion.

Yesterday's Aerosmith concert at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater canned (for the third time in four years).

Tuesday's Styx-Peter Frampton-Nelson concert at Kings Dominion has said goodbye and the June 26 Courtney Love train wreck at the NorVa is being "postponed."

And finally, for now, take a deep breath, folks - Britney Spears won't visit Nissan Pavilion, Virginia Beach or anywhere else this summer.

Yeesh. Was it something I said? Or did some promoter wake up one day and decide that Virginia isn't really for lovers or major summer concerts?

Usually, when it's announced that a show is canceled due to "illness" or "routing problems," the real reason is that no one besides the band's third cousins bought tickets. That could be an underlying factor for the PKD triple bill of Styx, Frampton and Nelson, a tour that has struggled nationally. See what happens without Dennis DeYoung?

Keri Lee, a marketing assistant for the House of Blues Southeast office in Atlanta, which is handling the booking of several PKD shows this summer, says that to her knowledge, routing issues really are to blame for Styx and Maze.

"Maze had strong ticket sales, and we found out [about the cancellation] from our corporate office on Friday and the show was that Sunday. I wish there was something we could do about it."

At this point, neither concert is expected to be rescheduled. However, the June 24-26 Christian-themed Kingsfest (not an HOB production) and the July 22 "Nashville Star" concerts at PKD are still on.

Sickness was the real culprit for Fleetwood Mac - singer Stevie Nicks reportedly fell ill, causing the cancellations of several dates, including Nissan - as well as Aerosmith (Steven Tyler is suffering from throat problems) and Spears, who called off the remainder of her tour on Tuesday when doctors determined her recent arthroscopic knee surgery will take four months of recovery.

At least that gives her plenty of time to visit Vegas and hobble down the aisle again.

Oh, and hey, let's not forget Courtney Love, who, shockingly, has postponed her entire tour - including a June 26 date at the NorVa in Norfolk - while she sorts through her legal tangles. When I bought tickets to that show several weeks ago, in the back of my mind I already made backup plans to drive to Atlantic City, N.J., to see Velvet Revolver, John Mayer, Fountains of Wayne and The Darkness perform at a special concert that weekend at The Borgata casino. Finally, a gamble that worked in my favor.

And speaking of The Darkness, the Brits' tour launch at the Harbor Center was canceled at the last moment due to no fault of the band. The roof of the building - destroyed during Hurricane Isabel - wasn't quite finished. But Bill Reid, president of Rising Tide Productions, which books the Harbor Center and the NorVa, is hopeful the show will be rescheduled when the band returns to the United States in September.

Look at it this way: If you planned to go to the Styx-Frampton-Nelson show, perhaps tonight's Beach Boys appearance at Innsbrook Pavilion will satisfy your nostalgic craving (FYI, the only real Boys on the bill are Mike Love and Bruce Johnston).

If you hoped to watch Britney lip-synch for 90 minutes, a possible alternative is Jessica Simpson at Nissan on Saturday. Except with her, you almost wish she would lip-synch if it meant toning down the histrionics.

And for you rockers still clamoring for a dose of cranking guitars, well, Jimmie's Chicken Shack is no Aerosmith, but the Annapolis-based band can rawk with the best of them - and will do so tomorrow on Brown's Island at Friday Cheers. For free.

That being the case, it doesn't even matter if the band shows up.


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Contact Melissa Ruggieri at (804) 649-6120 or mruggieri@timesdispatch.com

[bugsymalone]

Thanks, Suite, for this very "revealing" article.

I know it depends on the venue and area. It also depends on how much this has all been run into the ground too. I think the latter may be more of the problem with what Styx is doing now.

That said, they are getting decent audiences for some of this tour, no question.

But, then, so did Dennis, and he was doing it all by himself.

Bugsy

[SuiteMadameBlue]

I agree, it depends on the venue and area. It's just not the current Styx, it's many bands.

I personally think that the current Styx is touring cities that are too close to each other and too often. Like I've said before in many posts, this summer I could see Styx 5 times close to my house. Last year it was 7 times. I've read on a couple other boards that some of the fans are getting a little tired of the same songs. I'm sure this is the same with other "classic" rockers that tour.

[classicstyxfan]

"Routing problems", eh ? I suppose when you can't rout enough fans to the ticket office it messes up the entire operation...

could the following appear on the Styxworld website soon ?

"Hello Friends !

Last nights show at ( insert name of city here ) was awesome
the crowd was Really pumped up......all 63 of you made it a show we will never forget !"

[Adam]

My take on it is this: Styx has been touring almost NON-STOP for 5 years. In that time they stopped by Germany for a week, same with Japan, BUT THE REST OF THE TIME THEY'VE BEEN PLAYING ONLY IN THE USA.

I say they are, for whatever ridiculous reasons, oversaturating their market. They've probably toured more than ANY of the other acts mentioned in that article. Face it, if you keep coming around every six months, playing "Miss America", "Renegade" and "Come Sail Away" over and over, eventually everyone who had ever wanted to see Styx live will have (and then some). Fans will decide they have spent enough money. No matter HOW good the show is.

Styx' manager used to manage Lynrd Skynrd. What's THAT tell you?

Styx has become like an endlessly touring Country-Rock-Oldies act, foolishly depleting their audience, as if there'll be no tomorrow. Either their manager wants to make as much commision as he can before he's fired, or Tommy and JY are broke and need money to keep up their rock star lifestyles.

Having said all that, it's STILL a great show.

[styxfanNH]

The Doswell show was a weird show on the tour. It released much later than other shows in the area. Also, i think 3 shows in VA mighta been a bit much.

Its not just Styx cancelling shows, there are many bands cancelling various venues. But I would not be surprised if ticket sales had a part in the cancellation. On the other hand sales seem to be spiradick depending on the venue with some venues packed and others not. Regardless of ticket sales, it doesn't seem that they have cancelled tix due to poor sales, instead it seems like they have just sucked it up and played.

It is still s great rock show when they come regardless of how many times you've seen them. For me it is hearing the music live, not recorded that brings me to a concert.

[NIGHTRANGERFAN]

Damn, over a year since my last post, and the one thing I could always count on, a rhetoric-laced pro-Dennis rant, is nowhere to be found. I wish he would weigh in on this one. I went to the Styx show in Charlotte, North Carolina, and let me tell you...it was a great show, but there was no-one there.

[ek88]

Face it, if you keep coming around every six months, playing "Miss America", "Renegade" and "Come Sail Away" over and over, eventually everyone who had ever wanted to see Styx live will have (and then some). Fans will decide they have spent enough money. No matter HOW good the show is.

Very true. I know the last time I saw them, I essentially waited for the Cyclomedley, as there were no other surprises to be had in the setlist from the previous shows I had attended.

Either their manager wants to make as much commision as he can before he's fired, or Tommy and JY are broke and need money to keep up their rock star lifestyles.

I don't know about JY, but I really think Tommy is a touraholic. I'd like to think that they've figured out how to manage money by this point in their lives, but you never know. Surely all this touring will provide comfortable retirement years, at the very least.

[bugsymalone]

This article below is courtesy of a friend who alerted me to it. Thanks friend.

It is from the Rocky Mountain News, I believe.

It very much applies to this particular subject.

Bugsy



Mark Brown: Concert business singing the blues

June 26, 2004

Some huge tours are out there. Madonna is not coming here, but her shows are selling out and pulling down $2 million a night.
Prince is the other tour this year with a string of sellouts (including one sold out and one nearly sold out at the Pepsi Center), bringing him nearly $1 million a night.
But much of the rest of the industry is near dead, as evidenced by this week's cancellation of the Lollapalooza tour before a single note was played.
"We may well see a few more tour cancellations before the summer is over," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar magazine. "As usual, we put way too many people on the road for the summer. It forces people to make choices, and sometimes that choice is to not see someone they've recently seen."
The concerts seeming to do the worst business are the ones coming through for the second, third or even fourth time in recent years: Kiss, Fleetwood Mac, Styx.
But even the heavily touted Van Halen reunion show has been on sale for weeks, yet fans can still get tickets in the lower bowl of the Pepsi Center, 14 rows from the stage.
At press time, last night's Travis Tritt concert at Universal Lending Pavilion had plenty of seats available, 11th-row center.
Every year has its slow pockets, but promoters are seeing a different trend this year - people just aren't buying.
"Right around tax day, April 15, ticket sales started to dry up," Bongiovanni says. Industry reports say sales have gone flat in all genres and all price levels.
"It varies on the product. Madonna is selling out everywhere with a very high ticket price," says Don Law, Clear Channel Entertainment's Boston-based co-CEO and chairman of music.
"It may be just one too many times coming through the marketplace," Law says. "The last five to seven years the artists have pushed the ticket price a bit too aggressively."
Promoters are trying to fight back with varied results. A discounted two-day pass to Denver's Lollapalooza date didn't help sales. Clear Channel venues in other markets are doing an all-lawn-seats-for-$20 push. House of Blues has been having a two-for-Tuesday deal, with two- for-one tickets to virtually every show they're putting on in Denver.
"We are doing OK. Red Rocks is doing as well as ever. At Universal Lending Pavilion, there are some light shows. But we're doing OK in a very tough summer," says Chuck Morris, Clear Channel's vice president for Colorado.
All the promoters in Denver are "selling a lot of tickets if you add everybody's up, but the ticket price is too high and there are too many acts," Morris says. "Instead of 5,000 you'll do 3,500, and that's the difference between winning and losing."
Despite the nationwide slump, "we're coming off a good week where we had a virtual sellout with Bill Maher at the Paramount, and with our partners, 41,000- plus tickets for the Dead," says House of Blues's Denver chief Jim McCue. "We're continuing to market our shows. We've got some promotions going on with your newspaper."
The slack summer has brought up the controversial practice again of "papering the house," giving away tickets, just to get bodies in the seats. Performers often want it to avoid the embarrassment of playing to only a few rows. The promoter often wants it to make profit off beer and food sales. It can bring in money on shows that are doing poorly, but some feel it can hurt in the long run by letting fans get used to free tickets.
Morris jokes, "My dad always said 'Some people let short-term greed get in the way of long-term greed.' "
The House of Blues-booked Coors Amphitheatre (formerly Fiddler's Green) is the largest summer venue in Denver, and has seen more papering through the years than any other place.
McCue declined to discuss specific numbers, which have been in the thousands in the past.
"The Styx show utilized some tickets for one particular charity that we supported," McCue says. "Our philosophy is to (do so) when we can support a charity or a corporate partner with a limited amount of tickets."
(The Denver Newspaper Agency, which runs business operations for the Rocky Mountain News, is one such partner and News employees and readers have received some of those tickets.)
" . . . in the long run it's gonna stop the consumer from buying tickets. It will be the death of this business," Morris says.
"It's my understanding from seeing certain numbers that (Coors Amphitheatre) has made an art form of giving away tickets. I think it's killing their amphitheater, it's killing the business, it's killing the golden goose of concert-promoting," says Morris.
Papering is common across the country, Bongiovanni says.
"There is a danger to it in that if you train your audience to the fact that there are gonna be ways to get tickets for free or at very little cost, it really discourages advance ticket buying," Bongiovanni says.
Clear Channel in the past has papered its shows, particularly when it was trying to get the Universal Lending Pavilion off the ground two seasons ago. Now that it is established, that has stopped, Morris says.
"When we have some empty space we take care of radio stations and clients and friends, but as far as the mass public is concerned, absolutely not," he says.
"We've shied away from it. We think there are pretty negative results from that," says Law. "It's not fair to consumers who have bought the ticket."
On the upside, McCue says, the slumping year means fans can get good half-price seats to many shows that in previous years were tough tickets - Fleetwood Mac, Ozzfest, Linkin Park and more.
"You can get a seat still. There are tickets to those shows to suit everybody's budget," he says.
Rough road
Tours doing well:
• Madonna
• Prince
• Kenny Chesney
• Shania Twain
• Jimmy Buffett
• Allman Brothers

Tours that are struggling:
• Van Halen
• Lollapalooza (now canceled)
• Alanis Morissette/
Barenaked Ladies
• Kiss
• Norah Jones

[Eric]

I'm not as big of a Styx fan as most of you, therefore my knowledge level isn't as high, but I do truly believe that Styx has oversaturated the market. For example, I live in Western NY, and they have played within 3 hours of me off the top of my head approximately a dozen times this century. Journey by comparison has played 8 or 9 times in 6 years. And within 1.5 hours the numbers are probably more like 7 or 8 for Styx and 3 or 4 for Journey.

Also, despite probably putting on the best show last summer in the Main Event tour, I think they really need Journey more than Journey would need them...AND....they have become known as being with REO, so I think this year's triple bill seems kinda weak to the average concert goer....