5 things we learned this morning about The Stone Roses and Irish gigonomics
Jim Carroll
(1) Not even reformed Manc baggy legends can buck the Irish recession. The era of instant sell-outs for big outdoor shows and festivals is well and truly over – unless you’re Take That. People are leaving it closer to the date to buy tickets for shows, though they might still do the Ticketmaster 8am waltz for indoor gigs where there is a finite capacity and they feel the show might sell fast.
(2) One of the most consistent questions asked prior to the Phoenix Park show going on sale related to the capacity of the field. Gigs at the Phoenix Park can range in capacity from 40,000 to 100,000 so a lot of punters felt they were buying a bit of a pig in a poke as there’s a huge difference between a 40k and 100k show. The only figure I heard was 36,000 which Paul McLoone mentioned twice or three times on his Today FM show last night. Emails and tweets to MCD asking about capacity for the show have gone unanswered to date.
(3) It’s going to take more than organising radio competitions and generating press hype from promoter-friendly journos to shift tickets. Promoters are going to have to actually learn how to promote shows and this means more than just sending out press releases, taking out ads and lining up interviews with the band’s drummer. Time for some innovative thinking, gig promoters.
(4) Are The Stone Roses really that much of a big deal anyway? A handful of decent albums and live shows which went from amazing (well, at the beginning of their career) to downright appalling (the rest of their career) may not be enough in the end to sustain a big show in the Phoenix Park.
(5) Maybe they’d have done better on day one if they had put a decent bill together. But such a support cast is going to cost cash which may not have been budgeted for to begin with. Speaking of which, was Noel Gallagher always in the frame for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ show in Croker or is that a touch of desperation for a show which is not yet sold out (he’s not doing any other show on the tour)? Amanda Brunker, get emailing Dinny, you might get another gig yet.
Turns Into Stone and Second Coming are both excellent, regardless of how they compare to the debut album.
Stone Roses not selling out is surprising, I’d love to know what the actual sales were.
The price was decent enough for a gig these days, and hopefully a decent support act is included (Happy Mondays are due to reform, I’d love to see The Charlatans again as someone else mentioned).
For the many of us who have had to tolerate tribute bands, this is great news. Lets hope it actually happens.
The fact that Take That, Bieber, Jedward, Miley Cyrus etc would sell out says everything you need to know about Irish underappreciation of talent.
I dont care if there`s 36000 or 36 people at the Gig,I will be there.
Saw them in Cork in 95 and saw Ian Brown in Waterford in 03 or 04.
Absolute legends.
Looking forward to going back to happier times when no-one gave a shit about House Prices,Recessions or Bank Bail outs (at least for one night).
BTW it doesn`t really matter how big their back catalogue is,the music they did release is legendary.
@ 51
The people that buy tickets for Take That , Bieber , Jedward & Miley Cyrus know the square root of fuck all about music……or talent .
”Are The Stone Roses really that much of a big deal anyway?”
Yes, they are.
The gig is now sold out, 45,000 capacity.
Gig sold out. Not immediately admittedly, but the Stone Roses are still a big deal!
Yet another Jim Carroll article shown up as utter bs, gig sold out and the Roses are still king…
Se, me old duck, can you point out where above I said something which hasn’t turned out to be true or, to quote your good self, which could seen as “utter bs”?
I’ll go through each one of the five points individually in case there are any other slow learners like yourself reading this.
Point 1, as stated clearly above, gig did not sell out on day one.
Point 2, official capacity figure was not confirmed until days after tickets went on sale, despite many media outlets requesting this (as above).
Point 3, promoters have to work harder to shift those tickets – indeed, some of the more cynical observers would say the promoters had to cancel Oxegen to make sure this one sold out pre-Xmas (though OTR is not that cynical).
Point 4, don’t really think they’re that much of a special deal – Take That did 180,000 tix in a few hours last year – but I accept this is my opinion and some will think otherwise.
Point 5, a decent bill would have ensured that the show sold out on the morning it went on sale and that the promoters could then have announced the second show they had on hold (the show they had radio ads already recorded for).
Now, like I said, what exactly are you on about? Methinks the mince pies and Brussels sprouts over the Christmas have done something to your eyesight or you have a very different definion of “utter bs” to everyone else.
Happy new year, dude.
@ Jim 57
I think your clarification on point 4 says more about the state of popular music in Ireland than it does of the Stone Roses. Take That added three additional dates to their UK tour, and one to their Ireland ‘tour’. Given there is a 10x population multiplier between the two geographical markets, it seems we have a hell of a lot of Take That fans in Ireland. Stone Roses in the same sentence as Take That is not comparing apples with apples. Who else could shift 180,000 tickets in Ireland? U2? They mightn’t bank on it at the moment…..
As for point 3, yes prmotoers will have to work harder to shift gig tickets in the general, but for the advertised Stone Roses gig, they apparently haven’t had to.
As for point 3, yes prmotoers will have to work harder to shift gig tickets in the general, but for the advertised Stone Roses gig, they apparently haven’t had to.
karl – MCD had a second show ready to go on the morning the first Stone Roses’ show went on sale – they even had the “due to overwhelming popular demand” radio ads done to be aired once 40k tickets had been sold. The failure to sell that first show out has had a big knock-on effect on their plans for Phoenix Park 2012 – if they’d worked harder to begin with (putting together a strong support bill for instance), the show would have gone in a flash and they’d have probably done 20-30% on the second show in pre-Xmas sales. Promoters can’t take anything for granted anymore.
Jim, point taken, but we can only buy tickets for the gigs we actually know are on. For this gig, the 45,000 tickets have been sold (so we’ve been told), and that to me appears to have been done with little or no promotion – which doesn’t correlate with your original point – which was a general comment in relation to gigs and promoters (as I interpreted it).
If there was meant to be a ‘Second Coming’, and it hasn’t gone on sale, then that reflects demand I suppose, particularly if a second one is not announced. It does seem no-one was waiting around for the second gig to appear anyway, and bought up the tickets for the one that was on, and without a support act advertised. Perhaps the promoters could have sold more tickets/gigs with support announced, but perhaps the promoters were happy to shift one of the seven potential Phoenix Park gigs without having to spend reams on promotion – perhaps they are finally getting to grips with the market realities.
I’m not at all surprised to hear they had ‘due to phenomenal demand’ ads at the ready, they probably had a ‘best live act in the world’ one to. They seem to have one of those for everybody these days…….
However, your point about promoters needing to work harder still applies – and they need to be more clever too. Yes, holding out on the venue cpacity may have been clever, or perhaps they were simply disorganised. The Roses gig might well have been a water tester to see what the appetite for Phoenix Park gigs might be, for whatever act. This is perhaps finallly some realism being displayed by promoters of outdoor city gigs following from Marlay Parks rather indifferent batch of gigs last summer.
Karl – I guess we’ll only know if it’s really sold out if we don’t have any rash of “production tickets” going on sale between now and next July!