Re: Greatest Hits Tour?
Robbie Robinson ([email protected])
Sat, 12 Sep 1998 21:48:22 -0700
[email protected] wrote:
>
> <And wouldn't just the same amount of fans be complaining now.
> <It'd just be a different part of the fan group that liked the songs they
> played.
> I don't know what you getting at with "played to death on the radio, too".
> Back when I even took the trouble to listen to the radio they only played
> the same 3 or 4 U2 songs from JT. The only time they played anything else
> was when a single came out and they were touring. That would disappear from
> the play list after in went down the charts, never be heard again, then
> it'd be back to the same 3 or 4 songs from JT. I can't even understand why
> anybody listens to the radio any more. It's sooo irritating and boring.
> As for them being played to death on every tour, well, you've got to realize
> that your not the normal person that goes to U2 concerts. Most of them only
> go to one show and most of them probably don't own a closet full of
> bootlegs of every U2 show ever recorded. Realize it, your a freak.
> U2 dosen't structure their shows to please the likes of you.
>
> Robbie
>
> Your not getting my point. People expressed hopes of a greatest hits tour.
> What I was saying is why would they tour with the soon to be released greatest
> hits record, when they did over 70% of what's on it this tour!!
> As for normal people who go to just one show, remember the numbers involved.
> Guess there aren't that many "normal" people out there. How many shows
> weren't sold out, or not even close to sold out? They saturated the NY area.
> The first show was sold out, the second almost was. The third was so bad,
> that they moved everyone who bought tickets down to the first level, gave away
> the second leve; to radio stations to give away. Several of the stations
> around here said they had so many, they weren't even making a call in contest
> for them, Just come by and pick them up. They shut down the third level.
> If they can't fill stadiums (with normal fans, or freaks who have been a
> fan for 17 yrs, has seen more shows than they can count, and has enough shows
> on audio and video to even keep track of), with a new record and old hits, why
> would they tour with just a greatest hits record, with no new material out in
> the public?
> I wasn't knocking the tour, the GH thing, or U2 in general. I was merely
> stating in a long winded way that a Greatest hits tour is something we are
> highly unlikely to see with this CD.
Nobody with half a brain would ever think they'd do a tour on
the Greatest Hits album.
Just don't go off into the all the shows weren't sold out
thing. That was played to death on Wire last year.
One thing U2 usually does is add another show if the first one
sells out fast. If the second one sells out and some people are
still looking for tickets they'll add another one that never sells
out. It's not a really new thing. They just want to get everybody
in that want's to see them. We also kicked around their disinclination
to tour for two years in 1997. This involved playing one night
and getting everyone into the stadium that wanted to see them in
that one night. If it required them renting a stadium that was too
large for them to fill in that area, well, they did. They have famalies
and they ain't as young as they use to be. No more two year tours was
something they decided.
You seem to forget that in the year end stats for 1997 in Billboard,
that U2 sold more tickets in the USA than any other tour that year.
The Rolling Stones only grossed more dollars because they charged
more per ticket.
Figure that into your take on U2 inabality to fill stadiums and
you might see that something else more complicated is going on
in America in relationship to rock and rock concerts. All you have
to do is watch MTV to figure that out. It's more bands that U2 that've
seen a drop in popularity in the USA. I blame it a lot on the kind
of albums the record companies are choosing to promote and the
way record companies and MTV are promoting (or not promoting)
them. My only hope is that we've been in this crap music
cycle here for several years now and it *must* be time for a
change to take place (Oh God! I hope!).
Robbie
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on Sun Sep 13 1998 - 21:54:57 PDT