UK bands NOT playing Ireland

paddylonglegs

Just been looking through the gig dates of some high profile brit bands like Vaccines, Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club etc and none of them have Dublin dates for their tours. Is their any reason for this? Most of them are doing full UK tours and european tours but Ireland not getting a sniff. Is it a case that they announce these quite late normally?

nxbyveromdwjpg

The Vaccines are supporting the Arctic Monkeys on this tour and I've been waiting on a Dublin announcement but it doesnt appear to be coming alright.

Wasted at crappy Oxegen :mad:

It is odd though, you'd think they'd slot an o2 date straight in, it'd actually mirror 2009 where they played the same week as Kasabian. Pity.

Furious-Red

Id say maybe AM are worried that if they played Ireland again they might night sell out the O2 or tickets might not sell well??? Could be wrong though .

The reason bands dont always tour here on every tour is because they dont wanna wear out their welcome , because if they do say 3 UK tours in they year and play dublin/belfast each time people might not bother go see them each time. Since the UK is way bigger bands can afford to do more tours there than Ireland

paddylonglegs

nm wrote: »

Wasted at crappy Oxegen :mad:

agree

Furious-Red wrote: »

Id say maybe AM are worried that if they played Ireland again they might night sell out the O2 or tickets might not sell well??? Could be wrong though .

The reason bands dont always tour here on every tour is because they dont wanna wear out their welcome , because if they do say 3 UK tours in they year and play dublin/belfast each time people might not bother go see them each time. Since the UK is way bigger bands can afford to do more tours there than Ireland

I wouldn't expect festival headliners to give 100% at festivals and that they would have a slightly different setlist for gigs they play where they have a core fanbase, i.e lesser known crowd pleasers. Hence, an irish date six months after a brit band has done the festivals shouldn't be out of the ordinary. Especially after bringing out a new album this year surely they will want to showcase this

Furious-Red

Furious-Red wrote: »

Id say maybe AM are worried that if they played Ireland again they might night sell out the O2 or tickets might not sell well??? Could be wrong though .

The reason bands dont always tour here on every tour is because they dont wanna wear out their welcome , because if they do say 3 UK tours in they year and play dublin/belfast each time people might not bother go see them each time. Since the UK is way bigger bands can afford to do more tours there than Ireland

I agree, but I always think it's funny they only ever see Dublin and Belfast as the places to play. Cork is quite nice too! And the Savoy is a fair big room!

paddylonglegs

Deleted User wrote: »

I agree, but I always think it's funny they only ever see Dublin and Belfast as the places to play. Cork is quite nice too! And the Savoy is a fair big room!

you might get your wish if oxegen moves there next year

honru

I think the problem with Cork is the population is too small to justify going down there considering the distance there and back. As opposed to Dublin and Belfast that are less than two hours drive from each other and close to ferry links.

Arctic Monkeys played the O2 in 2009 and Oxegen less than three months ago... surely that's enough for now?

ItsAWindUp

Deleted User wrote: »

I agree, but I always think it's funny they only ever see Dublin and Belfast as the places to play. Cork is quite nice too! And the Savoy is a fair big room!

The Savoy is a fantastic venue for a gig, really intimate.

Furious-Red

paddylonglegs wrote: »

you might get your wish if oxegen moves there next year

Dont we hear that every year? Id say the reason Punchestown works so well is because its close to Dublin , Dublin Airport , Dublin Port . Once people get on the motorway its handy to get to depending on traffic you can be in Naas within an hour

paddylonglegs

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

Arctic Monkeys played the O2 in 2009 and Oxegen less than three months ago... surely that's enough for now?

Haha fair enough freak, however new album out etc...

Thread wasn't based towards solely on AM, but more about general large UK bands

ned rierson

vaccines dj'ing in town tonight

paddylonglegs

ned rierson wrote: »

vaccines dj'ing in town tonight

ah Jayzus, I'll just shut the f**k up then

the_doctor199

Furious-Red wrote: »

Dont we hear that every year? Id say the reason Punchestown works so well is because its close to Dublin , Dublin Airport , Dublin Port . Once people get on the motorway its handy to get to depending on traffic you can be in Naas within an hour

Very true. Put it any further south and you lose a lot of the crowd from the north too.

Furious-Red

the_doctor199 wrote: »

Very true. Put it any further south and you lose a lot of the crowd from the north too.

Yea at the motorway from Belfast/Northern Ireland is a lot easier now

O'Doodle

Put Oxegen in Cork and even the ones from Dublin wouldn't go to it!

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f®eak s©enery wrote: »

Arctic Monkeys played the O2 in 2009 and Oxegen less than three months ago... surely that's enough for now?

No, its not. Oxegen is a load of ****e and they are touring a different album to 2009. They are due a gig here.

Riesen_Meal

My 2 cents -

Taxes - the main reason why most these bands play other countries and the odd Irish show as they have to pay massive taxes over here and in most cases it ain't worth their while...

honru

nm wrote: »

No, its not. Oxegen is a load of ****e and they are touring a different album to 2009. They are due a gig here.

...which they played at Oxegen.

Yes, Oxegen isn't the ideal scenario for a lot of people but that's where they chose to play and I can't see an O2 gig selling too well so soon after. A headline gig some time next year would make a lot more sense.

One reason I figure a lot of acts skip Dublin (pops up again and again) is the lack of a mid-sized venue. Too big for The Olympia, too small for the O2.

Furious-Red

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

...which they played at Oxegen.

Yes, Oxegen isn't the ideal scenario for a lot of people but that's where they chose to play and I can't see an O2 gig selling too well so soon after. A headline gig some time next year would make a lot more sense.

One reason I figure a lot of acts skip Dublin (pops up again and again) is the lack of a mid-sized venue. Too big for The Olympia, too small for the O2.

That is one of the bigger problems imo . There are bands that can sell out the olympia a few times but the only choice is to play the O2 and maybe sell about 1/3 of the ticket sales needed and basically play to an empty arena:mad: . The only time i have actually seen that happen was 30 seconds to mars last year . If someone either put money into the RDS or even Citywest it would be sorted

Fi H

I think its the fact they wont necessarily sell out over here cause the ticket prices are so high! Its nearly as cheap to get ryanair flights to london & buy a ticket to see some bands there than it is to just buy the tickets here!

I've noticed a lot of the bigger gigs these days are still advertising tickets for sale up til very close to the date whereas traditionally they might have sold out within a week of going on sale.

nxbyveromdwjpg

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

...which they played at Oxegen.

Yes, Oxegen isn't the ideal scenario for a lot of people but that's where they chose to play and I can't see an O2 gig selling too well so soon after. A headline gig some time next year would make a lot more sense.

One reason I figure a lot of acts skip Dublin (pops up again and again) is the lack of a mid-sized venue. Too big for The Olympia, too small for the O2.

They did the UK festival circuit with Leeds, Reading, V, T in the Park and wherever else and followed that up with their own arena tour in November. This is fairly common routine as I'm sure you know.
Given then the UK arena tour follows a UK festival tour, the circumstances are exactly the same. Dublin has been left out of the arena tour. Hence, I reckon "they are due a gig here".

Not sure if you're still referring to that specific example but venue size between Olympia and o2 shouldn't relevant for them either, they sold out Malahide Castle 25k capacity x 2 nights, so surely 14k at the o2 isn't that much of risk.

Fi H - on the ticket prices, the main reasons that seem to crop up for that in similar threads are usually are travel expense, tax, general higher cost associated here.. but then if that's the case I can't see how we get Kasabian tickets @ €35 and Pearl Jam tickets at €48, yet others are up at the €70 - €80 mark in the same venue with the same expenses. I doubt Kasabian or Pearl Jam and their entourage work for free so that's obviously rubbish.

honru

nm wrote: »

They did the UK festival circuit with Leeds, Reading, V, T in the Park and wherever else and followed that up with their own arena tour in November. This is fairly common routine as I'm sure you know.
Given then the UK arena tour follows a UK festival tour, the circumstances are exactly the same. Dublin has been left out of the arena tour. Hence, I reckon "they are due a gig here".

Not sure if you're still referring to that specific example but venue size between Olympia and o2 shouldn't relevant for them either, they sold out Malahide Castle 25k capacity x 2 nights, so surely 14k at the o2 isn't that much of risk.

That is a typical routine however we're not part of the UK, so the circumstances are not entirely similar. Hence why, for whatever reason, they're skipping Ireland this time round.

Furious-Red

nm wrote: »

They did the UK festival circuit with Leeds, Reading, V, T in the Park and wherever else and followed that up with their own arena tour in November. This is fairly common routine as I'm sure you know.
Given then the UK arena tour follows a UK festival tour, the circumstances are exactly the same. Dublin has been left out of the arena tour. Hence, I reckon "they are due a gig here".

Not sure if you're still referring to that specific example but venue size between Olympia and o2 shouldn't relevant for them either, they sold out Malahide Castle 25k capacity x 2 nights, so surely 14k at the o2 isn't that much of risk.

Fi H - on the ticket prices, the main reasons that seem to crop up for that in similar threads are usually are travel expense, tax, general higher cost associated here.. but then if that's the case I can't see how we get Kasabian tickets @ €35 and Pearl Jam tickets at €48, yet others are up at the €70 - €80 mark in the same venue with the same expenses. I doubt Kasabian or Pearl Jam and their entourage work for free so that's obviously rubbish.

They can do a tour of the UK after doing the festival route because its a much bigger than Ireland and have a bigger following over there so it will be viable.

Would i be right in saying Arctic Monkeys have gone slightly down in popularity since the record where they recorded it with Josh Homme? When they played Malahide they seemed to be massive at that time but it seems that they have dipped a bit(could be wrong since im not a massive fan)

When it comes to ticket prices , either the promoters or record label decide on ticket prices and if they feel they can sell out a venue at 60/70 a ticket then they will do it but then there are bands like Kasabian/Pearl Jam who charge under the €50 mark and sell the venue out. Now i suppose if AM came over here and charged the same price as Kasabian they would sell out the O2 , but maybe in their live contracts say they will only play for a certain amount of money and maybe the promoters feel that they wont make much of a profit off a AM gig over here

jungleland86

Arctic Monkeys are planning a European tour for January/February - They've just announced two gigs in Barcelona that will take place in January. I wouldn't be surprised if an Irish gig was included on the European leg of the tour.

Motley Crue

From my experience there are two main reasons that English and American bands who do/did big UK tours do not come to Ireland

The first is finance, the fact that most bands tour with a tourbus and their equitment in a trailer/van as part of a "road trip" - the UK is connected from the Scottish highlands down to Plymouth, so it is possible to drive wherever you need to go

In Ireland's case you have to worry about physically getting the band, the crew and the equitment to the Dublin venue. You also have to worry about the taxes and charges attached to the weight of your equitment and the sheer cost of bringing two or three truckloads (or maybe more) or crew and equitment across the Irish sea

Next is basic math - a lot of the bands who are touted as being "huge" in the UK by the media and who attract big record sales and big festival attendance do not necesscarly get a sold out venue every night, sometimes far from it. Most people who buy a successful Indie Rock album do so because either their friend has it, the clubs are playing it, somebody has mentioned it in a magazine or they seen the band at a festival - although most go to the festival for the craic and not to actually see a lot of the bands performing in the first instance (proven by the high number of tickets sold the weekend after popular UK festivals without a single band announced)

In the UK bands perform at central population hubs with access to a 150 mile radius of other cities to get the best possible turnout - for example in Newcastle people could come from Sunderland, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Durham, Leeds, Northumberland, Carlisle and even Edinburgh (all are within 2/2.5 hours drive) so they have a better chance of assuring themselves a full house. If a band books a date in either Middlesbrough, Newcastle or Edinburgh - they're unlikely to book a further date in one of the other 2 cities and even more unlikely to book all three dates.

In Ireland, if they don't think their sales reflect what they expect, they have to be realistic and expect they won't get the turnout they'd like. Also in Ireland they can't really perform a full Irish tour so coming over for one date might not make financial sense. Outside of Dublin there are a lack of facilities or booking agents for big name bands.

Epicness

I hope Bombay Bicycle Club come. I think they said on their twitter that they will be announcing an irish date soon.

paddylonglegs

Epicness wrote: »

I hope Bombay Bicycle Club come. I think they said on their twitter that they will be announcing an irish date soon.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056413397

PTH2009

Motley Crue are a perfect example of a band who never plays in Ireland.

Joe_Dull

Dream Theater haven't played here in nearly ten years... same story with most metal bands, really. Ended up going to see them in Leeds at a round trip cost of about €150 - not bad really, all things considered.

After reading through this thread though, you'd really have to hand it to the acts that DO decide to come here.

honru

Dream Theater really is a weird one. I was amazed they skipped Ireland yet again on the Euro tour next year. It looks to be a good example that fits in to the venue problem though; they're playing mostly large concert halls/arenas and I doubt any promoter here would book them for The O2 unless other big names were playing as well.

Furious-Red

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

Dream Theater really is a weird one. I was amazed they skipped Ireland yet again on the Euro tour next year. It looks to be a good example that fits in to the venue problem though; they're playing mostly large concert halls/arenas and I doubt any promoter here would book them for The O2 unless other big names were playing as well.

Yea if only the Grand Canal could do standing gigs then you could prob fit about 3000 into it , but you can understand why they are just keeping it to Musicals and what not

Joe_Dull

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

...they're playing mostly large concert halls/arenas and I doubt any promoter here would book them for The O2 unless other big names were playing as well.

The Leeds o2 Academy is roughly the same size as our Academy or Olympia. Didn't stop them from being booked there.

Mushy

Joe_Dull wrote: »

The Leeds o2 Academy is roughly the same size as our Academy or Olympia. Didn't stop them from being booked there.

Think the Leeds Academy is a bit bigger. Vicar Street would be perfect again, maybe they'll do it next summer if playing festivals.

indiewindy

Furious-Red wrote: »

Yea if only the Grand Canal could do standing gigs then you could prob fit about 3000 into it , but you can understand why they are just keeping it to Musicals and what not

a 3000 capacity venue is whats needed, surely it would be guaranteed to be successful?

honru

Joe_Dull wrote: »

The Leeds o2 Academy is roughly the same size as our Academy or Olympia. Didn't stop them from being booked there.

That was on the last European tour during the summer. And it's still more than twice the capacity of the Olympia.

green day rule

Furious-Red wrote: »

Yea if only the Grand Canal could do standing gigs then you could prob fit about 3000 into it , but you can understand why they are just keeping it to Musicals and what not

But It's All Seating And They Can't Take Up The Seat's

green day rule

what about the convention centre that can hold gigs so i dont' see why they cant hold gigs there

Motley Crue

PTH2009 wrote: »

Motley Crue are a perfect example of a band who never plays in Ireland.

True enough - and every member of Motley Crue who has had a solo band has also either cancelled or postponed a scheduled gig in Southern Ireland

Motley played Belfast in the 80s but that is as near as they got

languagenerd

Bands don't come here because we're just too much hassle :P. Extra transport costs, logistics, currency conversion (if it's just a UK tour they're doing), taxes, a day wasted because they have to travel here and back... and all this for an often much smaller audience than they usually pull in. It sucks, but c'est la vie.

Joe_Dull wrote: »

The Leeds o2 Academy is roughly the same size as our Academy or Olympia. Didn't stop them from being booked there.

The Academy and the Olympia are completely different sizes!!
One holds 600, the other holds 2000+.

Joe_Dull

languagenerd wrote: »

The Academy and the Olympia are completely different sizes!!
One holds 600, the other holds 2000+.

Actually the Academy is 800. Your point is taken, however.

languagenerd

Joe_Dull wrote: »

Actually the Academy is 800. Your point is taken, however.

That's if both rooms are open - the main room only holds 623 IIRC. This is actually off topic anyway

I think the point about not having many medium-size venues is right though, there's a huge jump from 2000 in The Olympia (or 4000 in the RDS - which is quite rare) to 14,000 in the O2!

Furious-Red

languagenerd wrote: »

That's if both rooms are open - the main room only holds 623 IIRC. This is actually off topic anyway

I think the point about not having many medium-size venues is right though, there's a huge jump from 2000 in The Olympia (or 4000 in the RDS - which is quite rare) to 14,000 in the O2!

Yea its a pity that when bands can sell out the olympia once or twice , then on the next tour they either come back to the same venue or not come over due to no other venue to play

Joe_Dull

languagenerd wrote: »

That's if both rooms are open - the main room only holds 623 IIRC. This is actually off topic anyway

It IS off-topic, but I know for a fact the main room has a capacity of 800 (including upstairs) because I've run two gigs in that room and 800 showed up to the first one!

Gets pretty hot and sweaty in there when it's at capacity though... Enter Shikari last night was a prime example.

Alter-Ego

What happened to the rumours that MCD were planning on buying citywest event centre to fill the gap between the Olympia and the O2?

Furious-Red

Alter-Ego wrote: »

What happened to the rumours that MCD were planning on buying citywest event centre to fill the gap between the Olympia and the O2?

Yea nothing has been brought up since it was in the papers last year. It would be great if they got it and with the fact the luas now goes out that far it would be easy to get to and if you are driving you just need to take a turn off and you are there

languagenerd

Joe_Dull wrote: »

It IS off-topic, but I know for a fact the main room has a capacity of 800 (including upstairs) because I've run two gigs in that room and 800 showed up to the first one!

Gets pretty hot and sweaty in there when it's at capacity though... Enter Shikari last night was a prime example.

Ah, maybe the 623 is when the upstairs bit is closed. There is/used to be a sign at the bar saying "Max. Capacity 623".

Yeah, I've been at some gigs where it's painfully packed... Good venue though!!

Joe_Dull

languagenerd wrote: »

Ah, maybe the 623 is when the upstairs bit is closed. There is/used to be a sign at the bar saying "Max. Capacity 623".

Yeah, I've been at some gigs where it's painfully packed... Good venue though!!

That could well be it actually! Love the place, perfect venue for intimate live shows.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Olympia is only 1600 aswell