The Financial Cost of Metal in Europe

Motley Crue

OK, this article was published by the Wall Street Journal in the US this week, but I think it goes far beyond bands the likes of Metallica and applies to a wide spectrum of artists in Rock and Metal.

Basically it makes you wonder about the future of festival tours and festivals in Europe in general, we have a huge tradition (in Ireland especially) of having to travel to the UK, Germany and Continental Europe to attend festivals that provide us with music we want to hear. Is that coming to an end, and if not, will we see a serious scale down of these events in terms of days, dates, numbers etc

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, another group Mr. Burnstein manages with partner Peter Mensch, has also brought forward its European plans, having launched its first tour in four years this fall in Latin America despite complaints from Chili-starved U.S. fans. About 75% of the band's revenue comes from touring abroad, Mr. Burnstein said.

It looks like Metallica (as an example) want to tour Europe now so they can avoid it for a few years. Obviously they have no intention of doing smaller gigs like their 2008 UK Tour but this applies to a multitude of artists.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204630904577056123331660042.html

Metallica's longtime manager, Cliff Burnstein, is accelerating the band's tour plans to avoid getting sucked into Europe's debt troubles. With the gloom among investors spreading to richer countries such as France, Mr. Burnstein is worried that the euro will tank, making it harder for concert promoters in the 17 countries that use the currency to pay Metallica's fees.

Instead of playing Europe in 2013, as originally envisaged, Metallica will take a "European Summer Vacation" next year, including gigs at Germany's Rock Im Park and Rock Am Ring festivals in early June—where the top-grossing thrash band will play its chart-topping 1991 record known as "The Black Album" in its entirety—before heading to Britain and Austria.

Nea

Still all about the money for Metallica.

Take for instance the smaller band, like Cynic who played here last weekend. H put up a post on MI that there were 280 payers to the gig and he was told that more than likely that would be one of the best turnouts for the tour.

A band like that is obviously playing for the fans as they certainly aint buying a pad in St Lucia with the money they make that is if they break even when the tour is finished.

A big shout out has to be given to H from DME who gets some great bands over to our shore for pretty decent ticket prices.

starlight53

the cost of concert tickets is ridiculous in this country, over the last few years i have been to concerts here in the UK and in the US and all the tickets overseas were a fraction of the price we get charged in this rip off republic, not to mention the fact that a lot of bands do seem to forget this country when they tour which means travelling, this really adds up if you have to hop on a plane everytime a band you like tours. dont even get me started!!

RayCon

Nea wrote: »

A big shout out has to be given to H from DME who gets some great bands over to our shore for pretty decent ticket prices.

+1000000

jenizzle

The blindingly-obvious ignorance of Euro-zone countries was very evident when Pearl Jam announced their latest European tour. Any shows in countries that have the euro are festival dates, with the exception of A'dam with two dates, and Berlin where it's cheap and a guaranteed sellout.

I think you'll find that bands who used to do a stopover either here or in London before the festival season just won't bother anymore. They'll head onto Graspop, Hellfest etc and then go home again.

Motley Crue

jenizzle wrote: »

I think you'll find that bands who used to do a stopover either here or in London before the festival season just won't bother anymore. They'll head onto Graspop, Hellfest etc and then go home again.

True enough, it's a sad state of affairs, there's also the problem of the fact that bands (in promoters terms) are not finding middle ground bands, it's either smaller bands in tiny venues or huge rock bands in arenas...there's no "Point Depo" kind of bands anymore because people will either complain that the arena is half empty or that nobody can get tickets and touts are selling them for high prices.

galwayrush

Rush in Dublin was actually a little cheaper ticket wise than most of their UK dates.