May 23rd - Sydney Enmore Theatre, Sydney, Australia (tickets go on sale on Thursday)

May 25th - Challenge Stadium, Perth,  Australia

raticus wrote:

---

Am so jacked off...got my adelaide tickets day 1 and to say i have been excited is an understatement. Been a massive fan since 77 and they cancelled oz tour in 85 as well. Cant myself getting to sydney cos of work commitments. Grrrrrrrrrr

Knew this was on the cards, the venue was wrong, it needed to be somewhere like the Thebarton theatre. When the Sex Pistols did their reunion gigs here they didnt even do the big venues. I saw the specials last year at thebby and that would have been perfect for the rats.

---

 Commiserations Raticus. As I say most cities have a few small vunues with a good reputation for alternative/punk rock, or just good plain rock acts. Out of interest if the Rats were to play in a small intimate venue in Adelade what  size crowd do you think the could attract? I would think that selling between 400 and 800 tickets would be pretty good, and I think they could do that in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelade with a well chosen vunue with a good, long standing  reputation.

Better a small success than a big failure.

ArrGee wrote:

---

I'll probably be blamed for this by "the management" ...

Same old story, attempting to sell high priced tickets at large venues, cancelling at short notice. Maybe the promoters were naïve and just didn't realise the Rats aren't a massive draw.

Still looking at capacities of 1,500 and 4,500 for Sydney and Perth respectively. The Perth venue looks pretty large...

Fingers crossed Cork goes ahead, but still haven't got my ticket for that...

---

 Sydney might work out but I'm not so sure about Perth. Don't see why the Rats would be a bigger attrraction there then in Brisbane, Adelade or Melbourne. If it's due to ticket sales they the obvious mistake was choosing vunues way to big for a band that had only one real hit in Australia.

Much better to downsize to small clubs with a tradition for punk/alternative acts rather then having to cancel a tour. If a few hunded people turn up at each venus and the gigs are good it's still an Australian Tour- difference is that you have gigs that go ahead and happy punters rather than cancellations.

The smaller vunues are more suited to the Rats sound as I think most of the songs will be from the first three albums. If the Rats are trying to recapture the spirit and feel of the late seventies then well chosed small vunues seems the way to go.I  know it's difficult to make it work out financially at small vunues but good reviews and blowing the roof off an intimate vunue is preferable to trying to sell a huge arena and having to cancel. Just my tuppence worth.

Derek The Dane wrote:

---

My heart goes out to the people who were going to Australia to see the rats only for it to be called of.The Rats should play festivals or small(ish) clubs.They are sadly not going to sell tickets in large amounts.Had a gut feeling this was going to happen. ArrGee had better watch out as Willow will blame him and threaten to punch my lights out for these cancelations.

---

 How big is willo?  I know he is small minded 

noelindublin wrote:

---

It will be interesting to hear how Geldof reacts after going out to Oz to publicise the gigs a few weeks ago. Did anyone tell Bob about baby steps....?

---

 Someone must have convinced them to take on the tour.   Had they announced a similar European tour with five dates at large venues in say London, Dublin, Berlin, Madrid and Milan  I would have been doubtful they would sell many tickets, but to do so in Australia didn't seem credible.  After all, it's not like there have been many if any posters from Australia around here in the last ten years.

Isle of Wight and Chagstock should be OK, but I hope Cork isn't having the same issues.

ArrGee wrote:

---

noelindublin wrote:

---

It will be interesting to hear how Geldof reacts after going out to Oz to publicise the gigs a few weeks ago. Did anyone tell Bob about baby steps....?

---

 Someone must have convinced them to take on the tour.   Had they announced a similar European tour with five dates at large venues in say London, Dublin, Berlin, Madrid and Milan  I would have been doubtful they would sell many tickets, but to do so in Australia didn't seem credible.  After all, it's not like there have been many if any posters from Australia around here in the last ten years.

Isle of Wight and Chagstock should be OK, but I hope Cork isn't having the same issues.

---

Geldof, to be fair to him, has slogged around some smaller  and 'unfashionable' places in the last few years. The Australian dates to me anyway always seemed too glamorous and over ambitioius for a band which only really had one hit single in Ausrtralia. It's another thing if enough people in Oz know the albums and other singles to come out and wish to see the Rats live. Sadly on this evidence not enough people are making that choice. They may downsize and reschedule the gigs till a later date, who knows?

I don't think there is necessarly a correlation to amount of posters on forum and popularity. Geldof at Islington proves that. The vast, vast majority of fans be they of football clubs or bands don't post of message boards or even Facebook. They just turn up at gigs or buy records and then vanish into the ether. I love music -the only forum I post on is this one, 'cos the Rats are my favourite band.

Re the Cork gig. Aiken Promotions ran an ad on RTE Radio 1 which I only heard about twice. Theythen started heavily promoting other gigs at the Marque, Cork for the summer dates, namely Sting and Elton John and other 'heavy hitters' who don't really need the promotion. Maybe, and quite likely the may run the ad again nearer the date of the gig. It's hard to guess how tickets will sell, but I'd say it should be ok, though not a sell out at about 4,000 tickets.Whtever about Australia it would be a big blow to have to cancel in Ireland, where,along with the Uk,the band had all their chart success.

A well chosen support band from Cork like local 'heroes' Sultans of Ping might get some local interest and push the numbers up. I don't think any support act has been announced yet.

noelindublin wrote:

... enough people in Oz know the albums and other singles to come out and wish to see the Rats live. Sadly on this evidence not enough people are making that choice. 

 I have wondered why people who aren't big fans would bother.  There are numerous peers of the Rats whom I like, but to be honest I wouldn't be bothered enough to get a ticket.  Example include Stranglers, Damned, Specials, Squeeze, Blondie, Buzz****s.  I have got tickets for Elvis Costello, and I'd probably see Julian Cope, but those aside, I don't think I'd be interested in much else from that era.  I am more selective these days as I don't get many nights out, so I make sure the ones I do have are for acts I really like.  As much as I would like it to be the case, I doubt 20,000 Australians are interested.

noelindublin wrote:

---

...then started heavily promoting other gigs at the Marque, Cork for the summer dates, namely Sting and Elton John and other 'heavy hitters' who don't really need the promotion. 

---

 None of the Marquee gigs are selling out, is it that popular?

Isle of Wight is getting heavy promotion on Canary Wharf screens, that can't be selling well either.

yes Irene I just went to the Enmore website and started to buy a couple tickets and it happily put 2 in my basket. Assuming when you put your credit card details in air continues to process, it seems all is fine and dandy.

Must have been a temporary blip then. I was on Enmore linked (ticketek) site too. Seems fine now. Phew!

As for Business Chicks, that's fine for Bob, but shipping whole band and entourage over for a gig has to be viable, so sales need to make it worthwhile.

ArrGee wrote:

---

noelindublin wrote:

---

...then started heavily promoting other gigs at the Marque, Cork for the summer dates, namely Sting and Elton John and other 'heavy hitters' who don't really need the promotion.�

---

�None of the Marquee gigs are selling out, is it that popular?

Isle of Wight is getting heavy promotion on Canary Wharf screens, that can't be selling well either.

---

 I'd imagine Ollie Murs, Sting, Elton John, Bell X1, Christy Moore, and Emelda May would all be sell out gigs. Some of the acts are harder to figure, like The National or ZZ Top or Elvis Costello. Live at The Marquee seems to be spread out over a two week period, with some acts I just do  not know about like Little Mix and Kesha.

For the Cork gigs there is only so much money to go around, in these hard pressed times. Fans have to choose carefully. That said adverts for various concerts seem to be in  the top radio ad  slots always, in Ireland at least.

One advantage the Rats have is that the gig is on a Friday night, rather than a weekday.Could all be down to choosing between Sting, Costello, and The Rats for a lot of people. Maybe a trible bill of aforesaid acts might have sold out very quickly, but all playing seperately it's hard to know.

Re: IoW Festival being advertised at Canary Wharf, o the irony. IoW Festival was almost fought over by hippies who wished it to be a free festival (free music, free food and free love!) back in the late sixties, early seventies.

There's an excellent two hour documentary about the 1970 IoW Festival on YouTube. A remarkable view of how times change, and a whole different era.

Derek The Dane wrote:

---

Johhny Logan is still very big here in Denmark,cannot work out if that is a good or bad thing.

---

 It's probably good for Logan's bank account more than anything else.

Welsh singer David Grey was hugely popular in Ireland while not doing to well in the UK itself.Bob Geldof is touring Germany and the Netherlands later this year so he must have some fans there. Here is Geldof singning autographys before a Berlin gig......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5h6XIVgUkM

Sorry guys, the Enmore Theatre website and Challenge Stadium says the gigs has been cancelled.  http://www.enmoretheatre.com.au/search/boomtown+rats 

http://www.venueswest.wa.gov.au/challenge-stadium/events/#boomtown-rats/ 

Hopefully Raticus, you might get to see the Rats at some stage in the future, in Europe or wherever.It was putting the cart before the horse, so to speak , going for Oz gigs without testing the water nearer home.

From what I've read the promoter was a fan and was a bit ' mystified' at the lack of ticket sales, but then again promoting gigs is a bit of an inexact science and sometimes it's hard to gauge how popular or not and act will be.

It doesn't take from the bands greatness, more likely it shows that less deserving bands can sometimes get the big gigs and attention. Music sometimes is unfair.