Aerosmith have announced dates of a North American tour this year starting this month (June) after a tasty warm-up at Donnington Park Download festival in the UK.
After rumours that Steve was leaving the band and the remaining members were in fact holding auditions for a new signer, Aerosmith haven’t seemed this healthy and busy with dates for a while.
Date for the tour are as follows:
July
Oakland, CA Oracle Arena (23)
Paso Robles, CA State Fair (26)
Irvine, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (29)
Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena (31)
August
Dallas, TX Superpages.com Amphitheatre (3)
Woodlands, TX Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (5)
Tampa, FL Ford Amphitheatre (7)
Fort Lauderdale, FL BankAtlantic Center (9)
Wantagh, NY Nikon at Jones Beach Theater (12)
Boston, MA Fenway Park (14)
Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre (17)
Omaha, NE Qwest Center (19)
Tinley Park, IL First Midwest Bank Amphitheater (22)
Marina And The Diamonds Family Jewels Tour is alive and healthy with a solid performance last night (19th May) in London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom with a second this evening to start off a run of 20 dates all over the UK. The video is for all to enjoy below. With breaks in the height of summer for a number of festival appearances granted, the tour and other dates continue right up to November. Tickets where still available can be found here. (Search Tickets)
Jimi’s Hendrix’ London home will be open as part of the commemorations of the 40th anniversary of his death. The Mayfair flat will be open the week starting September 15th and closed again on the 26th.
The apartment was previously occupied by composer George Handle up until 1759. Sarah Bardwell, the director of Handel House said, ”After moving to Brook Street in 1968, Hendrix learned of the Handel connection with the building and headed to One Stop Records in South Molton Street and HMV in Oxford Street to pick up whichever records of Handel music he could find. He was obviously intrigued by the connection and were pleased to celebrating his own legacy today”.
This year’s Glade Festival, scheduled to take place from 15-18 July, has been cancelled, the festival’s official website has confirmed. The reason, it states, is an increasing imposition of restrictions on the festival which made it impossible to continue.
The full statement reads:
As many Glade fans will know over the years we have fought hard to maintain the integrity of the event against steadily increasing restrictions imposed by local authority and police. The resulting compromises have led to increased costs, increased ticket prices and a throttling of the very essence of what we wanted to do. It led to us finally having to move from the lovely Wasing estate due to late night noise restrictions and the police’s demands for an ever-increasing security and police presence at the event.
At our new venue, Matterley Bowl, there has actually been some amazing support from the local council whose officers recognize the professional and co-operative way we run the event and the contribution to the local area and the country’s cultural diversity. They have worked with us to ensure the Glade is a safe and enjoyable event and openly recognize that we have one of the best event management teams in the country to do this.
However this year the requirements imposed upon us for policing, security and stewarding have been greatly increased. To make matters worse the reluctance of the police to negotiate in advance and deliberately delay any dialogue with us has resulted in our being unable to tie down a final costing for the event. This, along with unexpected legal fees associated with a last minute license review, has radically increased the cost of the festival.
Sad news indeed. The press release also advised people on what action ticket buyers should take if they, obviously, want to get some kind of refund:
To all those who have bought tickets to this years event, please go to the point of purchase to claim back a refund.
If you have bought your tickets from Ticketline, either directly or by buying tickets on Glade’s website, please contact Ticketline’s customer services by email at customerservices@ticketline.co.uk or by phone on 0844 888 4409 who will refund you for the face value of your the ticket. Booking fees will be retained as an admin fee.
The Scottish rockers have released seven dates for fans to enjoy during the months of November and December climaxing at a soon to be sold out Wembley Arena show.
The Band will add these dates to what seems to be a nice full year for the guys. With other appearances including Reading And Leeds among others, as well as dates in Australia next month. The link above will direct you to the bands official site for tickets.
The UK winter dates include:
Aberdeen AECC (Nov. 25)
Glasgow SECC (Nov. 26)
Hull Arena (Nov. 29)
Nottingham Arena (Nov. 30)
Plymouth Pavilions (Dec. 1)
Manchester Central (Dec. 3)
London Wembley Arena (Dec. 4)
Morning Music Fans (it was morning when i wrote this OK). For what looks like becoming the best Download so far, an a tough one to beat in the future. RouteNote have decided to throw out a few reasons why this one is much better than the rest as well as help you learn the juicy line-up!
With a so far unconfirmed or really too reliable number of tickets sold for the festival so far, which i’m betting means they don’t know yet because of the sheer volume. Download, regardless of the acts on, will have the biggest number of legitimate music lovers in the campsite they’ve ever had. This is backed up by the fact that they released another 10,000 ticket around only a month after original release.
AC/DC will be performing on the 30th anniversary of thee biggest selling Rock ‘N’ Roll album ever “Back In Black”. On the 30th anniversary of the UK’s biggest Rock’N'Roll festival. ON TOP OF it being the biggest year for Download tickets sale. That makes it a Rock’N'Roll biggest to the power of three, which is huge!
Rage Against the Machine are continuing something of a comeback off the back one of the closest Christmas No.1 races the country has seen in 10 years and the successful free London shows. Apart from the obvious brilliance of the band’s live performances which have no doubt done there part in bolstering the ticket sales. And Bigger crowds + Warm Beer ÷ Weekend = more fun! Good work everyone…….
The knock-on affect of the extra ticket sales have pushed the organizers to open the campsite much earlier this year. The argument is that this will in fact decrease congestion, making it easier for the necessary authorities to monitor things like ticket touts and skint music lovers sneaking in. As well as, theft within the grounds and exhausted moshers needed much needed attention. On top of the obvious benefits of the stepped up security and larger police presence.
The other festival line-ups this year have largely be seen to be controversial by some and just plain out of date by others. It’s not our words, it seems to be public opinion, with distressed regular tickets buyer’s explaining they’re anger in forum after forum. With acts like the Libertine’s being payed extortionate amounts of money for one-off dates that in their opinions (the general public) add to a loss of integrity to the said events. Making Download this years festival of choice for regulars and music fans in general, not just metallers.
The main act for each stage are:
Main stage Friday: AC/DC. Them Crooked Vultures. Wolfmother.
Saturday: Rage Against The Machine. Deaftones. Megadeath.
Sunday: Aerosmith. Stone Temple Pilots. Motorhead.
Second Stage Friday: Bullet For My Valentine. Coheed And Cambria. A Day To Remember.
Saturday: 30 Seconds To Mars. HIM. The Blackout.
Sunday: StoneSour. Airbourne. Steel Panther.
Pepsi-Max Stage Friday: Job For A Cowboy. As I Lay Dying. Tyketto.
Saturday: Micheal Munroe. Skin. Y&T.
Sunday: Suicidal Tendencies. Zebrahead. Young Guns
Redbull Bedroom Jam Stage Friday: Funeral Party. IMICUS. The Humour.
Saturday: Breed 77. Glamour Of The Kill. The Dead Lay Waiting.
So U2, Muse and Stevie Wonder top the Bill, and Dizzee Rascal moves up to the second slot having rocked the Pyramid hard in the daytime last year. Good old LCD Soundsystem share the Other stage with humourous rockers We Are Scientists, and waaay down the bill on the Croissant Neuf stage are our Cornish countrymen the People’s String Foundation. If you’re lucky enough to be going, you should definitely check them out.
M.I.A. and Massive Attack will be headlining the UK Big Chill Festival, held at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Herefordshire, Aug. 5-8.
Other acts confirmed to the play the Festival Republic-organized event, which celebrates its 16th year this summer, include Kelis, Roots Manuva, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Plan B, Mr Scruff and U.K. chart topper Tinie Tempah.
World-renowned artist Spencer Tunick will also be participating in the dance-themed event and will be calling on volunteers and festival-goers to disrobe for one of his infamous nude landscapes.
Weekend tickets cost £155 ($235) and are available to purchase from a range of ticket vendors, including www.ticketline.co.uk and www.ticketmaster.co.uk.
A tour supporting their new album ‘Plastic Beach’ means that the Camden Roundhouse will play host to Damon & Co.’s 2D extravaganza on the 29th and 30th of April, in a show featuring Damon Albarn, The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, Shaun Ryder, Bobby Womack, The National Orchestra For Arabic Music, Bashy, De La Soul, Kano and Little Dragon, along with new animation and artwork by Jamie Hewlett. The gigs will be the band’s first full UK performance since Demon Days Live at the Manchester Opera House in 2005.
Tickets are £45, but don’t grab your credit card just yet, they’re not on sale to the public until 9am on Friday 26th March, although you can sign up to be a Roundhouse member and get hold of some early bird tix. They will also be available at this time from www.livenation.co.uk and www.roundhouse.org.uk (all tickets subject to a booking fee). Subscribers to the Gorillaz fan club will have access to an exclusive limited ticket pre sale from 7.30am on Tuesday [ www.gorillaz.com/g-club - membership from £24.99].
You can also play a strange little point-and-click adventure game on the band’s website by clicking here. It’s clunky, but who knows, you might win something?
Digital Music News are carrying this story about online ticket scalping – a case in which an LA based company calling themselves ‘Wiseguy Tickets’ employed a ring of Bulgarian computer programmers to buy up all the best tickets to high profile, high demand concerts and resell them online for a huge mark-up. Perhaps parting with more thansix times the face value of the ticket is painful for whoever buys the ticket second hand, but presumably no-one is twisting their arm as they click ‘confirm bid’, and as far as eBay is concerned it’s perfectly legitimate (at least in the UK – some US states have laws against it).
So who is at fault here? Blocking the public from buying tickets wholesale with highly organised, bulk buying and reselling operations seems pretty underhand and unsporting, but the scalpers are taking the risk that people will purchase the inflated tickets, so isn’t it just the normal exercise of a free market? Are the promoters missing a trick in the first place? A staggered ebay auction style release of tickets by the promoter, with say 25% of total tickets released 12, 8, 4 and 2 weeks before the gig, with prices starting at a reasonable face value would surely have the same free-market effect. There’s the strong argument that this competetive model would be a disservice to the less affluent fans, but promoters would have the same chance of selling out a venue at the starting price, and could only benefit from any uplift if the tickets ended up being worth more to a punter than the original price – if they were bid up by competing punters, and this would make it harder for scalpers to get hold of tickets in the first place, as to get them they’d have to compete with Joe Public in the first place, paying the elevated prices themselves. It would also go some way to eliminating their profits – why buy from an unofficial auction when there’s an official one happening, and could potentially make more money for the promoter, venue and artist if the ticket revenue is split out between them.
What do you think, internet people? Is sclaping fair practice, or callous parasitism? Would selling online like this just be a way for promoters to benefit at fans’ expense, or would it be a neat way of cutting scalpers out of the loop and rationalising ticket prices for the rest of us?
