Away with the......PIXIES!!!

[ca]

As tipped earlier on this thread tickets are now $50. What do you reckon the chances are that they will refund part of what I already paid in buying multiple tickets?

I know of one person they did that for. Ticketing agencies are different though complicating it.

[matt]

Wednesday night tickets down to $50 and those already with tickets can get the $50 refunded.

Tuesday night remains a $100 affair.
Shame as that $50 could have paid for the ale.

[ca]

I have heard report that the Sydney and Gold Coast shows are now $70 at the gate.

[RustyCage]

You know ticket sales are really bad when they start changing venues and slashing the prices.

Whats wrong with it? Is it the bands? The venues? Ticket prices? Lack of advertising? Bad timing?

[Leaping Lindner]

You know ticket sales are really bad when they start changing venues and slashing the prices.

Whats wrong with it? Is it the bands? The venues? Ticket prices? Lack of advertising? Bad timing?

Pretty badly organised tour/festival from the get go. Dates and acts annouced spasmodically, poor promotion and argueably bad timing. These promoters see what Lees and West do with The Big Day out and think "Gee I can do that" but without realising the extraordinary amount of work that goes on behind the scene unheralded. Even "the almighty" Gudinski has only ever had one crack at a festival (Alternative Nation) and that was a disaster.
As for the line ups. Well apart from The Pixies it's pretty average - IMO. There are some good acts there but not enough to make people think "Wow! Can't miss this."
Just for the record here in Melbourne The Pixies sold out a secret gig at The Nortcote Social Club (300-350 people); The Palace - in less than an hour - (unsure of numbers but roughly halfway between Thebby and The Old Lion) as well as either selling out (or being close to) their night at The Myer Music Bowl.

To answer your previous question I don't know if The Breeders as such are still tourng but the Deal sisters still get together and do shows from time from time.

[ca]

You know ticket sales are really bad when they start changing venues and slashing the prices.

Whats wrong with it? Is it the bands? The venues? Ticket prices? Lack of advertising? Bad timing?

Pretty badly organised tour/festival from the get go. Dates and acts annouced spasmodically, poor promotion and argueably bad timing. These promoters see what Lees and West do with The Big Day out and think "Gee I can do that" but without realising the extraordinary amount of work that goes on behind the scene unheralded. Even "the almighty" Gudinski has only ever had one crack at a festival (Alternative Nation) and that was a disaster.
As for the line ups. Well apart from The Pixies it's pretty average - IMO. There are some good acts there but not enough to make people think "Wow! Can't miss this."
Just for the record here in Melbourne The Pixies sold out a secret gig at The Nortcote Social Club (300-350 people); The Palace - in less than an hour - (unsure of numbers but roughly halfway between Thebby and The Old Lion) as well as either selling out (or being close to) their night at The Myer Music Bowl.

To answer your previous question I don't know if The Breeders as such are still tourng but the Deal sisters still get together and do shows from time from time.

Michael Coppell wants to promote a successful festival in Australia but like he did with Livid in the two years he ran that he just expects them to sell themselves without really trying putting all the things in place. It's no surprise its failed, it's a fairly good lineup in my opinion just bad organisation.

[zipzap]

Wednesday night tickets down to $50 and those already with tickets can get the $50 refunded.

Where did you hear this Matt? I can't find this anywhere but here's hoping.
Would be nice to get $ back on the Sydney tickets too - this is an expensive week!

[Leaping Lindner]

Wednesday night tickets down to $50 and those already with tickets can get the $50 refunded.

Where did you hear this Matt? I can't find this anywhere but here's hoping.
Would be nice to get $ back on the Sydney tickets too - this is an expensive week!

If Sydney had sold out (don't know if it has though) you could always sell them on ebay. Probably do alright.

[ca]

Wednesday night tickets down to $50 and those already with tickets can get the $50 refunded.

Where did you hear this Matt? I can't find this anywhere but here's hoping.
Would be nice to get $ back on the Sydney tickets too - this is an expensive week!

I read that in Rip it Up, with the add for V Festival. There was a cut off date to do it by, I think it was Monday but to be safe try and do it today.

[zipzap]

Yeah apparently with the ticket you can either take a friend or get a refund at DeCosta arcade Venuetix and then rebuy a ticket through TicketeK.

They must REALLY be struggling! I don't know why really....I think maybe a big problem is because it's the V(irgin) Festival. To plug the shows is to give Virgin free advertising and I don't think radio (especially JJJ) and TV has got behind it for that reason. That's my theory anyway.

[ca]

Yeah apparently with the ticket you can either take a friend or get a refund at DeCosta arcade Venuetix and then rebuy a ticket through TicketeK.

They must REALLY be struggling! I don't know why really....I think maybe a big problem is because it's the V(irgin) Festival. To plug the shows is to give Virgin free advertising and I don't think radio (especially JJJ) and TV has got behind it for that reason. That's my theory anyway.

To much on, something had to give and probably that was going to be the least promoted and most disorganised event. The Adelaide corwds are dissapointing as if V Festival returns to Australia it won't include Adelaide.

[zipzap]

Yeah apparently with the ticket you can either take a friend or get a refund at DeCosta arcade Venuetix and then rebuy a ticket through TicketeK.

They must REALLY be struggling! I don't know why really....I think maybe a big problem is because it's the V(irgin) Festival. To plug the shows is to give Virgin free advertising and I don't think radio (especially JJJ) and TV has got behind it for that reason. That's my theory anyway.

To much on, something had to give and probably that was going to be the least promoted and most disorganised event. The Adelaide corwds are dissapointing as if V Festival returns to Australia it won't include Adelaide.

Yeah but the other states don't sound much better!

[ca]

Yeah apparently with the ticket you can either take a friend or get a refund at DeCosta arcade Venuetix and then rebuy a ticket through TicketeK.

They must REALLY be struggling! I don't know why really....I think maybe a big problem is because it's the V(irgin) Festival. To plug the shows is to give Virgin free advertising and I don't think radio (especially JJJ) and TV has got behind it for that reason. That's my theory anyway.

To much on, something had to give and probably that was going to be the least promoted and most disorganised event. The Adelaide corwds are dissapointing as if V Festival returns to Australia it won't include Adelaide.

Yeah but the other states don't sound much better!

Same problem I feel, to many festivals and having it a week out from Easter which is packed with festivals in the Eastern states didn't seem to make sense. They should have gone for the end of the year when Livid used to be on.

[zipzap]

Went to the Sydney V-Fest on Saturday. Like all festivals of its size there was plenty both good & bad about it.

Firstly I was amazed how many people were there. I've been to the Sydney BDO and it certainly seemed as large. Albeit in a slightly smaller venue. The parklands were a beautiful backdrop to hold a festival - though the secondary stages were a long hike from the main event. Made it very difficult to move around from stage to stage.

As a consequence of this, and the fact that the cnuts of organisers decided to make every decent act clash with every other decent act, it meant I saw a lot less than I would have liked. Basically I bought tickets with intentions of seeing 2 of my all time favourite bands, Pixies and Pet Shop Boys (yeah I know they are complete opposites but there you go...). But because you couldn't move between stages I had to forfeit PSB and put up with a whole set of Beck just to get a good possie for Pixies. ( I know people rate Beck but I've never seen the point personally). Boo!

Anyway, the Pixies were cool but I guess my expectations might have been a little high after 15 years of waiting. Let's not kid ourselves, they are not the same band they were. Like most of us of a certain vintage, they are fatter and balder and Kim Deal looked like freakin' Brian Wilson in a cardigan with her drugged-up perma-smile. But the songs....absolutely awesome. The crowd by this stage was huge and going beserk. Down the front the moshing was ridiculous, something I'm getting way too old for. Not a lot of stage banter and it was a little bit by-numbers for mine (someone said they were pocketing half a mill for this performance - ker-ching!) but I'm glad I can finally say I've seen the Pixies.

Jarvis Cocker had the best stagecraft of the night, even if some of his solo songs are boring as batshit. No Pulp songs which is to his credit, even though I secretly hoped he'd whip out Common People for the kids.

Only caught a fleeting glimpse of New York Dolls but they looked pretty grim to me - one of em was wearing a beret FFS!

Gnarls Barkely, who I was looking forward to, were a huge disappointment - soulless and flat. Anyone who saw Kanye West at U2 will know the kind of comparison I'm making here. Yep, that bad.

Loved the New Young Pony Club on the minor stage - very funky 80s gear. Lots of filler but their 4 or 5 best songs were some of my favourite from the whole day.

Some of the disappointments of the day - $6.50 for Coopers Lager and $4 for water. That's when you could get a drink - at some points the queues from the beer tent stretched to the major stage. Toilets and entry queues were equally as bad. I think they seriously underestimated what a big crowd in the parklands looks like. The ham-fisted security goons who rounded everyone up like sheep at the end need to be taken to task as well. Overall the crowd was pretty friendly and it was a great atmos all day.

So I'm glad I went but I'm glad I'm going to the more intimate shows this week. Even if I'll have to take out a loan to do it

[matt]

help the aged hey zz.
out of the mosh pit for the likes of our vintage.

anyhoo, tonight looks like this:
6.00pm Phoenix
7.10pm New York Dolls
8.20pm Jarvis Cocker
9.40pm Pixies
11.00pm curfew

[matt]

absolutely top drawer.

[zipzap]

absolutely top drawer.

Definitely better than their Sydney show - very intimate and much more animated. The Thebby has never sounded better (a bit muddy for Jarvis perhaps). The Pixies though restored the faith. WOW!

Would be good if someone could post a set list to see how it differed from Syd and the show Leaping Lindner saw. They played a few I didn't hear last time (eg Tame) but missed quite a few too (Subbaculcha, In Heaven). Still nothing off Bossanova, which is weird when you only have 4 albums...

Enjoyed NYD though truthfully they are more 'pub' than 'punk' rock. Scary looking though. Sylvain looked and talked like Paul Shaeffer from Letterman.

Thought Phoenix were gimmicky poseurs who reminded me of Evermore without the tunes. Their songs were all 95% crap with a 5% guitar bit tacked on the end which made it passable. Just.

For Jarvo see my previous review - great stage craft, so-so tunes.

[Leaping Lindner]

Tonight's gig at the Myer Music Bowl was sublime. Every bit as good as last weeks (albeit a bit shorter).
Word of advice if you are ever going to a gig at The Myer Music Bowl pay the extra $ for the stalls it's worth every penny.
On the down side The New York Dolls were scheduled to appear at 7 and played at 6 swapping spots(against their will I gather) with Phoenix.
Really impressed my niece and her friend who flew from Perth just to see them and who turned up just in time to hear David Johannson say "Thank you that's our last gig in Australia."
Luckily a mate knew a mate knew a mate and managed to get them backstage so at least they got to meet them

[zipzap]

Sounds good LL. The NYD switch was the same here.

Saw part 2 of the V Fest last night.

Small crowd, many of who left after Groove Armada. Obviously PSB were a bit too confronting to the sexuality of the more macho types - they coped quite well with I See You Baby (Shaking that Ass) of course.

Shame really cos the Pet Shop Boys were cool - I love their 'dark side' and humour (like the 'Behaviour' album), not so much their sunny tunes, poxy feathers and dancers routine. luckily there was a bit of both. Started off pretty tacky - I've seen rock & roll eisteddfods with more panache! But by the end they were cranking. Very minimalist - one keyboard with most of the samples triggered off stage - but that was part of the charm. Everyone went home happy. As did I after witnessing some pretty cool girl-on-girl action down the front.

Gnarls Barkley were 100% better than in Sydney. The sound was still shit but their energy was great. I spent most of the time trying to see up the cello player's tennis skirt. Grrrowwwllll! Needless to say Crazy was the highlight but Gone Danny Gone had all the closet 'Femmes fans on their feet.

When GA were on fire they were awesome. I like their electronica side not so much their funky stuff - from At the River onwards though it was gold. Certainly a lot of the crowd had come just for them and left in their droves, faster than a losing Crows crowd.

Rapture were shit.

[Leaping Lindner]

I've got a mate who went both nights in Melbourne and he raved about the Pet Shop Boys. So they did a good gig in Melbourne as well.
Not my style 'cos I'm a redneck homophobic prick Truth be known I like very few electro bands from that era.