INXS tickets selling quickly!

[STING2]

Nearly all of the tickets for INXS's 23 date tour of North America have been sold in only a few days. Most shows are in 3,000 seat theaters, but there are a few small arena's including one in Reading that holds 7,000 people. The only shows that still have multiple tickets are Detroit, Las Vegas, Denver, and Kansas City.

On INXS's last tour of the USA with Hutchence in 1997, the tour was in theaters and most only sold about half of their capacities. For example, The Tower Theater in Philadelphia in 1997 was only half full, but this time out, its a complete sellout already.

I'm sure the original members of INXS are very excited about this and looking foward to the tour which will probably be extended for more shows. Clearly, the show RockstarINXS has clearly succeeded in this respect. It has brought the band a level of popularity and exposure they have not had probably since the "X" album.

On www.pollstar.com INXS's tour schedual is the second most downloaded schedual at the site.


The scalper site, www.ticketsnow.com is selling tickets for the Philadelphia show for anywhere from $125 to $600 US dollars.

 

[indra]

well, everyone does love a train wreck.

and it is in the US and we've never been known for our good taste.

 

[U2DMfan]

On www.pollstar.com INXS's tour schedual is the second most downloaded schedual at the site.

Schedule.

and second of all, big deal.

Hey, the reality kids have discovered INXS!!!!!!!!

 

[timothius]

INXS are more popular than they were in 1997? For sure, 2 hours of prime time advertising each week will do that for you.

Are they producing better music? Fuck no. And haven't been doing so for a long while.

Lets see how many of these people turn out for the 2007 tour. If there is one.

 

[U2SavesTheWorld]

Have they sold as fast as the American Idol Tour?! What about Clay Aiken? Kelly Clarkson?? I'd LOVE ( ) to see the comparrisons!

 

[beegee]

las vegas still has tickets

i guess that disproves the theory that we here love all things tacky and fake



i'm totally going to go just so i have something to post about

 

[timothius]

I can't believe that those Las Vegans aren't going to hear Pretty Vegas, a song so lovingly written about them.

 

[STING2]

las vegas still has tickets

i guess that disproves the theory that we here love all things tacky and fake



i'm totally going to go just so i have something to post about

Are the Farris Brothers, Gary and Kirk fake? Are they not members of INXS? Don't they have the right to continue THEIR band?

 

[melon]

Are the Farris Brothers, Gary and Kirk fake? Are they not members of INXS? Don't they have the right to continue THEIR band?

Sure they do. And they have every right to have a tacky reality show on CBS too. But they probably do understand that replacing your lead singer in such a manner is not likely going to inspire much confidence in their existing fanbase.

Melon

 

[STING2]

INXS are more popular than they were in 1997? For sure, 2 hours of prime time advertising each week will do that for you.

Are they producing better music? Fuck no. And haven't been doing so for a long while.

Lets see how many of these people turn out for the 2007 tour. If there is one.

Have you heard the new album? NO! Yet its interesting how you can claim they are not producing better music. Even if the album is the best INXS album of all time, its obvious some people here will not give them one cent.

Its interesting to see how much people hate the remaining members of INXS for continueing THEIR band as well as their lives.

 

[STING2]

Sure they do. And they have every right to have a tacky reality show on CBS too. But they probably do understand that replacing your lead singer in such a manner is not likely going to inspire much confidence in their existing fanbase.

Melon

The fact they have already soldout an entire Theater Tour in such a short time when they could not even sell half the number of tickets in 1997 with Hutchence shows that is obviously not the case.

 

[STING2]

Have they sold as fast as the American Idol Tour?! What about Clay Aiken? Kelly Clarkson?? I'd LOVE ( ) to see the comparrisons!

I'm not sure. Remember, "American Idol" TV show was a #1 show, while INXS Rock Star rating wise did very poorly although it was about rock music instead of pop. I think Kelly Clarkson's popularity came from the sells of her album over time. I doubt she could have soldout the Tower Theater in Philladelphia just weeks after the end of the show when she had yet to put an album out.

 

[STING2]

Re: Re: INXS tickets selling quickly!

Schedule.

and second of all, big deal.

Hey, the reality kids have discovered INXS!!!!!!!!

Is that a "bad thing"? Plus there are many longtime fans who are going to the shows.

 

[melon]

The fact they have already soldout an entire Theater Tour in such a short time when they could not even sell half the number of tickets in 1997 with Hutchence shows that is obviously not the case.

Well, I wish them luck nonetheless. They might as well squeeze out as much money as they can right now.

Melon

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

The fact they have already soldout an entire Theater Tour in such a short time when they could not even sell half the number of tickets in 1997 with Hutchence shows that is obviously not the case.

Actually, it doesn't disprove Melon's point at all. He spoke of their existing fanbase yet you have no way of knowing if the tickets have been purchased by their existing fanbase or by new fans. For all you know it could be the case that 90% of tickets for this tour have been purchased by people who until this year had never even heard of INXS.

 

[U2SavesTheWorld]

Even if the album is the best INXS album of all time

 

[beegee]

Are the Farris Brothers, Gary and Kirk fake? Are they not members of INXS? Don't they have the right to continue THEIR band?

OH.

MY.

GAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWD.

i'm sure my post was THAT serious.

 

[timothius]

Have you heard the new album? NO! Yet its interesting how you can claim they are not producing better music. Even if the album is the best INXS album of all time, its obvious some people here will not give them one cent.

Granted I haven't heard it, but what I have heard I haven't liked. Really with these guys I am applying a guilty until proven innocent philosophy. The last album that I would classify good/great was Kick, before that they were solid too. There are the occasional good songs afterwards. But IMO, going on their track record, as well as my percieved motivations for making this music and the fact they think Pretty Vegas is a worthy single (or song even) shows that their finger couldn't be further away from the pulse.

Its interesting to see how much people hate the remaining members of INXS for continueing THEIR band as well as their lives.

I don't really hate them. Mind you I didn't ever idolize them at any point - only one with the Australian music scene in the 1980's->early 90's. But I certinally wouldn't turn down the oppourtunity to have a drink & chat with Andrew... he seems like a pretty knowledgable guy.

Again, it's not what they did, it's how they did it & it is a point so obvious it doesn't need any further elaboration.

 

[timothius]

INXS Rock Star rating wise did very poorly although it was about rock music instead of pop.

Calling INXS rock as distinct from pop isn't exactly accurate.

 

[timothius]

The fact they have already soldout an entire Theater Tour in such a short time when they could not even sell half the number of tickets in 1997 with Hutchence shows that is obviously not the case.

I will make a call on wether this has increased their overall popularity for the next tour.

What INXS sees at the moment is the fruits of the on of the biggest promotion exercises in the history of rock/pop music. Anyone in business will tell you that if you ran a promotion of that magnitude for the period of time they did that it would reap these results. But the question is, will those who attend these concerts and buy the album be "converted" for lack of a better term and continue to buy albums and attend live shows? That is how you tell true popularity.

Everyone in business knows that the single worst time to judge a brand or products overall popularity is in the middle of a huge promotion.

 

[STING2]

I will make a call on wether this has increased their overall popularity for the next tour.

What INXS sees at the moment is the fruits of the on of the biggest promotion exercises in the history of rock/pop music. Anyone in business will tell you that if you ran a promotion of that magnitude for the period of time they did that it would reap these results. But the question is, will those who attend these concerts and buy the album be "converted" for lack of a better term and continue to buy albums and attend live shows? That is how you tell true popularity.

Everyone in business knows that the single worst time to judge a brand or products overall popularity is in the middle of a huge promotion.

Thats not true at all. Every album that gets put out every week, every song gets released every week, and for every week after is immediately judged on its success in the marketplace regardless of the level of promotion. Just pick up a copy of Billboard Magazine which list and goes over the weeks charts every week.

We already had people on here claiming few if anyone would go to see INXS with the new singer and that they would be stuck doing only casinos and farm shows. Clearly, this past week INXS have proven them wrong.

The Catalog is selling well again as well.

 

[STING2]

Calling INXS rock as distinct from pop isn't exactly accurate.

For myself, U2 and others it is.

 

[STING2]

Granted I haven't heard it, but what I have heard I haven't liked. Really with these guys I am applying a guilty until proven innocent philosophy. The last album that I would classify good/great was Kick, before that they were solid too. There are the occasional good songs afterwards. But IMO, going on their track record, as well as my percieved motivations for making this music and the fact they think Pretty Vegas is a worthy single (or song even) shows that their finger couldn't be further away from the pulse.



I don't really hate them. Mind you I didn't ever idolize them at any point - only one with the Australian music scene in the 1980's->early 90's. But I certinally wouldn't turn down the oppourtunity to have a drink & chat with Andrew... he seems like a pretty knowledgable guy.

Again, it's not what they did, it's how they did it & it is a point so obvious it doesn't need any further elaboration.

I think how they did it is brilliant and the results so far show that. I think its great that people who never hear of INXS are going out there and buying the old albums and getting ready to see INXS in concert.

 

[indra]

Of course whether or not they sell a lot of records and tickets to shows is entirely immaterial to me. I only care if they make music I like. If they do, then they are wonderful no matter if anyone else in the world likes them. If they don't, it doesn't matter how many others think they are the best thing since sliced bread, to me they suck.

So far I haven't heard anything I like from them.

 

[timothius]

Thats not true at all. Every album that gets put out every week, every song gets released every week, and for every week after is immediately judged on its success in the marketplace regardless of the level of promotion. Just pick up a copy of Billboard Magazine which list and goes over the weeks charts every week.

We already had people on here claiming few if anyone would go to see INXS with the new singer and that they would be stuck doing only casinos and farm shows. Clearly, this past week INXS have proven them wrong.

The Catalog is selling well again as well.

Your ability to completely side step my argument is amazing.

 

[STING2]

Your ability to completely side step my argument is amazing.

I guess anyone who disagrees with your argument is "side stepping your arguement".

 

[timothius]

I guess anyone who disagrees with your argument is "side stepping your arguement".

No.

I'm going to use some fairly basic business principals here okay. I'm going to go all the way back to my year 9 textbook for this one.

There are four factors that will affect the sale of a product, right? All of which apply in the music industry. Those being:

Price (If a full length album is priced at $2 it will more than likely sell shitloads and race to the top of the charts. The opposite if priced at $50. Essentially irellevent to INXS.)

Place (Where the product is sold. Generally constant in the music industry... although there are instances where artists have sold through sole retailers and been shut out by others e.g. Alannis. Irrelevant to this though)

Product (The CD/Concert itself - naturally encompassing the music that is on the CD. This portion of the INXS mix has taken the biggest nosedive in recent times.)

And the one that most applies to INXS...

*baited breath*

Promotion (The advertising that goes out to the peeps spelling out the other three elements and encouraging them to buy the product.)

NOW

My point is that on a purely business level you cannot judge on gross sales alone, and yes while these have increased the obvious reason for this is that they have increased the promotion between their previous album Elegantly Wasted & their new one tentatively titled Dancing On The Grave 100 times over. Therefore knowing that they will not be able to continue this level of promotion with following albums/tours, there are major questions over the band's ability to sustain sales at this level. Infact we know they can't. So the question is... how popular are they when we all know that these sales are only temporary? Not very.

*closes Year 9 Business Studies textbook*

My point on a purely ethical level is, I have no problem with replacing the lead singer. But doing it in a circus style exploitation of Michael's death is brutal. However I don't feel the need to argue this point for two reasons. One, its been made 100 times before and two, everyone is equally entitled to their opinion on that aspect.

 

[gareth brown]

I have to agree with you there on that very last paragraph.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

"Circus style exploitation" - perfect.

STING, I know that you believe that any form of promotion - no matter how low or how tacky - is worthwhile as long as it spikes sales, but with that attitude vs the attitude of many others here, it's non-debatable because they come from such opposite places. There's no middle ground, so there's no debate. We can argue forever that it's just an awful and sad thing to do, to try and squeeze just a few more dollars out of a rapidly declining brand, at the expense of a legacy that was quite highly regarded by many. But you'll just turn around and point to tour sales and album sales and say, no, nothing wrong with it, look at this statistic, it is clearly the right thing to do.

Put it this way, I would have had a lot more time for it if it were the former members of INXS forming a 'new' entity under a new name. I hate music-by-reality-tv with a passion, but I would at least have found that acceptable in a tiny way, understanding that they have a right to earn money, they have a right to steer their career however they wish - but still thought it was the height of tackiness.

But taking the INXS name, it's music and it's history and twisting it so nastily like this? There is nothing 'real' about it. It will run it's course and die, probably very quickly. They've made their last little cash in, probably a very significant one, and I hope it's their last. They've become a complete embarrassment.

 

[timothius]

But taking the INXS name, it's music and it's history and twisting it so nastily like this? There is nothing 'real' about it. It will run it's course and die, probably very quickly. They've made their last little cash in, probably a very significant one, and I hope it's their last. They've become a complete embarrassment.

I was one of the handful who went open minded into this thing. They had me offside when they showed funeral footage, then they lost me about 3 minutes into the show when they said "Now we are going to the Mayan Theatre where INXS played their last show in America with Michael Hutchance". Talk about capitalising. They are poor confused souls who have talked them into somthing that in a year they will realise was an awful, awful mistake.

The only question remains... what is more embaressing INXS' new direction or David Hassellhoff & Missy Higgins arm in arm at the supposed apex of Australian music?