do you hate ATYCLB?are u2 still rock&roll?

[Vampira]

is this thread still goin?

Even if it ends somebody will start another one within 2 weeks

If I never had to hear how much anybody didn't like POP, Zooropa or ATYCLB ever again I would rejoice.

 

[biff]

If I never had to hear how much anybody didn't like POP, Zooropa or ATYCLB ever again I would rejoice.

Someone didn't like Pop? You're kidding? Are they nuts?!!

 

[Vampira]

People are nuts not to like all U2 albums because this band is perfect

 

[Liesje]

Shaun Vox, don't worry, I'm not going to yell at you b/c you don't like something, but it sounds like the reason you don't like ATYCLB is NOT because it's not a good album, but b/c it's not the type of music you like to listen to. You're not liking the album seems like it's b/c the album didn't live up to your expectations. But I don't think that that means ATYCLB is a bad album. It's definitely not my fave either, but I think it's a great album.

 

[Chizip]

well to be fair, not every elevation concert was a sell out either

so although it looks better, selling 19,000 out of 20,000 seats really isnt any better than selling 20,000 out of 60,000

 

[U2Kitten]

well to be fair, not every elevation concert was a sell out either

so although it looks better, selling 19,000 out of 20,000 seats really isnt any better than selling 20,000 out of 60,000

But in most big cities, Elevation played 2-5 shows at 20,000 seats each. Additional shows were added in some cases, none ever cancelled. If any didn't sell out it was only by a few. In most cases, by the middle of the first leg and all through the second US leg the tickets were so hard to get you had to go to scalpers or online brokers. I did.

Originally posted by LivLuv
it sounds like the reason you don't like ATYCLB is NOT because it's not a good album, but b/c it's not the type of music you like to listen to. But I don't think that that means ATYCLB is a bad album.

Exactly. That's the bottom line on anybody liking or not liking any U2 album or any album at all. If it just doesn't float your boat, then it doesn't. There is nothing wrong with you. There is nothing wrong with the album. It just wasn't your thing. This shouldn't be a big deal. That's the last thing I'm going to say about it.

 

[Chizip]

yes, but in the big cities popmart sold out as well

i just know that in st louis i went to the elevation tour and they sold 19,000 out of 20,000, and i went to pomart and they sold around 35,000 out of 60,000

some would say elevation was more successful because it was almost a sell out, but 26,000 more people went to the popmart tour, so i feel that was the more successful one

but either way, since you are done talking about this i win!

i love winning

 

[Axver]

Hmm, I seem to recall someone posting on Peeling Off Those Dollar Bills that every single Elevation show sold out, though a couple didn't sell out until the actual day.

 

[biff]

Hmm, I seem to recall someone posting on Peeling Off Those Dollar Bills that every single Elevation show sold out, though a couple didn't sell out until the actual day.

Axver, I seem to remember that to. We need to consult the experts!

 

[Chizip]

well, i was at the st louis show

and i know there were empty seats in the upper level

that was even without round stage seating, the whole secitons behind them were not used, id think if they could have sold those they would have

 

[Popmartijn]

Here's part of Sting2's answer in the thread Elevation Concert Statistics Wanted from the Peeling off those Dollar Bills forum:

As originally posted by Sting2:
The entire tour was soldout because every show sold all the tickets it put on sale. There were some dates though in the Midwest that did not use behind the stage seating, and there were tickets available in Kansas City and St. Louis I believe right up to show time. Still all tickets were sold. The 45 dollar and 130 dollar tickets always soldout fast. It was the 85 dollar tickets behind the stage and on the second level that were slow to sell in a few markets.

So technically all the shows sold out. But it could be that whole sections were bought up by scalpers who couldn't get rid of their tickets. Or some sections were not put on sale.

C ya!

Marty

 

[RocknRollKitty]

That's what I thought guys, I heard they all sold out. It is true some seats with very bad angles were never put on sale. I saw empty areas too. Don't you think that if they just plain didn't sell you'd see a person sitting here and there, the entire section wouldn't be empty! It's like during the opening act. Being in GA we had to stay there the whole time or lose our spot, but a lot of fans didn't show up until time for U2, or they were out tailgaiting in the parking lot. But there was a person here, a patch there, spotty all over, one whole section would not be vacant!

some would say elevation was more successful because it was almost a sell out, but 26,000 more people went to the popmart tour, so i feel that was the more successful one

ONLY 26,000 more when it was almost twice as long and went to far more countries and played bigger venues?? That's not very much. Shit one more show in Chicago would have made it about even. That means Elevation was way more popular by that comparison!

but either way, since you are done talking about this i win!

i love winning

You do not win. But we are ALL winners, we are U2 fans!

 

[Chizip]

ONLY 26,000 more when it was almost twice as long and went to far more countries and played bigger venues?? That's not very much. Shit one more show in Chicago would have made it about even. That means Elevation was way more popular by that comparison!
[/B]

i meant 26,000 more in just st louis alone

the fact is, they could barely sell 19,000 in st louis for elevation, but they sold 35,000 in st louis for popmart

but they played a much bigger venue for popmart that held 60,000 people, does it mean that since it was barely over half full that it was a faliure and elevation was a success because it was a sell out? no way, popmart had 26,000 more people, so it was more successful in my eyes.

I win again!!!

 

[Popmartijn]

Erm, Chizip, I'm sorry to destroy your mathematical confidence, but the difference is 16,000 people, not 26,000.
35,000 minus 26,000 would be 9,000, not 19,000.



Still, you were right about the 'more' part.

 

[shaun vox]

does this thread look to you like ...... how many albums u2 sold or how many shows they sold out. NO.
get back to the topic or get the fuck out of here!















































hahaha got ya hahaha.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

But in most big cities, Elevation played 2-5 shows at 20,000 seats each. Additional shows were added in some cases, none ever cancelled. If any didn't sell out it was only by a few. In most cases, by the middle of the first leg and all through the second US leg the tickets were so hard to get you had to go to scalpers or online brokers. I did.

popmart sold out three shows at giants stadium...

elevation sold out 2 shows at msg and 2 shows at continental durring the first leg, 3 shows at msg, 1 show at continental durring the third leg... so that's 5 shows at the garden, 3 in the meadowlands

msg has a capacity of 19,763
continental airlines arena has a capacity of 19,040

giants stadium has a capacity of ~70,000 for football, so it would be about 50,000 for a concert such as popmart...

so the 3 popmart shows would have sold approx 150,000 tickets, while the 8 elevation shows did approx. 155,000

5 more shows, 5000 more people... chizip is right (god i hate saying that ) elevation seems like it was much more successful do to the buzz created by "selling out" so many arenas, but it really wasn't any more successful than popmart was... until you get to the economics... popmart was much more expensive to run night in and night out than elevation was... so while popmart sold more tickets world wide, and probably had a higher revenue than elevation, i'm willing to bet elevation had a higher profit margin.

 

[Angela Harlem]

im no accountant, and your figures sound good to me, but what about the longevity? it might be cheaper per show, but 5 shows means 5 times the fees (for venues), the wages, the million other expenses like hotels, transport, living costs, insurance and promotional work etc etc etc.


meh, i am talking out my arse here and arguing for the hell of it

 

[Salome]

elevation prolly did make a higher profit
if only because of the money saved on stage props / lights and that sort of stuff

I would guess they have to pay the crew for dragging along no matter whether they have to set up stage 2 times a week or 4 times a week

POPMart prolly sold more tickets than Elevation because of taking the show to Mexico, Chile and I believe they even did a couple of shows in Africa (?)

since the US got 3 legs I have a hard time believing they sold that many more tickets during POPMart

 

[RocknRollKitty]

5 more shows, 5000 more people... chizip is right (god i hate saying that ) elevation seems like it was much more successful do to the buzz created by "selling out" so many arenas, but it really wasn't any more successful than popmart was... until you get to the economics... popmart was much more expensive to run night in and night out than elevation was... so while popmart sold more tickets world wide, and probably had a higher revenue than elevation, i'm willing to bet elevation had a higher profit margin.

The higher profit margin was one thing I was getting at (under my other screen name which swore off this thread ) Also when you consider how much longer a tour Popmart was and how many more places they visited, they really did just about as well with about half the time, because Elevation was in much higher demand. Even though in many places like NY and Chicago Popmart did well, it didn't in others, and it was an embarrassment to the band that has not happened before or since to have huge numbers of seats left unsold and a show cancelled due to lack of sales. I think that is what is usually meant by it being a flop, not the technical numbers and math, but the disgrace by U2 standards of having stuff like that happen.

Am I to understand that in St. Louis the TWA dome (or Busch stadium, whichever it was) was only filled to half capacity? That must be what VH-1 Legends meant by "playing to half filled stadiums." So I'm sorry, be it U2 or any other band, any tour, I'd rather have the success of selling out an arena rather than to leave a stadium half empty.

 

[thrillme]

does this thread look to you like ...... how many albums u2 sold or how many shows they sold out. NO.
get back to the topic or get the fuck out of here!










































hahaha got ya hahaha.

If I had a dollar for everytime I saw, or added to a post going to a different topic, or off topic,.... Well it'd be a good chunk of dollar bills.

Lol, I didn't even respond to the actual topic, soooo, no I don't hate ATYCLB, and well, plenty of music magazines refer to them as a rock band, post ATYCLB, so yeah, they're still a rock band.

I've heard plenty of the Beatles early songs, "she loves me yeah yeah, "and they're often referred to as the best rock band ever? Wasn't until later they seemed to have a more "rocking" sound.

Would you prefer them to really become a folk band, with the penny whistles, uilllean? pipes, accordians, hehe, I dunno, might be interesting actually.

 

[wolfeden]

Would you prefer them to really become a folk band, with the penny whistles, uilllean pipes...

re-explore the sounds of tomorrow, or drowning man...

maybe not a whole "unplugged" album but one or two tracks? mmmmmmmMMMMMMmmmmmm!!

 

[U2girl]

i just know that in st louis i went to the elevation tour and they sold 19,000 out of 20,000, and i went to pomart and they sold around 35,000 out of 60,000

some would say elevation was more successful because it was almost a sell out, but 26,000 more people went to the popmart tour, so i feel that was the more successful one

19,000 out of 20,000 (over 90%) seats is a way better sold show than 35,000 out of 60,000 (a bit over 50%). I take several sold out arena shows over one not-sold out stadium show (something that should not happen to a band of U2's status anyway) anytime. How many people saw the show isn't a relevant measure on its own, without context.

That said, it's hard - and unfair IMO - to compare Elevation to Popmart because Popmart went to more countries and had bigger expenses. If Elevation with its huge demand would have gone the places Popmart did - and used the stadiums - it's likely it would have outdone it. (which it did anyway IMO with its critical acclaim and a bigger profit margin)

 

[U2girl]

Sorry double post

 

[RocknRollKitty]

19,000 out of 20,000 (over 90%) seats is a way better sold show than 35,000 out of 60,000 (a bit over 50%). I take several sold out arena shows over one not-sold out stadium show (something that should not happen to a band of U2's status anyway) anytime. How many people saw the show isn't a relevant measure on its own, without context.

That said, it's hard - and unfair IMO - to compare Elevation to Popmart because Popmart went to more countries and had bigger expenses. If Elevation with its huge demand would have gone the places Popmart did - and used the stadiums - it's likely it would have done better. (which it did anyway IMO with its critical acclaim and a bigger profit margin)

Yes yes yes exactly

But there was no 90% on the Elevation tour because as Sting2 posted everything did eventually sell out, even if it was on the last night. 100% sold.

 

[U2junkie]

oh fuck ya im a jimmy page fan(led zeppelin) so i spelled it that way (thanks for doing spell check for me)
i wont say u2 suck as musicians but compared to led zeppelin,acdc, gn'r, hendrix,velvet revolver and even the darkness u2 arnt that good with their instruments, lyrically u2 are one of the best(thanks to bono)! if you dont know what im talking about go get led zeppelin live, or acdc live, or just go to one of the darkness shows.

:

ummmmmm......I think Edge does a mighty fine job with that guitar of his. I mean, you can actually "hear" the cords, or tell which cords he's playing. Course, that makes it easy to tell when he misses one too..lol. But I think he's right up there with the best of the best. However, I tend to go for the "sound" rather than a "style". For example, I like Slash's guitar sound (G&R), and yes, Zeppelin. I also liked the original Lynard Skynard guitar
sound (and that's country rock!)....Hendrix? He'll always be known as the "Guitar Player" I think. Van Halen...has some good sounds, as does Aerosmiths "Season's of Wither". I guess it all depends on the sound you like or enjoy, No?

 

[Chizip]

how can you say elevation would have done better than popmart if they had done stadiums? u2 couldnt even sell out all the seats in st louis in the arena, hence blocking out the sections behind the stage, the most they could get was around 19,000.

so, if they would have played in a stadium, they would have sold 19,000 out of the 60,000 seats, compared to the 35,000 they sold for popmart tour.

percentage of seats sold doesnt really mean much, total attendance is much more meaningful to me. i know if i were in a band, id rather have 35,000 people come see me rather than 19,000 people come see me, even if its only 50% capacity, because thats 16,000 (thanks for the math lesson) more people i can impress with a great show.

its an interesting debate really, which is considered more successful, "selling out" every show, or playing beigger venues to more people but with more emtpy seats.

 

[Jack In The Box]

ATYCLB can or not be good, I read almost in its entirety this topic and I just don't understand this insistence in comparing a musician with other one, as the repetitive example in this thread of comparing Edge with Hendrix...

and for don't go off topic, ATYCLB is not precisely my favorite album, but I have to admit that has big songs... In A Little While is one of them, and thinking that is an album that brings me beautiful recollections I can say that I still like it

 

[Liesje]

its an interesting debate really, which is considered more successful, "selling out" every show, or playing beigger venues to more people but with more emtpy seats.

I have no idea. I'd say whichever is costlier, THAT is less successful. But I know nothing of the economics behind touring so someone feel free to enlighten me....

 

[U2girl]

percentage of seats sold doesnt really mean much, total attendance is much more meaningful to me. i know if i were in a band, id rather have 35,000 people come see me rather than 19,000 people come see me, even if its only 50% capacity, because thats 16,000 (thanks for the math lesson) more people i can impress with a great show.

Because like I said, the demand for U2 the last time around was huge - they'd do very good at least in the biggest markets (the places where they played 3 or 4 nights in a row on the last tour). Seats behind the stage - were they put on sale? - are hard to sell anyway. I don't see your "19 000 out of 60 000" number for elevation reasoning...

You said popmart st. louis sold 35 000 out of 60 000 - that's what I meant a bit over 50%. (I don't know what math lesson you mean...?) Not really impressive for a band of their status, especially their live reputation.
On the other hand st. louis elevation sold 19 000 out of 20 000 - I don't see how that is bad, given their age and the length of their career AND they were not relying on mega effects/dancers/big props like bands do these days.

Again, I don't think saying just the number of people explains everything and I prefer selling out a venue - or at least be close to achieving that - rather than not sell it out. (more people may have been at popmart, but that doesn't mean more people were impressed with the show at all. you don't know that, and given that more "older" U2 fans loved ATYCLB over POP, I wouldn't be surprised of more "older" U2 fans preferred Elevation to Popmart)

 

[Seabird]

Because like I said, the demand for U2 the last time around was huge - they'd do very good at least in the biggest markets (the places where they played 3 or 4 nights in a row on the last tour). Seats behind the stage - were they put on sale? - are hard to sell anyway. I don't see your "19 000 out of 60 000" number for elevation reasoning...

I attended 7 Elevation shows, and I can tell you that there were certain sections that were never put on sale. Some were covered by a curtain. As somebody else mentioned, even if they didn't sell out you'd see sporatic fans here and there, it wouldn't be just one part that was totally empty. In most places the ones not put on sale were very high up and to the side, with obstructed view (columns in the way) Behind the stage seats were sold and filled in most places. I had a behind the stage seat once, and the view was not that bad at all

Again, I don't think saying just the number of people explains everything and I prefer selling out a venue - or at least be close to achieving that - rather than not sell it out.

It's the large numbers of unsold seats that look bad and are considered a bigger failure. It's like a football team with a bad record halfway through the season. You look at the stadium and see this is not a product that sold well, people are staying away in droves. That is bad publicity for a band of U2's stature.

(more people may have been at popmart, but that doesn't mean more people were impressed with the show at all. you don't know that, and given that more "older" U2 fans loved ATYCLB over POP, I wouldn't be surprised of more "older" U2 fans preferred Elevation to Popmart)

This is a factor too and it wasn't only age based. But it seems the fans who didn't like it as well were larger in numbers, but the ones who did are more vocal about it on the internet and seem to feel very passionately about it. U2 and feeling passionately in some way, that is a thread running through them that will never change.