Blind Guardian comes to australia.

[the_lone_bard]

http://www.blind-guardian.com/2011/05/2 ... australia/

Blind guardian have decided to come down to us poor australians for two shows this year. While i'm excited as all hell for this, it just further drove home the fact that i've never seen a live show, because this is the first band that i like that has played in australia in the last 4 years. (Iron maiden don't count, there newer stuff just don't sit well with me, same with metallica.)
So i ask the question, Why is it we get to be an after thought? I understand that the usa and sweden/finland have a large metal audience, but last time i checked, australia was on par with japan yet most metal bands tour japan at least once a year.
How is it at a point where maiden could come tour and we had a collective heart attack at the news? Why is it that blind guardian can tour every city in germany but they are only coming to sydney and melbourne? Why not perth? I mean, i understand it's probably not worth there while to go to darwin or hobart or brisbane, but surely perth would be? I mean, whenever my mate alex comes over from perth for manifest later in the years he has to catch a 6-8 hour flight (I think). There must be a market for them over there that just can't get here as easy/cheaply as people from brisbane/adelaide can, i mean it's a 5 hour bus trip that costs $35 for them, from perth it's $150-200 for a return flight.

[Jillers]

Push your continent closer to the rest of us!

[iamafish]

yeah, we are hella far away. feel sorry for NZ, even further away.

And let's face it, the market isn't that huge. Apart from festivals, the music scene isn't exactly booming in Aus. There are very few homegrown bands out there strutting it on the world stage. Aus isn't exactly a happening place in terms of rock and roll or metal these days. Not really worth the cost of travelling all the way here to play.

The other issue is that the population is so spread out that it's very hard to access a lot of people. Apart from Sydney and Melbourne, there aren't any large hubs of population, so it hard to attract big name bands who want to be able to play in front of large crowds

[Lisra]

But see them anyway because they are a treat to watch!

[CtMolloy]

Awesome.
Last time they toured here they only played melbourne, I booked flights and bought tickets and such, then got sick and went to hospital. ha.

As for why no perth... Not cost effective is the reason for most tours not going there.
Keep in mind for maiden and metallica they have a much bigger draw, alot of people like metallica, but they don't care about music enough to listen to much other than what is popular, blind guardian are lesser known, unfortunately.
more people = more money.
There can be alot of bulky and heavy equipment to either transport from venue to venue, or hire in each city, then there's the cost of hiring the venue, cost for the crew wages, theirs and the band's accommodation, food, transport. Makes it expensive for places like Australia where everything is really far apart.
Then of course it could just be a matter of the promoter not caring about other cities, being too lazy, not having contacts, or any other reason, send them an email and ask why.

[the_lone_bard]

Yeah, but it's the annoying fact of, They are a great band, they aren't like metallia where they are fuck hueg go for the show. People are there to see a band they like, so they could be playing on a street corner for all i care and i'd go see them. Yes they put on big shows over in eu and usa, no they don't need to do it here. i mean, i wish bands would realise that and just come down once every year or two, and just play at a couple of pubs. then the only real cost is $200 a night for motel. $200 return flight tickets. $300-400 everything else. They don't need there big equipment, just enough to play at a pub, which would probably pay them to play there, and then they would also get the ticket prices. sure they wouldn't make a shitload of cash, but they would break even at least, and we would love it alot more.

(And for the record, im in melbourne so i'm one of the lucky ones it seems )

[Jillers]

With no guarantee of audience or profit. They need money to get there too. So, say it's 200 to get there (and that would be be per person - I don't know how many people are in the band) depending on where they leave from.
They don't need their big equipment, but they do need their equipment, so that's a cost for transporting their equipment, including instruments.

I don't know how it works there but here not every bar sells tickets, they make the money in alcohol and food sales.Besides that, even selling the tickets, the band does not get 100% of the profits.

And that relies on the pubs there believing the band can draw enough of a crowd for the pub itself to profit (I know you say there are a lot of fans that would go out of their way to see them, but as of right now, from a business standpoint, one fan telling me that is not enough for me to book them).

Plus, how long do you expect them to stay there? Are you including daily expenses like food and transportation? It's impractical to go to Australia for a weekend to just play at 2 - 4 pubs (depending on how many they'll do in a day). It's expensive to stay there longer without a definite profit.

Honestly the bar/pub scene is really only profitable for smaller, more local bands.

The bigger the band is, the bigger the venue needs to be honestly.

Also, I have no idea what their expenses are to begin with, and how much money they need to turn a reasonable profit.

[the_lone_bard]

Yeah i know, what i'm trying to say is, they don't need to spend more money on big flashy shows to get the fans in. we'd come anyway just because we're fans. Though to be honest if i had some cash to do it i'd love to start a festival type thing once a year and get great bands from all over the world (Seventh wonder, Star one, Blind Guardian, Avantasia etc.) to come down here and play. but it would cost a fortune to get that off the ground, and a team of people to organise big name metal bands like that... Also managing to not offend the bands, like star one and seventh wonder are both incredible bands, and fairly popular over seas, but nobody here has heard of them so giving them a headline spot wouldn't exactly work, yet they are too big to just be opening for someone...

[Jillers]

But my point is that even if they just do a stripped down acoustic set, there's still no guarantee about making a profit because of the logistics involved, and a number of unknowns.

Honestly, if you can prove to the bands' managers that, besides a fanbase, there's definite profit, then you can get the band out there.

[CtMolloy]

Playing in pubs kind of sucks for numerous reasons. If I was them I wouldn't want to fly half way around the world to play in some bar, with the hope of breaking even, no matter how happy it made fans.

[iamafish]

Yeah i know, what i'm trying to say is, they don't need to spend more money on big flashy shows to get the fans in. we'd come anyway just because we're fans. Though to be honest if i had some cash to do it i'd love to start a festival type thing once a year and get great bands from all over the world (Seventh wonder, Star one, Blind Guardian, Avantasia etc.) to come down here and play. but it would cost a fortune to get that off the ground, and a team of people to organise big name metal bands like that... Also managing to not offend the bands, like star one and seventh wonder are both incredible bands, and fairly popular over seas, but nobody here has heard of them so giving them a headline spot wouldn't exactly work, yet they are too big to just be opening for someone...

the problem with this is that metal scene is Australia really isn't very big at all. We simply don't have the history in heavy metal for it to be all that big over here. Any kind of festival needs an audience and i don't think Australia can provide the audience for a metal festival on a large scale, especially when you take distance into account. Maybe if you started small, getting local bands and some smaller overseas bands to play, then built up, you might be able to develop something of a metal scene over a few years, but it would still be pretty small and underground.

[the_lone_bard]

Hey, everything starts underground. And i really don't think it would be too hard to get one started, just gotta start up small enough, but that would need even more cash than a larger one.