And Another Thing

[pandaemonaeum]

This 'free gig' RAtM are promising to play, how's that going to work then?

Here are just some of the things a promoter has to pay for:

venue, equipment hire, staff (sound engineer(s), lighting engineers, bouncers, ticketing staff) catering - feeding and watering the band and crew, accommodation, advertising, any visas/ licenses required, travel for band and crew.

If the venue is a field, you can add stage hire, rig hire, transport costs, toilet facilities, licensing, even MORE staff, parking facilities, camping facilities, temporary fencing, policing costs.

Who's footing that bill then? Don't see it being the record company - they can't wring out even more publicity from this, can they? Unless the band are footing the bill and covering the cost with paying dates (HA! who's going to pay to see a band when they can see them for free?) and/ or a new album, it's going to be CORPORATE sponsorship, I would guess.

Unless they do a free festival, and every band on before them pays on to cover costs...

But hey, let's not let the realities of the modern music industry spoil this magnanimous gesture :/

Comments

[kev36663.livejournal.com]

They've done free gigs in the past.

Usually consists of them advising a local radio station about 10-20 minutes before they're due to play and then parking a truck in the middle of LA during rush hour and playing until they get arrested ("Sleep Now in the Fire")

But in seriousness...

Andy Copping is helping them sort the free gig. Andy Copping being the guy behind the Live Nation multi-national corporation (but an otherwise good bloke, I'm told) who also organises a lot of the UK festivals (Download definitely one of them)

I think the logistics are very possible : but how do you decide who gets a ticket?!

I mean, not everyone on the 'RATM for Number 1' group bought the track.

In fact a maximum of half a million (which is half the group) and when you take in consideration multiple purchases it could have been under 100,000

Is it gonna be somewhere neutral - or in the middle of London or usual stomping grounds?

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

My first thought was 'where could you have it' and I keep going back to the 'field' idea. But my thing was, who is footing the bill? The costs for something like this will be enormous!

And I thought about the ticket thing, it will wind up being either a lottery, or first-come-first-served and touts on ebay, etc. In the end, a bunch of people who may or may not deserve tickets will wind up with tickets.

I just have a bad feeling about the whole thing, to be honest.

[kev36663.livejournal.com]

it'd have to be a field...

Andy might be able to get the site used for something like Download and just having the one huge mainstage or something...

It's a complex machine.

Knowing them though... it could just as easily be a 200 capacity hole in London for those most active in the campaign.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__amaryllis__/]

Do you realise how big RATM are and how much money they have made from that band and others (Audioslave etc)?

I assure you they can quite easily afford to put on a free gig. Certainly a very large gig as well without any need for a support bands whatsoever.

RATM could even put on further dates that weren't free Im 100% sure they would sell a large number if not all tickets available.

We are talking RATM here - not WGW. Costs for putting the gig on is certainly no issue to them.

Also do you really think a band like RATM would take any sort of corporate sponsorship? A simple read of the bands wikipedia page would explain why they wouldn't do this.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I know EXACTLY how big RAtM are.

I didn't say RAtM would take corporate sponsorship - I said a promoter would. It's splitting hairs, but if they get a promoter, they'll get sponsorship to help cover costs, and that will be corporate, as it's virtually the only kind available.

A band WILL NOT spend its own money to play a free gig in a different country. When you get into these leagues, you are talking tens of thousands of pounds. What makes you think I have no experience of this level of the music industry? I have festival experience, I know the sums (and the logistics) involved.

I find it hilarious that everyone goes on about RAtM being anti-corporate when they're on a major label.

I re-iterate, bands don't spend their own money to do these gigs, however much they have. The money has to come from somewhere - and as Kev has pointed out, a promoter is already involved. They'll ask supports to buy on, they'll get corporate sponsorship, and the music industry machine will go on.

BTW I never use wikipedia as a source, it's entirely unreliable as anyone can alter a wiki page :)

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It could just as easily be a tiny 'surprise gig' and then all the bitching will start.

Spending 79p on a download doesn't entitle you to free entry to a gig which would usually cost, what £30 a ticket?

I'm not saying they won't do the free gig, I am asking who, ultimately, will pay for this 'free gig'.

[purplefreakgirl.livejournal.com]

It will be interesting to see how it goes. I think it will either be a massive event or a really small gig in an unknown venue where as you say, about 200 people will get in.
It would be nice to think that the band themselves will foot the bill seeing how much publicity and money will have been generated by this, but I cant see it happening somehow...

[kev36663.livejournal.com]

In 2008 they headlined Leeds/Reading.

Owned by Live Nation : Major multinational corporation who own all sorts from Madonna to Newcastle Arena

Run by Festival Republic (which used to be Mean Fiddler - who owned an assortment of venues, were a public hate figure when they sold the Astoria for £24m - yet nobody hated them enough to boycott Leeds/Reading over it)

and sponsors include...
BBC Radio 1 (National corporation)
NME (National bunch of cunts)
HMV (see NME)
Tuborg (nice beer, but still a European corporation)
Coca Cola (possibly the second biggest multinational in the world behind CrapDonalds)

So - yep, corporate sponsorship was required to cover the cost of having them there then.

And they *did* have a choice.
In 1999 Metallica played Milton Keynes to 60,000 people : http://www.fatreg.com/BDO99.html

The pictures, tickets, etc. clearly devoid of in-yer-face corporate sponsorship.

I don't think the bowl is there any more - sure that fucking wanker Pete Winkelman bought the land to build the MK:Arena for his shitty stolen football club

But - this is getting distracted : my point is they have played gigs that have required corporate sponsorship in the recent past.

--
Anyway...

I imagine the free gig, to cut costs dramatically, is gonna be somewhere like Brixton Academy where the combined cost of everything is something they could probably afford.
But, based on the low capacity compared to people behind the campaign a lotta their fans will miss out and who decides, fairly, who goes or not?!