Man.. Its a bitch out there in the touring-music biz world in general. NO ONE knows the right thing to do or even the right places to play. When you have a one stop "promoter’ that wields all power and no soul and looks at the bottom line quarterly they dont give a fuck about maroon 5 or anyone else. I remember the day when every territory had its GUY! We were all friends. The greats that KNEW THEIR market. Not everyone does the same in EVERY market! That’s why the biz was better and everyone won, most of the time and when one "of the guys-our promoter pals" took a beating, we went back and tried to make it up. They were friends who took risks and loved the music and the players that made the music! Manangers were on the road HANGING with the rec. co. guys ( see Jerry Aldini cirica sat night live 1978 "Go" haha) … not some corporate leeches.
It’s like any other copororate scam. The BOTTOM LINE. Collateral damage is like war. Innocent people get hurt or die. In the case of a good band that has 2 records out playing arenas is VERY risky. Could kill them in the end. Being "hip" or not you gotta deliver time after time. My band spends all its time EVERYWHERE but the USA. We developed a great fan base of muso’s young and old and some old school folks who like to "remember" BUT we play the right size places for the right markets 30 years later. I make a great living! We mean nothing in the USA. It’s a shame that obvious fake talent can sell out ONCE maybe twice but 30 years later what do they do? You gotta find your market and deliver at a price that makes sense and dollars for all. It ain’t 1985. Tickets cost a fortune to most. One or 2 hit tunes ain’t worth 80 bucks. I’d pay 200 bucks to see springsteen, Whata fucking GREAT band, Van Halen, the Eagles, Genesis, Gabriel, Pink Floyd You NEVER get let down… BUT Kiddie teen acts can do it ONCE maybe twice but look at billboard 5 years ago-10 years ago etc… TOO many people make records, most of which are pop crap played by baby musicians or machines and or fixed to the point of laughability. Christ my Mom knows what pro tools is! hahaha

Now, not to say say that technology is bad given the hands of Peter Gabriel or Radiohead or the REALLY great creative bands that USE it not abuse it. It’s a fucked up world. Any fucking kid that can play power chords can make a record and be on TV and get platinum records. But what happens when they turn 25 and realize they are NOT musicians at all. Just a Halloween costume that is irrelevant come Nov 1st. They ain’t good enough to even be a side man. Hell all I EVER wanted to be was a working musician my whole life. A studio musician, like most people even know what that is!

I got my dream even if you think I suck. hell *I* think I suck. haha BUT I practice to suck that bad! Almost every day. LOL

There ARE those of us that may not ever be hip but make a great living playing as well as we can and traveling the world to play for people who LIKE our music and musicianship. Plenty enough for me for to groove and have a few houses and not worry about money even after a heinous divorce years ago.

I would play in a fucking club for a few grand a night plus beer if that’s all I had left. I am a MUSICIAN! I’ts all I know.

In the USA that’s what they think of me. My fucking rhythm section is Lee Sklar, Simon Phillips, Greg Phillinganes and my sorry ass. Between us maybe 2-3000 records played on over the last 35 years, BIG ones in EVERY style! I am not sad. I think you get some wisdom at 50. You stop trying to be the "big dick in town" the fastest gun in the west. Old people are cool. We should hang with them more. They have ALOT of wisom. I am now one. hahahaha

Who cares? Right? I just turned 50 last week, had a new baby daughter, 2 awesome grown up kids, my son Trevor is a killer player and songwriter and passionate about music old and new..

Does HE go to every show in town? Not on HIS money. My contacts and friends maybe. haha

OK, what I am trying to say is there is uTube world, a free download world, there is a MOST fucked up "major label" fuck up. The pendulum is about to swing and swing back hard. GREAT musicians will come back. Not fodder for the TMZ generation, the "fuck it I wanna be a star" but I have no chops cause I didn’t PRACTICE for 10 fucking years before I ever got NEAR a real studio!

The kids of today can make the difference, just like politics, but that’s scary too. Ever ask a 20 year old what’s goin on in the world? Have they read a newspaper, real ones not "rolling shit" or all the rest of the so called music fodder rags. REAL news, the world, THEIR world. The one THEY will inherit. The book 1984 was 20 years too late.

I don’t know what the fuck I am trying to say but bitching like schoolgirls to rich fucks that just laugh at these raves is like asking George W. how he feels about clean air and water and food in 50 years. He don’t give a shit. He made HIS money and so did his satanic friends.

I still practice, see the world. TRY and make good music with great players and yeah, I do fucking well for a a so called has been. At least I got over 30 years in and have played with almost every fucking great artist of the last 40 years in EVERY style.

Hey, what is hip? Ask Tower of Power. Hey, shouldn’t THEY be in the Rock n roll hall of fame before the Dave Clark 5?

People, stop the prozac-gack-potificatiing-buttplug mentality.

I remember seeing Roger Linn show us the FIRST drum machine EVER! He is a dear old friend, used to be Leon Russell’s guitar player and engineer. Jeff Porcaro heard it and saw it, we all were in shock. Jeff’s last words were " I am gonna put this fucking thing on my back and jump in the swimming pool so NO ONE can ever use this!"

God Bless ya Roger, you know I love you but fuuuck.. it has made it WAY to easy for all concerned.

God Bless us old guys that practced and thought MAYBE someday *I* can make a record but I gotta be really fucking GREAT"?

What happened?

Bitch as you will about all things. Country music ROCKS! Great players and singers and songs etc..

I still love the new FOO’s record and lots of cool new artists and there IS great new music out there for fuck’s sake.

Take the HUGE look and then really ask yourselves.. why?

Sorry to have spewed my shit but it’s a free country..for now. Be careful, maybe not much longer.

Luke in South America groovin

This story was in our free local weekly paper this week:
http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2007/10/25/Cover-Eoverload-E.rtf.aspx
Very apropos.

Chas Patrizia | Director of Client Services-MusicToday

Springsteen opened his tour in Hartford on October 2. For weeks, all the articles/publicity for the show said it was sold out. Yet tickets were available the day of the show. And outside the venue there were literally 100s of people looking to unload tickets. And lots of scalpers who thought they were offering a bargain of nosebleed seats at $95 face value. I got a great seat for $30 45 minutes before showtime. And if I had wanted to wait it out another 30 minutes I’m positive I would have paid $10 or less.

This was the same story when Bruce was in Hartford 4 years ago (tickets were going for $5 for that one). Ditto for the Stones a couple years ago. And I know from talking to friends that it’s the same all over for them and Madonna and whomever else you want to mention. Why bother with Ticketmaster and fees when you can get tickets for a fraction of the price?

Back in the day acts toured like crazy. They learned their craft on the road and that’s why a lot of them can still sell tickets. With the advent of MTV and other instant roads to stardom, a lot of bands started taking short cuts and they never took the time to really learn how to "earn" an audience.

Of course, hit records are instant gratification but that doesn’t equal paying to see an act live–that’s a different art form. Maroon 5 is relatively a new band and they have done some very smart things (the man behind them is a friend, and I don’t mind telling you, a very smart one a that) but this kind of grabbing too big too fast can kill an act. I submit the reason it was done is because Live Nation is a public company not showing profit and they HAVE TO SELL TICKETS, AND A LOT OF THEM! These decisions were not made in name of how to correctly build an act. It would have served Maroon 5 AND Live Nation better to have indeed, moved the show to the Fillmore, but leave it at the one show. That way the buzz would have been insane and radio stations giving away tickets would have seemed like they were giving away gold! Everyone in town would remember how hard it was to get tickets and how many people actually couldn’t get in! Yes, that is one of our oldest magic secrets–that way, when the band RETURNS to town there is EVEN MORE OF A DEMAND.

How is it that so many have forgotten the tried and true business models that have served us for so many years? This isn’t rocket science folks–it’s book one, page one stuff.

Paul Rappaport