[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Tour #'s





On Mon, 10 May 1999 WHOOLIGAN@aol.com wrote:

> Mark,
> I don't know about you but I saw TED do Quad 11 times in 96/97. I know 
> several other people who saw them many more times than that. I wonder how 
> this skews the numbers. How many people were seeing multiple shows in '82 and 
> before. Alan?


Good point.  I believe the Quad tours must have had a higher concentration
of the die-hards like us.  I saw four of the shows.  The Quad tours were
obviously aimed at the fanatics.  As Derick says, ticket prices were
prohibitively high.  There was virtually no promotion of the shows, and
surely The Who must have realized that the casual fan was not going to sit
through the entirety of Quadrophenia.  I saw plenty of empty seats at each
of the four shows, and these were in much smaller venues than in '89 or
'82.  


> It the quality not the quantity of fans that count :-)

I agree but have to add something here.  About this issue of
popularity/sales/attendance, Gigi asks, "Who cares?"  Pete Townshend
cares, that's who.  He's never been shy about saying that he goes for
hits, and that he cares how popular he is.  The popularity of The Who has 
a direct impact on how often they work, so the issue is at least somewhat 
relevant to me.  Wanna know the main reason he hasn't made a solo album
in six years?  Because no one bought the last one.  As much as I wish The
Who didn't care how many people like them and would just make music
anyway, they do care and it affects their decisions.

Bill