Lily Allen Opened Up About The Downsizing Of Her US Leg Tour

[RAMROD 118,042]

 

 

Earlier this month she kicked off the US leg of the tour with a giant show at Madison Square Garden. The rest of the tour was initially also supposed to take place in several arenas across the country, but in July, she moved several shows to smaller venues and cancelled a planned Montreal date.

Some dates went ahead as usual with no venue changes, however the show in Chicago – originally set for the 23,500-capacity United Center – was instead held at the 3,500-capacity Chicago Theatre. Other shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco were also downsized.

Allen has opened up about the decision to switch the venues. Speaking in a new interview with The Cut, the singer explained: “The ticket sales weren’t there.”

She went on to say: “I think people sometimes have a misconception about artist greed. And, you know, maybe there are artists who are greedy, but let me tell you a little bit about the mechanics of how these things work: I don’t call up MSG and all of these other venues and say, ‘I’d like to book these dates, please. Thank you very much. I think I can fill these arenas.’ The company’s own promoters have data machines that tell them whether they’re going to be able to sell these tickets.

“And they offer artists a certain amount of money and tell them, ‘We would like to put on these events, and we think that we can sell out tickets. And would you like to oblige?'” she continued.

Allen added that she felt “uneasy” about the tour from the beginning. “I said to my manager, ‘Are you sure? This seems like a stretch.’ And he was like, ‘This is what they’re telling me.’ So we accepted it,” she added.

“As time went on, it just looked like it wasn’t gonna happen. And we could’ve cancelled all of the shows. But I have a crew of about 50 people who all thought they’d be working through October. And I didn’t want to tell them all that they weren’t going to have work,” she continued. “Our other option was to ask the promoters if there were any other available venues that were more suited to the demand.”

Allen then explained: “I think the live industry is a minefield, and I don’t know how it works. I’ve gotten messages from people on the day of a ‘sold out’ gig saying, ‘I got a ticket for $22 today.’ So obviously a bunch of tickets are released last minute, but on our end, we’re told those tickets were sold out the day they went on sale. I don’t know what the **** is going on. Someone knows, but it ain’t the artist.”

https://www.nme.com/news/music/lily-allen-on-downsizing-venues-for-her-west-end-girl-us-tour-3969055

https://www.thecut.com/article/lily-allen-west-end-girl-tour-divorce-album.html

[River 128,749]

17 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

“And they offer artists a certain amount of money and tell them, ‘We would like to put on these events, and we think that we can sell out tickets. And would you like to oblige?'” she continued.

That's basically confirms that gaga didn't price the tickets for the mayhem tour and she very minimal say in it.

[bxr 2,919]

Not sure if she had a shift in management since the No Shame Tour, but her team back then seemed like a pretty tight-knit shop … I got a press pass to the show just by sending an email to her publicist with a few links from my blog, bit reminiscent of what I imagined the old school music scene dynamic to be like ( “I like your artists music, I‘ve written about them a few times over the years, I see they’re coming to town, I’d like to write about the show” … “Sounds good, go to XYZ at the venue and etc.” )

Lily stayed afterward for a meet and greet to anyone who was interested … I was the last in line, we ended up talking about her early mixtapes and the MySpace days … she gave me a long sleeve shirt, signed it, and signed a ticket for my sister who couldn‘t make the show

I kind of wonder what the music editorial and live scenes would be like if the industry was more human in that way …

Spoiler

 

Edited 22 hours ago by bxr

[50 Ft Queenie 665]

7 hours ago, River said:

That's basically confirms that gaga didn't price the tickets for the mayhem tour and she very minimal say in it.

[whoresup 3,451]

It’s a shame this happened because it’s the only dampener on what has been a fantastic era for her. They should’ve been realistic and just booked theatres in the US first time.