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rosko Group: Members Posts: 184 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 02 2000, 03:17 Doesn't anyone else here think it's a bit selfish of so many European fans to vote for the SVR tour to be in Europe? It's not as if European concerts aren't a rare occurence for Mike. Shouldn't these fans butt out and give countries like Australia, USA and Japan a chance? These and many others have many fans who would love to see Mike live but never have the chance. Back to top

bennyboy Group: Members Posts: 177 Joined: July 2000 Posted: Sep. 02 2000, 23:30 Quote Originally posted by rosko: Doesn't anyone else here think it's a bit selfish of so many European fans to vote for the SVR tour to be in Europe? It's not as if European concerts aren't a rare occurence for Mike. Shouldn't these fans butt out and give countries like Australia, USA and Japan a chance? These and many others have many fans who would love to see Mike live but never have the chance. Yes,as a fellow Australian fan of Mikey Boy I understand your plight, and I would love to see him perform here sometime. But you must remember that Mike does not have an incredibly large fan base here or in the USA (compared to UK and Europe) which is probably why he doesn't come here. It takes money to go on tour you know, and like it or not Mike probably wouldn't make much of a profit, unless the tour was really hyped up by the press. But considering how badly marketed his last two albums were by WEA i don't think that is very likely. Back to top

TubularUSA Group: Members Posts: 45 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 05 2000, 12:16 I agree. I think that fans in the UK are selfish with respect to Mike's tours. I think Mike and the record company should spend a little money and at least tour a couple of key places in the USA. The fan base (however small) will definately diminish even further unless something is done. Why can't he hit a couple of spots, like New York, Pittsburgh, and LA? This would at least cover the main territories (East-West coast). Back to top

tubularbills Group: Members Posts: 528 Joined: Aug. 2000 Posted: Sep. 05 2000, 17:08 Don't forget Chicago!!!!! Don't isolate us just because we're in the middle of the USA! The USA is so big though, that if he wanted to reach all of his fans here, he'd have to go to more than just NYC, LA, & Chicago. Europe might be a little selfish w/ his tours, but you can't please all the people all the time -------------- Terrible, Wonderful, Crazy, Perfect. Back to top

GMOVJ Group: Members Posts: 273 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Sep. 06 2000, 04:24 Hi fans, I'm sorry but I don't agree on everything. Europe is not always treated as good as you seem to think. OK, some countries can see a lot of Mike's Concert, but, in France, Mike don't tour a lot : for 'Then and Now tour' Germany had got 13 concerts and 9 for Spain, whereas France (about 50 million inhabitants)and Sweden or Ireland, even UK, etc... had got only 1 or 2 ! For France, only one concert, in a small hall - about 2,500 people. No, this is not selfish to want him touring in europe again, but French would like a REAL tour ! In 1981, 7 dates for France, 12 in 82, 13 in 83, 10 in 84. At this time, Mike was very known in France, and Touring this country was easier for him... But He didn't tour anymore until 92 with only 2 dates. And then he had been forgotten by non-fanatic. They still know his name, but they don't know anything after 'To France' - they maybe don't know anything about Ommadawn or older stuff too. So now, without ANY promotion in France, he can't get enough people for a 10 dates tour... This is a vicious circle. No promotion = no concert, and no concert = no promotion. Mike always use to tour a lot in Germany so He is very well promoted there. Since he lived in Ibiza, he is well known in Spain, so he tour a lot there too. Europe is not so big as USA or Australia, but it is quite large, so it's not really easy for someone to go and see him in Germany or Spain when you live in France or in the south of Italy. OK boys, I understand very well the frustrating feeling that Canadian, American, Australian can feel, because I never saw Mike live! and I feel the same. But honestly - and with all respect that I have for American, Canadian, Australian and Japanese etc. fans - I must admit that I would vote for an european tour, with a lot of dates in France . In fact, a Worldwide tour should be the best. Cheers, GMOVJ PS : rosko, i agree, a concert in Sydney Opera must be grrrrrreat ! Or near Uluru ... Mike must see Australia, this is a wonderful country. -------------- Cheers, GMOVJ [URL=http://tubular.fodplanet.com]http://tubular.fodplanet.com[/URL] - The french speaking mailing list Back to top

TubularUSA Group: Members Posts: 45 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 08 2000, 13:13 I was referring to Europe as a whole entity. It's a heck of a lot easier for you to travel to a place where Mike is touring than it is for someone in the U.S. to travel all the way to Berlin or some place. Besides, he hasn't done ANY PLACE in the U.S. for almost a decade! Mike Oldfield needs to record and perform a complete new album over here. Back to top

tubularbills Group: Members Posts: 528 Joined: Aug. 2000 Posted: Sep. 08 2000, 15:00 Yeah it has been awhile since he's been here. Last time he recorded an album here was back in 1992, when he spent 6 months doing Tubular Bells II. I don't even know the last time he was here for a concert or performance. -------------- Terrible, Wonderful, Crazy, Perfect. Back to top

Blue Dolphin Group: Members Posts: 1232 Joined: Nov. 1999 Posted: Oct. 15 2000, 13:51 Well, I like to see Mike more in The Netherlands, because I had only seen one concert of him, and that was last year. But now a personal opinion (and off-topic): I don't think Mike should perform in Japan (luckily he didn't yet), because those bastards still hunt whales and dolphins down to extinction. Oke, maybe not all Japanese fans are whale eaters, but by seeing that bar (on Dark star for Japan) rising to more than 100 voters, I think one Japanese guy is cheating. So Mike, don't go to Japan, they are cetacean killers! You yourself like dolphins and whales, I saw that on you Sonic Reality. -------------- -The mark of a good musician is to play one note and mean it- Mike Oldfield - 1980 Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Oct. 15 2000, 16:35 Problem is, it's all about money. Yes, it would be nice if it wasn't, but that's the way... Tours cost enough to put on anyway, but going over several continents makes things even worse, because new equipment has to be hired in each continent and that sort of thing (freighting it across would possibly be even more expensive, I believe, and would take more time, unless duplicate sets were used, which of course brings the cost up more...). So there has to be the guarantee of getting a good return from the tour...Mike's sales figures at the moment aren't huge anyway, perhaps, but there is a reasonably large fanbase in Europe that will fill concert seats. It seems that this is less so in other continents, partly perhaps because of bad marketing of albums in the past. That said, it seems the fans that there are are willing to travel a bit, so perhaps doing a single venue in some of these continents would work (although the equipment costs still come back to haunt, especially with short hires being less cost effective than long ones). Making a big event out of it would work to generate a good crowd, though. Probably playing somewhere like the Sydney opera house (to pull a venue out of the air) would guarantee a reasonable audience but...not necessarily...it needs a bit of market research, really (and more than just Dark Star's poll). Blue Dolphin: I understand your opinion, but somehow I think it would take more than Mike boycotting concerts in Japan (especially as he doesn't play there anyway) to stop the Japanese from doing this...unless Mike cleverly spearheaded a campaign against it. He's not enough of a public figure to do this, though, so something tells me the solution lies elsewhere... Back to top

rosko Group: Members Posts: 184 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Oct. 16 2000, 04:13 Spearheaded?? Ironic word choice there Korgscrew. Anyway, I still think that an Australian national tour could actually work quite well. Tubular Bells and Moonlight Shadow were big hits over here but due to the poor marketing of his other albums/singles, hardly anyone knows he's still making music. A national tour could easily hook in heaps of the people who bought TB or MS - these people would be interested in hearing his other music. Any loyal fans like me would jump at the opportunity to see him in their capital city as well (I doubt any of them would want to miss it). The amount of people from these two groups who would buy tickets would be more than enough to fill a decent size venue in each capital city. The fans would be happy and the TB/MS purchasers would start buying the other albums. Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Oct. 17 2000, 19:03 Heh, it was a bit ironic...I nearly put (no pun intended) in when I wrote it but then left it... Anyway, yes, you may be right...what Mike needs first is a load of promotion that tells the whole of Australia (or wherever) what an amazing live act he has...and if he hasn't got an amazing live act (not necessarily my own opinion, btw), then he'd better get himself one. I don't mean anything crazy (Mike smashing guitars and cutting up melons with axes on stage may not be the way forward here...) but just some nice fancy visuals to go along with the amazing music would help no end. Lasers and that sort of thing seem to go down well, although these might be a bit too commonplace now. Something big, something that everyone will want to see, even if they've never heard of Mike before... One thing that Mike can do, of course, is play a lot of different instruments, yet, on stage now he seems to play little other than a couple of guitars and maybe the odd keyboard. Ok, for TB 2 he had the banjo as well, but still... Things like Ommadawn, for example - Mike plays the intro using a guitar synth for the harp sound, because he claims it's too hjard to mic up a harp on stage...well, he's not totally wrong there, but I found a company that does some very nice electro acoustic harps which sound great. Perfect. Where am I going with this? Well, if Mike played a lot of instruments on stage, it would make things a whole lot more interesting for the audiences, I believe. Maybe my opinions are biased slightly, but I know a fair number of people who find it fascinating to watch a person picking up all kinds of assorted instruments and make music with them. Of course, following on from that idea, Mike could cut the costs of a tour substantially by doing an 'unplugged' type tour with maybe one or two (or three...) other musicians. Go on Mike, I dare you... Back to top

Blue Dolphin Group: Members Posts: 1232 Joined: Nov. 1999 Posted: Oct. 22 2000, 18:56 And the problem is with concerts far away (like America) that the gear has to be transferred with boats. And one should look out that the boat doesn't sink, like what happened to Jean Michel Jarre. He was to give a concert in Mexico while there was an eclipse, and when the boat tranported the gear, it SANK! Auch!!! -------------- -The mark of a good musician is to play one note and mean it- Mike Oldfield - 1980 Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Oct. 23 2000, 08:56 rosko, I like the idea of an Australian tour, but I just cannot see it really bringing forth a lot of revenue to convince Mike to come back again. This would mean that the tour, if it ever happened would be a one-off, and that is not what we want. What is needed is an event to really increase interest in Mike Oldfield - (I played TB at my school recently, and a science teacher walked in to complain about the volume and said that he thought Mike Oldfield was dead). Any ideas? (perhaps Mike doesn't need to do the whole of Australia, just WA (and maybe Sydney because of the large population)).- apologies for excessive bracket usage Back to top

Jammer Group: Members Posts: 643 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Oct. 23 2000, 18:56 Regardless on my views of him performing in Australia or not. When is the SVR tour going to take place or is it not decided yet? Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Oct. 28 2000, 21:46 I think that, at the moment, for countries like Australia, Japan and those in America (both north and south) the best chance is for a one off concert, perhaps even just something where Mike appears as guest (hopefully a very special guest who gets to play most of the concert...), maybe at a festival or something (this would mean that things like a PA system are already provided, leaving Mike to just bring along a guitar and his rack/pedalboard). But whatever, they need to investigate the market a bit. As for the SVR tour...that'll happen when he's finished SVR...which may be early next year, or may not be (depending on whether that deadline is like the September 2000 one or not). Back to top

sunjammer Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: Jan. 2001 Posted: Jan. 01 2001, 17:02 I may be a bit partial to my particular region of the USA, but I think Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado would be a remarkable venue for an Oldfield concert. Anyone who saw U2's "Under a Blood Red Sky" would have to agree, I think. Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Jan. 01 2001, 19:29 The problem with Australia having just a one-off concert is that it is so big. If the concert were in Sydney, then it would be very annoying for fans in Perth, as Sydney is miles away on the other side of the whole country, where New Zealand is as close as Perth. Because Australia is so large, fans would want a tour so that they can see and hear Mike in an area closer to where they live. Why should Sydney get all the good stuff though? It's got an Opera House and hosted the Olympics, so what. Perth's now got a belltower and is less crowded than Sydney. -Tim- Back to top

rosko Group: Members Posts: 184 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Jan. 23 2001, 01:46 I've just had another interesting idea. Wouldn't it be cool if Mike was part of the line-up for the Big Day Out sometime. For those of you who don't know, it's an annual music festival that tours the capital cities. This would be a great way for the youth of Australia to discover Mike without having to have gone specifically to see him in the first place. Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Jan. 23 2001, 02:18 Interesting idea, rosko. Big Day Out, could work. It's growing on me every second. Means we get a "tour" of sorts, plus there are quite a few people at the concerts who can discover Mike, yeah, I like it. Wonder if it'll ever happen though. -Tim- Back to top

ChiRho Group: Members Posts: 195 Joined: Feb. 2001 Posted: May 25 2001, 10:16 Please bear in mind that not every member here has seen MO live, (probably includes many of the people on this topic?) I can see both sides here: It would be good for him to do some less well-toured locations, like USA, Australia, South America, Wales (hmm...), but unless the record company sees that it will make enough money to justify doing it, it ain't gonna happen. Of course he could pay for it himself had Richie not laid such a useless contract in front him in 1972 ... -------------- <P>Mr. ChiRho Email to chirho@mine.nu.almost (guess what drops) Visit ChiRho Network Central [URL=http://www.chirho.i12.com/]http://www.chirho.mine.nu/[/URL] Check the forums (topic suggestions still welcome[URL=http://forum.chirho.mine.nu/]http://forum.chirho.mine.nu/[/URL] Back to top

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