OFF: Concert Attendance

[ANDREW GARIBALDI]

There is a virus about - it's called 'poor concert attendance'.
Over here in the UK we have always had the idea that the USA events such as
this would pull in more of an audience, but this now seems to be so rampant
a situatiion everywhere.
On the electronic music front, an annual event in Holland previously called
Klem, now 'E-live' has been canceleled this year due to poor ticket sales -
4 years ago they were getting over 1000 people. The partner event, Alpha
Centauri, only got 600+ people this year by getting Rick Wakeman to
headline. In the UK, you couldn't put on the annual electronic music
festivals we used to do without reckoning on around 125 people where it used
to be 300-400+.
On the space-rock front, Alan Davey's gigs are getting better attended but
the average audience is rarely into three figures, low even for some of the
small venues played, while Spacehead and Dr Hasbeen havea similar situation.
Yet Hawkwind still do it wherever they go, obviously the known name that
people put themselves out for.
The theory runs that those of a 'certain age' or income bracket are either
jaundiced of all the small conceerts and only go to big ones - or if they
have to travel distance to the gigs,then the expensive peripherals make it
all too much  - and so on.
So, are the up and coming bands, even the known ones, doomed to play to such
small audiences and is there no way of redressing this situation?
Just a thought for all...........
Andy Garibaldi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Guizar" <jguizar at STNY.RR.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 2:08 PM
Subject: OFF: Quarkspace


>    Vacation's almost over :(  I went to the 1st Intergalactic Spacerock
> Concert and Light Show Saturday. Anyone else on the list go? I had
> my nethawks shirt on. It looked like there was maybe 50 people
> there.