The Official Book of Souls Tour 2016 Thread (Warning: Spoilers within!)

There is some greed involved I'm sure, but name a band who is at least as popular as Rush who isn't greedy. I personally think that the amount of money Maiden has is WAY WAY WAY more than the cost of a tour even after paying everyone and all the expenses and as a result, they could charge less to play shows to help reduce ticket prices a bit. A good example of greed is what I saw Bruce say over in the thread for him that he would make a country music album if he knew he could make money from it. He sure doesn't need the money. That's just the way becoming a huge superstar can make you. Also, bands like Maiden probably think what if something does go wrong and ends up costing them a huge amount of money. It's the way things have become with all of the entertainment industry. Look at major sports. Players will demand more money when their contracts are already giving them millions. So it doesn't surprise me to see some greed involved. It's the way things are and there's not too much we can do about it and any way you look at it, A Maiden show is well worth the price.
 
Yeah, I agree with @matic22 , I live in Belfast and I've heard from guys 'on the scene' that promoters here up the price just because they can. There's little competition and only really 1 venue that a band like Maiden can play. Dublin also only has one Maiden sized arena. Last time I saw Maiden in Belfast (TFF) it cost £56. I think it was £43 or something when they played London a few days later. Although I'm sure it costs the band a silly amount to cross the water from mainland UK to Ireland.

So maybe I'm defeating my own point but either way, the promoters here have a say in ticket price.
 
Prices go up, that's the model a lot of businesses follow, regardless of inflation and wider affordability. It bit large retail chains in the backside when low-cost retailers like Aldi, Lidl and Primark suddenly started expanding.

I'm personally dreading the price of Maiden tickets in the UK when they're announced. I was fully expecting £80-90 this year and as it happened, the Download day ticket cost £90.
 
Brigantium said:
Prices go up, that's the model a lot of businesses follow, regardless of inflation and wider affordability. It bit large retail chains in the backside when low-cost retailers like Aldi, Lidl and Primark suddenly started expanding.

I'm personally dreading the price of Maiden tickets in the UK when they're announced. I was fully expecting £80-90 this year and as it happened, the Download day ticket cost £90.
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Fuckin hope not, I'm planning a mini tour, go see 2 or 3 shows cos I aint seem em since 2010! Unless they play Dublin and Belfast and I can stay this side of the water (zero chance!)
 
Doesn't the promoter set the ticket prices?
The band gets paid a fee regardless of how many tickets get sold.
 
mckindog said:
Doesn't the promoter set the ticket prices?
The band gets paid a fee regardless of how many tickets get sold.
Click to expand...
This is what I told from a friend of mine. He personally knows a few musicians who were popular during the grunge scene in Seattle during the 90's. He also sold health insurance to Chris De'Garmo's (queensryche) father lol. Total ticket sales are split evenly between the band, the road crew/tour expenses, and the venue. So each gets a third. The band usually gets shirt and merchandise sales, while the venue will keep sales for concessions and beer. The venue is allowed to charge more for tickets, but the minimum price is usually set the bands management and accountants.
 
mckindog said:
Doesn't the promoter set the ticket prices?
The band gets paid a fee regardless of how many tickets get sold.
Click to expand...
aye, so promoter sets the price, regardless of band fee, so they put it up here in Ireland. Or so I believe. Unless anybody in UK paid £56 or more for floor standing/general admission. Still, cheap at twice the price
 
Collin said:
This is what I told from a friend of mine. He personally knows a few musicians who were popular during the grunge scene in Seattle during the 90's. He also sold health insurance to Chris De'Garmo's (queensryche) father lol. Total ticket sales are split evenly between the band, the road crew/tour expenses, and the venue. So each gets a third. The band usually gets shirt and merchandise sales, while the venue will keep sales for concessions and beer. The venue is allowed to charge more for tickets, but the minimum price is usually set the bands management and accountants.
Click to expand...

If that's true Maiden are smart business men. Selling their own beer at the venue gives them a bit extra of cash...
 
Niall Kielt said:
aye, so promoter sets the price, regardless of band fee, so they put it up here in Ireland. Or so I believe. Unless anybody in UK paid £56 or more for floor standing/general admission. Still, cheap at twice the price
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I saw Maiden at the O2 in London on the TFF Tour and Maiden England 2013, if I remember rightly each time I paid between 55 and 60 pounds which is more or less in line with the prices in Ireland.

It seems as if other acts playing the same venue frequently charge a fair bit more too.
 
Niall Kielt said:
Yeah, I agree with @matic22 , I live in Belfast and I've heard from guys 'on the scene' that promoters here up the price just because they can. There's little competition and only really 1 venue that a band like Maiden can play. Dublin also only has one Maiden sized arena. Last time I saw Maiden in Belfast (TFF) it cost £56. I think it was £43 or something when they played London a few days later. Although I'm sure it costs the band a silly amount to cross the water from mainland UK to Ireland.

So maybe I'm defeating my own point but either way, the promoters here have a say in ticket price.
Click to expand...
Brigantium said:
Prices go up, that's the model a lot of businesses follow, regardless of inflation and wider affordability. It bit large retail chains in the backside when low-cost retailers like Aldi, Lidl and Primark suddenly started expanding.

I'm personally dreading the price of Maiden tickets in the UK when they're announced. I was fully expecting £80-90 this year and as it happened, the Download day ticket cost £90.
Click to expand...

Do you really think they will be that much? For the O2 gigs on the ME tour in 2013 the top price was £55.00

I'd be very surprised if they jump up £35-40?

On a general note for what it's worth I think Maiden tickets are very reasonably priced when compared to other bands of their stature?
 
I don't know at all, I'm just budgeting in case they do. There was quite a price leap in the US this year, I believe.
 
The promoter set the prices, the band just gain their regular "fee". If the band demands US$ 500.000 to play, they'll gain this in either a sold-out stadium or a half-empty basketball arena, the promoter is the one to profit or not in the concert. That's why you see so much oscilation in the ticket prices, inplaces where the promoters know it'll have a huge demand, they'll raise the prices without mercy.

I can take my own example: in the Belo Horizonte concert, you had two options: floor and a "premium floor", closer to the stage. I paid around £66 for the "premium floor", but i paid half ticket, since i'm a student. The full price was around £133. Just for curiosity, the regular floor, further away, was at £72 (full) and £34 (half). The Black Sabbath concert i'll attend, in São Paulo, have tickets ranging from £205 (full price of the "premium floor") to £40 (half ticket of the most distant stands). I'll go in the regular floor in this one, since i'll need to travel and i'm not The fan of Black Sabbath, like i am with Maiden (i'm paying £60 for the half ticket. Compare that i paid £66 for the "premium floor" in the Maiden gig)
 
On the ticket prices: if I remember right, band/management gets the fee and maybe a small percentage of sold tickets + merchendise sale. I don't think management has a big say in ticket prices, it's probably all in the hands of the promoter. Promoter, of course, looks his profit but he probably knows the best which is the ticket price range that would still be "cheap" for current country to bring more audience but still "expensive" to avoid going in red numbers. Last few years it's really been a drag with bigger countries that have Ticketmaster due to unrealisticly high prices + fees, but they are probably the safest bet for management. That why I love goint to shows to "smaller" countries.

Current example: for Maiden tonight in Trieste (Italy) Fan Pit ticket (in front of the stage) is 100 euros (+fees and postage). Tomorrow in Split (Croatia) Fan Pit ticket is less than 50 euros (+postage). So you can literaly buy 2 Split tickets for the price of 1 in Trieste for the same venue area/show/band.

But more important: Where do all the unsold tour t-shirts go?!?!?!

Italy also got an event shirt (http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODY0WDQ4Ng==/z/MXMAAOSwIgNXkwwM/$_57.JPG) which looks cool and is probably the last one on this tour. Event shirts were my favourite on this tour, the common tour shirts no so much. Last time I went to Maiden show they were 35 euro each (common tour shirts) and if what @matic22 says is true, there is no way I'm paying over 40 euros for tour shirt.
If the show has event shirt they put it later in the official store, but without the dates, which is OK practice. But what happens with the rest of the tour shirts?! As far as I know in last 10 years Maiden never sold their tour shirts after the tour and I bet they have a lot of them left. What do they do with them? Recycle? Sew pillow cases? Stack them in Harris's basement? It's pretty shame that they just dissapear. I would definitely buy some of the previuos tour shirts for the tours that I've been to if they appeared at the official show for 10-20 euros...
 
Maybe they give them away to crew? I might ask that on the FC forum and see if I get a good answer.
 
I'm waiting for that zippered hoodie to show up somewhere for purchase. The $100 one. I didn't have the cash at the time, but I've been socking away a little here and there if and when it shows up on the merch site. The one with the Mayan Calendar Eddie on the back. I think it was beige? It was pretty bad ass, but I can't find a picture of it anywhere. Maybe I dreamed it.

Anyways, as a former concert promoter, I can tell you that yes, the promoter sets the ticket prices... but... it's usually in the contract that the promoter has a top end and a low-end. Like, say, you can not go over $150 on any tickets, and you can not go under $38.50 on any ticket. That seems to be the range for most American "shed" venues, where the high-end gets you in the pit and the low end gets you on the lawn. Arenas are way different, sometimes having 4 or 5 different pricing levels. Those are set prices, but if a show isn't selling well, there are sites like Groupon and Living Social where a promoter can unload stuff at 2 for 1. The band gets paid regardless.
 
Went to the Trieste, Italy show last night, and it was pretty good. It was somewhat special for me as I went to university at Trieste and seeing the band live at Piazza Unita' (the beautiful main city square) was just spectacular.

The band was firing on all cylinders and having fun. I arrived at the venue in the nick of time, at 9 PM exactly, so I wasn't able to get too much ahead, to my surprise (the closest I got was a few meters in front of the mixing desk). The people in the areas behind the mix desk didn't know the new songs so I thought that was a bit bland, and went ahead until I encountered a group that knew the new songs as well. I guess the reason why the crowd was so dense even this far from the stage was the fact that the fan pit was very big, at least 2-3 thousand people from what I see on the photos. There was about 15 thousand people total.

Regarding the new songs, IESF, SoL and BoS worked pretty well live, TRATB and TOAC not so much. TRATB I don't like on the album, especially the "engineered" whoah-ohs, but TOAC I do like. However, it dragged too much, in my opinion. Those irregular rhythm breaks during the chorus don't translate well when the band isn't completely in sync, especially with Nicko trying to add more notes on the snare. Death or Glory is great, but I agree with someone a few pages back that Bruce has taken it a bit too far with the monkey mask and two plush monkeys that he had with himself.

Apart from that, Powerslave was fucking huge, maybe the highlight of the show for me. HBTN always great, I missed it. Blood Brothers was great as an encore, that Janick solo still one of the best in Maiden's catalogue.

I won't bother you with pictures of the band, but I will give you this one shot of the square and stage (taken from the local newspaper):

image.jpg
 
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