fluke wrote:Mick Molloy wrote:fluke wrote:Here in the netherlands it seems that promoters are in to the idols shite. The main promoter (and I suppose it is the promoter that should negotiate with the pogues) is to full of them self to recognise the needs of the public. Just booking stuff that's a product and is making money for the agency's
And we need the pogues SO bad
There must be something we could do philip?? Go on bended knee? Look real sad?
Maybe we could chip in? Send letters to someone?
If it's about the costs.. You could sleep at my place
I'll even buy Shane's drinks evn if it would bankrupt me
I would back you up Mick!
Still I'm wondering what the difficulties are.. Is it 'just' the money? And I do not think this is that bad 'cause it's better the band gets paid then someone else, but is there anyone who is thinking about the people that would 'die' too see this band? I realize this is a stupid question because clearly Phillip shows he cares for 'us' but I'm just wondering how something like this works..
It is never "just" the money and our fees are always negotiable. From 2001 on, we have been fortunate to work with promoters who were smart enough to suspect that the Pogues had become a bigger ticket than ever before and who put their reputations and their bank balances on the line to illustrate the point. Wily gambles like that are how reputations are made in the music business. Not only did the Pogues vindicate these promoters' faith but we made them, and ourselves, a lot of money too. In the UK, Ireland, the USA and Japan, we have forged strong relationships with some of the smartest rock promoters in the world. Nobody comparable has so far come forward in other touring territories. This doesn't actually bother us much - we are quite happy to play the small number of shows we do play every year. And we all have our personal income thresholds below which we'd rather not do a show and risk prejudicing what we've already got going for us. So, we're not workshy, but at a certain point we'd rather be making a Radiators album or inventing new ways of making music with rainwater or just digging the garden and playing with the kids.
The touring circuit in Europe is largely predicated on the idea that you will do it in order to build a following, sell your new album, improve your profile, whatever. In return for this, you will be badly paid and, in order to even break even, will compromise the comfortable living standards you are accustomed to elsewhere. This is not necessarily a criticism of the European circuit, it's just the facts of life. It's a trade off we made - incessantly - between 1985 and 1995, because we wanted to get our music across to people, make our presence felt. We have absolutely no interest in repeating the process, not least because it was one of the things that almost destroyed us in the past.
These days, when The Pogues set out to play a gig in London or New York or San Francisco or Tokyo, we always do so with a genuine desire to do a really great show which we will enjoy playing and which, in turn, audiences will appreciate hearing/seeing. There is nothing routine about it from our viewpoint. We are appreciated, paid well and treated like Kings. Why settle for less? This is now one of the best live bands in the world and we want to keep it that way.
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:55 pm
