No Rock And Roll Fun

OVERSUPPLY?: It's not just Lollapalooza which has been stung by falling ticket sales in the US, as Pollstar's Gary Bongiovanni predicts a "lacklustre" summer for concert sales in the US: Jessica Simspon, Kiss, Norah Jones, even Madonna are all suffering from poor sales; it's widely accepted that Christina Aguilera's cancellation was less about her throat, more about the lack of people interested. And yet twelve months ago, everyone was getting very excited, suggesting big shows were the future of the music industry.

What happened?

Typically, the US music industry has blown it by getting greedy: there's a massive over-supply of big tours, they're charging too much and trying to stretch to bigger venues that they strictly need.

Bongiovanni has an interesting twist on the reason for the 'looza collapse, by the way: it's not that Sonic Youth, Pixies and Mozzer fans are too old to consider going to gigs at all, just that they don't relish eight to ten hours stood outside waiting for the heroes of their youth to show up.