MusicNewsTidBits.com

Well if you’re in Las Vegas in late January 2020 or April 2020 you should go see Foreigner.  They are having a residency at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas beginning January 24th for Five performances.  Then another run of Five performances in April 2020.

Lead singer Kelly Hansen had this to day (from AnitMusic.com):

“If you take a look at Foreigner’s catalog, there are 16 top 30 hits, and [in planning a show like this] the problem becomes what songs do you leave out.  Do you do some songs acoustically or do you give them all the classic presentation? These are all discussions that we have in creating a set list, but you’re definitely going to hear all of the big ones for sure.”

Every now and then I like to post information about the business side of music.  This is an interesting story by Pollstar on the Concert Industry Stats comparison for the period of 11/23/17 – 5/23/18 versus 11/22/18 – 5/22/19.

“The data shows that the concert industry is relatively stable. Though down single digits in overall gross and ticket sales, the concert business saw an impressive increase in average tour gross. While the Top 100 Worldwide tours declined 3.79% in total gross from $2.14 billion in 2018 to $2.06 billion in 2019 and total ticket sales dropped 6.14% from 22.27 million to 23.73 million, the Top 100 Worldwide Tours average gross per show increased significantly from $836,984 in 2018 to $915,095 – a 9.3% jump. That rise was in part fueled by more tickets per show: 9,901 in 2019 versus 9,282 in 2018 – up 6.67%.”

It’s been 5 years since Madlib and Freddie Gibbs put out their last album and finally the new one is here.  It’s called Bandana and has some guest appearances by Killer Mike, Pusha-T, Black Thought and others.  They’re also heading out on a tour that started last week.  Here’s the dates:

7/6 – New York, NY – MoMA PS1 Warm Up
7/12 – Los Angeles, CA – The Novo
7/20 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival^
8/16 – Orpund, Switzerland – Royal Arena Festival
8/17 – Portugal – Paredes De Coura Festival
8/31-91 – Philadelphia, PA – Made in America Festival
8/25 – London, UK – Maiden Voyage Festival (DJ Set)*
10/20 – Dublin, Ireland – Button Factor^
10/22 – Brighton, UK – Concorde 2^
10/23 – Manchester, UK – Club Academy^
10/24 – Bristol, UK -Trinity^
10/26 – London, UK – 02 Forum
10/28 – Paris, France – Yoyo
10/29 – Brussels, Belgium – Botanique Orangerie^
10/30 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melweg
11/1 – Berlin, Germany – Astra
11/2 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Pumpehuset^
11/4 – Zurich, Switzerland – Plaza^
11/5 – Milan, Italy – Santeria Toscana 31^

Now I’m no Spice Girls fan but I thought this was just crazy. Spice Girls recently reunited (no doubt they needed the money) and so far they’ve earned $78 million on their 2019 Reunion Tour in England. The only one missing from the group is Posh Spice.  All this money after an 11 years hiatus and they come back and earn that much. I didn’t realize people love them so much.

Las Vegas has a new festival in town.  Day N Vegas happens for the first time this November 1 – 3 and will mainly have Hip-Hop artists.  Here’s the top 3 groups performing each night:

Friday – J.Cole (headline), Lil Uzi Vert, Juice Wrld

Saturday – Travis Scott (headline), Migos, 21 Savage

Sunday – Kendrick Lamar (headline), Tyler, The Creator, Schoolboy Q

Other artists joining in is Miguel, Lil Nas X, Brockhampton, Kali Uchis and many others.  Tickets don’t go on sale until June 28 but if you like, you can sign up for pre-sale tickets when they become available at: DayNVegas

For me, there are really only a few hip-hop artists in this Festival.  The rest are Soundcloud ‘rappers’.  I mean, there are literally 12 ‘lil’ rappers listed on the lineup.   Looks like its going to be a very young crowd.

Guns N’ Roses just added 8 more shows to their Not in This Lifetime Tour that began a long ass time ago, April 1, 2016.  It will finally come to an end on November 2, 2019.  The first show is September 25 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC.  Tickets for those 8 new shows will go on sale Friday, June 21.

Here’s the dates:

Sept. 25 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center

Sept. 28 — Louisville, KY @ Louder Than Life Festival

Oct. 1 — Jacksonville, FL @ VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena

Oct. 4 — Austin, TX  @ Austin City Limits

Oct. 7 — Wichita, KS @ INTRUST Bank Arena

Oct. 11 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits

Oct. 15 — Lincoln, NE @ Pinnacle Bank Arena

Oct. 13 — Manchester, TN @ Exit 111 Festival

Oct. 18 — Guadalajara, MX @ Estadio Jalisco

Oct. 20 — Tijuana, MX @ Estadio Caliente

Oct. 23 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Chesapeake Energy Arena

Oct. 25 — New Orleans, LA @ Voodoo Festival

Oct. 29 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Smart Home Arena

Nov. 1 — Las Vegas, NV @ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace

Nov. 2 — Las Vegas, NV @ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace

I wish I could head over to New York for these shows. Beginning August 2, 2019 Peter Murphy (Bauhaus) is beginning an 11 show residency at Manhattan club Le Poisson Rouge. There is a schedule of the music he’ll play at each show. The first eight shows he’ll play renditions of eight of his nine studio albums. Then the next show will be his greatest solo hits, then a show of Bauhaus music then ending with a Tribute to David Bowie. Should be a pretty amazing show. Here’s the schedule:

Aug 2: Should The World Fail To Fall Apart
Aug 3: Love Hysteria
Aug 5: Deep
Aug 8: Holy Smoke
Aug 9: Cascade
Aug 10: Dust
Aug 12: Ninth
Aug 13: Lion
Aug 15: Greatest Hits
Aug 16: Bauhaus’ Mr Moonlight
Aug 18: Tribute to David Bowie

Wilcos last tour was back in 2017 but Jeff Tweedy has been busy on some solo tours and various projects.  The tour will begin later this year beginning on October 8th in Toronto, ON and the following is the remainder of the tour dates:

Tue. Oct. 8 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage (w/ special guest Lord Huron)

Thu. Oct. 10 – Boston, MA @ Boch Center Wang Theatre

Fri. Oct. 11 – Boston, MA @ Boch Center Wang Theatre

Sat. Oct. 12 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall

Tue. Oct. 15 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem

Wed. Oct. 16 – Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre

Fri. Oct. 18 – Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park

Sat. Oct. 19 – Birmingham, AL @ Alabama Theatre

Sun. Oct. 20 – Nashville, TN @ Grand Ole Opry House

Tue. Oct. 22 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom

Wed. Oct. 23 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at the Toyota Music Factory

Fri. Oct. 25 – Houston, TX @ Revention Music Center

Sat. Oct. 26 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater

Sun. Oct. 27 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater

Sat. Jan. 18 – Tue. Jan. 21 – Riviera Maya, MX @ Hard Rock Hotel

The Governors Ball happened this past weekend (May 31-June 2) and they had to shut down on the third day due to weather.  They checked the weather service and they said storms were being held off by a cold front.  Sure enough the weather came in and a lot of the third days entertainment had to to be canceled.   

Here’s the statement by Governors Ball:

https://www.governorsballmusicfestival.com/message/

After the rave reviews of Tyler, The Creators new album, IGOR, he announced he is going on tour. Shows will begin August 30, 2019 at Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle then across the U.S., UK and Canada before ending October 26, 2019 in Houston, Texas. Some of those dates will have Blood Orange, Jaden Smith (really?) and Goldlink.

Whitney Houstons sister-in-law, who handles Whitneys estate, is finally allowing a great deal that could put out an album of unreleased music, a Broadway Musical and a Hologram. The upcoming show is titled ‘An Evening With Whitney: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour.

Rolling Stone spoke with BASE Hologram CEO Brian Becker who is creating the hologram said:

The concert will feature “a complete band onstage, backup singers, dancers etcetera. We will substantially increase our use of the creative elements that are available to us with this technology because it is cinematic, which means we can do animation and special effects to really enhance the show.”

I can’t believe they are still going strong and earning buckets of dough.  KISS is in the middle of their ‘End of the Road World Tour’ and after 43 shows they have grossed $58.7 million!!  Their biggest show on this tour was at New York’s Madison Square Garden on March 27, 2019 where they grossed $1.947 million and sold 13,359 tickets.

That’s just nuts.  They haven’t had a song out since 1990!

First Wu-Tang is airing its documentary ‘Of Mics And Men’ on Showtime and now they are putting out an EP to go along with it.  The EP is set to come out on Friday May 17, 2019.

They are also in the middle of their 25th Anniversary Tour.  Check here for the locations and dates:

https://wutangclan.com/pages/tour

Ahh the great Johnny Marr (The Smiths) is releasing his first solo album on February 25, 2013. It was recorded in Manchester and Berlin and mastered at Abbey Road. Beginning in March 2013 he’s planning on a UK tour and playing some festivals.

But first he’ll be a special guest on the Dinosaur Jr concert on December 1st in New York and sit in on a few songs.

Billboard came out with some staggering figures on the income from the top tours happening from June to July 2012.  Check out these crazy ass figures:

Madonna
July 14-21
Gross $20,882,753
(So far this tour has grossed $79.6 million from 22 shows)

Kenny Chesney & Tim McGraw
July 14-21
$11,493,507

Iron Maiden
June 29 – July 13
$4,829,686

Cirque Du Soleil’s Michael Jackson Tour
July 17-21
$4,173,343

Rascal Flatts
July 6-22
$2,585,292

American Idols Live
June 16-23
$1,998,457

Brad Paisley
July 20-21
$1,372,865

James Taylor
July 17-20
$1,196,660

Flight Of The Conchords
June 29-July 1
$1,058,350

Rod Stewart & Stevie Nicks
July 21
$827,913