Expecting Rain

Johanna, how do you know about the ticket sales? Just curious...

If you go on ticketmaster.es, and start the process of buying tickets to that show, you can see the seating chart showing you all those that are still available. Front center block is almost sold, but front left and right blocks still have lots of capacity.... it's not a big venue.

For Bonn, there are still tickets for the railed-off front of stage area, which aren't any more expensive than normal GA tickets. I think except for Barolo, none of the announced shows will sell out any time soon.

Johanna Parker, are you going?

^^
Oh sure.... there and Cap Roig, but skipping Benicassim.

Great , but why skipping Benicassim? It's the one to see this Summer

Well I remember him selling out the Olympiahalle (almost) in 1999, the Kölnarena in 2000, the Oberhausen-Arena in 2002 (where they cut off half of the place by curtains in 2005). These are 10.000-12.000 venues. Those were they days...

OK, he's touring Germany for the third time in 12 months, what is strange in itself. But the main problem is, I guess, that most people who saw him in the barking years (2007ff) simply would not come back.

@shhoting star: Same reason as skipping Hop Farm, and possibly Carhaix.... I prefer pure Bob without opening acts.

@thinman: Yes, and I guess he left no big impression with the Knopfler fans either, being so much less smooth.

True thinman2

I believe there are no more tickets left for Lyon either.

^^
Oh right, I forgot about Lyon.
I think it's not very big either, though.

Sorry, you're wrong. Both Munich and Cologne had seats on the floor thus drastically reducing their regular capacity. Also, in Cologne they closed off one third of the venue and it was nowhere near a sell-out. On the floor, yes, it was pretty packed, but on the stands it looked pretty grim.

Last time Bob played to MORE than 5,000 - 8,000 people ON A NIGHTLY BASIS in Germany was 1984, everything after that was hit and miss (or smaller venues).

But then again size doesn't matter, right?

No, it doesn't. Obviously I'd much rather see him in a small place, however, I'd also rather see him for 70 bucks in an arena than 300 bucks in a 2,000 capacity theater.

I just wanted to set the record straight: For years, the venue sizes in Germany have made Bob sound (commercially) bigger than he really is. I guess that's due to his high guarantee. It makes sense to put him in a bigger venue, even if you don't expect a sell out - just in case a few extra people show up anyway.

But apart from the MK tour I can't recall any sold out shows in five-figure capacity Arenas in Germany on the NET. I don't think I recall much more than an handful of *really* sold out shows in Germany on the NET and none of these were much bigger than 5,000.

Of course there were seats, all German shows were seated in 1998-2002, weren't they? Anyway: I don't remember they closed off 1/3 of the Kölnarena but you're probably right. The night before in Oberhausen he played in a half empty place. That said, I remember Oberhausen 2002 to be close to a sellout, in Schwäbisch-Gmünd 2001 they sold 14.000 Tickets (according to a local newspaper, don't know if that's true but it was a large crowd indeed).

Since 2003 anyway, the ticketsales are going from bad to worse it seems. In 2006 even the small Theater in Gelsenkirchen was only about 3/4 filled. The only crowd bigger than 6.000 I can think of (in the barking period) was Mainz last year.

Köln 2000, by the way, is just up on dime. Get this if you don't have it. That Gates Of Eden ranks among the Top 10 performances of the NET.

Well this tour is almost over so maybe we will get something next week

There might have been seats in the back in '02, but up front it certainly was general admission.

Yep, I stand corrected... No seats in the Stadtpark Hamburg 1998, no seats in Oberhausen 2000, no seats in Braunschweig 2001, no seats in Franfurt 2002... My memory doesn't serve me well.

@AutoDesSchreckens: What's the story of your username? Are you a FIAT salesman?

And a whole new mindset is being applied to the name Shooter!

No, they werent, I only recall two or three seated shows in Germany before 2002: Munich 1999, Oberhausen & Cologne 2000. Essen 1998 has seats, but they were unnumered and only brought in late in the game to disguise the fact that they hadn't sold any tickets. I've been to fewer shows after 2002, however, apart from the MK shows, I don't think there were many seated shows in Germany after that either.

And as I said, anything after 1984 was hit and miss. Of course he has played to larger crowds on occasion, but there were very few real sell-outs (walking into the venue thinking: "Oh, attendance is not as bad as I thought obviously doesn't count).

Then again they brought in seats at a couple of shows in France in '10, too.

I remember düsseldorf '03 and '07 to be pretty packed, that philipshalle ain't small either!

Some attendace figures of audience attendance so far, some interesting stuff, especially Rio

Rio De Janeiro
1,283 / 2,616 (49%)

Brasilia
6,447 / 9,645 (69%)

Belo Horizonte
5,350 / 5,380 (99%)

Sao Paulo
6,845 / 7,706 (89%)

Porto Alegre
6,324 / 6,363 (99%)

The cheapest tickets in Rio were around €200/US$ 250, so I'm not surprised half the venue was empty.