VH Chart, Ticket Sales, Tour Success - NOT!

[DavidLeeNatra]

why not also bring the pets on stage...what the fuck is that tour? van waltons meet the happy family?

[gslinger]

Originally posted by EVH FANATIC
Sold out shows so far:

Philly 6/16
Worchester 6/19
New Jersey 6/22

=============

Gslinger says…..Just the Facts Please!

Facts:

Only Worchester was a sellout, and second night was approx half empty (Worchester is a small venue, compared to others discussed here)

Phili was not a sellout and second night was approx half empty

East Rutherford was not a sellout and second night was approx half empty

For a dual nights event, as was the case for these three VH venues, the promoter and Tour accountants look at the average PAID attendance for the TWO nights, not a single night, to determine the events success or failure. If makes little obvious and logical sense to ballyhoo a sellout out for the first night, only to have a half empty arena the second night. This type of sellout elations only appeals to fraudulent marketing and media hype people with hidden agendas, along with people like EVH FANATIC and other VHLinkers who provide no value or intelligent exchange of information to this Forum’s membership.

Substantial ticket discounting, up to 90% off ticket face value, and substantial free complementary tickets occurred for all 6 shows at the above 3 venues.

EVH FANATIC is a VHLinks groupie with 3,553 posts at the time of this post write-up.

EVH FANATIC is a Van Spammy groupie attending multiple concerts on this 2004 Tour to-date, per email I have received from three VHLinks members. Of course people like EVH FANATIC are going to make fraudulent misrepresentations here at Roth Army. People like this person like to draw attention to themselves by any means possible, without honor or integrity. People like EVH FANATIC are trying to mentally justify their flawed decision process and the excess amount they paid for VH tickets. It’s a very easy process to understand.

I have yet to find one accurate post, of a significant and material nature, on this forum by EVH FANATIC. If one exists, I would like this person to show members of this Forum that post or posts.

For posts of a significant and material nature relating to this 2004 VH Tour, along with its accounting, I have been both 100% honest in those posts AND they are 100% accurate, based on the best verifiable information available. If EVH FANATIC, or any other member of this Forum, can find ONE post of mine that is inaccurate, as hereinfore delinated, post it here for all to see and comment.

I know of only one post, that could be challenged, and I am excluding that post from my statement. That post is on the VH Hershey attendance. While my post is 100% honest, and 100% accurate based on the verifiable information received, I have never believed that this VH show only had 5, 866 paid tickets.

I understand many comped people were bused to this VH show by the promoter and venue owners. And, I understand that at one point certain Park gates were opened to allow the general public into the VH concert without purchased tickets.

However, I still do not believe this number is accurate. That stated, promoters sometimes play games with these numbers for both external and internal reasons, I believe that this is most likely the case in this referenced matter.

[gslinger]

Here’s the Pollstar Top 50 released yesterday.

Let me state something, then I’ll address these numbers.

We have a lot of fun on this site joking and knocking stuff around, bashing on Hagar, doing tons of spoof ads, I’m the biggest Eddie V basher on this site, (with good reasons) even thought IMO he was one of the greatest guitarist ever and I recently went and watched him perform and was backstage on comped biz passes, blah, blah.

But all that joking and knocking around for me ends when I post information about this Tour’s ticket sales, attendance, viability, etc. Unfortunately, I care about people and I don’t want this site to be like Brett Norton’s site at www.vhlinks.com.

I am not going to say anything in the aforementioned regard, to pacify the membership of this Forum, at the determent of VH Fans getting screwed out of their hard earned money on this Van ReHash Tour due to the significant amount of misrepresentation and major felony fraud going on in the marketplace.

I’m not going to tell people to not go see this VH show. Let’s look at the facts:

(1) For people that have to pay, you can get fantastic upfront floor or side stage tickets for $5 to $40 in the secondary market for basically any show you want;

(2) It makes a cheap reason to get out, have a few beers or whatever your pleasure, meet people, and see Van Spinal Tap II, what the hell, not may hard-rock shows left;

(3) Eddie will never Nationally Tour again, so this is your last chance if you want to see the drunken/drugging hack, that use to be one of the world’s great guitarists. On this point, despite my comment on Eddie, 10 – 20% of the time during most shows, that drunken/drugging hack can still blow the roof off the place, and besides his booze-meth induced stage antics are DAMN funny and worth the $20 for a upfront ticket alone!

(4) And finally, the most important point, for diehard rockers in my age bracket, there is a huge number of very hot rock chicks that will do ANYTHING, if you will take them to see this VH show. They don’t give a damn about all this musician stuff, they just want to get out and have a good time. VH sucks so bad, they will probably just get even more loaded and be even more nasty after the show. Don’t know about you bros, but I will endure a lot of suffering to get number 4 on this list. I’m the first to admit I’m a total whore for fine p-tang!!!!!

So anyway, bottom-line is, I am going to continue to post the same honest information here without regarding to who is fronting this band. End of Discussion on the matter.

As to the current Pollstar Charts, if Diamond Dave was fronting this Tour, I would continue to tell you the same things and I’ve always posted on this subject. – These Charts and Pollstar’s Power Ranking is nothing more than an infomercial and they don’t mean shit! The rankings are based on the number of Pollstar “family” site hits for a particular band. They are not based on ticket sales, customer demand, show reviews or anything else! Just because people go to a website, DOES NOT mean they buy f—king tickets and put money in my pocket as a promoter. END OF STORY, it just total bullshit!.

Here is exactly how Pollstar defines their Power Index.

“Artists are ranked by the number of times their itinerary is requested by fans visiting the Pollstar Web site on the Internet……The Power Index is determined by ranking the artists as a percentage of the chart leader.”

This is a mealy mouth way of saying it is based on Site hits. Also notice their word RANKING. This poll is a “ranking” NOT a “rating” and there is a damn big difference in those two words in this business! Look it up if you don’t understand it.

Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of Pollstar basically admitted last week, that their top 50 Chart is totally worthless. I have attached via separate post, edited excerpts from the Indianapolis Star June 28, 2004 article -“Concert Promoters Play Let’s Make a Deal” plus URL reference to the entire article. In this June 28 article he basically states that Van Halen’s Tour is not doing well, and he states “ The Van Halen offer, Bongiovanni says, draws attention as an extreme bargain.” As a promoter you don’t offer extreme bargains if your Tour is doing well! Bongiovanni, makes this statement yet at the same time the new PollStar Top 50 Chart has Van Halen as #1. Case close!

Actually, Van Halen being #1 this week was totally expected. It works like this, people hear about all the VH Tour problems in the press, no VH sellouts to-date, “free food and parking with VH tickets deals, tons of great tickets available, some dumbass named gslinger on RothArmy saying that you can buy great upfront tickets for peanuts on Ebay and other places, and they check the deal out on a Pollstar site. It’s a curiosity deal. Still doesn’t mean they buy tickets, go to the concerts, and put money in my pocket as a promoter.

Look at the Cure as #1 on that Chart last week, it was a curiosity deal. That band sucks, they are not a material ticket draw!

Why is Madonna 17 last week and 7 this week on Pollstar, when her concert Tour is presently #1 in ticket sales and gross revenue for her Tour?

Why is Prince 11 last week and 14 this week, when his Tour is also one of the top producing Tour’s this year? That concert was sold out when it played in my city, not that I went.

Why is Velvet Revolver, 20 last week, and 19 this week on Pollstar, when all but one concert has been sold out on their Tour and their hit single Slither has a stranglehold at #1 on both R&R and BillBoard respective charts?

Why is Jimmy Buffet, 24 last week and 20 this week on Pollstar, when he is #1 on Billboard BoxScore as the biggest concert draw, both tickets and dollars for the reporting period?

It’s because with Spammy fronting Van Halen the Chart is worthless!

It’s because with David Lee Roth fronting Van Halen the Chart is worthless!

Simply stated – THE CHART IS WORTHLESS as a gauge of real customer demand, ticket sales, and Tour success.


<center>* * This is the last time I will be reporting on this Chart – Thanks * *</center>

[gslinger]

In a very uncharacteristic move the last two weeks, I have observed Clear Channel executives swarming the media trying to explain away why Tours, including Van Halen, are bombing. Some of these Tours, including Van Halen, are 30-50% below initial expectations. In plain English that means they are losing their ass!

I will have the numbers for the East Coast leg of this Van Halen Tour done by late this weekend. As it looks presently, the VH Tour will come off the East Coast in a loss position. I am positive about this Tour’s loss to-date, but not the magnitude of the loss until the rest of the numbers come in. As I stated in a previous post, these numbers have become almost impossible to obtain, for obvious reasons. Luckily, plenty of people still work for CCC corporate in San Antonio, that hate that fraudulent place. I also still have good contacts with several ranking VH Tour crew members. More later..

Recently, I have reviewed 11 articles in regular and trade news media regarding this year’s significant Tour problems. I was asked to comment on this particular article, so here’s my excerpted comments.

[gslinger]

90173918379173918273918237-2739486

[gigolo]

email: - Major thanks for helping us out, this is funny,,--jj

VH Pittsburg Show – 6/29/04

Spent $375 for a 5 Star Pass for What - A soundcheck to listen to Eddie be a total fucking asshole and Sammy not even show up

........When Eddie came out to his rig he was "PISSED OFF" about the placement of his mic and effects box. He tore the engineer a new asshole and insisted that his gear placement is never in front of his 3 mic'd cabinets. He then seemed really bothered by somone on the mixing board. So then Ed's telling the guys to move his stuff and they just stand there kinda of dumbfounded. So Ed decides to move his stuff by himself.

Another 5 star then asked Eddie to sign his childs birth certificate (named after Ed) and Eddie looks at him like he's crazy. I was right in front of Eddie front row against the baracade. A bunch of people ask Eddie for autograph at that point and he yells out "COME ON MAN, I'm tryin to get my gear setup!"

He then yells out "Where's Mike"? Mike comes out a few minutes later and they talk for a minute and Ed points to Mikes cabinets and asks him something. Eddie asks everyone what they want to hear? Everyone blurts out something, Ed responds "TOO FUCKING BAD" and starts Roundaround.

After that everyone starts yelling out what they want to hear again and I yell out "ALL F"D up", Ed looks at me and said "You saying the sound is all f'd up!" and then they go into It's about time. After that, Ed comes over to a girl in a wheel chair next to me and throws her a pick and tells the people around her to give it to her!

They go into Jump and Eddie noddles around for a couple of minutes. Everyone asks for more songs but Eddie says, "sorry the guy in the back didnt' jump. Go kick his ass if you want". One last person asked Eddie what those little switches are on his guitar, he says its for the sustainer and that the Japs ripped off his design.

All in all a great $375 to meet Eddie and the band.

[gigolo]

Noted Van Halen added Atlantic City, NJ - Sept 3rd to the tour schedule.

[Roth-Halen]

Originally posted by gigolo
email: - Major thanks for helping us out, this is funny,,--jj

VH Pittsburg Show – 6/29/04

Spent $375 for a 5 Star Pass for What - A soundcheck to listen to Eddie be a total fucking asshole and Sammy not even show up

........When Eddie came out to his rig he was "PISSED OFF" about the placement of his mic and effects box. He tore the engineer a new asshole and insisted that his gear placement is never in front of his 3 mic'd cabinets. He then seemed really bothered by somone on the mixing board. So then Ed's telling the guys to move his stuff and they just stand there kinda of dumbfounded. So Ed decides to move his stuff by himself.

Another 5 star then asked Eddie to sign his childs birth certificate (named after Ed) and Eddie looks at him like he's crazy. I was right in front of Eddie front row against the baracade. A bunch of people ask Eddie for autograph at that point and he yells out "COME ON MAN, I'm tryin to get my gear setup!"

He then yells out "Where's Mike"? Mike comes out a few minutes later and they talk for a minute and Ed points to Mikes cabinets and asks him something. Eddie asks everyone what they want to hear? Everyone blurts out something, Ed responds "TOO FUCKING BAD" and starts Roundaround.

After that everyone starts yelling out what they want to hear again and I yell out "ALL F"D up", Ed looks at me and said "You saying the sound is all f'd up!" and then they go into It's about time. After that, Ed comes over to a girl in a wheel chair next to me and throws her a pick and tells the people around her to give it to her!

They go into Jump and Eddie noddles around for a couple of minutes. Everyone asks for more songs but Eddie says, "sorry the guy in the back didnt' jump. Go kick his ass if you want". One last person asked Eddie what those little switches are on his guitar, he says its for the sustainer and that the Japs ripped off his design.

All in all a great $375 to meet Eddie and the band.

So sorry to hear that, man!
That's fucked up! LOL

[Panamark]

What a nice Human EVH has become.. :p

[gslinger]

Originally posted by Panamark
What a nice Human EVH has become.. :p

Posted by T.V.

evh's drinking & drugging getting much worse per vh crew ~ out of control. val & wolfie left until mid july, then back on tour

xoxoxox

Trixie

[DavidLeeNatra]

I wonder what kind of drugs ed is on...it's not just the booze...what does he take...we know that dave is a cokehead and has his pot...ed must be on something else...at least it doesn't make him that happy...any details gslinger?

[gslinger]

posted by T.V.

[gslinger]

BillBoard Magazine Sued for $29 Million

Billboard has lost $4 million year to date

“Panhandling” to Warner Music Group (“WMG”) Alleged


Note: WMG is the owner of Van Halen’s “back catalog” and the bands current producer/distributor of their latest CD’s release

http://preview.foliomag.com/people/vnu_suit/

[gslinger]

Posted by T.V.

[gslinger]

posted by t.v.

* * Roth Army Alert - Diamond Dave on CBS This Weekend * *

courtesy mewisemagic - See specific thread

Check out www.cbs.com, Bottom right hand corner of CBS's home page

I downloaded the clip and it will go in a new thread with all the photos and full video of Dave's performance when we get them in.