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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

The Evolution of Burnside

I’m listening to an album from a band called Burnside. The album is called Evolution and it was released in December, 2012. I really like it and I recommend it.

I need to know more. So I go straight to Google. I type in Burnside.

I get all these results about Uniting Care, the city of Burnside, the Burnside Public School and all these other results that do not deal with music. Not a good start.

So I change the search words to “Burnside Band” and the website, http://www.burnsideband.com is the first one that comes up. That is better. However I would have expected the Facebook and Twitter accounts to come up as well.

So I change the search words to be, “Burnside Band Facebook” and it comes up, however it is not the first one. Anyway, I go onto the Facebook page, and I see that they have an album launch happening soon. I am confused. The album came out in December 2012. An album launch six months later is a bit weird. 

This is why the idea of the album fails in this day and age, especially if you are a band starting off. Evolution is a great album, one of the best I have heard in the last few years, and it is in my top 10 of releases for 2012. So how does a band, that recorded a great album get it out to the people, without disappearing.

The answer is the fans. The fans need to be sharing the songs on their Facebook accounts, on their twitter accounts or blogs. Once upon a time there was an old way. Bands and new music where broken by radio and the press. Theses outlets are obsolete today. The fans are the new way. They are the new press. They are the new radio.

Burnside have over 7000 likes on Facebook. It’s time to mobilise these fans. The fans need to share. The band needs to record themselves playing some of the songs acoustically and put them on YouTube and then get fans to share those YouTube clips. It’s not about the sales anymore, it’s about remaining relevant and in the public eye. That is the battle.

Burnside are from an area called Penrith, Australia, which is about 70 minutes away from where I live. This is typical of Australia, where talented bands fail to escape the local area. I only live 90 minutes away and I have never heard of them. They formed in 2009, however the members Grant O’Hara (Vocals, Guitar, Bass), Sheldon Wharton (Vocals, Guitar, Bass) and David Rice (Guitar, Bass) have been in other bands prior.

Their bio has them comparing themselves to Birds of Tokyo. Why? They are way better than Birds of Tokyo. Silverchair is also mentioned. Evolution is an album that Silverchair wished they could make. Foo Fighters is another reference. Foo Fighters are renowned for releasing albums with four to five great songs and the remainder is seen as pure filler. Evolution is an album that has no filler.

Be sure to check out Remember When.  If you like Everything from Lifehouse, you would like this song.

The combination of The Battle moving into With A Gun is brilliant.  The strings over the distorted guitars sounds grand.

Lost The Will is modern rock in the vein of Shinedown.

Will I Find You There reminds me of The Calling.  The Last Time is the best song that Daughtry hasn’t written.

What You’ve Become merges brilliant piano playing with distorted guitars.  Its melodic and haunting at the same time.

Through My Veins, has that AC/DC, Long Way To The Top vibe.

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Music

Bon Jovi struggling to sell tickets

It looks like the wheels are falling off. This is what happens when you go back to the same markets over and over again, with super high ticket prices. I just went onto Showbiz today and I could still purchase 4 Platinum Tickets for the Bon Jovi Australian Shows in December. This was unthinkable, once upon a time.

A lot of Bon Jovi fans got burnt at the Telstra Pre sale debacle. Bon Jovi’s Facebook page, the Bang Tango Facebook page and the Dainty Touring page had over 2,500 combined comments from disgruntled fans. Think about those numbers for a second. If all those fans purchased 4 tickets each, that is 10,000 ticket sales.

A lot of people are now waiting for the General Public Release via Ticketek on the May 20, 2013.

A lot of people don’t even know that the Showbiz pre-sale. It’s not even advertised on the Bon Jovi Facebook page, however the Telstra pre sale was.

Furthermore, Bon Jovi can’t even sell out a hometown gig. Tickets to the U.S. New Jersey shows are up on Goldstar, https://www.goldstar.com/e/69879 as inventory that no one wants.

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Music

Attention Bon Jovi Fans – There is Another Pre-Sale on today?

I can’t believe it.

The next lot of pre-sales from Bon Jovi’s tour of Australia have gone on sale via Showbiz and no one is buying.  Tickets have been on sale since 8am this morning, which is when I purchased 4 Platinum tickets.

I just went online right now, and i could purchase another 4 Platinum tickets.

I then checked Bon Jovi’s Facebook page, and there is no mention of the pre sale that is happening today.

WTF?

I guess the whole Telstra / Bang Tango debacle pissed everyone off.

 

 

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Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Bon Jovi – Who Is To Blame Because We Can(t) purchase tickets?

This morning, at 9am, the Bon Jovi – Because We Can Telstra pre sales for the December 2013 Australian tour went on sale via ticketing website, Bang Tango. By 9.01am, the site crashed. Within an hour, Telstra and Bang Tango both posted an update. It was the clichéd “due to high demand or high volumes, you may experience delays in accessing this website”.

Fans went into a panic and then they became angry. The Bon Jovi Facebook page had thousands of comments about the disaster. Telstra’s page experienced the same rage, along with the Bang Tango Facebook page. Fans also vented their anger on Twitter.

A lot of the blame is directed at Telstra and Bang Tango. Both of these organisations have a lot to answer too, however the main blame stops with Jon Bon Jovi and his management team. They are the ones that signed these arrangements due to the monies offered to them.

What fans seem to forget is that Bon Jovi is guaranteed an upfront fee from the promoter for coming to Australia, regardless of ticket sales.

They (Bon Jovi and the promoter) then license out the sales of their tickets to different ticketing bodies within Australia, based on what those ticketing systems want to pay for having the privilege to sell Bon Jovi tickets. In most cases, Ticketek or Ticketmaster are the players, however in this instance, there was another player in Telstra/Bang Tango. The actual winner in all of this is Ticketek, as it seems to cement their reputation as the best seller for these kind of events. Bon Jovi then licenses out the manufacturing and sales of their merchandise to another organisation, and that is why we, the fans are slugged with the high prices we see. $50 for a T-shirt, $300 a concert ticket and so on.

Furthermore, from looking at all the comments, I started to see a trend. Fed up and frustrated fans then started taking out the $60 online Backstage JBJ fan club membership, just so that they can purchase tickets. Was this the intention of Jon Bon Jovi all along, to get people over to his fan club. As a Bon Jovi fan, I don’t believe that is so, however it makes you wonder. Throughout the whole debacle, the Backstage JBJ website was up and running and selling tickets, while Bang Tango was bleeding. However, being a Backstage JBJ member only limits you to two tickets, so if you need four or three, you are screwed.

Then within the hour, EBAY had tickets on sale for the Bon Jovi Australian concerts at a $1,000 each. Can someone please explain how fans got the middle finger, and scalpers or resellers got tickets to sell.

My view is that NO FAN should have to pay to join a website to purchase tickets. The purchase of the TICKETS is enough of a transaction to satisfy the band. Jon Bon Jovi is all about greed these days, and he should be ashamed for the way he disrespect his fans; the same fans that have allowed him to live a life of luxury through their devotion to his band and music.

Here are some more comments from the Bang Tango Facebook page (I actually feel very SORRY for the band Bang Tango);

· Trying to pay for mine and all it says processing your payment it has been on there for awhile

· I finally was able to purchase some tickets, we decided on a package (yippee) … my question is, during processing payment it said that my transaction had timed out and to try again – but first I checked online with my bank and the money had already gone out of my account … so do I have tickets or not? Will we be sent confirmation emails?

· What a joke you are. After sitting here for almost 3 hours refreshing my screen I then get through to find out that I have to sign up for an account (will look great for your numbers hey) only to progress to the screen where I select the tickets I want, wait 5 minutes for it to ‘reserve’ my tickets to get a message that says: sorry but computer says no: 0-…On a screen full of automated selections where I can’t input anything. What the hell is going on? Are you a real company that deals with this daily? And how the hell did YOU get the presale for Bon Jovi with this stupid set up? Annoyed much? Yeah to say the least. Are there any tickets left for the Adelaide show?

· I’m not bothering now, finally got on, and couldn’t get the tickets I wanted as I’m guessing they are nearly all gone, what a joke, nasty email sent to Telstra and I’m going to give my money to Ticketmaster, at least they are professional, I can’t believe you guys want to charge a $15 booking fee for this stuff up – RIPPED OFF, I have completely wasted my day, thanks guys Not!!!!!!!

· What a joke. Finally get through and could only buy 1 ticket! Was taking my daughter. What use is 1 ticket!

· How many tickets to Melbourne do they allocate to the pre-sale ? Whole lot of marketing and a whole lot of disgruntled fans. Great PR exercise Bang Tango !! I may not see Bon Jovi – “Because I Can’t ” book any tickets for Melbourne via Bang Tango.

· If you’re only after 2 tickets max, save yourself the hassle and get JBJ membership, then get tickets there. You end up paying a little more but at least the tickets are in the bag and you don’t have to put up with this shambles. Someone mentioned re the extra costs on members tickets too… It’s pre-sale, obviously there is a little on top. Wait till the lottery of general public sales is the other option.

· can’t get tickets but they can sell them on eBay for $1000 what a joke

· I can’t even get allocated 1 ticket, not that 1 ticket is any good to the group of people wanting to attend. Very bad organisation. Never EVER had a pre-sale hiccup, and I go to at least 2 concerts a year.

· hi, I still haven’t received my confirmation email…but my order is listed under my account….is there a problem with this???

· Been a fan since 85, the page finally loads and now can’t buy tickets wtf ?????????? I’m so angry!

· I want diamond section tickets to Brisbane but it keeps telling me that my code has been used too many times unless I choose the platinum ones!! I don’t want platinum ones I want the diamond ones!!!

· Accidentally only got 1 ticket through not being able to review purchase before preceding

· Might of taken all day and retry again that many times not fun but finally got tickets. Yeahhhhh

· BIG THUMBS DOWN!!

· I can’t understand how all tix are gone !! When no one could get through . I did get tix but took like 3 hrs. and didn’t get to see where I am sitting .

· Kira – I had the same problem and called Telstra who said to get another code by calling #820# on your mobile. (In the end I got tickets with my original code as but it might be worth trying)

· If you are after the bronze tickets you can only get 2 but if you try the others like silver the max is up to 10

· Frustrated!! Trying to get Adelaide tickets and can’t!!! One minute u can’t even get on the website and next they are sold out!! Not happy!!

· Just wasted more time trying to get tickets. Can only afford silver but looks like none are available. What is the point of a pre-sale if it is friggin harder to get tickets then when they go on sale to the general public.

· I got tickets. Wasn’t sure.. it crashed doing payment, but money has gone through credit card and it is listed in order details (Gold Sydney). This was probably 40 mins ago. Pretty sucky seats for a gold price, but the sound should be great!!

· What’s the go why won’t it process payment : ( disappointed

· My Mum selected 2 tickets and has only been sold 1- what use is that? What is the process for fixing all these single ticket transactions that seem to have occurred?

And from the Bon Jovi Facebook Page;

· And Telstra is supposed to be the best communications company in the country, What a JOKE!!!!

· Bang tango fb saying trying to fix it

· Bang Tango you suck!!!!

· This is so depressing. Has anyone even got tickets through bang tango? My computer got through to the tickets but still loading. Been a whole hour. Too scared to refresh

· waiting for an hour now…this sucks….absolute joke!

· Well of course they charge you to become a member that’s the point. There are many perks to being a member advance ticket sales being one

· I can barely afford the tickets little own membership broke full time uni student once I have money then I will become a member

· Well done Telstra, you did it again.

· Good to know I’m not the only one who couldn’t get on this morning as the server had crashed. NOT HAPPY JAN!!!

· I feel like such a failure, my poor friends putting their faith in me!!

· Yeah…. Got my tickets for Melb and Adelaide show through the JBJ fan club page! Amazing diamond seats!! Bring it on I’m so excited!!

· Ended up paying for JBJ membership to get my tickets, but got AMAZING seats so it was worth the extra $50!! If you have the spare cash just pay to join and get your tickets straight away!

· I need 3 tix so membership won’t help

· Another fine association Telstra… well done great when an ISP can’t offer better server capacity…

· Bang Tango website useless waste of two hours no tickets. Joke, get it sorted.

· They should have had different presale dates for each gig not all at once

· Wish it was presale through ticketek

· has anyone got tickets though bang tango? I have been trying to get them since 8:30am when the site crashed , starting to wonder if this stress is worth it

· Why can’t Bon Jovi, Telstra, bang tango or dainty group post some sort of announcement/apology so we can all get on with our lives?? This is f’ing ridiculous!!

· Been trying since 9.00 am also, don’t promote what can’t be provided! Poor service, just saying

· Yeah I tried to log on 11.09 and nothing… Typical Telstra.

· This is just a joke….l am stuck on the tickets screen…..has to be a better way to get tickets. Sorry but this is not good enough

· This is a joke, all I want is 2 tickets !!! , there better be some left

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Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

One Less Reason Treat Fans Like Shit Continues on…

I thought I would do a follow-up to how One Less Reason treat their fans.  Verdict; SHIT.

Here are some recent comments taken from their Facebook page after my original post.

Ordered your CD from your website a while ago and still have yet to receive it, what does it take to get your cd? several attempts to contact you and no response yet.
I scroll thru others posts and see a lot of the same situations, you guys make great music, but if you really want to make it, you need to treat your fans better than this, you aren’t shy about taking the money.

Artists today have a lot more competition from other artists, all striving for the same thing, people’s attention.  This band One Less Reason or OLR as they like to call themselves, clearly have one thing going for them, they create music that finds a connection with people.  So these people become fans and spend money on the band.  Or course the CD is almost obsolete, and if the band doesn’t have any CD’s to ship, they should take them off their website store as selling items.  Its fraud.

I’m glad you made it this far guys without these frauds called labels, you deserve it, a great band, great music!

A happy fan.  I wonder who the frauds are when there is no label involved.  I will admit, i heard their songs and i am impressed.  However, the way they are treating their fans, is leaving a bad taste.

Blueprints for Writhing just arriveeeeeeeeeeeed!!

Another happy fan.  From the length of arriveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed, it looks like they waited a long time.  At least the band can say they are posting some out.

Do you think it’s normal to buy an album on 11/15/2012 and still waiting for receiving it ?  I live in France, 4 months passed by ! I CAN’T believe it ! Tell me what’s wrong !?

Sorry buddy, you live too far, and if OLR get back to you, they will say they shipped it, however France’s postal service loses heaps of packages and that they will re-ship again and will then ignore your emails.

Just bought 3 of your cds from Itunes! Awesome!

Smart way to deal with the band, deal with iTunes.  You know you will get what you paid for from them.

Big fan!!! Just started listening to your music last year. I found it on last.fm on xboxlive and have loved your music ever since. “A Day To Be Alone” is my favorite song. I have looked in stores for your CDs but had no luck. How can I purchase one of your CDs??

Use iTunes if you want to receive it. 

When do the pre ordered CDs ship?

According to the band, they have shipped (remember that the album came out in August last year) and the postal service has lost them all, so the band will re-ship as a good will gesture, but never do.

Hi My husband ordered all of your CD’s back on the 28 Dec 2012. I sent you a message as well with all the details of the order. I have read all the comments about the band not posting CD’s and taking the money, about the passing of a loved one, about its the USPS’s fault and to CD’s just arriving late. Whatever the reasons and explanations (good song title by the way) are, 2 months waiting is not good business. In addition my husband has sent three messages via the contact us page on your website, plus three email replies to the confirmation order email address and one post via Twitter.   

Should have used iTunes.  $50 wasted for nothing.

Final verdict, One Less Reason are still treating fans like shit.  They even fail to address the issue of the CD’s not being posted, instead focusing on lies and ignorance.  For a band that has done it all on their own, you would think they would have a better focus on band to fan relationships as that is what has sustained them these last 10 years or so.

However, it will come to a head eventually.  I am sure some promoter is just around the corner waiting to rip them off as well.

 

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Music

Bon Jovi – What About It’s Over

Just finished listening to Bon Jovi’s new album What About Now (deluxe edition).

Lucky I purchased the deluxe addition as the best song on the album is Every Road Leads Home to You, the Sambora penned track from his equally forgettable solo album, Aftermath of The Lowdown.

The next song worth any note is That’s What the Water Made Me. So this is what happens, when 50 year old rockers try to chase the money from the twenty something’s.  Instead of writing for their hard core audience, they are focusing on a different market.

Bon Jovi doesn’t even know who their audience is anymore.  They have lost complete touch with them.  In a world where one to one connections is the new normal (take a leaf out of Nikki Sixx’s twittering and Facebook offerings), Bon Jovi is entrenched in the old paradigm.  Spend months creating an album for an audience they don’t even know. I am not a hater.

I am a big Bon Jovi fan.  I am displeased with this effort.  Hell, the best song they have written in the last 5 years is This is Love, This Is Life from the Greatest Hits CD.  You would only hear this song if you purchased the deluxe edition that had disc 2 and another two bonus songs on that.  The carbon copied Someday I’ll Be A Saturday Night morphed into The More Things Change is also a stand out.

Yeah I know Jovi sell shows out on a regular basis, but you tell me a fan that goes to the show to hear the new songs and I will call them a liar.  A set list of their most recent show (via setlist.fm) on March 10 shows only 3 songs played from the new album (Because We Can, Amen and That’s What The Water Made Me).  That is two too many.

The only tune that they should be pushing is That’s The Water Made Me.

Cause devils in heaven
There’s angels in hell

You don’t know these days, who is righteous or not.  We live in a world of fakes, a world of avatars.  Where people who think they have 1000 Facebook friends are cool, where people pay $800 for a meet and greet just to say they did.  The lines between good and evil are blurred these days.  

Love is like fingerprints It don’t wash away

No one forgets their first love or their greatest love.  It stays forever with them.  Look at the band Hinder.  They have made a career singing about the one that got away. 

That’s what the water made me That’s who I am and what I’ll be

This is it.  We can’t change how we are made, how we have grown up and what we believe in.  Of course we can adapt to situations and sometimes we can fake a different personality but in the end, we will fall back to how we were made and what we are.  Look at how the 80’s glam bands thought they had to go all Industrial or grunge like to keep an audience, further alienating their fan base, until the said Fuck that and returned to their roots. 

This world, it’s cracked and crazy
Say one of your pretty prayers for me
No roles in the garden? Or Wishing well?

Life is no Garden of Eden.  It never was and it never will be.  We have copyright granted monopolies fighting hard to control the internet.  We have people working 12 hour days just to see all of their moneys go to the mortgage, to the utilities, to basic survival needs.   At night, we might feel better saying a pretty prayer, but that is all it is.  The World is cracked and Crazy. 

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