Re: Totally Tubular 80's tour

This one seems to be legit, though I'm really wondering about why Thompson Twins isn't being billed as opposed to "Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey" as aren't the other two long gone now and it's doubtful they'd object to him using the TT name. If he plays some of his solo material, the folks expecting "Doctor, Doctor" won't be too happy. He's got the *least* to gain from anyone else on the bill, so I'd hope he's getting paid well for it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2024 12:50PM by BCE.

What surprises me about this package (apart from it being a full-fledged tour, not just a single-site festival) is the range of venues it's booked into -- from the 2,800-capacity Fox Theater in Oakland to the 20,000+ capacity Riverbend Amphitheater in Cincinnati.

Maybe this isn't an unusual aspect of such tours, these days. Maybe this happens a lot, and this is just the first time I'm taking the trouble to investigate it. Well, I can only guess that the promoters know their respective markets.

huh, nothing near DC. It does sound like it would be silly fun.

TOTALLY TUBULAR FESTIVAL TOUR – 2024 DATES
6/28 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
6/29 – Los Angeles, CA – YouTube Theatre
6/30 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
7/3 – Phoenix – Arizona Financial Theatre
7/6 – Englewood, CO – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
7/9 – Irving, TX – Pavilion @ Toyota Music Factory
7/10 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall
7/13 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheatre
7/16 – Bridgeport, CT – Hartford Healthcare Amphitheatre
7/17 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall @ Fenway
7/18 – New York, NY – Pier 17
7/19 – Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live @ Etess Arena
7/20 – Bushkill, PA – Poconos Park Amphitheatre
7/23 – Laval, QUE – Place Bell
7/24 – Missisauga, ONT – GCT Theatre
7/26 – Detroit, MI – Meadowbrook Amphitheatre
7/27 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center Amphitheatre

Michael, the organizers heard you.

Added 7/14 DC @ The Anthem

and for TP'ers in Alabama - 7/12 Huntsville @ Orion Amphitheater

One thing about amphitheaters is that they can be sized up or down as required. They may also be gambling that having only two dates in the Midwest might attract lots of folks from surrounding states.

> One thing about amphitheaters is that they can be sized up or down as required.

Some of them might be ... but trust me, there's no way for Fiddler's Green to be half-filled without it looking ... well, half empty. Most promoters hate to see their venues look that way.

Then again, perhaps that particular venue simply has fallen out of favor. Between May and September, it has exactly ten events scheduled. By comparison, Red Rocks is open for bookings this year from March to November, and already has over 80 events on its calendar.

Red Hat in Raleigh is the only southeast date! I've seen OMD and Khraungbin/Lee Fields.Big Daddy Kane there and it's decent. When I got the mail from the Dolby mailing list the other day, I looked at it, and by gar, I felt like it would be a fun show to see. I didn't dislike any of the acts, rare for an "80s package tour." I've only seen Dolby before but I walked out on Thompson Twins twice on the '85-'86 Gap tour. I was there strictly for OMD opening back then, but I'd certainly watch Tom Bailey now. I like that he's not calling it TT, even if he was totally in charge ages ago. Besides, Alannah and Joe might be shareholders and might still have veto power, because they didn't leave; TT split up.

The balance of styles is pretty decent. Raleigh is five hours away and an internet friend in VA I've not met is considering going, so that is pushing my finger closer to the button. My wife enjoyed Thomas Dolby at Moogfest so we might do this if we have two nickles to rub together after our 3 week vacation in Europe in the Spring. AXS was already selling Santa Barbara tickets for a healthy $40-100 cost. Raleigh should not be more than that as these things go. But we'll see tomorrow.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2024 09:09PM by Post-Punk Monk.

I picked up tickets for the NYC show since it looks like fun and it’s at a great venue (a rooftop on a pier on the East River; I've caught Devo, The Furs, X, The Damned, and more there)! I saw Thomas Dolby about 12-15 (?) years ago at Symphony Space, and he was great. Very much looking forward to seeing The Plimsouls.

Keep in mind the only member of the original Plimsouls still in the band is Eddie Munoz. No Peter Case. In case you weren’t aware.

And Bow Wow Wow is bassist Leigh Gorman and no other original members.

How can they be Bow Wow Wow without Annabel?

Annabella has her own version of Bow Wow Wow, in which she is the only original member, called Annabella's Bow Wow Wow. I've actually seen both versions over the last few years.

From what I can gather, Annabella and Leigh Gorman had resurrected Bow Wow Wow a couple decades ago and toured for a while, until she decided she was done and left. Gorman has since recruited a string of new singers (the one I saw a couple years ago had been a jazz vocalist in a basement bar in Vegas) and continued touring as the "official" Bow Wow Wow. In the meantime, Annabella took up performing again, first as "Annabella from Bow Wow Wow" (which is how she was billed when I saw her on some package tour), then as Annabella's Bow Wow Wow. I'm doubtful that the dueling BWW's are as amicable as the two English Beats apparently were, as they criss cross the same territories when touring.

Anyhow, as far as I know, anytime it's billed as plain Bow Wow Wow, it's going to be Gorman with whatever girl singer he's got for that tour. If you want Annabella, you've got to look for her name above the title. I may be wrong about that, but that was the status a year or two ago.

I saw the Gorman BWW a couple years ago on a package tour with the Motels and When In Rome. The current line-up of the Motels includes Martha Davis and Marty Jourard, two members of the "classic" line-up and the main songwriters, so not bad as these things go - a better "real" member ratio than the current versions of the Church or Kraftwerk or Beat, to name a few. When In Rome was the keyboardist plus Tony Fennell, one of the ersatz-Ures that Billy Currie recruited for his Ultrafaux phase. They did "The Promise," a couple of other songs which I assume were When In Rome songs, then Fennell talked about what an honor it had been to be in Ultravox and they launched into "All Stood Still," no doubt assuming an Ultravox deep cut from a period when the guy on stage singing it was not in Ultravox was still a more familiar and crowd-pleasing choice than yet another non-"Promise" When In Rome song.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2024 09:33AM by breno.

Tour is promoting Annabella [Bow Wow Wow]. Also, I'm impressed that the tour website has all current pix of bands playing. Nothing sadder that 40 year old promo shots being used.

That's cool. The article I saw about it just said Bow Wow Wow, so I assumed it was Gorman & co. Glad that other sources clarified it.

With the degree of control McLaren exerted over the original band, it's strangely heartening that two different versions exist after his death!

Tickets in hand for Pier 17!


Familyman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I picked up tickets for the NYC show since it
> looks like fun and it’s at a great venue (a
> rooftop on a pier on the East River; I've caught
> Devo, The Furs, X, The Damned, and more there)! I
> saw Thomas Dolby about 12-15 (?) years ago at
> Symphony Space, and he was great. Very much
> looking forward to seeing The Plimsouls.

My blog has been getting a lot of hits this week on the Totally Tubular 80s Tour. I see it next weekend, so I thought I'd go to the website and see if there was anything new that maybe I didn't know about. Looks like The Romantics are out, but the promoters have added two more bands to the lineup. The Tubes and …Wang Chung. I was sort of looking forward to The Romantics but The Tubes are a good replacement. After all, isn't their name in that of the festival itself? I will finally get to hear the amazing WPOD so… thumbs up! The big question is…will Quay Lewd be singing it? I haven't seen The Chung since the "Mosaic" club tour, just as they were popping big time, so that will be interesting. I hope they have the excellent "To Live And Die In L.A." in their set. Ironically, I wrote the liner notes to their perpetually delayed deluxe remasters…so they owe me money. Okay, so I cheated and saw that most acts are playing 5-7 track sets with Tom Bailey having what looks like a full hour at a dozen tracks. Pretty good, as these things go, though I was hoping for a longer Dolby set. I didn't want to see any of the acts play a scanty 4 song set, and it doesn't look like that is happening, so "yay."

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2024 05:17PM by Post-Punk Monk.

Everytime I've seen the Tubes and they play 'White Punks', Waybill performs it in character. It is a little nerve-wracking watching him walk around in those 3 or 4 foot high platform boots. I keep thinking, one misstep and I may be part of his obituary. What is more unnerving is when they do 'Mondo Bondage' and seeing a 70 plus year old man performing in scanty bondage gear.

BCE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This one seems to be legit, though I'm really
> wondering about why Thompson Twins isn't being
> billed as opposed to "Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey"
> as aren't the other two long gone now and it's
> doubtful they'd object to him using the TT name.
> If he plays some of his solo material, the folks
> expecting "Doctor, Doctor" won't be too happy.
> He's got the *least* to gain from anyone else on
> the bill, so I'd hope he's getting paid well for
> it.

He did this before, when he was touring with another 80s package (the B-52s headlined that one). He did a few stand alone shows during that tour and I caught one. TT fans need not worry, three solo songs and the rest were the hits.

So yeah, it looks easy to snag $54 + fees tickets. No gouging. Will be going to Raleigh with 1-2 friends but the spouse has opted out.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

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For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

My wife and I have tickets for the Raleigh show. See you there!

The Colorado date conflicts with seeing Joe Jackson in Seattle, so I won't be planning a home visit around this tour.

I went to this last week here in Boston. I had a great time. I loved the format. 5-6 songs from each of these acts was exactly the right amount I wanted. Thompson Twins got maybe 9-10. I guess we got the real Anabella's Bow Wow Wow. She showed remarkable energy and vivaciousness, though it did not much disguise the repetitiveness of the tunes. Men without Hats did Safety Dance twice (always the sign a band is low on material - ahem, Japandroids...) but were fun to watch. As mentioned above, Wang Chung is a surprisingly good rock band. Their name seems to have condemned them to being a historical footnote. 1/2 the crowd disappeared after the Thompson Twins, but those who stuck around got an enjoyable Thomas Dolby set, and got to enjoy the mans....completely new head of hair!

Often we see a tour or appearance of a music artist or band who have legally disbanded as a group and the billing becomes the band moniker and singer or prominent performer name. The simple truth is we don't know the fiscal resolution or legal agreements the bands have KISS is a example of ownership vert publicly stated( who's in , who's out). But when there is a right ownership or vested continued earnings the whole thing gets sloppy.....Tom Bailey continues well and holds up his performance fantastically. If you get a chance go see him on his other bookings. Support your artists with attendance.

An article appeared in Spin in 1999, detailing the financial and legal complications involved in Lynyrd Skynyrd's ongoing business (not to mention the emotional conflicts between the members who wanted to keep it going and the families of those who died in the 1977 plane crash ... and those who've died since then).

Skynyrd reunited ten years after the crash, intending to play a one-time-only gig to commemorate the band. The response from the fans was so big, though, that this one-off gig soon led to a full-fledged tour ... and many tours since then. Before long, though, the families of those members who had died in the crash got involved. Their initial reason, as they stated it, was to preserve Skynyrd's legacy with dignity -- not to let the band devolve into a bunch of ringers just playing the songs.

The original agreement these parties hammered out required any band using the Lynyrd Skynyrd name to include guitarist Gary Rossington (who had assumed leadership of the band) and at least two other members of the pre-plane-crash lineup. It also specified a percentage of touring revenues that went to the widows of singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines, and to the estate of guitarist Allen Collins (who survived the plane crash, but whose reckless behavior did him in by the end of the Eighties).

Well, Gary Rossington died last year ... and drummer Artimus Pyle is the only surviving member of the original Skynyrd. And yet the band still is touring. (They're playing in the Seattle area in August.) I guess these agreements can always be overcome, if the money is right.

. Men without Hats did Safety Dance twice (always the sign a band is low on material

That's kinda surprising (and ultimately self-defeating) since you would think they have enough at-least-familiar songs (I Like, Where Do the Boys Go, Antarctica, Pop Goes the World) and "deep cuts" from their 80's LPs to not have to repeat themselves, especially if the sets weren't that long. (I take it even Tommy Tutone didn't play "867-5309" twice. Or did they?).

No. I think it was a smart move to play their biggest hit immediately out of the gate. Defying expectation. Then to play the 12" [which was the version more popular on the radio then - and now] at the end was a coup de grace. The audience energy was up for their entire set because of that.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

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