[Mael-list] Sparks Loan

[Derek Paice]

At the risk of stereotyping the whingeing pom the more I hear about this the
more I am uneasy.  Yes, I've bought some tickets, that I don't presently
have the means to pay for and now Lyle has to be economical with the truth
in order to secure a loan.  Prince may have a large enough fan base to have
done his 21 nights in London earlier this year, but Sparks cannot be said to
be in the same league financially.  It's obvious that some of us are facing
a degree of hardship to attend the coming series and that most die-hard fans
cannot afford to attend more than a handful of shows, if that.  I'm
wondering who's lost the plot here.  Maybe it's me or maybe it's true,
Everybody's Stupid.

I can see the attraction of the massive challenge of undertaking a
retrospective as a means of publicising the coming album.  I'm looking
forward to the new album with the same eager anticipation that I have with
every release since I first saw that pink brick wall in 1972 and heard
Wonder Girl and (No More) Mr Nice Guys.  I'm looking forward to seeing the
band perform live again (and I've long ago lost count of the number of times
I've seen them).  The challenges of organising a series like this are
clearly enormous, but is there also (in the middle of 2008) going to be a
small bump in the statistics of victims of debts being called in and of
relationships crashing as fans (ie the "fanatical") feel tested and torn?
Should a band, particularly one with a known, devoted following have any
responsibility beyond producing consumable music?

I wonder what the discussions about this project have covered.  Was there
any consideration of audience beyond that of numbers through the doors to
cover the costs?  In an ideal world we are all responsible people living
within our means and causing no harm.  However, there is a certain addiction
to Sparks that I have experienced many times over the years that this
project seems to be both feeding, but even more, feeding on.  Like I say, I
don't know whether I'm just whingeing or whether there is an emperor in a
sheer suit of clothing passing by.

I don't wish the project ill.  I'm as jealous as anyone that I can neither
put the rest of my life on hold for a month nor afford a golden ticket.  I
sincerely hope it achieves the aims they've set themselves, because it
really is a gamble, and not just a financial one.  The more I think about
this the more I feel that interest in downloadable recordings of the shows
is not merely desirable, but is actually morally essential.  At least then
the band can say they have tried to alleviate the trouble that trying to
attend too many shows might cause.  Still, morally essential ... what do I
know?  This is show BUSINESS innit?

derek
  -----Original Message-----
  From: mael-list-bounces at lists.kuci.org
[mailto:mael-list-bounces at lists.kuci.org]On Behalf Of LYELL1 at aol.com
  Sent: 22 December 2007 01:21
  To: mael-list at kuci.org
  Subject: Re: [Mael-list] Sparks Loan


  Well I've solved my dilemma about how to pay for this trip - I took a
loan.
  I couldn't tell the loan officer I needed it to see Sparks, so I just told
him
  "debt consolidation."

  I now have tickets for the first 8 shows, and perhaps I'll linger for
Terminal Jive
  and Whomp, but no more after that.

  Lyell (Typical way in debt American!)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.kuci.org/pipermail/mael-list/attachments/20071222/f9d53d80/attachment.html