Aging rockers still getting gigs in Australia
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SYDNEY (Reuters) - In this digital era, the aging rock stars of the vinyl years
are making a comeback in Australia.
Tickets for concerts by aging rockers such as Bryan Ferry), Fleetwood Mac and
David Bowie are selling fast as Australia's baby boomers give the music heroes
of their youth another lease of life on stages "Down Under."
Australia may be geographically at the bottom of the world, but for many acts
it is now the hot spot to tour after Europe and the United States.
Concert promoter Paul Dainty, who recently brought out Cliff Richard and Tony
Bennett, estimates that ticket sales for pop and rock concerts in Australia are
in excess of A$100 million ($78 million) a year.
"It's better live. The live touring market generally has been very strong for
the last 18 months or so," said Dainty, of Dainty Consolidated Entertainment,
who is behind Bowie's current "A Reality Tour" of Australia.
"My view is that it's going to be pretty strong moving forward for the
foreseeable future," Dainty said.
David Bowie was scheduled to perform seven concerts in February in Brisbane,
Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. One of the biggest bands of the 1970s,
Fleetwood Mac, is also now touring Australia for the first time since 1990.
The demand for rock concerts is also underpinned by the stronger spending power
of the Australian dollar, up 34 percent against the U.S. currency over the past
year.
"The Australian market traditionally has been the strongest concert
ticket-buying market per capita in the world," said promoter Michael Hosking of
Midas Promotions based in Singapore.
Australian record stores are also experiencing a revival of interest in "best
of" albums of aging rockers after they tour. Classic Fleetwood Mac album sets
of the 1970s such as "Rumors" and "Tusks" are being reissued to meet the
growing demand.
Dan Lander, music editor of Rolling Stone magazine in Sydney, feels that part
of the appeal of older rock bands comes from changing tastes and the tribute
young musicians still pay to rock legends.
"The Rolling Stones are an obvious example. Their world tour was timed with the
fact that suddenly rock was the new rock; there was more excitement surrounding
the whole thing than five or 10 years ago when grunge or hip-hop was the
thing," he said.
AGING ROCKERS BYPASS ASIA
Unlike Australia, promoters in Asia are targeting younger concert-goers with
acts like Ricky Martin and Mariah Carey as many baby boomers in Asia came late
to the Western pop revolution sparked by Elvis and the Beatles.
Currency volatility and a younger market in Asia also makes it more of a gamble
to bring out singers and bands who played to packed soccer stadiums in Britain
in the 1970s and 1980s, but are not well known in Asia.
Problems like flu epidemics have also occasionally spoiled the party for Asia.
Veteran American crooner Andy Williams (news) recently postponed a concert tour
of Asia set for March because of the spread of a deadly bird flu. He had dates
in Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan.
"The mainstay of the tour in this part of the world is Australia and then New
Zealand," Dainty said, adding that some tours might do Hong Kong and Singapore,
but the majority would not go on to those markets.
And there are no signs yet of concert fatigue in Australia, where consumption
is being fueled by a buoyant economy and unemployment at near 14-year lows.
Bowie, who last toured Australia in 1987 to sold-out concerts in three cities,
revisits with seven concerts this month following concerts in Britain, Europe
and the United States.
While Bowie will head to Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong after Australia,
promoters say his audience in Asia is smaller.
"Nostalgia is having a massive comeback and the retro thing is happening
certainly in Europe, to a lesser extent America, and to a greater extent in
Australia," Hosking said.
"Bowie looks as though he has received a new lease of life." ($1=A$1.28)