21 sold out shows at the O2 ....has even 1 show sold out in LA , Prince come to Texas where you would have no problem....at full price...LA dont know how to party....

The difference is that the O2 shows were announced well in advance... These Forum gigs & small venue shows are being announced with only a few days notice & ticket prices & availability are changing with each set of shows.... Trust me, the place is hoppin'. Only the first Thursday show on 4/21 had an issue with sales.... Come to LA, we're having a blast!

[Edited 5/24/11 11:35am]

DaveG said:

The difference is that the O2 shows were announced well in advance... These Forum gigs & small venue shows are being announced with only a few days notice & ticket prices & availability are changing with each set of shows.... Trust me, the place is hoppin'. Only the first Thursday show on 4/21 had an issue with sales.... Come to LA, we're having a blast!

[Edited 5/24/11 11:35am]

Agreed DaveG, to the original poster, not sure what you're talking about, clearly you never attended a show here...what example do you have of Prince visiting and only announcing 3 at a time on short notice (eliminating all traveling fans) and changing ticket availablity and prices and still getting most of 17,000 plus a night? I've been to 3 and 2/3 looked completely full, with 1 only having a section (where you would see the back of the band's instruments) blocked off, and that one was the Stevie Wonder night (one of the best, period), where everyone, and I mean everybody was dancing for 3+ hours (got home at 2am)...never heard of L.A. not knowing how to party, considering we're the home of most TV and Film Entertainment worldwide...how many shows is he doing in Texas, 21? Any?

DaveG said:

... These Forum gigs & small venue shows are being announced with only a few days notice & ticket prices & availability are changing with each set of shows....

[Edited 5/24/11 11:35am]

This makes a lot of sense. The three shows for this weekend have seen much better sales. Go look and see what's available compared to other shows with less notice. I doubt there will be much "day of show" tix as previous shows had either.

werent the shows in london $31.21?

last time Prince was here in houston he sold 3 shows out at the 20000 seat Toyota center in a day, after partys where packed and he didnt even perform....

You win... I'm movin' 2 Texas...

Shows have been very full considering lack of promotion, lack of advance notice, and the fact that it's at the Forum (which is out of date, out of the way, and has bad traffic.) And don't forget Prince played London when the economy was in much better shape.

Short notice for weekday gigs is a big problem. The paper that reviewed the San Jose show on Thurs noted that he'd sold only 6000 tickets, while the first Oakland Arena show had sold out 18,000 tickets in minutes. And he ain't doing 21 gigs there, only 2.

Cheap seats are sold out for this weekend, which is bummin me out cuz it's my birthday & I wanna go again!!

funkycomic said:

werent the shows in london $31.21?

£31.21.

London is different as it's cheaper and easier for practically everyone in the whole of Europe to just fly through to. With no notice in L.A. it's only attracing people who are already in L.A.. If it as New York I think there would be more people willing to travel - L.A. is just too far west to go for just a concert.

nusole said:

last time Prince was here in houston he sold 3 shows out at the 20000 seat Toyota center in a day, after partys where packed and he didnt even perform....

I totallly agree WHAT a memory(Musicology) that was unreal!...Also the warehouse live was Awesome!..Hope & pray! ...Hit & run tour as well...

LA LOVES Prince - but, don't forget there are alot of unemployed people here too. I've been to his concerts more than 10 times and each night only a small area of seats (usually nose bleeds are empty). Best believe the floor and good seats are packed - for the last shows I went to a ticket broaker to be on the floor, I paid alot more for it too but P is worth it

bobzilla77 said:

Short notice for weekday gigs is a big problem. The paper that reviewed the San Jose show on Thurs noted that he'd sold only 6000 tickets, while the first Oakland Arena show had sold out 18,000 tickets in minutes. And he ain't doing 21 gigs there, only 2.

Cheap seats are sold out for this weekend, which is bummin me out cuz it's my birthday & I wanna go again!!

That's correct...In the Bay, Oakland is the best place to host Prince. Besides the fact that we know how to party with our fav...accessibility, transportation, location - all play a key role..I've seen him many times in SF, Oak, SJ, Sac, and Fresno - Oakland wins hands down.

ladyleap2u said:

bobzilla77 said:

Short notice for weekday gigs is a big problem. The paper that reviewed the San Jose show on Thurs noted that he'd sold only 6000 tickets, while the first Oakland Arena show had sold out 18,000 tickets in minutes. And he ain't doing 21 gigs there, only 2.

Cheap seats are sold out for this weekend, which is bummin me out cuz it's my birthday & I wanna go again!!

That's correct...In the Bay, Oakland is the best place to host Prince. Besides the fact that we know how to party with our fav...accessibility, transportation, location - all play a key role..I've seen him many times in SF, Oak, SJ, Sac, and Fresno - Oakland wins hands down.

That SJ writer was on crack. That first SJ show was empty upper level (about 70% in upper)...Pretty sure the floor and entire lower level + 30% upper level = more than 6,000 people at HP

i never been to a show that wasnt sold....thats amazing to me thats cali cant sell out his shows

When's the last time Prince played in Texas with two days' notice on a weeknight?

I'm a little surprised myself that there are tickets available. But the fact remains, even if the Forum shows only averaged 10,000 a night - and I do know a number have been close to the 17,000 capacity while only a couple were half-full, so that's a conservative number - that's still over 150,000 tickets sold, the equivalent of three nights in a football stadium. Almost nobody is doing business like that.

And this weekend there are no seats left under $140. That means, REAL close to sold out but some of the VIP seats are unsold.

Every single complaint I see that "the shows aren't selling out" comes from someone who doesn't plan on actually going to any, I guess it's more fun to read that your favorite artist is still famous and important. The people actually going to the shows have no problem with the fact there are tickets to be had.

Well if you get your wish, perhaps he will book a show in your neighborhood which you will be totally unable to get into becaues it costs too much or tickets are gone gone gone, and you can do a little victory dance.

Bottom Line is Prince is still BANKING from the Shows in LA!!!

if there any shows next week i am there...i would bet that if the shows sold better next week would be a for sure....prince come to Texas where everything is bigger...including the money....as far nobody doing big busness...brad paisley sold out reliant stadium...72000 janet jackson as well...ahmm...OLD ASS KISS...SOLD 65000 .so its across the board...we backed prince since back in day...1984 sold out 7 shows at the then called summit 20000 plus a night....I dont mean to start an agrument but Prince has to be a little dissapointed with yall

Book a tour in advance and people will buy tix and PLAN to show up.

Book shows days before and you won't sell out, it's that simple.

Regardless of all the complaints, after this weekend is said and done, I'll have gone to 10 of the Forum shows.. so, the thread is wrong, lots of love for Prince in LA.

[Edited 5/27/11 15:24pm]

I can both agree and disagree with the title of this thread.

Agree:

• With the exception of the first few Forum shows, anytime Prince asks the crowd to sing along and he steps back from the microphone, the crowd response has been weak. Very weak! He'll try again, taunting the audience with, "I can't hear y'all... " or "You can do better than that, c'mon!". And it still falls flat. After seeing this at several Forum shows, you can tell it frustrates him. Another example was where he sang "Sometimes It Snows In April" (with Renato and light accompaniment, not the solo guitar version he's also performed it). He told the crowd, "You can sing if you want to." The crowd was mostly silent, at which point he directed the band to cut it short but calling out "Chorus." to them, instead going back into the final verse. He was visibly frustrated. This instance was the week after the show was so undersold on a Thursday, that tickets were being sold for $10. at the door. Which leads me to...
• Ten dollar tickets due to a venue being that under sold???!!?!?!? Whoa!!!! I'm broke and only semi-employed right now, thus I'm not complaining about such bargains (and there are many, many others here suffering from such dire economic circumstances). But there's also many people with oodles of cash and it's baffling that they would not take advantage of the opportunity to see a musical legend in (what I feel to be) the peak of his powers. I've been seeing Prince perform live since the Lovesexy tour and the man is simply burning with a loving, musical fire right now. Some of this can be attributed to mediocre promotion on the part of Live Nation. Maybe next time, he'll go with an indie ticket distributor & concert promoter like flavorus.com .

Disagree:

• Despite undersold venues, I've met some serious hardcore Prince enthusiasts here in L.A. Remember, he used to have his own club here in the early 1990s. If he didn't feel an affinity or connection here, he wouldn't be playing 21 nights much less have opened a club.
• Have a look at the people dancing in the Purple Pit section. People there are showing him love (and then some)!

I do hope he plays some AFFORDABLE small club performances or spontaneous shows while he's here. I couldn't get into to the House Of Blues the other night and felt rather silly standing outside, knowing what was happening indoors. It would be amazing if he simply showed up at The Airliner, The Echoplex or even the stage at Amoeba Records.

LA is a city that can't even support an NFL team. There's just tons of things to do in Southern California. When you hear Prince is doing 21 shows, there's no hurry to see him.

Also, it started off as $25 and $200. Now it's 3 tiered with less $25 seats than before.

The tickets should have just been $50-$75 across the board. Sure as hell would be more sell-outs with close to the same amount of money coming in.

Addendum:

In between encores have been happening at The Forum, many times I've attempted to start the old school "ooooh-eeee-oh - whooooooa-OH... " chant (ala "Forever In My Life" in the "Sign 'O' The Times" film, or like it used to happen at his shows so frequently years ago.

It's rare that others join in. People look at me like I'm nuts. One time, a woman actually yelled at me and said, "This isn't the "Wizard Of F*cking Oz!".

I don't think people understand, that if people don't make noise - or the appropriate noises, for that matter - it's not an incentive for Prince to come out and play again when his crew can be setting up for a smaller show in The Forum VIP Club.

told ya

Full all they way up to the back of the colonnade last night, from what I could see. Packed house.

electrodyne said:

I can both agree and disagree with the title of this thread.

Agree:

• With the exception of the first few Forum shows, anytime Prince asks the crowd to sing along and he steps back from the microphone, the crowd response has been weak. Very weak! He'll try again, taunting the audience with, "I can't hear y'all... " or "You can do better than that, c'mon!". And it still falls flat. After seeing this at several Forum shows, you can tell it frustrates him. Another example was where he sang "Sometimes It Snows In April" (with Renato and light accompaniment, not the solo guitar version he's also performed it). He told the crowd, "You can sing if you want to." The crowd was mostly silent, at which point he directed the band to cut it short but calling out "Chorus." to them, instead going back into the final verse. He was visibly frustrated. This instance was the week after the show was so undersold on a Thursday, that tickets were being sold for $10. at the door. Which leads me to...

I didn't catch him being frustrated, but hopefully even if he's bummed that not eveyone knows the words, he reasons that it means there are a lot of people coming to the shows and having a blast who aren't intimately familiar with his catalog, so that means there are NEW fans. I'm no marketing genius, but that's a good thing in my book.

bobzilla77 said:

When's the last time Prince played in Texas with two days' notice on a weeknight?

I'm a little surprised myself that there are tickets available. But the fact remains, even if the Forum shows only averaged 10,000 a night - and I do know a number have been close to the 17,000 capacity while only a couple were half-full, so that's a conservative number - that's still over 150,000 tickets sold, the equivalent of three nights in a football stadium. Almost nobody is doing business like that.

And this weekend there are no seats left under $140. That means, REAL close to sold out but some of the VIP seats are unsold.

Every single complaint I see that "the shows aren't selling out" comes from someone who doesn't plan on actually going to any, I guess it's more fun to read that your favorite artist is still famous and important. The people actually going to the shows have no problem with the fact there are tickets to be had.

Well if you get your wish, perhaps he will book a show in your neighborhood which you will be totally unable to get into becaues it costs too much or tickets are gone gone gone, and you can do a little victory dance.

I've been to five shows now. One had the very top of the colonnade blocked off, maybe 1000 seats out of the 18000. All the other shows I saw were full to the top, and the one I saw Friday was totally sold out - and that one had very few discount tickets - basically just the Colonnade.

These last shows sold out because unlike the other ones, there were two weeks for people to buy them and plan. Prince probably could have sold out all the shows if, like someone said, he made all the tix $50, announced them 3 months ago, and promoted them somewhere more noticeable than a C-list talk show. Heck, there weren't even ads in the LA Times or LA Weekly for these shows. It had to spread word-of-mouth! I did see a billboard once - that's the only advertising that reached me.

[Edited 5/29/11 17:58pm]

nusole said:

21 sold out shows at the O2 ....has even 1 show sold out in LA , Prince come to Texas where you would have no problem....at full price...LA dont know how to party....

I only have 2 letters for you: F and U. Having attend 4 shows, I can tell you the crowd was alive, and almost all the shows were full or almost sold out, not bad for about 72 hours notice. I can' think of too many current bands could do that for 4 or 5 weeks...

Ellie said:

funkycomic said:

werent the shows in london $31.21?

£31.21.

London is different as it's cheaper and easier for practically everyone in the whole of Europe to just fly through to. With no notice in L.A. it's only attracing people who are already in L.A.. If it as New York I think there would be more people willing to travel - L.A. is just too far west to go for just a concert.

it´s cheaper.. but the weather sucks

LA showed Prince mad love last night. He felt it, and gave it back to us in return.