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| Why don't you play here? |
| We regularly receive questions about WHY we tour where we tour, and WHY NOT HERE?. Whether it is Brazil, Norway, Scotland, or the USA, the answer is pretty much the same: |
| Any confirmed touring plans will always be posted to this website. |
| We are always actively trying to find ways to tour as many places as possible. We enjoy touring, we love to travel to new places, and we want to play to you. |
| However, many countries/regions/cities are simply not always financially viable to reach. This is a complex balance of issues. Sometimes it's to do with the economies of certain countries, exchange rates etc (and lately, insane tax laws which mean we must give most of our concert income to your governments!). All this must be balanced against our costs: trucking, equipment hire, flights, hotels, crew wages, h's trousers etc. Our overall popularity in a certain part of the world is an important factor too. We can't charge you £500 each for a ticket! (we're not Barbara Streisand!). |
| And it's not ALWAYS about money! Even more frustratingly - sometimes a show in your town might make perfect sense financially, only for us to discover that there is no venue (of a sensible capacity) available on the days we can get there. Grr.. |
| SO, in a nutshell, it's COMPLICATED! |
| This doesn't mean we'll stop trying to find other ways of coming to you, because we WANT to - but many of the routes we DO try often fall apart under scrutiny. |
| There are always several solutions to a problem, and we will continue to try to make a gig happen somewhere close to you. |
| Please remember, that we're not intentionally NOT touring in your country. It's certainly not "personal" or because of any prejudices on our part - it's simply a matter of timing, economics and geography. |
| Just as there are many fans who cannot find the resources to travel to see a Marillion show, in the same way, WE can't always find the resources to come see YOU. |
| So how come I just saw an unknown English band play in my town last night and Marillion say they can't make it work? |
| Well, the answer's the same really. Maybe their costs are lower (we do need a LOT of technology to create our music - we're not a bar-band) and maybe they have a record company covering their losses. (We've been there too, but the record labels only spend money for a couple of years and, ultimately, you gotta give it back!). ..and maybe the bass-player's dad's a billionaire. Or (more likely), maybe they'll be broke and have split up in a year's time. |
| But it's not all doom and gloom. There are ALWAYS tours, gigs, and festivals that we are working on every week that you never hear about, because we don't want to announce plans that may fall through. This is why we only post fully confirmed dates on our website. |
| We would love to come and see all of you - and we're working on it. |
| We hope this helps you to understand our situation. |
| See you soon.. Hopefully! |
| Marillion |
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| A Note from the Band about the 2007 Somewhere Else Tour |
| Reluctantly, we are not playing Manchester on the Somewhere Else Tour.
Our old friend, The Academy, is closed for refurbishment. All the other suitable venues in Manchester have a policy of charging a 25% merchandise commission. Basically this means that if we sell one of OUR tee shirts or CDs (already bought and paid-for by us) to you, (OUR
fans) we must pay the VENUE one quarter of the money YOU part with!
You might think this is outrageous. You might even wonder how it can be LEGAL and so do we.. Unfortunately, it's rapidly becoming the norm at venues throughout the UK and Europe and we have decided to take a stand against this practice which is really no more than plain extortion. |
| All venues (quite reasonably) charge artists no-small-amount to hire the place, to provide security for the show, and to cover venue staff and running costs. The venue then takes a ton of YOUR money across the bar on the night and despite the fact that we, the artists, are responsible for the bar being full of thirsty customers, SOME venue owners somehow feel they have an additional right to ask for a hefty slice of artist's tour merchandise! |
| So we're going to Liverpool instead (it's Liverpool's turn anyway), but we'd love to do both. |
| We charge £14 for our t-shirts and refuse to put the prices up just to cover the merchandise fees which is what has been suggested to us in the past.
Why should we make the fans pay? Of course we could put a higher price on the concert tickets but we don’t want to do that either. Why should we be forced to do that? Selling merchandise on tour can often make the difference between an overall loss and an overall profit so we don't want to be forced to give it all away.
We've asked for 25% of the bar takings in return but, oddly enough, the venues won't go for that! |
| Some venues want to charge 20% for t-shirts, 15% for CD’s and a massive 30% for programmes - we don’t understand or accept this concept either. |
| With us it is a question of the revenue and also of principles. So we're boycotting the gigs who want a merchandise percentage, and we're getting together with other band managers and forums to spearhead a campaign against this practice. |
| We hope you understand and can make it across to Liverpool or Leeds instead. |
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