Yo Bad Azizi…and other ponderings

My question for this Monday morning is simple:  Are we too tough on them?

“Don’t say you’re easy on me, ‘cuz you’re about as easy as a nuclear war.”

Let’s face it, we ask a lot out of the band, and dare they step out of line, we’re definitely the first (perhaps just after their wives and children) to call them on it. We want things done a specific way. We want our tour dates given often and early. We want the best seats and for a realistic price. We want information given timely, accurately and simultaneously across every line of communication imaginable. We insist that the band use their Twitter accounts (those that have them) and Facebook pages. We want new music. Yesterday. Oh, and the new music that does come out should adhere to the gold standard that we consider to be Duran Duran, which means perfect. Perfectly.

Of course, there is a certain amount of facetious tongue-in-cheek going on in my diatribe up there. However, before we begin to howl about how lucky we all are to still have the band at all, and that we should never expect so much out of them, let us take a second to remember that they have been in this business, rather successfully on many levels, for thirty-some years now. Even so, we are tough customers in our own right.

It wasn’t very long ago that the general consensus in the community from what we could see was that fans really wanted and needed some idea as to when the band was coming this summer. (I’m specifically speaking of the U.S.) I can’t speak for everyone…well, maybe I can on this one…but there wasn’t a single place I could go on the internet (Duran-wise) that someone didn’t complain about the lack of information. We blogged about the frustrating guesswork involved with trying to second guess the bands plans, and not long after, the band graciously gave out a reasonable amount of framework planning that had been done for the tour. I’m not going to lie here, I was overjoyed. That was a big step forward, and for Amanda and I along with countless other fans, it was a huge help. Not two days after posting links to their planning as well as posting the information here on the blog people were once again back to complaining over the lack of venue information. “Why can’t we have everything at once?”  Even *I* had to take a deep breath over that one.  You want to know why you can’t have everything?  It doesn’t all happen overnight, and it’s not easy to coordinate every last detail, yet each of us expect it all to work out seamlessly for ourselves, and object loudly when it does not. We were asking for dates, times and locations for a tour that wasn’t happening for another five months. In the past we have not received information or have pre-sales until approximately six to nine weeks before a gig, for the most part. It is never going to be perfect, and there is never going to be a time when every last person is going to be pleased, but I must argue that in this case, improvement has definitely been made. I had notice of a presale that I was considering a good week before it occurred. That is practically a miracle, and I’m not afraid to say thanks to the band for that. It helped.

On the other hand entirely, there are situations which seem as though the band should be able to handle, yet are probably completely out of their hand. For example, if you have paid any kind of attention to the band’s Facebook account lately, you might have noticed that the venue(s) for their gigs in Brazil have changed. The band made sure to indicate that the tickets for the previous venue (as well as their location) would be honored at the new venue, and you would think that all would end well. If only life were truly that simple. To begin with, the advertising for the shows in Brazil have the wrong date on them. These are giant highway-side ads that have the wrong date printed on them. Who lets something like that happen?? Yes, mistakes happen all of the time (read any of my blogs and you will find many!!!), but on printed advertising – especially HUGE printed advertising? In addition, those new venues? Well from what I can gather in speaking to my South American friends, the original venues had a considerable amount of GA standing tickets sold. Now? They’re entirely seated. All of the original tickets are being honored, and if you were lucky enough to have a regular or normal GA ticket before, you might possibly be seated next to someone who paid a considerable amount more for a VIP or “Premium” ticket.  As I type this blog, this is being looked into by the band’s management (whom I truly pity on days like today), so perhaps this mess will be sorted by concert time. On one hand, it’s clearly the fault of the promoter, but most normal fans won’t consider that – and those who somehow end up slighted by this venue change will hold the band accountable. They won’t recall the name of the promoter, they’ll remember it was Duran Duran. Ultimately it just makes the band look as though they don’t care about the fans who attend their shows – which is a complaint I read often throughout the community.  Will it stop someone from attending a gig the next time?  Who knows?

Of course, one could go on and on over the various mistakes that we all feel as though they’ve made in one way or another over the years, whether those are mistakes in which songs were released as singles, various album producers, album covers, art work, videos, management…the list goes on and on. The fact remains that all of us, myself included, expect perfection and have no trouble announcing when we feel they’ve missed the mark.

What do you think – are we too tough on them?  Are we just expecting what we deserve?

– R