The Official 2025 Tour Rumor Thread

pdalowsky said:

They would sell out two nights at the 02 very very easily IMO. absolutely no doubt in my mind. 

Not for a uniform price of 160 GBP up to the upper tier. We learned that this year. 

seanclax said:

tomccfc87 said:

seanclax said:

tomccfc87 said:

tino_11 said:

Zen23 said:

They'd better start with one night at the O2 Arena. As soon as it's sold out and the ticket rush is measurably huge, you can activate the second night. Just like others do. Nothing wrong with that. If you think back to the number of empty seats at Tottenham Stadium in the first few weeks and months, one night at the O2 Arena would have been enough.

I agree that would be a sensible move. 

PJ have always attracted big numbers in London and I'm highly confident demand is still there. They just need to take the lessons from a) ticket prices, b) timing of the announcement and c) avoiding big date clashes (like Glastonbury and Green Day at Wembley)

I think playing multiple smaller shows may still cause problems with people who had tickets last time not being able to get them for the return shows. They had still sold well in excess of 40,000 tickets for Tottenham even if it wasn't sold out (I think they were around 50,000 sold). With O2 Arena holding 20,000, 2 nights would not guarantee everyone who bought tickets this year a decent chance at getting them for one of those 2 shows especially when a lot of people will try for both nights. They could always go for 3 nights at the O2 but that still creates problems with some days being higher demand than others and more casual fans who were expecting a hits setlist at Tottenham this year potentially getting booked on a night where they play more deep cuts (there were a *LOT* of complaints about night 2 at Hyde Park not including enough hits after most were played on night 1 in 2022, especially given that night 2 fell on a Saturday when more casual fans had booked tickets)

Whilst personally I would prefer to see them in a smaller indoor show I think the best solution in terms of being fair to those who had tickets last time would be to play Tottenham (or a similar sized venue) again with everyone who had tickets last time being given priority. Then, as you say, maybe look at lowering prices and/or not booking on a date that clashes with other big events to help sell the remaining tickets. 

I don't think you can plan a tour on the basis of keeping casual fans happy.
The recent trend of playing 2 shows in the same city with vastly different setlists is bound to continue and so it should.
If they play 2 nights at the o2 I'd say at least 25% of the Audience will be at both nights.
I'd rather see them sell out straight away than have the desperation we saw at Tottenham in June with them struggling to sell tickets.

Ultimately if they want to be playing big stadiums and festivals they have to keep the casual fans happy. Whilst I am sure the hardcore fans would happily see PJ playing exclusively indoor venues around 15-20k in capacity that is a fanbase that isn't getting any younger. Any band who wants to keep touring needs to maintain a reasonable level of interest from casual fans and converting them into more hardcore fans. Going to the same well of fans who go to every single show is always going to provide diminishing returns as those fans will always gradually drift away and die off over time, that's just life.

In America they rarely to play to more than 25.000 and the festivals aren't an issue because you don't need die hards to sell a festival.
The days of stadiums in Europe are over though, I'd be surprised of they tried to do Tottenham or another stadium again.
Could see Hyde park though.

You say the fanbase isn't getting any younger but the band is older than most of the fanbase.

They are about to play a US tour leg with 5 shows over 25k capacity. (6 if you add Indy which is 24k) The demand in many US markets is still very strong.  

vedpunk said:

seanclax said:

tomccfc87 said:

seanclax said:

tomccfc87 said:

tino_11 said:

Zen23 said:

They'd better start with one night at the O2 Arena. As soon as it's sold out and the ticket rush is measurably huge, you can activate the second night. Just like others do. Nothing wrong with that. If you think back to the number of empty seats at Tottenham Stadium in the first few weeks and months, one night at the O2 Arena would have been enough.

I agree that would be a sensible move. 

PJ have always attracted big numbers in London and I'm highly confident demand is still there. They just need to take the lessons from a) ticket prices, b) timing of the announcement and c) avoiding big date clashes (like Glastonbury and Green Day at Wembley)

I think playing multiple smaller shows may still cause problems with people who had tickets last time not being able to get them for the return shows. They had still sold well in excess of 40,000 tickets for Tottenham even if it wasn't sold out (I think they were around 50,000 sold). With O2 Arena holding 20,000, 2 nights would not guarantee everyone who bought tickets this year a decent chance at getting them for one of those 2 shows especially when a lot of people will try for both nights. They could always go for 3 nights at the O2 but that still creates problems with some days being higher demand than others and more casual fans who were expecting a hits setlist at Tottenham this year potentially getting booked on a night where they play more deep cuts (there were a *LOT* of complaints about night 2 at Hyde Park not including enough hits after most were played on night 1 in 2022, especially given that night 2 fell on a Saturday when more casual fans had booked tickets)

Whilst personally I would prefer to see them in a smaller indoor show I think the best solution in terms of being fair to those who had tickets last time would be to play Tottenham (or a similar sized venue) again with everyone who had tickets last time being given priority. Then, as you say, maybe look at lowering prices and/or not booking on a date that clashes with other big events to help sell the remaining tickets. 

I don't think you can plan a tour on the basis of keeping casual fans happy.
The recent trend of playing 2 shows in the same city with vastly different setlists is bound to continue and so it should.
If they play 2 nights at the o2 I'd say at least 25% of the Audience will be at both nights.
I'd rather see them sell out straight away than have the desperation we saw at Tottenham in June with them struggling to sell tickets.

Ultimately if they want to be playing big stadiums and festivals they have to keep the casual fans happy. Whilst I am sure the hardcore fans would happily see PJ playing exclusively indoor venues around 15-20k in capacity that is a fanbase that isn't getting any younger. Any band who wants to keep touring needs to maintain a reasonable level of interest from casual fans and converting them into more hardcore fans. Going to the same well of fans who go to every single show is always going to provide diminishing returns as those fans will always gradually drift away and die off over time, that's just life.

In America they rarely to play to more than 25.000 and the festivals aren't an issue because you don't need die hards to sell a festival.
The days of stadiums in Europe are over though, I'd be surprised of they tried to do Tottenham or another stadium again.
Could see Hyde park though.

You say the fanbase isn't getting any younger but the band is older than most of the fanbase.

They are about to play a US tour leg with 5 shows over 25k capacity. (6 if you add Indy which is 24k) The demand in many US markets is still very strong.  

Yeah and they sell well because it's not much more than a big arena.
They don't do the nfl stadiums that some bands do. In Europe they should stick to arenas, festivals and venues like the one in Berlin.
There never gonna sell out wembley/Tottenham etc.
And quite frankly I'm happy about that, they're great in arenas.

seanclax said:

You say the fanbase isn't getting any younger but the band is older than most of the fanbase.

That's true of pretty much any band that's bee around for more than about 10 years.

The fact is fans drift away as they get older, the age of the band members is irrelevant because they are touring as a job. Fans go to shows for leisure and as people get older they accumulate more commitments that pull them away from shows. Jobs, children, saving money for retirement,  etc become bigger priorities for people in their 40s and 50s than for those in their teens and 20s. People who may have gone to several shows in their 20s may only go to one or two shows when they get older as they have other commitments and by that point have seen that many shows when the band was still in their prime that there just isn't the same level of attraction anymore for many.

The bands who have successfully been selling out stadium shows for decades longer than PJ are the ones who have managed to consistently converting casual fans and bringing through new generations of fans. 

seanclax said:

tomccfc87 said:

seanclax said:

You say the fanbase isn't getting any younger but the band is older than most of the fanbase.

That's true of pretty much any band that's bee around for more than about 10 years.

The fact is fans drift away as they get older, the age of the band members is irrelevant because they are touring as a job. Fans go to shows for leisure and as people get older they accumulate more commitments that pull them away from shows. Jobs, children, saving money for retirement,  etc become bigger priorities for people in their 40s and 50s than for those in their teens and 20s. People who may have gone to several shows in their 20s may only go to one or two shows when they get older as they have other commitments and by that point have seen that many shows when the band was still in their prime that there just isn't the same level of attraction anymore for many.

The bands who have successfully been selling out stadium shows for decades longer than PJ are the ones who have managed to consistently converting casual fans and bringing through new generations of fans. 

Apart from baseball stadiums pearl jam don't sell out stadiums.
It's not thier thing.
On the contrary I've met many people who have retired and now go to many more pearl jam shows then they did when they were younger.
People in their 20s are not going to multiple shows, especially with this years tickets prices. 
Most of the young people who attend shows go with older people that got them into the band in the first place.

You seem to think the band clamour to sell out stadiums around the world when in reality they seem content with the venues they are playing now.
Hence why they go back to the same venues alot.

Many people take a break from going to concerts when they have young children. Having been to lots of concerts of bands from the grunge, britpop and 2000s rock eras, I have found that most fans at concerts seem to be in their 20s and early-mid 40s and above. There always seems fewer people in their 30s. I struggled to go to see bands in this period (2012-2020) due to childcare and I speak to lots of people who have similar experiences and are now really going back to loads of concerts now the children are a bit older. Lots of the 2000s band have struggled a bit recently ticket wise (Kings of Leon, Libertines etc) as their fans are mainly in their mid 30s to early 40s and have childcare issues. 

seanclax said:

tomccfc87 said:

seanclax said:

You say the fanbase isn't getting any younger but the band is older than most of the fanbase.

That's true of pretty much any band that's bee around for more than about 10 years.

The fact is fans drift away as they get older, the age of the band members is irrelevant because they are touring as a job. Fans go to shows for leisure and as people get older they accumulate more commitments that pull them away from shows. Jobs, children, saving money for retirement,  etc become bigger priorities for people in their 40s and 50s than for those in their teens and 20s. People who may have gone to several shows in their 20s may only go to one or two shows when they get older as they have other commitments and by that point have seen that many shows when the band was still in their prime that there just isn't the same level of attraction anymore for many.

The bands who have successfully been selling out stadium shows for decades longer than PJ are the ones who have managed to consistently converting casual fans and bringing through new generations of fans. 

Apart from baseball stadiums pearl jam don't sell out stadiums.
It's not thier thing.
On the contrary I've met many people who have retired and now go to many more pearl jam shows then they did when they were younger.
People in their 20s are not going to multiple shows, especially with this years tickets prices. 
Most of the young people who attend shows go with older people that got them into the band in the first place.

You seem to think the band clamour to sell out stadiums around the world when in reality they seem content with the venues they are playing now.
Hence why they go back to the same venues alot.

The fact is in outside of the USA they were regularly playing massive outdoor stadium shows until recently. 9 of 23 venues on their 2018 tour were stadium shows, 7 were festivals with only, 1 was a non-stadium outdoor show and only 6 were indoor arenas. So it's completely disingenuous to say that stadium shows are not their thing when only 2 world tours ago they made up the biggest proportion of their tour.

And whilst younger people may not earn as much as older people they also have less financial commitments than older people. They are often still living at home with parents or splitting rent and bills with multiple roommates, no kids to feed, unlikely they have a long expensive daily commute to pay for, the majority of their income is disposable. They can also book tickets further in advance because they know they won't have to worry about things like childcare or an important meeting coming up at work. Older working age people also just have generally busier lives and often don't have the energy or patience to deal with the hassle of travelling to concerts as regularly. A 21yr old working a minimum wage job can easily go to a show, have a few drinks get home in the early hours of the morning and still go to work the following morning knowing even if they are tired/hungover from the night before it's not really a problem as minimum wage jobs are generally low responsibility roles. A 40-50yr old generally won't recover as well the next day and will likely be in a job that's harder to do when hungover/sleep deprived. I doubt there is a single person over the age of 40 who hasn't skipped a concert because they don't want to be out late on a work night. This is why 21-25 is statistically the biggest age demographic for the live music industry in terms of ticket sales.

tomccfc87 said:

I can't recall the amount of over 50s I've meet in the last 2 euro tours that have been to most shows on the tour.
These are the people queuing up early.
Didn't meet a 20yo doing the same.
My point of them not needing to cater to casual fans to be able to tour anywhere in the world they choose is still valid in my opinion.

You realise you have just proved my point for me there, right?

PJ catering to the older fans demographic and ignoring the younger more casual fans is the exact reason they playing shorter tours and struggling to sell out bigger shows. In the live music industry catering specifically to an aging fan base will always result in ever-diminishing returns.

And if you consider one short paragraph to be an "essay" I suggest you develop your reading skills, or maybe get checked for ADHD

I don't know what you expect from the band but I am sure that the reason for shorter tours has nothing to do with the fact that they're ignoring younger fans lol.
I'm pretty sure they've made a career of doing whatever they want and if them playing smaller venues (o2) instead of trying to sell out a stadium in a country where they have never played a stadium before is the consequence of that then I'm all for it.

And as for my reading skills the fact that you have edit every post you make means you might want to take your own advice.

I'm looking forward to an arena/Waldbühne tour next year.

3 nights @ Massey Hall, Toronto please. 

Or .. 3 nights anywhere in Atlantic Canada.  

drfox said:

I see that some bands are already starting to announce U.K. shows for the busy June/July period in 2025. Fontaines DC announced today….

Fingers crossed if we get some PJ shows (which we all want!) they don’t leave it to February again.

Before Christmas would be nice.