y'all are a bunch of whiners

I don't think you will find any diehard fan anywhere, in any country, that wouldn't love to hear that Richie would be on stage come showtime. The reality is however that he isn't going to play for awhile. Tour is booked, crew is hired and set to work, venues have blocked in the time, hotels have thousands of reservations, stage is built and on it's way to it's first stop, band has set up their work and vacation times. All of this is just supposed to stop because Richie is suddenly unavailable??
Whether Richie fans like it or not, he is easier to replace than Jon. Jon is the voice of BJ, an while I never have and never will say that Richie isn't a big part of the magic that is BJ live, the reality is with a guitarist as good as Phil, while not the same does make seeing BJ without Richie much more than passable. Different, yes but really it ain't all bad guys, done it two tours in a row now because Richie bailed out with no notice so unlike you all there was no time to sell tix or change plans.

Well theres nothing we can do about it now. My flights, trains and hotels and are booked so yeah I would have been way more p***** off if it had all been postponed. End of the day, as much as I love Richie, when will we know when hes cabable of touring again? He shouldnt even think about commiting to another world tour until he is 100%. Or if it is a rift, then until its sorted.

Until then, i'm gonna go and just hope that Jon has some suprises up his sleeve for Europe. Enjoy the time away with good friends, have a few beers, hope the weather is good and go with an open mind....

Bands postpone tours all the time. The Stones postponed shows when Keef wasn't there.

They can't cancel the tour. The show must go on. You have to spare a thought for everyone who has already bought a ticket, and taken a day or two off work to travel and see the band - if they canceled, what can those people do, but travel home again (which costs money) and if they got a flight, it may not be refundable, a motel won't always be refundable, so they lose money, just because you want them to cancel?

Aloha !

Yeah, because clearly when you take a day off from work you can't just say "nevermind I don't need the day off, sign me back up, I'll take the day some other time when I actually do need it".

No one's already traveling for these shows already, so no one actually needs to travel back home again. We're not talking about a last minute cancelation here, we're talking about cancelling or postponing months in advance.

The people who did book flights and hotels are easily outnumbered by the amount of people who'd rather go see the full band, would they actually have the choice. If you travel to go see a band you better get the right insurance. You don't? You snooze you lose. Yes, that sounds hard, but it's just the way it is. Bon Jovi never cared for the select few die hards in the first place, so don't act as if this is an act of Jon thinking about anyone else but his own wallet.

The Stones cancelled shows when Keith Richards fell out of a tree and postponed an entire stadium leg. I doubt U2 going on with a tour if The Edge fell out of a tree. Do you reckon AC/DC would tour without Angus Young? There'll be another summer next year, postponing is an option, especially when you are aware of it so many months in advance.

Sure, it'll cost the promoters and Jon a lot of cash to postpone, but considering they get another year to actually get people to buy tickets I'm sure down the line they'll break even. There's something called integrity, but Jon seems to have lost most of it on the way to where he is now.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

What would happen if Jon were incapacitated? It would be cancelled without a doubt.

That said, the simple thing to keep everybody as sweet as possible is to carry on whilst offering full refunds. Why's it so difficult? If they are so convinced the show CAN carry on without Richie, then they should have the confidence to offer refunds to those fans that want them as they should also be confident those who would take them up on a refund would be few in number.

Hold on, so Richie fell out of a tree?....


Either way, a lot of the arguments and ill feeling would have not been present if they gave the fans the options for refunds. Those that didn't want to go could get a refund and still have time to cancel travel plans if need be, those that still want to can go and the tour crew still get paid and the shows go on. What Matt and some of the more rabid defenders don't realise is this is why these feelings of resentment have arisen.

They won't cancel because sales are sluggish anyway, and when you allow refunds you will get more than the diehards claiming them- people who buy tickets to tout who can't shift them, people who bought on an impulse who have changed their mind, people who are major Richie fans or people who would rather just have their money back. Along with chancers (like I would) who would refund and then try and buy back cheaper nearer the time. All that would lose the band money, and a lot of it.

Its disappointing that fans (a lot on social media) are getting on fans' cases for wanting refunds (all the true fan bollocks). Out of all the losing money, no one is concerned about our money being lost. If the full information about Richie's availability was known when tickets were on sale people may well have made different plans. Equally, if the die-hard section is as small as they say it is, it wouldn't hurt them much to offer refunds?

I'm still going to go to Manchester & Birmingham, if I had known Richie wouldn't be there I would probably not have bought them and just did Hyde Park. Now its done, if I had an option I would consider refunding the Hyde Park tickets as they were the most expensive and would be easier to buy cheaper nearer the time. But what they should do is offer refunds for those that want them and then add some big name support and make the best of the gigs for those that do go. Doing what they have done now will have people going who would rather not go, resenting going will not make them enjoy it and you get the silly ideas of booing and turning their back. They can please everyone if they so choose to.

Edit: Ha basically what the post above says, but less succinct!

That's the point though, they've left it too late to make postponing an option. And who even knows when Richie will be back? We don't even know why he can't make it. I'm not arranging plans based on him being there when this is the third time he has "called in sick". I agree the whole thing has been handled dreadfully but I don't expect anything less from BJ these days.

For everyone saying "if JBJ wasn't there it'd be postponed". No shit, everyone knows 99% of the casuals are there to see Jon, even the most hardened Richie fans have to admit that!

It would suck for the crew of over 100 to have the tour postponed or canceled. These guys and gals plan their financial livelihood around a tour. And no, it's not as easy as just jumping on another tour, crew is planned months before a tour begins. It sucks that Richie isn't there but I think the best answer is to fulfill the contracts and finish out the tour.

Ppl saying on twitter, tickets should be less as a band member isnt there, however this isn't practical. Personally think that whatever they save on RS, they should put back into the show. Wether that means special guests, decent well known support acts, longer shows or fireworks. It would go some way to give something back to the fans.