Richie talks about Australia
 

About 12 minutes into "Richies Complete Interview" (follow link below) Richie definately says they are coming to AUSTRALIA!!

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_articl...?storyid=34699

I can't get the video to work. Does he mention when??

I watched it earlier. I think he said March-time or there abouts :) Fingers crossed!

The Video should play:

http://wm.gannett.speedera.net/wm.ga...TERVIEW-BR.wmv

I really hope they mean that.. I know how long you guys in Australia have been waiting for them to come back.. I'll keep my fingers crossed too :)

He dosen't mention a date. He just commented that they were going to Japan, Australia and then on to Europe.
Not to put a downer on it but I wouldn't be suprised if it was a slip of the tongue. Both Jon & Richie have a habit of stetching the truth when it comes to touring!

Some things to note about any possible tour to Australia:

Richie mentioned 10 stadium shows in Japan/Australia. Currently there are 6 dates listed for Japan, so maybe the extra ones are for here, as a basic east coast tour of Oz is common among bands that come here, which would be about 3 or 4 shows (Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, maybe Adelaide) and would normally take around 10 days to complete.

There are 2 decent 'windows' for the possible Australian dates: The final US date of the first leg is March 11th and the Japan shows do not begin until April 8th, which leaves close to 4 weeks for something in there. The final Japan show is on April 18th and the European tour doesn't begin until May 13th, which is only a 3 week gap in dates, so I would imagine that if it's going to happen, it'd be before the Japan tour.

Someone mentioned a 'slip of the tongue' from Richie regarding Australia. There was talk some time ago about an interview he did on Brisbane radio and what he said then fits in with what he said on the above interview, as well as mentioning the 10 stadium shows for this region, as I also mentioned earlier. Those 2 things make it seem a little more than just a slip...well, I'm hoping. ;)

A couple of things that are a bit confusing however, are the fact that no dates have been mentioned at all to anyone, anywhere. Even if the tour was in the later of the 2 possible 'windows', that's only 3 months away, and the earlier one is barely 2!! You would think that normally something official would have been said by now if there were to be a tour. Also, in another interview that Jon & Richie did back in September on Oz tv, they didn't say that they definitely weren't coming, but Jon indicated that there wasn't anything about Australia in the tour plans at that stage. Then the interviewer presented them with a petition with thousands of Australians' signatures, asking them to come....if anything, it was non-commital rather than a straight up 'no'. That was a few months ago though, maybe things have changed by then.

Maybe.

PS: Cheers for that other link Kev, it worked fine that time. :)

As much as I hope this all pans out for us here, I don't see BJ coming here at the same time as U2...simply cause I do not see BJ being able to sell out stadiums here...going head to head with U2 [who have sold out 6 stadium shows here] would be crazy..that is ofcourse, just my opinion...the dates between Japan and the Europe/UK dates look more promising.

I do agree with those here, and elsewhere, who have also said that both Jon and RS do say things that are off the cuff...if they are coming, I hope something is officially announced soon....I for one am more than sick and tired of all this maybe yes, maybe no stuff for Oz and I'm sure ppl o/s are sick of it too. Will be just my luck too...I wanted to wait to join the fc WHEN a tour here was announced [and before anyone here says why did you wait, you should have joined 'just incase'...my reply to that is "I don't tell you what to do with your $ and when...don't criticise me or anyone else for what and when we spend ours on...just incase is a load of crap...anyone who says you shouldn't join just for the fc ticketing, says they don't, are either lying or are not be honest with themselves, cause over 80% of ppl do for just that reason"]...the fc announcing the cut off for membership being 31/12/05 on 21/12/05 and that info only being available on the fc forum, was crap. I know other artists fc's do that too...stop taking members to the fc WHEN a tour is announced...but they are the operative words here...WHEN a tour is announced...not a few months into it. Rant re: fc over.

S.

I hope for all of the Aussies that have worked so hard to let the band know they are "wanted" no pun intended in Australia, that Richie is right and they are indeed headed down under.

As for the FC closing it's membership, I am under the impression this has to do with helping to control ticket scalping. This tour is very successful in the States but there have been alot of " prime" tickets being bought and then being resold at double and triple face value. Some of this has apparently been done by FC members, by closing their membership they can better track who and where these tickets are going.

Should it have been done when the tour was announced??? Maybe so but I don't think the FC anticipated the problem would be this extensive. It seems that AEG (tour promoter) and Backstage are trying their best to put a lid on the scalping thing as best they can and still give their members the perk of great seats. I am a FC member, I keep my membership current tour year or not, but I don't know any member that doesn't join at least in part because of the great ticket perks, or that won't admit it.

Can someone go in one of this Toronto shows with transparent like:
You must go to AUSTRALIA, they are dying to hear REAL music!

Mate...rest assured...we hear REAL music this far south of the equator on a daily basis...we just want to hear THEIR music.

S.