I absolutely see the thread you're following to get there but I really really really really can't fathom that song being about Shanks. In 2004 they would be working on the box set and HAND at the same time. Richie said in interviews after he left he wanted more changes, different producers etc. I think using the same guy over and over and over is limiting creatively but in 2004 none of those were an issue. In 2004 Bobby wasn't even a backing member of the band for the tour, he did both Borgata shows in '03 and '04 but there wasn't a tour until November of 2005.

I think it's a personal song but if he's going through a divorce and the loss of his father that seems to be the more likely subject matter to me.

The interview you posted also hammers home the biggest issue people have with RSO. When they say he left Bon Jovi to do harder rock stuff, you are right he never said that. But he DID insinuate he isn't able to do longer guitar solos in the band and guitar based music is lacking in current records. So for him to leave the band less than a year after that and then eventually put something out that isn't guitar based at all it's strange.

What they're doing sounds "of the times" in a multitude of genres and I wonder if they're trying to find a sound that sticks and going in that direction when something clicks.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that Bobby and/or Shanks was the primary inspiration, only the changes that had taken place since their advent may have been in the mix. And you're right, they (or the changes in his role in the band) may not have been evident that early on; but he didn't write the song in 2004/2005. He wrote it in 2011/2012, looking back over the changes that occurred during the previous 7 years. I can't help but believe that the way his role had been diminishing over that time wouldn't have played into it to some degree. But as I said, that's just my gut.

That was one of the things he said. The problem I see, though, is that seems to be the only thing people remember him saying. :)

In that same interview, right before that, he also said: "One of the things I wanted to do was showcase my singing, because people put me into this box where I am a guitar player. There are a lot of people that have a preconceived notion of who I am as a person and a musician, and I think this record tried to break that mold. Even from a guitar-playing standpoint, what I don’t see in a lot of bands and a lot of records right now is a lot of guitar playing for self-expression -- playing solos..."

I'm not sure how you define "guitar-based" music because I'm much more into the vocals and lyrics. But Making History has a guitar solo that, to me, is reminiscent of The Next 100 Years, which along with Dry County, is one of the stand-out guitar solos on any of the Bon Jovi albums as far as I'm personally concerned. Walk with Me has an outro alone that's over a minute long and the instrumental break in Together on the Outside is over a minute, too. I'm not sure what people expect, but I guess they could do the guitarists' answer to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. :)

I'm not arguing with you because personal taste is just that, but there is a lot more guitar on Making History than on Rise. Maybe it's just not the style of guitar that people are looking for. IDK.

As far as style you could be right. They both said they wanted to explore different genres, but I would have thought they would have explored and then, like you said, find a style that worked before releasing new music. But that's just me. Maybe they are still looking for what clicks for both of them and for the fans. Other than that, I got nuttin'... *shrugs*

IDWTHTNYN cool video

You're not the only one Rolo. I don't know if it's the NSG and Ballad of Youth in it or what, but I feel like there's a Jon connection. A friend told me a while back that she had seen an interview when SITT first came out where Richie said Ballad of Youth was about Jon or he wrote it for Jon or something, but she couldn't find the interview, so take it for what it's worth. But it wouldn't surprise me.

There's also something about it that reminds me of One Last Goodbye. I think it's the bridge and I'm pretty sure there's something that feels very similar to that in One Last Goodbye. Or it might be Willing to Try. I've got to play the 3 of them back to back and see if I can figure it out.

As a guitar player the only thing that Dry County/Next 100 Years can be compared to the solo in Making History is the double time solo. That being said I dig that solo.

It's a matter of opinion but what they're putting out is not guitar based. It doesn't breathe organically and it's filled with lots of synths. Yes there's guitars but it's not.....Richie. It's so hard to explain what I have in my brain but with ever release Richie gets less and less guitar driven from Stranger forward. Undiscovered Soul was a turn into the poppier direction but it sounded organic, you can hear the guitars crisp and clear. Aftermath had more guitars and was such a great step in the right direction (for me) but lacked soulful lyrics on most of it. It was a pretty safe release as far as blues and soul go. This release even has a few songs with him playing no guitar at all. The majority of the songs don't have solos and I don't mean to harp on the one thing people keep bringing up but if he's going to say that he's surprised a lot of modern music doesn't have guitar solos and jamming and then put out something that is so far removed from what he's done in the past I think it's acceptable to question it, ya know?

I'm all for bands experimenting as they evolve but they're doing it right out of the gate. It's a lot of sharp turns and I feel like each thing they're doing is good but finding an audience that appreciates the bunch of sounds they've given us I think is going to make this difficult.

Wow, I really love We Are Magic. The talkbox lick/riff is awesome! Sounds like a hit to me. But like Taylor Swift in sound maybe..

I only like the solo on that song.

Think the new EP is better than the first

I love most of the songs of the second EP

together on the outside stands out for me some cools riffs and melodies.

i also like walk with me but only when richie sings..

Most people seem to prefer this EP. I certainly do! Seems like they should have released this one first...

I just heard that the Jan 12 date at Max Watt's was cancelled. Anybody heard anything? I haven't heard about the 13th but I thought there was something scheduled for that date as well. It's not showing up on RSO Official, either. Apparently the other dates are still on.

I would have liked a mix of the two honestly. But yeah, the second EP is my top one.

Sydney on the 12th is cancelled as well as Melbourne on the 13th.

The two Under The Southern Stars Festival dates are still a go where they are part of the line up as well as their solo shows on the 10th and 11th. According to the links on the promoters facebook...

https://www.facebook.com/RSOOfficial...type=3&theater

4 minutes ago that was posted with a link to the ticket page saying the show is cancelled. Clearly the post was scheduled before cancellation but that's just sloppy social media work.

Sure as hell can't argue with the people who are complaining about the way their social media is being handled. Whoever is in charge of it couldn't look any more unprofessional if they tried. I mean, ultimately it's RSO who are in charge; but they or Doc or somebody needs to hire someone who can manage to stay on top of stuff.

When I first heard about it, I checked and there was NOTHING on the FB page or the website about shows being cancelled. I kinda get FB. I know I'm old-school, but I still have a hard time making FB pages the official word on anything. But their website should have current accurate information. It wouldn't hurt if some of the communications actually sounded like they came from RSO, or at least their management, instead of sounding like a fan-based group is running it.

I miss the days before AOTL was released when Richie was excited enough to be tweeting almost every day with news or just saying "hi" - grammatical errors and all. It seemed more genuine and at least provided current info, instead of this.

Sorry. Maybe I'm just grumpy. Rant over.

I'm Facebook friends with Mark Gable from the Choirboys, who were supposed to be supporting RSO on January 12 (Max Watt's, Sydney) & 13 (Prince Bandroom, Melbourne). Someone posted on Mark's profile on December 30 saying they were looking forward to seeing them at one of those shows, and Mark replied on NYE that they were both cancelled but he doesn't know what happened yet.

it‘s obviously her fan Jenn handling all those official and fan accounts

If that's true then they really need to get someone who knows what they are doing to manage the accounts, not just one of Ori's fans...(I'm available lol)

Having said that, I know from experience of running socials for a lot of bands that it's not always the social media or website managers fault. Sometimes the management just doesn't pass the info along until the news is already out there, by which point it's too late.

The post about Sydney tickets would have been scheduled to go out on that day/time months ago, and would have been set up for Facebook to post it automatically. It's possible that the person managing the page had not yet been notified about the cancellation and therefore let the post go out as planned. Of course it's possible that they knew but just forgot that they had scheduled the post which is sloppy....

Didn't the same thing happen with cancellations last time they played Australia. Australian promoters are notorious for cancelling shows at the last minute. Is it the same promoter this time? If so, they should rethink that. I know one Aussie promoter that would do a much better job....

January 11 on the Sunshine Coast was cancelled today.

Haven't heard anything about Jan 10.

From memory, the promoter was TEG in 2016, and I think it's One World Entertainment this time.

I did catch up with a friend in the industry not long after the Perth show was cancelled last time... He knew I was pretty disapointed but he said it would've been the promoter who cancelled the show, on the basis that they'd lose more money if it went ahead.

Oh, and I used to work for a digital agency if RSO wants to put a social media team together. :wink:

So, they arrived in Australia for a mini tour and will do only half oh this?

Why the shows were canceled?

Oh 100 percent I'm not saying the social media person is to blame, the information has to trickle down and they're working with information given. If it was known as early as NYE the show was cancelled any posts selling tickets to it with a link leading to a page that says cancelled should have been unscheduled. There was time to have done all of that which is why the whole thing came across as sloppy no matter how you look at it.

Yes it's all very sloppy. Knowing promoters, they probably decided to wait to see how the tickets sold over the Xmas period and then when they got back to work after the new year decided to cancel as last as they possibly could...

In answer to the question as to why they were cancelled, it can only be that ticket sales were not great. I think that Australian promoters seem to try and rely on Ori's supposedly considerable fan base (with her being from Aus), but this is a mistake. You can't presume that her fans will be interested in RSO, the same way that you can't presume that Richie's will be...

I wonder how much local promo the promoters did. I would expect it was next to zero and this is where so many of them go wrong, thinking that they can rely solely of Facebook. Wrong!

They should really consider using MJR - http://mjrpresents.com/

lack of interest maybe? Poor sales?

Sounds like that may be it. As much as I would hate that, it's better, imo, than the "Richie's flaked on another performance" scenarios that ppl were throwing out before.

They are both rehearsing in Sydney right now.

Ori posted this:
https://www.facebook.com/Orianthi/vi...5011909741681/

and RSO posted this:
https://www.facebook.com/RSOOfficial...5521929651204/

The show on the 11th is now canceled. So it's the two festival dates and the 10th.
Reading comments I wonder if those who had tickets on the 11th will be honoured on the 10th as the two look reasonably close in distance?

If you looked at the "going" on the facebook pages (theirs and promoters) the numbers were low for venues that held anywhere from 800 to 1200. IMO is purely low sales. Some people were commenting that "like before" they were waiting for the tickets to go to 1/2 price. Anyone in Oz who can confirm that? Plus still see comments on negative reviews last trip and while some do, just as many do not like the new music. The first EP was extremely weak and that's not how you come out of the gate. Negative tends to be deleted, so you have to see it fast or you don't see what people are saying.

Unless the sales were completely diabolical, the last thing they should be doing in cancelling shows. They're already building up a string of cancellations and are coming across very flaky already. Why would you commit money to buy a ticket when there is a good chance it won't happen. They are hurting their brand, their reputation and hurting the very few startup fans they have. Foolish all round really.

I'd expect that they would have been happy to play the shows, but it's the promoters decision to cancel the shows not theirs, so I'm not sure what they are supposed to do. A know a lot of bands that have tried to tour in Oz and had the promoter cancel on them at the last minute.

I honestly can’t understand why people are still interested in this clusterfuvk. This stuff is as bad as Jon’s vocals nowadays.

Because we actually enjoy the music (or at least some of it) even with all the drama that surrounds it

But this isn't a hard-to-tour Oz specific thing, it's a North America thing too. If there isn't enough interest there shouldn't be a tour and if there shouldn't be a tour it's treading wheels doing one-offs.

What do you suggest then? It's clear there hasn't been enough interest In NA and that's not just since AOTL.They can't force people to take an interest. If they do the music they apparently want to do, people aren't interested because it isn't what they expected or want to hear from them. If they do what they think might interest people, then they're chasing hits. So, other than just giving up, what do you think they should do? I'm not being a smart-ass. I'm truly curious about what you think might work.

The North America thing is hard to judge as weren't they just acoustic showcase shows with little promo rather than actual tours.

Honestly, I don't know why they are concentrating on NA and Aus anyway. Aus I guess because Ori is from there but that seems to mean little. They'd be better off concentrating on getting a song on the radio in North America rather than playing shows right now.

I don't understand why they are not pushing these EPs at all in UK/Europe where they have a guaranteed audience and will sell tickets regardless. The only thing I can think is that they are waiting for the album (if there is still going to be one), but they are missing out. Something like Making History or IDWTHTNYN would be all over Planet Rock Radio.

The strategy just seems to make no sense at times...I'm not actually sure what they are paying McGhee for at this point...

The 10th just announced cancelled as well.
So there are no solo gigs - just two festival performances. They are in OZ so I suspect that is still a go and it is a line up not just one artist. There is a 3rd festival with the same group on the 10th that they were originally not part of because of their solo shows, wonder if they may now go?

Promoters are the one's who normally pull the plug but because of illness (which there was video so seem ok), and they normally say. The other is poor sales - face it - it is a business and the promoter, the mgr. the venue and the band have to be able to cover expenses. They sell 200 seats at $25 - but 800+ at $74 US equivalent is not happening. I remember at the Footy show last trip how many people didn't know who she was. I think her fame in oz may be within a certain circle and not the masses.

IMO even Europe right now would not be as receptive. Several I know, have said not again. Brazil did well, but the largest crowd was free entry with Pepsi picking up the tab. The reputation is damaged - that will take a lot to recover. I said before, they can not make it, on the level he is accustomed to, without the casual fan base.

Promotion. Going to Radio Stations. Film music videos. Actually participate in Social Media. They can't force people to take an interest but BJ and Ori fans can't be their desired fanbase. If they want a new fanbase they have to work for it and it doesn't necessarily mean booking shows and hoping for the best. Constantly posting vacation photos aren't helping.

People are saying the thing feels half-assed because that's just how it's coming across.

Great Answer!!!

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