Thanks. That's what I was looking for, because I don't know how that all works. I just don't understand why they seem to be having such a hard time with it. As seasoned pros you would think they would know how to play the game. And Richie has acknowledged that it's like starting over as as new band so it doesn't seem like he's just waiting for new fans to fall into their laps. So I don't get it.



PS. I agree about the vacation photos. I wish Ori would get a personal account and make it private. Very private.

It's like they're making very commercial music and just hoping people go "hey, that's catchy" and boom, instant fans. Ori's Instagram posts paint a very different behind the scenes picture of what they do in their free time. I'm not saying they don't work at this because how would anyone know that, I just stand by the fact that they took way too long to put something out and interest and curiosity diminished hugely.

Yikes, not a good look but ticket prices were far too high.

The venues were small though so if it's down to ticket sales someone's doing something wrong.

I personally have never liked duets and I struggle to enjoy RSO.

I feel like Richie solo would attract more fans. Not enough people know what RSO even is.

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I'm no expert on how this works, but should they really be booking headlining gigs when hardly anyone knows who they are? Despite who they've played with, neither Richie nor Orianthi are household names, and not everyone who's a fan of one or the other will be fans of RSO. I keep thinking about how the Choirboys were meant to be their support act in Melbourne and Sydney, even though I'm positive the Choirboys are more well known in Australia than RSO.

Very true. People know what they are getting when they buy a Sambora solo album or ticket. People don't really know with RSO. Like Cap said, I'm not sure why they think people are going to this without really building the fan base. Attempt to get radio play, make a damn video!!

This video of the show was posted live to their facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/RSOOfficial...5891929614204/

So Set list looks like:

When Love Comes To Town (Video starts at the very end of this song. I enjoy their version of this but it's time to drop all the covers)

Lay Your Hands On Me (I never liked the way Richie sang this one, even when he did it with Bon Jovi. I wish that they would switch this out with Bad Medicine)

Making History (Sounded great!)

Anyone know the rest of the set?

Good to see that the band seem much more well rehearsed than previously though...

the problem is zero promo.

if I was McGhee, make the next:

- Launch one Ep every two months (ok) with a promotion before (essential a official video, and little clips of interviews and making of the record),promos on radios and performances in some shows of tv. This is a one begining.

- After of the launch of the Ep, make some dates for a mini tour with the first Ep (example Uk Europe). Later follow the same strategy with the Ep2 (USA Canada), Ep3 (Australia), Ep4 (Japan),.... Every Ep accompanied of a mini tour is the thing right. In summer Make a tour of festivals and adds dates in south america and others countrys.

And very important, give the best of you in interviews, no improvisations, no boring and reppeat long jammings, Stick to an established script that works with a band of musicians that works. With some surprise off course.

Yes! And thank goodness Takumi is back, too. :)

The only new person I see, who wasn't with them in Chicago, is the drummer. And Neil Swanson is MIA. But it looks like they may be pulling together a consistent road band.

I don't have a problem with the music. I actually think it's quite good, well crafted, and well produced. It might be a little dated in parts but I'm actually okay with that. My main problem is with her. Not because she is Richie's girlfriend or anything like that...

You can't just shove an artist down someones throat and force them to like him/her... That has to be earned. There is nothing unique or fantastic about her voice... She's not an Adele or Lady Gaga who would add their own flavor to a song. If Richie wants to do a duet album, he should have done it with someone who can own a song. Jon didn't make Who Says a hit. Jennifer Nettles did... And for those who heard the Keith Urban version, that is a perfect example of how a duet should not be done...

Orianthi is just an average singer who adds nothing. I think I'd really like these EPs if they were just Richie. I would take her as a backing vocalist but an entire album of her is a bit much.

Taking Richie our of the equation, if someone said, "check out this new music by Orianthi"... I would say it's good, give it a listen or two, and then put it away and never listen to it ever again. She is not the type of artist that would captivate me in anyway. She is no more a lead singer than Jon is an actor.

this show is part of a festival? or their own show?

watched the clip, the band sounds tight. Richie simple isnt frontman material, he is the most interesting part of Bj BUT he doesnt let the band breathe and gel...his best tricks are copycuts from jbj and we all seen them done better.
i d really loved to see richie up there rehearshed and prepared pouring his heart out but thats not what he wants obviously. anyway, the new music imo doesnt help as well

I hit the video and the first thing I heard was "welcome to the church of Orianthi". Going into LYHOM and I turned it off. A One hour Set at a festival so ... really? They have 2 EP's, 2 or 3 more supposedly ready (tease a new song), both have solo work it's time to stop so much of the BJ. I know he co-wrote them, but to the general public it's still a "cover". They can't harmonize and those who know how well Jon and Richie's voices blended it compares as cringe worthy. I can't stand her vocals anyway, couples albums don't do well in general, and imo they have made it too much relationship social media/interviews with not enough substance. He said the music was the journey of their relationship on at least 2 interviews about the EPs. Not a direct quote but same meaning.

Saw others seem tired of the vacation pictures, which after the next 1 hour set I'm sure that will be the image/pictures to come. Brought too much personal in this from the start. It feels disrespectful when Fans who had shows cancelled, saved hard earned money to travel only to find out on short notice it's off, that is salt in a wound. Sydney and Melbourne went to at the door sales, really expected to see a change to smaller venues but 24 hrs. later they cancelled. The two shows at the Gold Coast, I expected to see them combine venues after the first one cancelled - but they stopped both. They had booked 800 to 1200 seaters - they can't do that. The reputation for a lot of reasons has been hurt and IF they want this to work, they will have to back down the price and expectations imo. They should have made at least one of the shows work. At a minimum address it - don't just ignore it as if nothing happened. A little humility can carry a lot. They have a small fan base that is only going to get smaller at this rate.

But it's those covers that are a big big big big big reason why people are there. I totally agree they should stand behind their own material but at a festival? Festivals are greatest hits, lowest common denominator fanbase and a good chunk of the people are there because of who Richie used to play for. He's going to have some fans of his own there, sure, but if the numbers were high enough to warrant him doing original songs their shows would still be on. Joe Q.Public doesn't have a problem with Living on a Prayer by the guy who originally played it, and an original song won't go over as well. But that's the rub. How do you promote your own material while also pleasing the crowd that doesn't know it.

To sum up my ramble: at a festival show a mix of BJ songs, Ori songs, originals and covers is acceptable. A show on their own should tip those ratios hugely.

Very valid point - but "for Me" it was the "Church of Orianthi", for a BJ song.........

A scheduled post by the promoter, which was published 19 hours ago and is still up. :eek:

"In between Under The Southern Stars, Richie Sambora and orianthi are on their official RSO Australian tour!

Grab your tickets below!"

https://www.facebook.com/1worldenter...25238974179824

That is poor social media promotion - all it does is invite, as it did people to comment their upset about all the cancellations. It may look to the general world that the shows are a go so maybe it saves face somehow to those who don't click comments. People are blaming the promoter - that is not entirely true. The artist sets a price point and if the tickets don't support the cost - yes it's the promoter who officially cancels. Some people will play a gig for the promotion, others expect a significant pay check. Some venues will satisfy with parking cost and what the bar/food tab brings in, but again they know from experience how many tickets need to sell to make it worth turning on the lights.

of course the artist has a set price to charge for putting on a show. It's expensive to bring their band, crew, gear all the way from the USA to Aus for a tour, hence the reason bands have to charge a high price to tour Australia, and hence the reason a lot of smaller shows there end up getting cancelled. It is both band and promoters (the clue is in the name) responsibility that they sell enough tickets to cover that cost. So many promoters just rely on the artists to sell tickets through social media and do zero local promotion these days. It's just lazy and cheap. Even printing up a few flyers to hand out at other shows or to post around town would help, but I expect that there has been nothing....

In a nutshell......

I don't know. What I've seen in the video is just plain horrible IMHO. Richie seems to have lost his voice as well, as someone else pointed out, there's no harmonizing with Orianthi (and when they try, they fail miserably for the most part), LYHOM sounded like a bad cover, and Making History sounded like a noisy mess (I kind of like it on the EP, but that was not a good rendition by any means).

That, combined with the show cancellation/missing promo is really, really bad PR. Richie, while I still don't "like" some of the things you did (and seemingly continue to do), I thought you could at least have done better...

Richie's voice is fine and certainly in better shape than it was a few years ago.

IMHO unless you have both Jon and Richie together, any performance of an old school Bon Jovi song sounds like a cover. I do wish he'd drop Lay Your Hand On Me tho.

The performance of Making History was solid. Apart from the fact it was recorded through a mobile phone it sounded great to me.

THIS. Which is why I can enjoy hearing the current lineup do songs from THINFS; but when they attempt the classic hits I think they sound like a bar band covering Bon Jovi.

The way you phrased that raises another interesting question, too. I may have missed it somewhere along the way, but I can't recall anyone ever questioning why Jon does so many covers of Bon Jovi songs in his solo shows. Would that be because it's more acceptable for him to do them? Or is it because if he does them, they're not considered "covers"?

That aside, I also agree about Richie's voice. I think he sounds very strong vocally.

Has anybody seen any more video from either of the shows? Heard about any setlists?

Well he's the original singer and in a lot of cases writer of them, so it's not a cover regardless of the backing band imo. I don't class Richie singing BJ songs as a cover either, although I do for RSO as Orianthi has nothing to do with the originals and RSO is a different kettle of fish to a Richie solo show.

The only thing that bugs me about RSO doing BJ songs is when she sings lead parts....leave those to Richie....

This sums it up. If it's the same voice and writer as the original song 95 percent of the people aren't going to have a problem with it.

So, if I understand you correctly, you're saying that neitherJBJ and the Kings of Suburbia nor Richie Sambora and Friends would be doing covers, but RSO is. I can see that. Is it perhaps because Richie and Ori co-front or because they share the leads?

I think I was just reminded of all the whining, even before RSO, about why Richie was doing so many Bon Jovi covers. Ori wasn't part of the picture then; so, I'm not sure everybody makes the same distinction you do between Richie singing BJ songs solo vs in RSO.

Not that it matters that much. As far as I'm concerned it's their music and they can sing the songs whenever they want, in whatever configuration they want. I don't think of them as "covers" either way. To me, a cover is when you do someone else's songs. If Richie were to sing DA or Jon sang SITT, I would consider them covers.

It just struck me as interesting, once i thought about it, how some people tend to classify BJ songs as covers when Richie sings them, but they never seem to think of it that way when Jon does. It makes me wonder if, despite acknowledging that Bon Jovi is a band, those people may believe, more than they realize, that Jon is Bon Jovi no matter who is on stage with him.

But this isn't a Jon vs Richie thing. If David does the songs I'd still consider it a cover. If Tico, god bless him I would love to hear it, planned a show and did Always (please let this happen) it'd be a cover. I think if the backing band AND singer is different it's a cover but that's just me, people will have different definitions.

I'm torn on this. On most songs, I would agree; but when it comes to something like WDOA I want Richie singing his harmonies, because nobody else does them justice. I definitely dont want to hear her doing the Wanted echo.

I will say that I'm glad they at least restructured the trade-offs in the last show so that she doesn't sing "I'm a cowgirl..."

No. Just no.

When Jon is doing Jovi songs with the KOS, it doesn't sound like Bon Jovi but with Jon being the lead singer, it sounds somewhat close and is more acceptable...

With Richie, he's not only using a different band which is the first negative but he's also not the lead singer which is the second... Now split the lead with someone outside the band along with their lack of vocal talents and yes.... I can totally see why they sound like covers...

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Personally, I don't see them as covers when someone who originally performed and/or wrote on the track is part of the band.

It's often more accepted that the singer would perform songs as a solo show or another project, rather than another member of the band because his voice is what most people identify with (this goes for any band not just BJ). I don't necessarily agree with that. I think every member of the band has as much right to perform the songs and should be able to do so without people complaining about it. They give as much into the recording (and sometime writing) of the song as anybody else. These songs are part of Richie's legacy as much as they are for Jon, Dave & Tico. Of course he should include some of them in any set that he does, solo or otherwise

No, it's a not Jon v Richie thing. I see it more as a Jon v Anybody thing. :)

I agree that everyone has different definitions. And it's interesting to see how they differ. If I understood yours correctly, you said that when both the singer and the backing band are different it's a cover. So basically any song that the lead singer does is not going to be a cover because only one of those elements is missing. Whereas a song sung by anyone other than the lead singer is always a cover because the original singer is missing. Except, for example, when RS sang LYHOM with Bon Jovi. That would not have been a cover because he was singing it with the band. And if Jon were to sing "Only in my Dreams" in a solo show it would be a cover, because Tico sang the lead in the recording.

To move it totally away from Jon and Richie (since apparently anytime their names appear in the same post it must be a "Jon v Richie thing"), if Paul McCartney sang "Help" in one of his solo shows or with Wings, it would be a cover, because John Lennon sang the lead when The Beatles recorded it. And anytime Mike Love's Beach Boys or Brian Wilson performs God Only Knows it's a cover because Carl sang the lead originally. But when The Eagles do Tequila Sunrise it's not a cover, even though Glenn sang the lead, because it's still the same band. Did I get that right?

I would agree with with that. But I think it's far more prominent with BJ because of Richie's unique style of singing. Which I do like on his solo records (though I still find it a bit strange at times), but when he sings BJ songs, it's just something totally different, which in itself qualifies as a cover for me. Even Richie singing BJ songs with the band is something I somewhat enjoyed, but I'd still have preferred to hear Jon sing, especially pre 2013...

I would take Richie's version of I'll Be There For You over any other version to be honest....both the bluesier acoustic version from the Stranger tour or when he used to do it with Jovi. Phenomenal...

Totally not even remotely close to being the same thing... All members of both The Beatles and The Eagles are lead singers and would sing lead on different verses within the same songs so it's much more acceptable and less noticeable if they cover each other...

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People just seem to be making up rules here to suit whatever is their way of thinking! Ever think maybe that you are over thinking it people??

Sorry, I meant singer OR the backing band.

Not everything is a Jon and Richie thing but if we're talking about Richie and someone says "well how come Jon gets away with it" that's 100 percent how it comes across. That was the original example you used so that's what it felt like.

It's up to the individual to deem what it is to them and if it differs from others, whatever.

I don’t understand why someone would leave their band of 30 odd years to do something different..and then play songs from the band he left.
But that’s just me.
I thought the same of Slash when he toured with Velvet and Miles Kennedy...again, that could just be me.

Slash never left his band of 30 years to play with Miles Kennedy, though. He had done solo stuff after he left G&R, then Velvet Revolver.

True, but that doesn't apply to the songs I mentioned and it's beside the point, anyway. I wasn't saying that those examples are covers, because I personally don't think that any of them are. I was just checking my understanding of how Captain Jovi qualifies a song as a cover.


The thing is, there is a generally accepted definition of what a "cover version" is and it has nothing to do with whether a version sounds different or is liked as well as the original.

Some dictionaries define a cover as "a new recording of a song previously recorded by another artist or group." Others specify that it's "a new recording by a performer or group other than the original performer or composer." By that definition, Carole King didn't "cover" Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" 5 or 6 years after Aretha made it a hit, because as the composer, it was Carole's song to start with. But by the same definition, Aretha's version wasn't a cover, either, because she was the original performer.

People are free to use any definition they choose. I'll stick with my less complicated criteria: if it's not somebody else's song, it's not a cover. For me, that takes the guesswork out of it and keeps it from coming down to "I like this better, so the other one's a cover". :)

I think it comes across that way to you because, for some reason, you seem to have made up your mind that any time I compare the two, I'm using Jon's behavior to defend or justify Richie's, or that I'm just looking for ways to bring Jon down to Richie's level or to make Richie look better; and I don't do that. That's somebody else's game, not mine. As far as I'm concerned there was nothing in what we were discussing that Jon needed to "get away with". My point is that I don't think the term "cover" even crosses most peoples' minds when Jon does BJ songs outside the band; but if anybody else does them, they're "covering" Bon Jovi.

And it's only because we were talking about Richie that I said why do people think Richie's doing covers but they don't think Jon is. If we had been talking about David, I would have said why do ppl think David is doing covers but they don't think Jon is.

It's not about what Jon or Richie or David does, or anybody else for that matter. It's the way ppl seem to accept whatever Jon does as a God-given right; but when anybody else does the same thing it's a horse of a different color. If all of them are doing the same thing, then let's call it the same thing.

I don't think Richie has ever had a problem playing the old Bon Jovi stuff, I think it's more that he didn't want to go out touring for 2 years behind new music that he didn't believe in. Which in my book, is fair enough.

Ok, then let me put it this way: people don't think Jon's doing covers when he's singing BJ songs outside of BJ, because the (subjectively, of course) most important part of a performance - the singer - is the same. At least that's the case for me, and I'm not at all for bands switching singers, since the singer is the one that carries the meaning of the song and the one I can identify with...

Add to that that BJ = Jon and the rest of the guys are on his payroll.

Of course that doesn't take any rights or whatever away from Richie or other co-writers to perform the song. Or anyone else, for that matter, but then it'd definitely be a cover ;-)