Heartland

life is brutal and full of zasadzkas

and sometimes kopas w dupas

Because: we live in a country where bands like Bauhaus get turned down for being "an 80ies band that nobody knows or gives a sh* about anymore". Likewise, although The Sisters have been in Zurich last summer, and the Xtra must have earned quite a few pennies on these sFr. 70.- per ticket, quite a bunch of people here find that TSOM sound too much like a bad copy of HIM (!). Plus the promoters probably are of the opinion that nobody wants to see them (the Sisters, not the promoters) again before 4 more years have passed.

In all fairness I also doubt that the Sisters' side have thought of contacting anybody else but the Xtra in Zurich. They might be far more successful if they tried Winterthur (Gaswerk), Baden, Aarau, Geneva, Basel or even Schaffhausen, - or, if we want to be daring: the Fat Tire Festival in Laax - but I doubt that they know these cities/events even exist (besides W'thur where they've played before)....




On a positive sidenote: Stuttgart isn't too far away, it's a nice little city (where it's frighteningly easy to get lost ) and they do excellent aftershow parties in a club in an old tunnel....

Eva wrote:
In all fairness I also doubt that the Sisters' side have thought of contacting anybody else but the Xtra in Zurich. They might be far more successful if they tried Winterthur (Gaswerk), Baden, Aarau, Geneva, Basel or even Schaffhausen, - or, if we want to be daring: the Fat Tire Festival in Laax - but I doubt that they know these cities/events even exist (besides W'thur where they've played before)....

Do they really contact specific venues? Sounds complicated. I was of the impression that they "make themselves available" to promoters who then suggest a venue.
And if there is any tour the Sisters have ever made where they have been contacting -everybody-, it must be this one. Probably not Switzerland because it didn't fit well in the schedule and because they have played there 3 times already in the last 5 years, a figure most small countries would be jealous of.

Only thing that surprises me is the lack of dates anywhere in Eastern Europe. Because it is most likely that the tour will end in the UK, or isn't it?

euphoria wrote:Do they really contact specific venues? Sounds complicated. I was of the impression that they "make themselves available" to promoters who then suggest a venue. And if there is any tour the Sisters have ever made where they have been contacting -everybody-, it must be this one.

Not specific venues, but specific people/promoters they've been dealing with before. I reckon that's the case with TSOM and the XTRA-people. Bauhaus have been "offered" to those people who work for the Xtra, although BH have never played in Switzerland before, simply because by now the Xtra has a very good reputation for all kinds of gigs. Unfortunately the people who decide for the Xtra appparently don't have enough of a clue about post-punk to make the right decision in every case...

Edit: the problem with contacting specific people here is that although Switzerland is such a small country a promoter in Zurich will not be very helpful if you want to play in Baden or Basel - or in fact anywhere else but Zurich, unless by pure accident it's somebody who has a private network of friends who organise gigs in these other cities. In Switzerland we have the "Kantönligeist", where everybody boils their own soup and nobody looks beyond the next hill. And you know how many hills and mountains there are here. Go figure.

euphoria wrote:Probably not Switzerland because it didn't fit well in the schedule and because they have played there 3 times already in the last 5 years, a figure most small countries would be jealous of.

Yes, you're right insofar as that we've been spoiled recently (we've had to wait 16 years for that though). But it would have fitted very well into the schedule, Switzerland being between Italy, France and Germany.

euphoria wrote:Only thing that surprises me is the lack of dates anywhere in Eastern Europe. Because it is most likely that the tour will end in the UK, or isn't it?

I wouldn't take anything for granted anymore... I'd been dead sure that we'd only get a few shows in the UK this year, because they've toured the rest of Europe quite extensively over the last 3 years and haven't got anything new to offer. But what happens? We get a 3 month long world tour with an extensive visit to the States (something nobody'd have expected), France etc. And therefore I wouldn't be surprised if some eastern european countries (or Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia and whatever other countries there are at the other end of the world) suddenly popped up somewhere in the schedule, most probably after the UK shows...

Eva wrote:

euphoria wrote:Probably not Switzerland because it didn't fit well in the schedule and because they have played there 3 times already in the last 5 years, a figure most small countries would be jealous of.

Yes, you're right insofar as that we've been spoiled recently (we've had to wait 16 years for that though). But it would have fitted very well into the schedule, Switzerland being between Italy, France and Germany.

I know, I'm just guessing - scheduling isn't all geography, might have been no suitable venues available a particular date or something similar.

Eva wrote: I wouldn't take anything for granted anymore... I'd been dead sure that we'd only get a few shows in the UK this year, because they've toured the rest of Europe quite extensively over the last 3 years and haven't got anything new to offer. But what happens? We get a 3 month long world tour with an extensive visit to the States (something nobody'd have expected), France etc. And therefore I wouldn't be surprised if some eastern european countries (or Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia and whatever other countries there are at the other end of the world) suddenly popped up somewhere in the schedule, most probably after the UK shows...

Hehe...I have had that thought in my head since they announced the Mediterranean dates. It's clear that they demand less money on this tour, given a few strange places they play. Probably thanks to "crew cost-cutting", as I have read on this forum somewhere. Less money for Sisters, but not less for
And with that in mind, they have turned down offers in South Africa before because of too little money being offered (don't know the whole story there) but now? Now we have a completely new situation in this respect.

Exciting times ahead of us

euphoria wrote:I know, I'm just guessing - scheduling isn't all geography, might have been no suitable venues available a particular date or something similar.

Sorry if I've come across as lecturing you - that wasn't the purpose. I'm just sulking because Switzerland is left out this time ALTHOUGH it's lies there, in the way and waiting, between some of the blessed countries...

euphoria wrote:Hehe...I have had that thought in my head since they announced the Mediterranean dates.

Exciting times ahead of us

Yes indeed... Although I've got no idea about that "cost-cutting" story you mention and I'm in deep trouble job-wise and money-wise.....

Eva wrote: Sorry if I've come across as lecturing you - that wasn't the purpose. I'm just sulking because Switzerland is left out this time ALTHOUGH it's lies there, in the way and waiting, between some of the blessed countries...

I was well aware you didn't lecture me And you are right... the Mont Blanc-tunnel is too bloody expensive anyway

Eva wrote: Yes indeed... Although I've got no idea about that "cost-cutting" story you mention and I'm in deep trouble job-wise and money-wise.....

Like here:
http://www.myheartland.co.uk/viewtopic. ... 106#205106

Job-wise I'm out of phase because of..certain news that attract my interest all the time, and it won't get better after the 16th
Money-wise, I'm in trouble too, even if I'm not even close to your planet tour, 5 dates will suffice

Don't get me started on "job-wise".... I'm working temporarily, in a job where I need none of my skills - or at least none of what I've learned at uni - for decent but little money, for just about 4-5 months, of which the Sisters are touring 3. I am lucky that I did get 4 weeks off work from my boss, and I'm fuming that I have to miss part of a Sisters tour for a job that ironically will end soon AFTER said Sisters tour. PISH, PISH, PISH! And of course I can't resign, cause if I did I wouldn't even have the money for the part of the tour I'm "allowed" to do.

Life is cruel and life is s**t and TSOM are really stretching my patience. For the record: I've just given up smoking 4 weeks ago and it seems life and fate and about everybody - including the Sisters - have conspired against me...

I WANT A FAG!

Eva wrote:Don't get me started on "job-wise".... I'm working temporarily, in a job where I need none of my skills - or at least none of what I've learned at uni - for decent but little money, for just about 4-5 months, of which the Sisters are touring 3. I am lucky that I did get 4 weeks off work from my boss, and I'm fuming that I have to miss part of a Sisters tour for a job that ironically will end soon AFTER said Sisters tour. PISH, PISH, PISH! And of course I can't resign, cause if I did I wouldn't even have the money for the part of the tour I'm "allowed" to do.

Life is cruel and life is s**t and TSOM are really stretching my patience. For the record: I've just given up smoking 4 weeks ago and it seems life and fate and about everybody - including the Sisters - have conspired against me...

I WANT A FAG!

I'm sorry for an absolute off-topic message. I just want to say that I understand you very well, Eva. If I knew earlier about Sisters tour schedule I haven't wasted my money and days off my work for the US. I still have my idee fixe to see Sisters in the UK and I would preferred to save the money and ask those free days for all Sisters UK dates
Of course, I'm not going to say that Sisters owes us somehting (a record or early information) - it's just the s*** called life
To the point of my situation I got a new boss in the end of the year - a man who doesn't seem to understand himself how to rule an editorial board of a magazine and tries to compensate it with all kind of office rituals and 'discipline' (while my previous boss had a vision how everything should go and it worked without problems and people could always ask free days if it suited to colleagues and work could be done by the dead-line; OK, I know, maybe it wasn't not very common, many people wouldn't understand it - I just meant that the change came in a very bad time for me )
Being already guilty in posting off-topic thoughts:
I don't expect the Sisters EVER would play in my country (although Depeche Mode, Paradise Lost and Rammstein have done it twice, Kraftwerk, New Model Army, Laibach and many others once).

Too cold.

Norman Hunter wrote:Too cold.

You've got no idea!

Eva wrote:For the record: I've just given up smoking 4 weeks ago and it seems life and fate and about everybody - including the Sisters - have conspired against me...

I WANT A FAG!

I wondered when it would kick in.

Andrew S wrote:

Eva wrote:For the record: I've just given up smoking 4 weeks ago and it seems life and fate and about everybody - including the Sisters - have conspired against me...

I WANT A FAG!

I wondered when it would kick in.

I'm strong, I won't give in!

Well we are on the semi-topic of jobs, vacation, etc.

I have to wonder how some people manage to take so much time off and have the cash flow to bounce around North America to follow any band.
Or is this the european hostile culture?

How do you do it?

"No one really likes Switzerland, except those who prefer cleanliness to life, he thought. And anyone who would live in Switzerland would live in Scandinavia. And anyone who would live in Scandinavia would eat lutefisk. And anyone who would eat lutefisk would..."
Jonathon Hemlock, The Eiger Sanction

Methedrome wrote:I have to wonder how some people manage to take so much time off and have the cash flow to bounce around North America to follow any band.
Or is this the european hostile culture?

How do you do it?

I can only speak for myself:

- no family, no kids, a cheap (for Zurich) flat => little regular costs.
- no car
- no responsibility (so far) in my job, cause I'm still only "jobbing", so I can get time off work more or less whenever I want.
- as far as I know european wages are above american wages (don't know about Canada). and on the mainland, or at least in Switzerland (and I guess Germany etc. too) you have 4-5 weeks paid holidays per year.
- setting of priorities: I don't spend much money here, as I rather follow my favourite band around than...
=> go to the cinema
=> spend money for alcohol (drinks are quite expensive here)
=> buy clothes
=> buy cds, dvds
=> go to clubs where I have to pay for entry
=> spend money for other kinds of holidays
=> go out for dinner (eating out is horribly expensive in Switzerland)
=> spend money for "luxury" food like meat, which is quite expensive here. I rather live off pasta and vegetarian dinners containing potatoes and relatively cheap seasonal vegetables.

In 2003 I was lucky financially, cause I got a generous grant for my studies, of which I didn't know that it was meant to last for 2 years. So I spent part of it for that Sisters tour.

At my former job I had a very, very understanding boss who'd give me time off work whenever I wanted it. This time (new job, different boss) it was more difficult, but my new boss is still understanding enough to think I deserve an extended holiday after I've passed the final exams at uni.

Finances: I work 100%, but am still used to live off the money I get for 40%. Consequence: I can save 60% of my earnings and spend them on Sisters tours and taxes.

I'm not very demanding on my journeys: I don't mind spending ages in a means of transprt (bus/train) if it's cheaper than a flight (in the States for me it turned out to be cheaper flying than taking busses/trains though), and I don't mind sharing rooms with female and male friends and aqcuaintances. Plus the more often you travel and the more often you offer people space in your flat when asked, the more you'll find people willing to put up with you for a night, given they have the space.

I tend to forget about food when travelling (unless Andrew_S travels with me) or often don't have the time for more than one proper meal a day. Included breakfasts (especially the British ones) save you lunch and so you save quite some money that you'd spend on food on another kind of holiday.

But my dream is still that one day we'll be enough followers to rent a coach with a driver to have our own big bad bus with which to follow the Sisters....

Eva wrote:But my dream is still that one day we'll be enough followers to rent a coach with a driver to have our own big bad bus with which to follow the Sisters....

Like real paparazzi, driving right behind them?

Anyway, to me it's clear why they don't do Switzerland: Eva comes along anywhere

Obviousman wrote:Anyway, to me it's clear why they don't do Switzerland: Eva comes along anywhere

You're wrong: this time I'm going to miss an awful lot of gigs.

But I guess they're fed up with people peering out of my living room window into their hotel room....

Besides the things mentioned Eva, I guess you save quite a bit of money on smokes now!

I've got a bad cold and am still smoking between the coughing parts....

Thanks for the comprehensive explanation Eva.
It also explains why I am only going to two shows...Family, responsibility in my job, car, and a house

See you on the tour. And I think the big bad bus idea would be great! Perhaps on the next North American tour in 2012

Ozpat wrote:Besides the things mentioned Eva, I guess you save quite a bit of money on smokes now!

Yers, that's true, but I don't notice (yet).

Ozpat wrote:I've got a bad cold and am still smoking between the coughing parts....

I know that too well - I had times when I needed Fisherman's Friends to be able to smoke at all...

Methedrome wrote: See you on the tour. And I think the big bad bus idea would be great! Perhaps on the next North American tour in 2012

Yes, see you on tour (the Canadian dates I reckon?).

And we keep working on that big bad bus idea...

Eva wrote:

Methedrome wrote: See you on the tour. And I think the big bad bus idea would be great! Perhaps on the next North American tour in 2012

Yes, see you on tour (the Canadian dates I reckon?).

And we keep working on that big bad bus idea...

Looking forward to some nice and long reviews Eva. Have a great time and a safe trip!

Ozpat wrote: Looking forward to some nice and long reviews Eva.

Whoops, I read this as a request. I'll do my best....

Ozpat wrote:Have a great time and a safe trip!

...And where will we bump into you?