The dreadful state of UK ticket sales

I recently wrote a brief exploration of how drastically Morrissey's ticket sale figures have plummeted in the UK, with special attention given to the startlingly low sales for the upcoming Leeds gig.

With two weeks to go until the show, huge quantities of seats remain unsold in some of the best blocks in the venue while standing floor tickets also remain.

Full article can be seen online here.

 

[Anonymous]

A thorough article, thank you. Be prepared for the onslaught that decries the factual information you have provided.

The previous UK tour (entirely cancelled) due to poor tickets sales (yes, people provided facts. Yes, other disputed the facts and actual seats still available) should have been a wake-up call. By booking only 2 venues on this occasion I believe (my opinion) that the 'management' believed these would sell out, and sell out quickly, allowing it to coo over 2 sell-out shows. It could have been a clever move had it worked.

If either of the two UK shows sells out now it will be a pyrrhic victory. As you have alluded to standing tickets are currently still available for both venues. These used to be gold dust. London, I think, could get close to capacity but we don't know how many sections have been blocked off from sale. Leeds, even with 13 sections blocked off, it will not sell out. In fact, re-sale tickets keep appearing. Even the alternating row trick that you mention in no way hides the shortfall.

While a good deal of Morrissey's dubious comments have been widely reported points 8 - 11 have not but they have landed hard upon his female fan base. His suggestion, and I'm being as balanced as I can here, that victims of sexual abuse 'ask for it' or 'should expect it' really did resonate. The direct quote below, related to Kevin Spacey, sickended me "You have to assume that the boy (14) had an inkling of what might possibly happen."

The Morrissey apologists, and there are many of them, will argue that he has also said that he finds all forms of sexual violence repugnant. If that were truly the case how on earth can he qualify the remarks he made about alleged victims of sexual abuse?

I thoroughy enjoyed reading your article. It's a sorry state of affairs for me to have 'loved' someone so much only find myself at the loathing end of the spectrum.

 

[!Viva Hate!]

Let’s be real...

The music sucks.
The band sucks.
England sucks.
He tours too much.
The set list sucks.
His quality control sucks.

 

[BookishBoy]

Ah, that's a shame re Leeds. I'm super-excited for the London show (haven't seen him in years) but am 75% expecting it to be cancelled.

Some of us are able to separate our love of his music from his (to me) confusing/bizarre views; some of us quite possibly agree with some of those views; others, of course, feel let down, betrayed, repulsed, whatever. We're all human, we're all different, we all need love in our lives.

I do wish, though, he'd maybe picked smaller venues in maybe 4 or 5 towns: arena shows in the UK aren't going to work any more, with a big chunk of the fanbase having gone.

 

[Thewlis]

First of all for your ‘argument’ to have any credit you need to compare sales now with those in the past. As it stands it is a very onesided and lazy article. True, in 2018 he sold more tickets in total in London, but these were smaller venues, more to the liking of his fans who are and always have been keener of smaller sized venues. Arena’s only work when you have a hits-show to tour which Morrissey refuses to do.

In 1995, exactly 25 years ago this month, at the height of his solo career, he played only small-sized venues during the Boxers-tour. To have thought then that he would play Wembley Arena in 2020 would have been absurd.

He is doing really well, internationally, as much as you don’t want to believe it.

 

[Anonymous]

Let’s be real...

The music sucks.
The band sucks.
England sucks.
He tours too much.
The set list sucks.
His quality control sucks.

Wrong on all 6 counts in terms of those being the reasons. None of them has changed in the last two years and, yet, two years ago he completed his biggest ever tour of the UK. Bigger than anything he'd ever done (in terms of ticket sales) as a Smith or post-Smith.
So what's happened since then? Oh, he's unequivocally urged everyone that ever followed him to support a far-right political party. Of course, that will only have upset the sensitive, Guardian-reading, vegetarian lefties. Trouble is, that's 70% of his fan-base.

 

[vegan cro spirit 333]

Fake troll news.

 

[Nerak]

The cherry picking of quotes is quite insane.

He wasn't rolling out a manifesto, he was having rambling conversations about things in the news & things he'd read about.

 

[Nerak]

Let’s be real...

The music sucks.
The band sucks.
England sucks.
He tours too much.
The set list sucks.
His quality control sucks.

I agree with 'England sucks' & 'he tours too much'.

 

[!Viva Hate!]

I agree with 'England sucks' & 'he tours too much'.

And the rest of it too.

 

[!Viva Hate!]

Wrong on all 6 counts in terms of those being the reasons. None of them has changed in the last two years and, yet, two years ago he completed his biggest ever tour of the UK. Bigger than anything he'd ever done (in terms of ticket sales) as a Smith or post-Smith.
So what's happened since then? Oh, he's unequivocally urged everyone that ever followed him to support a far-right political party. Of course, that will only have upset the sensitive, Guardian-reading, vegetarian lefties. Trouble is, that's 70% of his fan-base.

nawe, what I said.

 

[Nerak]

And the rest of it too.

No.

 

[!Viva Hate!]

No.

Yes!

 

[Thewlis]

Wrong on all 6 counts in terms of those being the reasons. None of them has changed in the last two years and, yet, two years ago he completed his biggest ever tour of the UK. Bigger than anything he'd ever done (in terms of ticket sales) as a Smith or post-Smith.
So what's happened since then? Oh, he's unequivocally urged everyone that ever followed him to support a far-right political party. Of course, that will only have upset the sensitive, Guardian-reading, vegetarian lefties. Trouble is, that's 70% of his fan-base.

You’re completely wrong I’m afraid. He’d already voiced his support for For Britain before the hugely successful 2018 tour, and also a lot of the other quotes in that ‘article’ were from before that date. So no, they had no impact on sales and they will have no impact this time.

 

[Anonymous]

First of all for your ‘argument’ to have any credit you need to compare sales now with those in the past. As it stands it is a very onesided and lazy article. True, in 2018 he sold more tickets in total in London, but these were smaller venues, more to the liking of his fans who are and always have been keener of smaller sized venues. Arena’s only work when you have a hits-show to tour which Morrissey refuses to do.

In 1995, exactly 25 years ago this month, at the height of his solo career, he played only small-sized venues during the Boxers-tour. To have thought then that he would play Wembley Arena in 2020 would have been absurd.

He is doing really well, internationally, as much as you don’t want to believe it.

The argument is well founded and anything but lazy. Your repsonse on the other hand ....

Morrissey used to be able to sell out venues like this in under 5 minutes. Fact!
Several weeks after tickets going on sale neither of the 2 venues have not sold out. Fact!
He has, as you say, never done 'hit' shows so whatever point you were attempting to make falls flat. Fact!
Few of his recent North American shows sold out. Fact!
Paris and Cologne: not sold out. Fact!
"He played only small-sized venues during the Boxers-tour". He played large venues. None can realiably be described as small. Fact!

Capacity, e.g.:

Aston Villa Leisure Centre 4,000
Barrowlands 1,900
Usher Hall 2,200
Portsmouth 2,500
Sheffield City Hall 2,271

These are not arena numbers but let's be clear Leeds has 13 sections blocked off and has in excess of 1,000 tickets to sell.

The original poster was correct in his assertions. For reasons known only to yourself you attempted to distract with inaccurate information.

 

[Anonymous]

You’re completely wrong I’m afraid. He’d already voiced his support for For Britain before the hugely successful 2018 tour, and also a lot of the other quotes in that ‘article’ were from before that date. So no, they had no impact on sales and they will have no impact this time.

You're completely wrong there, f***wit. Morrissey's official, unambiguous support for the For Britain party was announced on April 20th 2018.
www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/i-ve-been-dreaming-of-a-time-when-the-english-are-sick-to-death-of-labour-and-tories
The UK tour had ended over a month before on March 10th. I await your apology. He went on to back up his support for this far-right political group by wearing their emblem (a pin) at concerts and on a national TV show. I (and seemingly tens of thousands of others) refuse to attend his concerts again, unless/until he clearly and unambiguously retracts his support.

 

[Anonymous]

You’re completely wrong I’m afraid. He’d already voiced his support for For Britain before the hugely successful 2018 tour, and also a lot of the other quotes in that ‘article’ were from before that date. So no, they had no impact on sales and they will have no impact this time.

This is beyond delusoional. He cancelled loads of dates directly because of the backlash. Try reading some of the threads. The only place you will find information about the 'success' of the LIHS tour is from Central and wherever it was repeated. An unsuccessful attempt at damage limitation.

 

[Thewlis]

Anonymous trolls will be anonymous trolls I suppose... Banned ex-members no doubt.

And Paris is sold out.

 

[Anonymous]

He should never have gone for a single huge Leeds arena date - this venue should never have been booked in the first place. Even disregarding all the right-wing bad press, the last few albums have not provided much in the way of critical acclaim, chart hits or high sales. Outside of possibly London, the days of Morrissey being able to fill arenas in the UK is done. It's not 2006 anymore, and Morrissey needs to stop acting like those halcyon days are here to stay.

If he really wants to regain some traction in the UK, he needs to go back to doing smaller venues, and more shows. A full 20 date UK club tour, with packed sold out venues and decent atmospheres would go a long way towards turning around the sense of gradual decline of recent years. Whether his ego can accept that however, is another matter.

 

[Thewlis]

How has this been promoted to the main page?? Morrissey-solo promoting and spreading lies again? Sickening.