METALLICA, VAN HALEN, SCORPIONS and AEROSMITH had some of the top-grossing tours of 2012 worldwide, according to industry tracker Pollstar.
The top spot went to Madonna, whose 2012 tour took in a whopping $296.1 million from 88 shows.
METALLICA landed at No. 8, with a gross estimate of $86.1 million for 30 concerts.
The “Top 50 Worldwide Tours” did a combined gross of $3 billion, which was down about 2 percent from $3.07 billion in 2011.
Total tickets sold was 34.9 million which continued the decline from 35.48 million the previous year and is well off the pace from 2009 when the Top 50 sold 45.3 million. The average global ticket price was $85.93 which was down 60 cents from last year but still well above the $73.83 charged in the more robust year of 2009.
Heavy metal/hard rock artists on Pollstar‘s 2012 “Top 50 Worldwide Tours” chart:
#8 – METALLICA: $86.1 million from 30 shows
#15 – VAN HALEN: $49.9 million from 50 shows
#38 – SCORPIONS: $32.7 million from 74 shows
#44 – AEROSMITH: $31 million from 33 shows
Niclas from Metal Shrine recently interviewed former METALLICA / VOIVOD bassist Jason Newsted, who is releasing a four-song EP under the moniker NEWSTED, entitled Metal, on January 8th, exclusively via iTunes. An excerpt form their chat follows:
Let’s just say that (current Metallica bassist) Rob Trujillo breaks his leg and they’re about to go on tour and they call you. Would you do it?
Jason Newsted: Aahhh, it kinda depends on the circumstances. God, I haven´t been asked that before. (sighs deeply) If they were cool and they were bros. Actually, here’s the word, if they were brofessional about it and if they came as my brothers and they were professional with the meeting and they called the meeting and they’re sitting there and looking me in the eye and the managers aren’t around and we’re doing this as we used to do every fucking thing, with just us and then the managers did what we told them to do… if it was like that again and the money was crazy, then I would consider it. I would consider it, but it would be only for that thing and it would to be absolutely delegated and it would have to be these 30 shows in these 45 days for this squillion dollars, then I would say most likely I would come and crush every fucker in my sight. But it has to be that.
I love those guys and I always will and I will defend them to the end of time. I don’t dig it when people talk shit about them and I don’t dig it when they put them down about certain music they didn’t like that they did or whatever. Fuck those people! As soon as the people can put out a better album than Metallica, you let me know and I’ll listen to it, but until that time, just back off! I don’t come and tell you how shitty you’re doing your accountant job or whatever, you know what I mean. I don’t like that part, but I’ll always have respect for those guys because they gave me my chance, ok. They gave me my chance and I’ll never ever forget that. Now, we’ve had our differences over time but that shit is under the bridge a long time ago. The shit that has transpired in the last 10 years of the rumors stuff and ‘Oh, Jason got treated so bad. Poor fucking Jason.’ and everything, it’s such shit! It’s so wrong and it’s not the truth and it really bothers me. I understand that it gets sensationalized and blah, blah, blah. What I try to say man is trainloads, trainloads of joy, accomplishments and wonderful experiences and one little, tiny fucking symbol full of shit. It was joyous and victorious and accomplishing things and setting the fucking standard, you know what I mean?”
To read the interview in its entirety, click here.
For those that may not have seen the video below yet, which has gone viral since being posted in November with over 400,000 views, guitarist Marcel Yammouni’s filmed his wedding band doing up a bossa nova rendition of METALLICA’s ‘Enter Sandman’. As Yammouni puts it, “Some of the shenanigans we get up to at weddings. I had to hit record on my phone.”
Due to all the attention being given to the clip, Yammouni checked back in with the following:
“We are so excited that this video has received a lot of attention that we are going to do an album’s worth of material. Recording commences in mid January.”
On December 18, Brandon Marshall of Sonic Excess conducted an interview with former METALLICA, VOIVOD and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM bassist and current NEWSTED frontman Jason Newsted. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Sonic Excess: Welcome back! The metal word has missed Jason Newsted. Every couple of years, you come up with a new project or collaboration, and then we don’t hear from you. Are you back for good, and is the band NEWSTED a full-time project?
Jason Newsted: [laughs] I’m always back for good and better! NEWSTED is the project that’s happening now, I would like to see it grow, get somewhere, of course, and be able to share it with everyone who wants to share it with me. It has been a lot of years coming. It’s ready for me, and I’m finally ready for it. I never thought I was going to put my name on a project; I’ve always come up with cool enough band names. We did it with this, and I’m very proud of it. Things are lining up very well, and I’m hoping to take it out to the people live next year.
Sonic Excess: What was the spark that got NEWSTED ignited?
Jason Newsted: We always play a lot of improv music. We have though the years, and we just keep it going in the Chophouse Studio [Newsted‘s home studio in Walnut Creek, California] and play with a lot of different cats through time. What really happened was about a year and a week ago, with the METALLICA 30th-anniversary shows, where we played The Fillmore in San Francisco. Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] had called me in October of last year and said, “Do you want to jam?” I said “What time do you want me there?” I haven’t seen them in a long time, and I hadn’t seen them since the [Rock And Roll] Hall Of Fame thing anyway. He said, “What songs do you want to play?” and I said, “You pick the fastest one dude.” We took the 14 fastest ones. I rocked a few each night, and we had a good time. What came from it was the realization of the energy of the fans. There were probably 30-35 countries represented on the floor that week. The energy I got back, and the appreciation, the real, true fan-dom, and being able to look into people’s eyes made me think it could happen again. Maybe, I could bring it out on my own and sing, play bass, play guitar, and do my own stuff. Make it fast and make it ugly, like old METALLICA, like “Kill ‘Em All” and “Ride The Lightning” records, and the old FLOTSAM AND JETSAM records, make real, old-school metal. One year later, I have 11 songs total, and we are doing it in batches. The first batch is in four, and you can pre-order it today.
Sonic Excess: Everything seems to be happening very fast. A month ago, your web site went live, and now you have an album coming out January 8th. How long has NEWSTED been in the works? Can tell us about the other members in the band?
Jason Newsted: Yes, I would be glad to. Jesus Mendez, Jr. is the drummer. I have been playing with him for about 10 years, and we have known each other for longer than that. He was a California roadie guy for METALLICA and worked at headquarters for some years. Then, he was the drum tech on the ECHOBRAIN tour, so we have been friends for a while. We have played a lot of hours, for a lot of years. He comes from like Vinny Appice, DIO, MOTÖRHEAD, AC/DC, but way down with double bass. He is a very serious, hard-working player. Our secret weapon is Jessie Farnsworth; he is a little bit younger than us. He is 32 and he is from the East, from Connecticut. He has been out here for a while, and I have been playing with him for about four years. We swap back and forth with bass and guitar. I choose people who have not quite risen in their own bands. I didn’t want people who were jaded or had ugly baggage come into this band, and I didn’t want to make it a supergroup. I wanted real friends that I get along with, and I wanted to play real true music.
Sonic Excess: Do you plan on touring?
Jason Newsted: I plan on taking it anywhere I can. As you can imagine, people are coming out of the woodwork wanting to help out, like promoters and agents, and people wanting to do what they do. We have scheduled meetings after Christmas about how we are going to get it out there to the people. My desire and quest has always been to take it anywhere I can for anyone who will accept our westernized rock ‘n’ roll music. I want to continue being the ambassador of metal, like I have been pretty much my whole career. My idea, actually, is to go to a lot of places not a lot of people actually do go to. I’ll still go to the “A” markets and play places expected, but I really want to get into the nooks and crannies of the countryside. I really want to get in front of people in places where I come from. I want to go to a lot of places that don’t get a lot of shows. I’m down with that, and I really want to do that.
Sonic Excess: What’s your opinion on bands charging for meet-and-greets now?
Jason Newsted: I think it’s bullshit! My guys had been talking to me about doing those things, and they talk about KISS making money for this meet-and-greet. People will pay it, but that’s not the point. I don’t want to take money like that. If they want to buy a t-shirt and have something to show for it, that’s what we do. You can’t download a t-shirt. There are certain things that make sense to me. I have never charged for my autograph up until the web site. That is my first time in my 30-year career that I have charged for my autograph, and I have signed for hundreds of thousands of people. I don’t feel comfortable with charging people to meet me; I don’t feel comfortable with charging people to get me to sign something when they are standing with me. If they buy it off the Internet and want an 8×10 or an autograph CD, they have that momentum. That’s fine, but I’m not going to charge people to meet me. I just don’t feel that’s right. I’ll pay to meet one of my old sports heroes, or something like one of the cats from the 1970s Orioles. I’ll pay a couple of bucks for something, but I’m not going to pay for Gene Simmons. It’s ridiculous, that’s not what it’s about.
Bob Nalbandian, founder and publisher of early ’80s heavy metal music fanzine The Headbanger, has struck a deal with Tokyo-based company Japanime Publishing to release all 11 issues of the Xeroxed ’zine as ebooks.
This is the first time the fanzine — which featured early interviews of local and international heavy metal bands, including the very first profiles of then-unsigned LA BANDS METALLICA, SLAYER and MEGADETH — has been available for mass distribution.
According to a press release, “Bob Nalbandian founded The Headbanger in early 1982 when he was just 17 years old, and released the inaugural issue later that year. The seminal fanzine featured articles and interviews that vividly captured the emerging heavy metal scene.”
Nalbandian commented: “Glenn Kardy and I decided to present the readers an ebook version of the fanzine in its all its original, raw glory — without any touch ups or changes to it. I’ve scanned all the pages of the first issue as is, or as was! What you’re getting is a digitized version of the original mock-up, complete with cut-out pictures and logos, rub-off letters, and typewriter print! THE HEADBANGER was published long before the widespread use of home computers and desktop printing, so this is as hardcore and old-school as it gets!”
The first ebook will include an all-new introduction and reminiscence by Nalbandian, along with the entire contents of The Headbanger Issue #1, which was released in May/June 1982. The issue features NWOBHM band GIRLSCHOOL on its cover and a review of the group’s debut US show at the Whisky on April 25th, 1982; colorful recaps of live performances by then-local LA bands RATT and STEELER; and no-holds-barred commentary on ‘new’ albums by MOTÖRHEAD, IRON MAIDEN, RAINBOW, and the first Metal Massacre compilation.
As a bonus, the ebook also includes the original full-page Los Angeles Metal Report that Nalbandian and his Huntington Beach metal comrade Pat Scott wrote for the March 1982 issue of Ron Quintana’s nationally distributed fanzine Metal Mania. It was through this ‘Report’ that headbangers living beyond the smog of the Sunset Strip were to read the first words ever published about a then-unknown Orange County/LA garage band … named METALLICA.
Nalbandian commented: “Over the years I’ve received tons of emails from people asking about The Headbanger and whether I ever plan to reprint the original issues. I figure since we are now in the digital age, it’s time I digitize those issues and give metal fans worldwide the opportunity to read and examine one of the original heavy metal fanzines in its purest format — all for only a couple bucks per issue. I originally sold The Headbanger for a dollar an issue (and the first one, I gave away for free). By turning them into ebooks, I feel I can still offer it at an ultra-low price and give readers the same experience as if they were reading the original fanzine with its wrinkled pages, typos, faded print and atrocious spelling and grammatical errors! I can’t think of a better way to expose readers to a time in history when heavy metal music truly was an underground phenomenon, and tape-trading and metal fanzines were a way of life.”
Issue #1 of The Headbanger is now available worldwide in the Apple iBookstore and the Amazon Kindle store.
SLAYER and GHOST will be joining ALICE IN CHAINS, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, IRON MAIDEN, METALLICA, and SEPULTURA at Rock In Rio 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from September 19th-22nd.
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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