Posted on 06/09/2006 9:15:45 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
LOS ANGELES -- Country music trio the Dixie Chicks, still taking heat for criticizing President Bush, are weathering sluggish ticket sales in several cities for their upcoming U.S. tour, industry watchers reported Thursday.
While early ticket purchases for their first major tour in three years are generally robust in Northeastern cities, initial sales have fallen short of expectations in numerous markets, especially in the Midwest and South, forcing some dates to be scrubbed.
According to Pollstar, dates in Memphis, Tennessee, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Fresno, California, have been dropped from the tour schedule for now, while box-office sales also were canceled for Houston.
By contrast, the group's latest album, Taking the Long Way, opened atop the U.S. pop charts last week, selling 526,000 copies during its first seven days and remaining No. 1 in its second week to notch one of the year's strongest debuts.
But with many country music stations denying the Chicks airplay, box office business is off to a slow start in places where the group has sold out in the past, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of concert industry magazine Pollstar.
Billboard magazine reported that ticket counts for shows that went on sale last weekend were averaging 5,000 to 6,000 seats per date in major markets, and less in secondary locales. Arena capacities on the tour generally top 15,000.
"Basically, they're having to rethink the entire tour at this point," Bongiovanni told Reuters. "Clearly their problems seem to be strongest in the red states," he said, referring to those areas carried by Bush in the 2004 presidential election.
A key factor in tepid sales was the continuing backlash against the Dixie Chicks by many country music stations over the anti-Bush remarks of lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003.
Publicists for the band declined to comment, as did officials for AEG, one of the companies promoting the tour.
Maines sparked an uproar when she declared during a London concert in March 2003 that the band was embarrassed to come from the same state -- Texas -- as the president. She fanned flames anew by retracting an earlier apology for "disrespecting the office of the president," telling Time magazine in a recent interview: "I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever."
"Country radio in many places has really closed the door on this group," Bongiovanni said, adding that some stations have not only refused to play the Chicks' music, they have refused advertisements for their tour as well.
Still, ticket sales were strong in cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Toronto, where a second October show was added to the schedule after the first concert quickly sold out, he said.
Further complicating the Chicks' commercial outlook has been their recent transformation as a band, Bongiovanni said.
"They've moved away from being a purely country group, so their audience is changing," he said.
Bongiovanni said it was not unusual for concert schedules to be altered after being booked, but he said the Dixie Chicks tour was drawing more attention than usual "because of the politics behind it." After two shows in London this month, the tour was set to begin July 21 in Detroit.
Put some ice on that Natalie.
Well what did they expect? They told everyone they didn't want to be a part of country music. So guess what? Looks like country music fans obliged.
I predict a Dixie Chicks PBS concert special by years' end.
The best part is that they make very little from album sales. The money for them is in touring. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Maybe they should write a country song about it.
The reported sales are wholesale, not retail. The industry rags don't report "and then the record stores returned 456,000 copies to make room for the new album by Scrambled Debutante."
"...initial sales have fallen short of expectations in numerous markets, especially in the Midwest and South, forcing some dates to be scrubbed."
Boo Hoo F'n Hoo.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Schadenfreude!
Goodbye Ditzy Chics
What losers. Is anyone surprised? I suffered through a couple of their recent interviews, as much of them as I could stand anyway. They just made me hate them more with their attitude and remarks. Once upon a time, a band could dis its fans and the fans loved it. Now we just get mad...and we remember. They need fans more than the world needs their music. Maybe their label will remind them of that.
They're martyring themselves at the alter of liberalism. Playing victims while denying that they're playing victims. In reality, they are merely getting what they asked for. I'm picky about my country music so I never liked the Dixie Chicks anyway. I always thought they were pop, and I never confused their touted fiddle player for Mark O'Connor. I always thought they were a cleverly packaged teeny bopper country group with a cool name. I thought the lead singer was fat and ugly with a big mouth. Hmm, whattayaknow. I guess my instincts were right on all counts.
It isn't just criticizing President Bush. It's the whole a$$hole attitude they have going.
Dixie doesn't like 'em, eh? What could they rename themselves?
The Frisco Fems? The Nantucket Nymphs? The Jersey Girls?
I think the same thing. I never liked them either but may
friends teenage girls loved them. I don't know anyone who listens to them anymore.
LOL! And a network special at Christmas time..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.