Rosfest Announcement

Hi,

Welcome to the forum, btw

This is the hard part ... for the next 2 or 3 years, this is going to be very difficult and the expense to make sure that all precautions are being taken including a couple of nurses and what not to take temperatures and ask questions, is probably not something that is expected or wanted ... and a hall with 3k seats will be lucky to be allowed by ANY CITY to put 1K people in there next year or in 2023. 

Maybe if the vaccine works and all that ... but the scares of sitting next to someone and going home sick with the dreaded lurgi ... is probably not something that most of us will be comfortable with ... specially the older folks. 

I would love to see a sold out auditorium with 3K or 5K folks or a show like RW or PF with more than 25K folks in the audience ... but I think this is all history for a long time to come ... as much as I wish it weren't so.

Hi,

Not sure this is a good idea ... I was thinking that a CENTRAL location would be easier and less expensive for many folks to "get there" ... but I honestly feel that any group "setting up" a place for a concert and expect to sell tickets and have fans in the seats, is ... basically ... insane. I don't see the whole Covid thing come to a slow down or close for at least 2 to 3 years, if not more ... and even then, I am not sure that I would like to go to a place and be in a room with 2 or 3K folks, for example ... and then "think" that the concert managers and producers "succeeded".

This needs to be a good/strong result, and I sincerely doubt that it can be done in a location in Florida or anywhere else in the country ... you're alienating fools from California, Oregon and Washington ... for example ... on costs alone ... and Florida "rentals" are much more expensive than those (let's say maybe) in Saint Louis, or Kansas City.

The logistics and thoughts seem to be based on old thinking ... and if you look at the "mavericks" in all music in the 20th century, almost ALL OF THEM were NOT a part of the old line of folks ... end of story ... and this is also true for the most valuable and important folks in PROGRESSIVE MUSIC, all of which left behind AM Radio and took up residence with something new at the time FM Radio, which was in STEREO, while AM Radio was simply ugly mono, not to mention that they cut up songs senseless including words ... I mean I bet you have not heard "Money" in its cut up voice with a few words blanked out!

We need new blood ... not old blood ... and no disrespect to some of the folks ... but I have not met many old "foggies" that were more important artistically than our beloved music and fans!

I've got to assume this is a hangover from George moving the festival. I'd be amazed if they didn't look for alternative locations.

I hope this gets off the ground, and is able to give us a magnificent show on stream that will give us 5 or 6 bands and allow this to happen.

You can sell tickets all over the world for one price, and (hopefully) the numbers will help the thing make it well so they can summon an even better and bigger show the next time around ... but forcing people to trip to small town USA and then find a place, you already invested over $500 to $700 dollars and you haven't even seen the show yet ... and that is not feasible in America at all, a place that easily fits what ... how many European countries? In Europe this is easier to a degree, since the countries are smaller ... and the USA has states bigger than most countries in Europe.

I remember a time when I could get an Eurail pass and it cost like $65 dollars (can't even remember how much ... it was included in my plane ticket!) and I could go all over Europe as far as Lithuania if I am not mistaken. I ended up not going (got really sick) and another family member went ... and she stayed in Europe and never came back here! In America you can not do this, and AMTRAK is not interested in making it a trip for you. Their costs are too much, and their trains now are handling freight at the same time as 3 cars for passengers ... which ought to tell you how much they have lost in passengers ... and driving or planeing to one of these places is prohibitive, specially for many of us older folks!

The main, and ONLY solution for America is to setup a "secure" streaming system to show the stream of various concerts, with 2 or three bands at a time ... and this "streaming" service would have to go to your IP, and the online warnings should state that you can not copy this video, as it would be a massive copyright violation that could put the concert series in trouble. As such, YouTube and other services need to help making sure that they do not allow members to post any of it, not even a portion of it ... btw. I was told that there is a security feature that will scramble and distort the contents if it is copied to somewhere else ... like the "recording" is damaged. If this is true, and the military can use it, then we are missing out on something valuable that can help us tremendously ... but my take has been that the folks that are doing this, are not 150% fans of progressive music, and they are not. and don't know how, to look for alternative solutions to take this to a higher level ... which is something that I think the older folks in this group will probably fail on quickly ... they will look for musicians and bands, and have a good attitude about that, but the actual process of getting it out to the public ... NOTHING ... except hoping that enough folks pay for a ticket to cover the bands and the location, and leave a couple of dollars for a small cold cut buffet for all the bands during the show.

I would also recommend that all the bands agree to allow a couple of things to be put on a CD to be sold a month or two later. This CD, cost wise should have its total (after expenses listed on paper with backup!!!), be distributed equally by all bands on the CD ... but my main problem would be, as an example, the 1999 SF Festival (Sean Ahearn's) would have the top 4 or 5 bands -- although I doubt that PT/SW would allow theirs at all because of the high level arseholiness of their commerciality! -- and leave behind 2 or 3 others that also were fantastic, as was the case of Lana Lane and the Rocket Scientists, who put on a massively well done and professional show, only to be ignored by many fans ... and I mean not even bothering to hear it, and it made a couple of the other acts look like ... amateurs!

Hopefully, on that day, only new music, new arts, have a chance to bring things up ... but will I or anyone else EVER see that before we are ashes and dust on the wind? 

I sincerely, and honestly, doubt it ... since the interest is not being shown at all and the comments are the same as they ever were by many others that also failed and lost their love story boat!

Oh I know now. It was the fact that you quoted the song "change we must" by Jon Anderson in your intro here. 

Hi,

I think that the days that we could reach out and touch kinda thing, by "being there" are over for a while, and in a world that is grossly over populated, I'm not surprised to see a pandemic of some sort happen to hurt the status quo.

I think this is a part of the public's "learning curve" ... and sooner or later we won't worry about this or that concert not being good enough because there were no "people" there ... just a bunch of cameras.

Having been in theater and done film, one of the best things to learn is ... TO DO IT WHEN THERE IS NO ONE AROUND ... and just a camera or invisible fourth wall. Rock music got its attention via the media for its ability to "reach out" and "touch" the performers and we're enchanted and totally awed by that ... seeing someone we love. As such, the rock music world has elevated itself to an area that is NOW a problem, and it needs to bring that "feeling" down to the proper and correct level ... a performance has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE AUDIENCE ... and the many folks that think it does and believe in that energy are kinda patting themselves in the back because they sold a gazillion tickets ... Yes, Led Zep in its first 3 or 4 years in concert (up until the singer's child died), and you didn't have to go see it to believe it ... bootlegs showed it even if the quality was not perfect ... close your eyes and the energy was insane and you could feel it ... but we're attached to "have to be there" and "touch" in order to believe ... and not really spending time learning to FEEL what it is all about.

It's almost that the perfect performer, does not do this on his piece of music, even in his bathroom, or living room, so he is more careful and attentive to what he is doing ... in many ways, rock bands have changed this, and turned the whole thing into a gimmick. Who's got the biggest _____, wow look her _______ are showing, oh my gawd ... her ___ pop'd out ... which of course can also happen while streaming or in the living room, by just being into it, anyway ... so why do we think that "seeing" a band makes a difference?

It doesn't.

I haven't seen, and probably never will folks like Mike Oldfield, Vangelis Pappathanassiou, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and these 3 alone are some of the greatest composers of our time ... but because I have not seen them does not mean I can not love and appreciate their music ... 

I think this is the time for us to CHANGE our old perspectives ... and it will help USHER A NEW AGE OF MUSIC AND WORK ... and that's a good thing ... as I said before I doubt that we will be able to see any band in a bar, club or concert for at least 2 years, maybe a lot longer than that ... the world does not seem to be interested in "fixing" the issue with Covid-19 and the number of folks lining up to collect profits is a vary scary thing and these are the folks hurting us all ... but we still keep voting for idiots and megalomaniacs ... 

As Jim Morrison once screamed ... WAKE UP .... 

Hopefully this new group will have the ability to also show/sell a streaming portion of the show, so that we can bypass the situation for crowds within this tough time of Covid-19.

Somewhere, along the way, the streaming thing will succeed, and it has to be at the hands of people that are ahead of the curve or ahead of the regular, over crowded idea that bands have to be in a bar, or club, or in some other place where a "crowd" is a part of it. I, sincerely, doubt that the ability of "crowds" to get together will finally happen in the next couple of years ... specially in America where politics and drug companies are fighting for their profits, instead of cure. It might be a bit different in Europe, but I'm not sure that a group of several thousand in the same room will be a safe environment for everyone, which is something that not only would hurt these places, it would also put an unwanted burden on the "progressive" idea in music.

Best of luck, and hopefully we can see the future, before we forget about it, and redo the past ... music has been like that for a long time ... classical concerts of music that is very old is the perfect example ... a famous this or that would rather play Mozart, or Beethoven or something else, than find Ian, or others just as qualified and important to the state of music of a time and place. Until the day that this complete disregard for musical ability and talent is done away with ... we will be "victims" of ... a "progression" of new music and talent during their time.

I hope to see that child in the future ... some day ... but at 70, I am already having doubts about the desire and ability to create something new ... that is not more (and the same) of the past ... we need new and fresh concepts and designs ... not old foggies doing the same thing!