How Not To Connect With Fans: Let Them Vote And Then Ignore The Vote
from the nice-going-kiss dept
Someone who prefers to remain anonymous sends in this example of how the band KISS tried and failed (miserably) in its attempt to "connect with fans." Apparently the band held an online contest to get fans to vote for where KISS would perform -- calling it the "You Demand It Tour." Well, people voted, and the second largest vote getter was Manchester, New Hampshire. So what happened? The band ignored the vote and booked a show in Boston instead. In response, some local radio folks are starting a petition to try to get the band to actually live up to its promise to go where fans demanded:Three months ago - when KISS launched their "You Demand It Tour", Buzz Lumpa's jumped all over it in an effort to bring KISS back to the Verizon Wireless Arena. The deal was that the band would rout their tour to the cities that wanted them most - and that meant the cities that cast the most votes. Manchester NH did just that - beating out EVERY major U.S. city! We cast more votes than New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and yes- Boston. Over 240 cities were vying for the band - and Manchester NH placed 2nd in the U.S.! And yet, when KISS announced their tour itinerary, Manchester NH was NOT on it. The band chose to play Boston instead. KISS lied to you.Of course, given Gene Simmons' comments on new business models and the experiments of bands like Radiohead to better connect with fans (Simmons claimed it was killing the recording industry) perhaps this is no surprise.
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Filed Under: fans, gene simmons, kiss, manchester, new hampshire, voting
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Morons
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Re: Morons
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No doubt in my mind that he's the one who went to Boston instead due to the higher body count of the shows. To be honest I don't know how anyone could listen to that garbage. I grew up with them and hated them in the 70's, never mind now.
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Myself as well. I remember when I first saw them: I thought they were actually some kind of joke band (kind of like Spinal Tap). But no, people actually bought their stuff. I think it must have been the same people who bought all those pet rocks too.
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Sigh
There are people that largely believe that true artists in music died at Woodstock.
Examples like this of the super-commercialization of music has me believing they're right. Woodstock was supposed to be a small, retreat-like festival that turned into an epic celebration because of the interest and passion of a great many musicians and fans.
Kiss would have asked where White Lake, NY was and played NYC instead.
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A Question From Simmons' History
So the question is: Was that faked or not?
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They suck anyway.
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New lyrics!
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are their fans still alive?
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Dear NH, coming in second is not winning.
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Similar thing in Canada, BUT the announcement of the performance in the winner's town was going to be announced later
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RE: A Question From Simmons' History
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http://www.newhampshire.com/venues/nh-verizon-arena.aspx
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yea they suck
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Or....
Was there some electronic evidence that the voting was tainted with some spammified Manchester technique to beef up their tongue demanding count?
Perhaps an unfortunate circumstance with booking a location in Manchester (not enough geneology enthusiastic groupies for Gene, red m&m's for Paul, etc) that prevented the show from happening.
Most importantly, has the band and or soda sponsor of late posted an acknowledgment of the over site?
I couldn't believe that a radio show would get their facts wrong, or that raving fans would have overlooked some clearly stated 5pt font on the bottom of a website about second place or anything.
Of course, they could be bringing the show to the Boston area in part because of the regional support of NH.
Ahhh what a mystery! If only there was an official website or something to slacktivate on...
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People...
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Americentric
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Boston over Manchester
KISS has played the Manchester Verizon wireless arena before so it is not too small.
You could vote as many times as you wanted and this was heavily promoted by a large area radio station that broadcasts on a couple frequecies and hits multiple states in NE, they are now feeling like they we kicked in the ass really hard for promoting this so heavily, scoring really well in the voting and being blown off.
I do not care for KISS at all, but I just think it sucks for the fans that have poured money freely into that marketing machine.
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What do you expect?
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