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House Concerts in the States & Canada
Hey Mona & Lisa!
Here’s a pretty detailed idea for getting you guys onto this side of the Atlantic. Because there are so many things that would have to be worked out to make this feasible- I’m going to go into a lot of detail. Obviously, this isn’t a final plan but merely a jumping off point where you can refine the idea and see if there are enough of us who would be onboard in making it work. And that’s if you have any interest at all in doing this.
House concerts have the advantage of being very small and personal and also pretty much completely free. Without the cost of renting an auditorium and trying to get enough people in the seats to make it profitable- you would just show up in the city- spend a few hours with the person/people who arranged it/ perform a show of 90 minutes to 2 hours/have an after show dinner- and go to the motel room where you’ll be spending the night. And then travel on to the next show.
Each show would pay you $1100, paid before you even left England. If you could find 15 of us to arrange for the concert in our city- that would bring in $16,500. You can do your own math to determine how many shows you would need to do to make this worthwhile as well as figuring out all the things you would want to do once you were here.
I just checked the cost of tickets from Manchester to NYC from March 18 to April 5 of 2019 and they were under $400 through Kayak. Even at double that cost, you would be able to bring Rudolf and Michaela if you all wanted to travel together.
More details: each of us would act as Concert Promoter and would probably have to be okay with losing some money for the opportunity to have you in our town for a show. We would ask the friend who has the nicest setup for a house concert to have the show at their house. We would pay you $1100 in advance. If you don’t get enough promoters to make it worth your while, you would refund the money.
When you had enough shows setup, you would set the dates for the shows in each town. Each of us would sell tickets to get our money back- if we could only sell 11 tickets, it would cost $100 for each person. If we could sell 25, it would be $44 per ticket. If we could sell 40, it would be $27.50 per ticket. I think 40 is pretty much the max for a house concert.
You can rotate between renting a car, taking a train and riding a bus in getting from one show to the next. Some people may have a nice, secure place in their own homes for you to stay for free- otherwise, a motel or airbnb is a feasible option. Having to work out all the details would be a job but you guys are amazing at such things!
Because you have fans in Canada as well as the US- you could do shows in both countries though you would eliminate a lot of travel if you played the US only (or Canada only if that’s where the promoters are). One of the great things about this plan is there doesn’t have to be a definite date set until much later. You can tell us “yes, let’s do it- in the spring of 2019 or 2020” and we’ll set to work- saving our pennies, getting other friends to invest, taking out a small loan or in the case of your wealthier fans- just make a credit card payment- whatever it takes for us to come up with the $1100.
I know there are a lot of moving parts here but I thought I would throw this out for yourselves and others to improve upon or cast aside completely. -
11 Replies
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I like that idea… Just not sure about the Canucker side of things aspect here…. We have small venues under 2000 capacity… Or the big arena for NHL hockey/concert that has 1000+capacity…small hall rentals…. I take it work/vistor/musician visas would be part of this…..?!… I do like this idea ????✌️????☮️
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Jacki- The idea is to eliminate all auditorium rentals. The Twins would play in the biggest living room at the nicest house of either you or a close friend.
Just so you’ll know- I’m not inventing this concept. It’s well established in the US. I’m not sure it’s ever been done in bringing in an artist from another country but I’ve organized several house concerts for artists who simply didn’t have the name recognition to fill up an auditorium. It’s difficult to get more than 25 people but if you could do that- at $44 a ticket- that would make the Twins their allotted $1100. I’m paying $215×4 to see Paul McCartney next year so the Twins at $44 is unbelievably cheap! But without the venue getting their share, no worries about anything but a visa- they get to keep all the money they make.
House concerts are wonderful. Although they are almost always acoustic, what could be more intimate than Mona and Lisa and two guitars? The difficulty is you’ve got to sell the tickets, bring in the people and get everything ready for their performance. You will be working as the promoter. -
Ohhh… We always have summer music festivals going on here where I am…. You got me thinking
Tim: Thanks for your explanation…. There are probably such as the house concerts concepts going on here where I am and across Canada… I’m not aware… I live in a small apt. ????????????
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That’s a great idea as far as I’m concerned. After all, the idea is to maximize every effort to gain as much exposure, make as much money and have as rewarding an experience as possible. There are so many different ways the Wagner family could invest a lot of time in this and it not work out that I’m almost sorry I suggested it. If they need 12 (or 18) promoters to make it worthwhile and they wind up with 9 or 14- a lot of effort and time could go into it and still come up a little short. Plus the logistics would be a nightmare. Do a show one night in Wilmington, NC and do Cincinnati 2 nights later- can you find a place or 2 in between?
And you have a fan as big as Jacki with a place too small to do a show. Howard’s in Australia- where are all the other fans? Will they be willing to go to all the effort involved for no material gain? Well, they’ve got one show I know they can do plus perhaps a festival in Cincinnati- that’s a start.
But would that even give them enough exposure in North America to be worth their while? Luckily- they know the answer to these questions far better than I do and they welcome suggestions. -
Yes, it’s an interesting concept of Tim’s but something I’m unfamiliar with. As Richard suggests though, team MLT would have the best idea of where the majority of their fans were based through their mailing lists. I’d imagine the places they’d find it easiest to get some interest happening would be where they’ve previously established contacts, such as California and Vienna.
By concentrating on smaller areas like this that they were somewhat familiar with, they could cut down on transport costs and other logistics involved in such an operation. I’m also sure they’d have fans in those areas who would be willing to help out with things like transport and roadie support type work. There may also be fans who could help out with accommodation.
In all reality though, I can’t see a project like this being feasibable until they first get some air play in the States. Maybe their best option for a US tour would be with another band, like their British tour with Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. This would alleviate the logistical and promotional concerns of going it alone and with the right touring band may even be able to leave Rudolf and Michaela at home attending to normal business.
However, I’m sure they are aware of what their limitations are and what they can currently manage. I wonder if Steve Harley has any US touring plans in the pipeline!!
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Hi;
Would this work as a house concert idea? My wife and I have a sizable deck……large enough for amps and speakers either behind them or beside them on the ground. Also, there would be room for mics and maybe a smallish drum set…I have an electronic set if that helps. The backyard is large enough to hold maybe 40 to 50…..maybe more if the people really like each other. So, we are talking about an outdoor show in a residential suburb of Boston. Charging people between $30 to $40 may work in your math above.
Mike
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Michael, that works perfectly. So that’s two down and about 13 to go!
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I think we can close the door on this thread because Lisa already answered it in her response to Mike. She said there was probably too little to gain in coming to the states and doing a series of concerts even with John Sebastian- that the expenses were always much higher than one might expect. That being the case- doing a series of concerts to a very small group as in the house concerts would make no sense at all.
She also said they had already laid out their schedule and there was no room for a US concert in the near future because they were working on new material.
Thanks Lisa for responding- even if indirectly. Since the goal of the suggestion wasn’t just to hear from you (which is always nice but not necessary since you’ve already given many of my questions loads of your time) but to see if the suggestion might be something you’d want to consider- feel free to skip over it. -
Hi Tim. I think you had a great and noble vision here with all the details worked out. I think MLT priority right now is to create new music, and rightly so, so they will have an even greater repertoire of music to offer the world when it is the right time for them to start up the performing again. And when they do, you have offered up some great ideas. Everything in it’s due course. You can’t hurry art and creativity.
A very great athlete in Canada (guess who?) said the difference between a regular athlete and a great athlete is creativity. This apply to artists and musicians as well. We as their loyal fans need to give MLT time to do their creativity and focus on their projects and priorities at his point in time and stand behind them.
In the meantime they gave us 2 wonderful brand spanking new albums and the MLT Club to enjoy all things MLT and dialogue directly with Mona and Lisa as well as with other fans here which I think is just great.
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Thanks Jung, that’s very nice of you to say. And I agree completely- having a vision of things and creating your art according to that vision is the difference between an artist and an entertainer. Even with their covers- the Twins make music that is artistic- it maintains the integrity of the originals while being its own thing.
It’s very easy to get caught up in your own ego and want the Twins to respond to your ideas with a rushing enthusiasm. Guilty as charged. But at least I know enough that they have a closeness to their goals and visions- they understand the obstacles they face and how best to navigate around them- I respect that and defer to team MLT on everything! -
Team MLT has a very valuable asset when deciding how feasible it would be to put a US tour together and that’s their Mailing List database which gives them a good idea how many fans they have in any specific metro area. They can use it to determine if there are enough known fans around to make a show worthwhile demand wise. And if they decide to make the plunge it they can use the list to target promote shows. I like Tim’s idea of fan promoters or sponsors if you like. If the MLTs had a good idea that their expenses would be covered it might give them more courage to take the plunge. A fund raiser could also be used to cover the overall costs of travel, room and board. I don’t know how big they want to make this family business so they may be content to continue on their current path while using the MLT Club to do online exclusive concerts or chats with fans. It’s really going to depend on what they’re comfortable with. Go on tour and then you have to have someone take over the shipping of merchandise from England and someone to water the plants……etc.
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