FEATURE:
1 More Hit
Why Co-Headline Tours Have Multiple Benefits
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SOMETHING that is not new…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Smashing Pumpkins
though it is still very much relevant and in demand, the joint/co-headline tour is fascinating. This is when two big acts tour together. The idea of a co-headliner tour is really interesting. At a time when tickets to see major artists can be really steep, it seems like this is a way of getting better value. A way of filling big venues when it can be hard for even the biggest artists to do so. You see two massive acts at the same time. It would be divisive and separate if the bands were very different in terms of sound. The latest duo to hit the road together, whilst different, do share some things in common. I think that The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer co-headlining is a real treat that will merge fans of both bands. It is a chance to get this unique experience. It will be interesting to see how they make the show work. How the duties are shared, so that both bands get equal time and there is that blend. I assume they will have more or less equal stage time. Here are details about the upcoming tour:
“The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer have just announced a UK and Ireland co-headline tour.
The two legendary bands will be hitting the road together in summer 2024, kicking things off at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena before stopping off at London’s The O2, Dublin 3Arena, Glasgow OVO Hydro, Manchester Co-op Live and finally wrapping up their tour at the Cardiff Castle.
“Today is the greatest day we’ve ever known,” say Weezer. “UK and Ireland we’re coming back around to co-headline a handful of shows next summer with Smashing Pumpkins.”
“SP is excited to announce we will be touring UK & Ireland next year with Weezer,” add the Pumpkins.
Tickets go on general sale this Friday, October 20 at 10am. Get your tickets here.
Catch them together at the following:
June 2024
7 Birmingham Utilita Arena
8 London The O2
10 Dublin 3Arena
12 Glasgow OVO Hydro
13 Manchester Co-op Live
14 Cardiff Castle
Next year, two bands who helped define the music of the 1990s and are legendary acts in their own right are hitting the road together. Manic Street Preachers and Suede are iconic bands that will bring their iconic music to a new audience. NME provide more details about the co-headline tour:
“Manic Street Preachers and Suede have announced details of a joint UK and Ireland tour for summer 2024. Check out full dates and ticket details below.
The two indie giants first toured Europe together back in 1993, before last year they recreated the line-up for a US jaunt – with upcoming joint dates to follow in Japan this winter.
Now, they’ve announced details of bringing the tour to the UK and Ireland next June and July, with each act playing for approximately 75 minutes of about 16 songs, and taking it in turns to play last each evening.
“We’ve both got a dedicated fanbase, but we do share a gene pool and a rabid denomination of fans,” Manics bassist and lyricist Nick Wire said on BBC Breakfast this morning. “It’s because we never belonged to anything apart from ourselves. We were never part of grunge, we never part of Britpop.”
He added: “And we just looked better than anyone back then anyway.”
Suede frontman Brett Anderson said: “It’s really inspiring to have a band that you love playing with you. It’s like a friendly competition.”
Both bands are survivors of the ’90s – as well as alumni of the NME Godlike Genius Award. Last year, Manics frontman James Dean Bradfield explained a greater “symmetry” between the Manics and Suede.
“A lot of bands were quite short on glamour at that point [in the early 90s],” he said. “They shared the same DNA with us of trading on an underground customised glamour. They had these dystopian, J.G. Ballard landscapes in a lot of the songs, so along those lines we definitely fitted. We were both quite visceral live bands too. Brett is one loud motherfucker on stage! They kind of share the same path as us. They’ve been through a few things and they’re still here.”
The Manics and Suede were also lumped in with the Britpop movement of the ’90s. Suede had always vocally rejected their place in the genre, while Bradfield said they were able to “switch off to stuff like that”.
“We’d been around before most of those bands, except Blur,” he said. “We knew that ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, ‘La Tristessa’, ‘Faster’, ‘Revol’, ‘Motown Junk’ and ‘You Love Us’ had existed way before Britpop had ever been a twinkle in anyone’s reproductive systems. We knew that we were apart from it, but when we got co-opted into it we weren’t bothered at all. It meant that we played to bigger audiences, sold more records and reached more people. Then all these people knew the lyrics to ‘Faster’ and ‘A Design For Life’.
“In politics you say you need to win the middle ground, you need to give up a part of your soul. Suddenly we were winning the middle ground and hadn’t given up any part of our soul.”
The full tour dates for the Manics and Suede joint UK and Ireland tour are below. Tickets are on sale from 9am BST on Friday October 13 and will be available here”.
As I said, it is not something that is a new phenomenon. I would like to see it more. Maybe with solo artists or duos inviting other solo artists/duos on the road. Back in 2013, NME listed some awesome co-headline tours. A lot of these collaborations are centred around anniversaries. A way for bands to mark important occasions/albums and also show their music to a new audience. I am going to come to some articles that explore the benefits of joint tours and why they are so popular. Maybe less common now than they were in years previous, everyone has their dream duo. What is Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey co-headlined?! Maybe boygenius and Taylor Swift?! Perhaps Radiohead and Blur joined together?! These would all be phenomenal. I guess that it is something that is going to happen more with older/legacy bands. Those who may want to use the chance to celebrate an anniversary and do so in an interesting way. It is not only Rock, Pop and more mainstream genres where artists are combining. It is something that happens with Classical music. As this article from last year explains, there are benefits to joint concerts. The music crosses over and an audience discovers something they may not have heard or seen live before. I guess artists save on travel costs and expenses if they share a stage and tour. It shows that music can cross over and there is this room for two distinct acts to share an audience.
IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish/PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Beside nostalgia or cashing in on anniversaries or anything else, there are actually benefits for the fans of seeing two great and big bands together. Something I hope we do see more of next year, as there are so many tantalising combination fans would love to see come to fruition. Tune Core, writing in 2017, explored ways in which joint tours/headline tours are beneficial for fans who get a ticket:
“Heading out on tour with your band has the potential to bring everyone in it closer together. Co-existing and constantly collaborating, playing together night after night—becoming a tight-knit troupe in the process is almost inevitable. But why not double the bonds you could solidify by bringing another group into the picture? Organizing a joint tour means you’ll connect with even more fellow musicians—and that’s not the only benefit, either.
The notion that there’s strength in numbers is inarguably true for independent and DIY bands. Touring is one of the toughest parts of the gig; in that effort especially, you’ll accomplish more working together.
1. You’re sharing fans
Even if you hail from the same city, chances are you don’t share the exact same fanbase with any other band. That means pairing up in any capacity is an opportunity for exposure to new listeners; touring together is a maximized version of that.
Whenever possible, tag your tour-mates in related promo and other posts—and they should do the same, of course. Collaborate as much as you can: Both bands should be reflected in promo material like tour posters, promo videos announcing dates, Facebook events, and so forth. Every time you promote together is another chance to appeal to each other’s fans.
One result of two separate camps collectively pushing the promo could be increased show attendance, and there’s some strategy within that for increased effectiveness. If either group has toured before, include spots in your schedule that one has played and the other hasn’t; the band visiting for a second time can help carry the newcomer in terms of pull. Even if both bands are embarking on first-ever tours, though, you can also use Insights on your Facebook page to learn about the demographics of your fans. Their locations could help you choose which cities you visit, or what kind of marketing effort will work best based on your existing (or yet-to-be-built) audiences.
PHOTO CREDIT: anna-m. w./Pexels
2. You can pool resources
Lug around less by sharing gear, particularly the bulkier items like amps and drums. Go in on groceries together to save money, and share the burden of cooking and preparing meals by rotating responsibilities. Depending on how big your group is, you might even travel together in a single vehicle, so there’s only one gas tank to fill to be split among all of you. And when you’re reaching out to friends and acquaintances as you line up places to crash on tour, more musicians in the mix means a greater potential number of generous hosts.
3. Two networks are better than one
Maybe one of you knows a booking agent in a particular city and the other doesn’t, or perhaps you’ve established a rapport with certain outlets that your touring mates haven’t. Knowing the right people in any given city can be a boon to a DIY tour. Whatever the effort, your connections combined are obviously doubly powerful.
PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay/Pexels
4. Collaborating sparks creativity
Working together on any type of creative strategy, the sharing of influences and obscure discoveries, even casual conversations about art and music—something special happens when separate imaginations meet. New ideas pop up seemingly from nowhere; you gain fresh perspectives about other people’s work and your own.
Creativity fuels creativity, and in the close quarters of tour life, there’s no doubt you’ll find inspiration in collaborating—and practically living together—throughout the trip.
5. Through the camaraderie, you strengthen community bonds
Touring together is one of those shared experiences that facilitates deep connections and meaningful, lifelong friendships. The struggles, triumphs, exhaustion—incredible shows, bad turnouts, strategizing for press, the perpetual uphill battle of financial sustainment—are all collectively endured or celebrated.
Camaraderie develops naturally, and that, in turn, helps you strengthen your overall ties to your scene, whether that community is local or built around a genre and spread throughout different cities”.
I will finish off in a minute. I saw something the Miami New Times from 2019. A year in which many had had occurred already and many more were coming up; this year has not been quite as prolific. I do think that the major double acts of Weezer/The Smashing Pumpkins and Suede/Manic Street Preachers are incredible! It would be awesome to see some female-led bands or female solo artists/bands do a similar thing in the coming months. Even so, one cannot deny how happy fans of each of those four bands are. The rewards will be multiple:
“It’s not just rock bands that are employing the coheadlining tactic anymore. Mary J. Blige and Nas are touring together, as are 311 and Dirty Heads. A practice that began with classic-rock acts such as REO Speedwagon and Styx quickly spread across the musical spectrum. Now unique cross-genre teamups are happening, such as this summer’s Blink-182 and Lil Wayne coheadlining tour.
Is this growing trend a good or bad thing for an industry that used to be built on massive headlining shows? For every act that can consistently sell out arena tours around the world, such as Foo Fighters or Drake, there are a dozen that have seen their draw swiftly diminish as traditional methods of exposure have become more ineffective. Basically, there just aren’t many artists left who can attract enough fans to fill these venues.
Jesse Stoll, a senior talent buyer and promoter for AEG Presents, explains that “the days of acts selling out amphitheaters and arenas are getting more difficult.” He adds, "Teamups help acts take the step up to a larger venue and create an angle to vie for ticket buyers’ money.”
Indeed, many of these acts have begun to employ the strategy of coheadlining with another band of stature in order to play larger stages than it would be able to command on its own. Take, for example, the Pixies, a beloved and massively influential band that could likely sell out a theater of 3,000 to 5,000 fans in the right market. Rather than spend the summer playing theaters, the group last year opted to coheadline with fellow alt-rock stalwart Weezer and tour at significantly larger venues.
One of the clearest benefits of the team-up strategy is that more exposure is provided by playing larger venues with a greater diversity among the fans in attendance. As artists each year rely more heavily on revenue from touring, they’ve been pushed to find new ways to draw people to their shows. Blink-182 and Lil Wayne’s tour is a perfect example, with both acts likely to gain a new audience of fans who wouldn’t normally have gone to see each act separately. It certainly doesn’t hurt that promotions such as Live Nation’s $20 lawn tickets to certain summer shows will lure even more fans.
Perhaps the constantly growing festival landscape has something to do with this trend. In an age of seemingly endless proliferation of massive music festivals, maybe it’s becoming increasingly difficult for traditional shows to sell tickets. Why would you spend $100 to see one band when you can spend $250 for a full weekend of music that includes that band? With more and more festivals popping up across the nation, and the accompanying radius clauses that some of them carry, it’s more difficult than ever for single acts to plot profitable tours.
Though the team-up trend seems to indicate an increasing struggle to sell tickets, industry insiders such as Stoll say the exact opposite. “The state of the industry is superhealthy right now,” he says. “It’s becoming a more competitive space, and there’s room for it; supply and demand is rising, and ticket sales are rising”.
I think there should be more modern co-headline tours simply because of the savings. Rather than paying quite a bit to see one band, you do get more (in terms of variety and the overall experience) for the same price. Ticket costs will vary, however it does seem like an affordable option. Suede fans gets to dig some Manic Street Preachers classics. Weezer diehards will be turned on to some of The Smashing Pumpkins’ best work. Unifying the fans and creating this joint spectacle should definitely be encouraged. It doesn’t need to be an entire tour. Whether these artists combine for a country or two or just do the one gig, I know there are some co-headline tours already announced. Mastodon and Gojira have done theirs. Beck and Phoenix recently completed their tour together. There are smaller co-headline tours approaching. I am not sure whether there are logistical or commercial challenges with artists co-headlining and not doing a solo tour. What fans will find out when they see heavyweights such as Suede and The Smashing Pumpkins co-headline, that that joint experience will be…
A night to remember.