Brian Ferry (roxy Music) On Samui

[KSMF2006]

We have the possibility to bring Brian Ferry to Samui in early January.

Is this someone who would interest people here?

[LindsayBKK]

We have the possibility to bring Brian Ferry to Samui in early January.

Is this someone who would interest people here?

Yes please I would come from Bangkok to see him, He has been my Fav singer for such a long time.

"Slave to Love" favourite song (story of my life)

[Lite Beer]

I would go.

He must be nearly as old as me.

[taxexile]

who will be his backing musicians ?

[KSMF2006]

who will be his backing musicians ?

A good question and one we have asked of the promoter as it was not clear when the proposal reached us who would be travelling with him. To do this involves a lot of work and we are just feeling out the response from people out there to get a sense of whether it is worth our while.

[poorfarang]

and charge a rediculous price for tickets so nobody will bother going?

[KSMF2006]

and charge a rediculous price for tickets so nobody will bother going?

Thank you for your constructive response.

What would you regard as a reasonable price to see Brian Ferry?

LindsayBKK obviously feels the cost of an airfare would be worthwhile. We know people who travel to Bangkok especially to see visiting artists and then pay top dollar for their tickets. Why is there such a negative response when we try and bring artists here? We cannot please everyone and certainly not the poorfarang.

The island needs positive thinking people trying to do something for the island and the people who live here and visit here, not negative whiners all the time.

[Samui Coconut]

and charge a rediculous price for tickets so nobody will bother going?

Thank you for your constructive response.

What would you regard as a reasonable price to see Brian Ferry?

LindsayBKK obviously feels the cost of an airfare would be worthwhile. We know people who travel to Bangkok especially to see visiting artists and then pay top dollar for their tickets. Why is there such a negative response when we try and bring artists here? We cannot please everyone and certainly not the poorfarang.

The island needs positive thinking people trying to do something for the island and the people who live here and visit here, not negative whiners all the time.

May be you should compare how many guest attended this years Coco Music Festival over the 5 (?) day period. Take the average, mulitply by entrance fees, add additional food and drink revenues, deduct costs for one evening (i.e. fees for band) and then you know whether you made money or not. (my guess is may be break even)

Add 50% more guests for Brian Ferry. Calculate your cost of having him (and may be his band) shipped down here incl. fees, airfares, hotel etc....and you will find out that you will not make any profit.......unless you charge horrendous prices.

My suggestion - forget it !

[alh]

Not my cup of tea, but I suppose the farangs staying in Samui have the right demographics to possibly like Brian Ferry. Only they might be too busy hanging out at other places....

What else is on your shortlist?

There should be some possibilities, doesn't have to be Stevie Wonder :-)

[John 1]

Try some of the larger hotels like the Santi Buri and Central Hotel, you may find they will sponsor some part of the tour like free rooms also Bangkok airways for free seats, he can perform at some of these hotel for a fee also.

[davethailand]

Not my cup of tea, but I suppose the farangs staying in Samui have the right demographics to possibly like Brian Ferry. Only they might be too busy hanging out at other places....

What else is on your shortlist?

There should be some possibilities, doesn't have to be Stevie Wonder :-)

Agreed, i think Samui would be a good venue for him or maybe Bangkok, Phuket or Pattaya.. no chance, it would be a waste.

[Rooo]

and charge a rediculous price for tickets so nobody will bother going?

Poorfarang,

Not everyone lives on a shoestring budget.Some people can afford better restaurants & believe it or not go out & pay for a good night out.Sorry mate it won't be Bht 120 for tthe Ferry concert lmao.

[opothai]

he was great, grew up with his music in the seventies

if he played in los i would have a few requests that might be apt

jealous guy

the price of love

heart on my sleeve

casanova

shame shame shame

cry cry cry

take a chance with me

[SoloFlyer]

Saw him in bkk a coupla years back ... one of the best concerts i've seen. Guy knows how to strut his stuff.

Would go.

[Lite Beer]

Maybe Poorfarang could do the catering.

[poorfarang]

I really wish I would have chose a different login name here. I thought it was clever. Beleive it or not IM NOT POOR!

In fact I prolly spend more cash then a good deal of you farangs. Taking at jab at my favorite restaurants? I happend to love eating at little thai restaurants instead of big fancy places. Not cause I cant afford it, but because I want to.

The reason I made the comment about the expensive tickets is becuase I recently saw a post about 5,000 baht tickets for the coco blues festivle.

Maybe I need to start using <sarcasm> tags to avoid a riot in this forum

Edited October 31, 2006 by poorfarang

[katyb]

I saw Brian Ferry in Birmingham last year on his UK tour. I'm not particularly a Roxy fan but i really enjoyed it and so did the crowd I was with. They had seen him in his younger days with Roxy Music and still thought he was great. He did all the old stuff which got everyone up and dancing, and some new stuff but this bit wasn't so great!

For UK the price was not expensive - I think about £25. I don't think he commands the high prices that some artists do over here these days, so you might be surprised to find that tickets may be affordable. After all, it would be a one off, and if soemthing like that can be arranged on the island then whether you are a fan or not, surely it's one not to be missed?

I am arriving 12 Jan and if I'm not too late, I will be there! Please keep me informed.

Kate

[RAZZELL]

I'm sure there's enough people in their 30/40/50's who holiday on the Island who would go...

As suggested, definitely get Thai Airways, Bangkok Airways, one of the 5* hotels, and TAT to chip in and you've cracked it...

God, if that that t**t Sven can get free publicity in the UK papers for "buying" a place...I'm sure something similar could be "arranged"...some sort of "advertorial" for a few well-placed music/travel hacks...

And after the Katherine Horton murder last year I'm sure Samui needs all the good publicity it can get...

[Rooo]

I really wish I would have chose a different login name here. I thought it was clever. Beleive it or not IM NOT POOR!

In fact I prolly spend more cash then a good deal of you farangs. Taking at jab at my favorite restaurants? I happend to love eating at little thai restaurants instead of big fancy places. Not cause I cant afford it, but because I want to.

The reason I made the comment about the expensive tickets is becuase I recently saw a post about 5,000 baht tickets for the coco blues festivle.

Maybe I need to start using <sarcasm> tags to avoid a riot in this forum

It was a friendly jab mate.No offence intended.Your restaurant knowledge, has opened new experiences for me.

[somchai jones]

One of the great British influentials of popular music. Initially one of the pioneers of 70s Glam Rock, he grew to become a true icon.

One of those names often repeated in subsequent years when new bands are asked who influenced their sound.

We'll be down there in January and would definitely go.

[KSMF2006]

I'm sure there's enough people in their 30/40/50's who holiday on the Island who would go...

As suggested, definitely get Thai Airways, Bangkok Airways, one of the 5* hotels, and TAT to chip in and you've cracked it...

God, if that that t**t Sven can get free publicity in the UK papers for "buying" a place...I'm sure something similar could be "arranged"...some sort of "advertorial" for a few well-placed music/travel hacks...

And after the Katherine Horton murder last year I'm sure Samui needs all the good publicity it can get...

Thank you for all the comments - all views are helpful.

You can forget sponsorship from any of the airlines - in particular Bangkok Airways. We have tried this before and they are just not interested. They take the view that whoever comes will travel with them anyway so why give away free seats. Thai of course do not fly here (as of yet - but there is a rumour!) so they are no help. 5* Hotels seem to have no desire to help in this kind of thing and you can forget TAT totally.

We are looking at sponsorship from other directions to keep the price down but we do need to make some profit or why do it? We are still talking to try and reach an accommodation with Brian Ferry and we will let you know the details as and when we have something firm.

The date would be 5th January 2007 at Coco Blues.

We started this thread to get some feed back and try and get a feel for the demand. Again thank you to all of you who have posted - even poorfarang - we may not agree with your comments but we do respect your right to make them. Please keep the comments coming.

[KSMF2006]

I really wish I would have chose a different login name here. I thought it was clever. Beleive it or not IM NOT POOR!

In fact I prolly spend more cash then a good deal of you farangs. Taking at jab at my favorite restaurants? I happend to love eating at little thai restaurants instead of big fancy places. Not cause I cant afford it, but because I want to.

The reason I made the comment about the expensive tickets is becuase I recently saw a post about 5,000 baht tickets for the coco blues festivle.

Maybe I need to start using <sarcasm> tags to avoid a riot in this forum

Not sure where you saw that about Baht 5,000 but the recent Music Festival ticket prices were either Baht 500 and Baht 1,000 depending on the night.

[Pilchard]

No offence to CocoBlues , they do the blues pub thing very well , but it's still just a pub venue.

Could you get enough people inside to pay for the bands airfare ?

Maybe if it was linked to some bigger dates/venues in Bangkok .

It would be great if it can be done , hope it happens.

I never believed I would see UB40 here on Samui and you pulled that off

[KSMF2006]

No offence to CocoBlues , they do the blues pub thing very well , but it's still just a pub venue.

Could you get enough people inside to pay for the bands airfare ?

Maybe if it was linked to some bigger dates/venues in Bangkok .

It would be great if it can be done , hope it happens.

I never believed I would see UB40 here on Samui and you pulled that off

That is why we have to look at Sponsorship to make it work financially.

We can but try!

[steverino]

and charge a rediculous price for tickets so nobody will bother going?

The island needs positive thinking people trying to do something for the island and the people who live here and visit here, not negative whiners all the time.

When are you going to get some Bands ar artists who are young enough and recent enough to pull in the youngsters...you keep getting all this old crap that very few people are interested in....UB40, Jerry Lee Lewis, and now Brian Ferry! Haven't you heard of Kasabian, The Coral, etc etc At least modern bands would be worth paying 1000 baht plus for....as for the samui music festival, what happened....I saw 2 banners on the road, I think one was outside Tesco's...anyway if one's on or in a vehicle you don't even have time to read the detail. I didn't see any flyers or ads in any of the Bars or on any of the streets, or even in my motorbike basket.....

Three years ago, Coco put on a great Festival in various locations that were accessible to all, without having to drive to Chaweng. They called it a Blues Festival and it was pretty successful and good in relation to the last two festivals. Because one could see the Bands in Bophut and other locations (Bangrak Secret Gdn I think) one got the urge to go to Coco's and watch the Bands there as well. I think you got to decide who your target audience/punter is going to be...residents or tourists? Who's got the most money to spend ?

This ain't a whinge, only trying to give some constructive critisism, but I assure you I'm not going to come to Cocos for any artists from the 70's, however much I liked them at the time. The Bands you have on a regular basis are just fine....Bring back Chip!

[limbos]

Steverino,

My thoughts as well.

However, I can see why the Brian Ferry's of this world want to tour SE Asia and cash in on his/their fame in contrast to younger bands who have a market to conquer and play in Europe or the US where their main target market is. When they really hit it big, they may consider doing a gig in BKK as part of their world tour. Most of the time they won't though, since how many units do they move in Thailand? Not as many as there are copies sold, hence why bother going there.

[womble]

No offence to CocoBlues , they do the blues pub thing very well , but it's still just a pub venue.

Could you get enough people inside to pay for the bands airfare ?

Maybe if it was linked to some bigger dates/venues in Bangkok .

It would be great if it can be done , hope it happens.

I never believed I would see UB40 here on Samui and you pulled that off

That is why we have to look at Sponsorship to make it work financially.

We can but try!

As a farang you will find it very hard to get sponsorship. Also sponsors do not like sponsoring samui. And bangkok airways won't give much.

Pay for it yourself, if you need to rely on sponsors then you may aswell forget it. If he's charging fees you may aswell forget it aswell as you'll never get the $ back.

[farang 55]

something positive?

I would go!

I like Brian Ferry enough to pay a reasonable entrance fee for!

[KSMF2006]

No offence to CocoBlues , they do the blues pub thing very well , but it's still just a pub venue.

Could you get enough people inside to pay for the bands airfare ?

Maybe if it was linked to some bigger dates/venues in Bangkok .

It would be great if it can be done , hope it happens.

I never believed I would see UB40 here on Samui and you pulled that off

That is why we have to look at Sponsorship to make it work financially.

We can but try!

As a farang you will find it very hard to get sponsorship. Also sponsors do not like sponsoring samui. And bangkok airways won't give much.

Pay for it yourself, if you need to rely on sponsors then you may aswell forget it. If he's charging fees you may aswell forget it aswell as you'll never get the $ back.

You are right - Bangkok Airways are not supportive at all. Other sponsorship is being discussed and we must see how that turns out.

It is a balancing act financially as we are well aware of the usual criticism about ticket costs. We are not looking at making huge profits but we do need to make a profit or it is pointless. Bryan Ferry played in Europe during the summer and in Cork they charged 65 Euro for a standing ticket which equates to approximately Baht 3,000. If we even suggested that price there would be howls of derision on this board we know. For Baht 3,000 you get to stand in huge auditrium, 100+ metres from the stage. At least in the Coco Blues you will be close enough to see the whites of his eyes and it will not cost you anything near Baht 3,000!

The deal with him is still being negotiated but looks positive so far and we should know within the next few days.

[steverino]

Steverino,

My thoughts as well.

However, I can see why the Brian Ferry's of this world want to tour SE Asia and cash in on his/their fame in contrast to younger bands who have a market to conquer and play in Europe or the US where their main target market is. When they really hit it big, they may consider doing a gig in BKK as part of their world tour. Most of the time they won't though, since how many units do they move in Thailand? Not as many as there are copies sold, hence why bother going there.

Hi Limbos,

I beg to differ....Many of these new Bands will be travelling to Aus from the Uk or the States and vice versa....If they can get an extra gig on a paradise island where they can make an easy buck, have a couple of days R & R, and play to an audience from many countries, why wouldn't they come here. I don't believe the target audience is the Thai record buying public, but the foreigners who are here on their Hols. Pretty much the same as the DJ scene on Ibiza.

I must emphasise though that the marketing needs to be a lot better and planned well in advance so the marketing can work. Not just Samui but SEA wide, World wide even, as travellers will make a point of including Samui on their trip so they can get to see a great Band in an amazing venue (Samui). I have done this before, so I know what the ins and outs are. Secret Gdn used to do a "Play and Stay" thing for passing Bands and performers, and it was fairly succesful. No mega Bands or artists, but some well known ones such as Sparko from Dr Feelgood and Matt Kelly from the Grateful Dead, Kingfish and New Riders, and of course Hans Vermeulen and many other European artists. I think Coco have got the clout to do something similar...They do seem to rush everything and have "last minute" bookings. Lethal in terms of marketing.