John Mellencamp Community

Hate to be pessimistic, but...

So is that it for the UK? Forever? What with the ticket sales and all, I don't reckon JM will have been too impressed. The merch stalls looked to be doing good business, so I just hope that JM takes it as a matter of course that he comes back here with that shit-hot band every tour from here on in.

The Glasgow show was awesome. Just awesome. Only misfire for me was the re-vamped "Walk Tall".

I felt bad for JM in that he didn't sell out, but he only has himself to blame. Even in '88 he was saying that he only just "broke even" on the two shows at Hammersmith Apollo that year and was surprised at how much more he had to actually work during those shows in that, in the States, people just yelled and went crazy because of the whole MTV hits thing we didn't really have in the UK.

Just poor management, really. I dunno. He was used to playing Enormo-Domes in the USA and couldn't or wouldn't lower himself to do decent tours over here. The NEC and Wembley Arena were wrong in '92, too. Me and my buddies were 16 years old then and traveled down to see JM and we couldn't help but wonder why he was playing such a huge place. If he'd had a few smaller shows up and down the country through the years it would've been a different story over here I reckon. I mean, one of the most resonant feelings I took away from Sunday night was, "What if he'd played here at the Barrowlands Ballroom a few times over the years?" Cause you got a real glimpse of it the other night, the damage that could've been done 20 years or so ago. I can't imagine what it might have been like to see them back when Kenny -A- was in the band. Although Dane Clark was just f*ckin' magnificent the other night; his work on "Death Letter" was worth the price of admission alone. Great, great drummer.

From what I heard, though, JM had a really torrid time of it supporting some other band (Mott the Hoople maybe?) in the UK in the mid to late 70's (being booed off and stuff after one song in Glasgow, according to more than one taxi driver I've talked to - seriously - I don't know why that particular show attracted so many taxi drivers, though).

JM shoulda been here tour in, tour out, like Steve Earle did '86-present. I think JM maybe got too used to playing to 20,000 seater arenas in the States.

I just hope he comes back and, next time, plays the Barrowlands here in Glasgow.

Anyway...

If i was John i'd stay as far away from the UK as i could, he's got nothing to gain by going over there, they ''with exceptions'' are clueless, the Glasgow show review is a good example.

Yeah I know; I sounded a bit negative.

I'm sorry.

I just got a sense of "what could've been" ; as in, if he'd been playing here throughout the years, tour after tour.

We (the UK/Europe) missed a lot of great shows, remember.

Be intresting to how long it is before he returns to Europe.