TheShield wrote:
This thread became meaningless
but I'll ask this anyway: are there any chances that something will change in the european tour "policy" (I can't find a better word at the moment) of the band? I mean: someone asks for Italy, someone else for Romania, Poland and whatever, but the same thing happened for the last 2-3 tours. I know it's been discussed many times but, Admin, you know the band better than anyone else, do you think we can expect any surprise in the next months tour dates?
OK, I'll do my best to explain this once more.
The three reasons for the band doing a gig in country X but not country Y (for the time being, at least) are, in this order: 1. Money 2. Money 3. Money.
All right, that was an old and stupid joke, but it should make the point clear.
An independent band like POTF gets their income from mainly two sources: record sales and gigs. In these times, when more and more people simply get the music they listen to for free, there aren't that many sources of income left for bands. Some people even claim that illegal downloading is good for the band - that way they get more exposure, which means more gigs, and that's where the real money is (they say).
In any case, the bottom line is that when the band tours, they need to get some money from it. Otherwise it's pretty much pointless. Of course _some_ gigs (with maybe a huge promotional value) might be worth doing for "free", or even if the band ends up paying for it from their own pockets - but in the long run, you can see why that just doesn't work.
(I emphasize that we are not talking about "money to get rich" here. These guys do music for a living. That's all they got, and like everyone else, they need _some_ money to eat, pay the rent, and so on. They need to get their basic salary from the music they make, it's as simple as that.)
Now, every gig is a different one, and there are countless ways a gig can be arranged. The band might get a fixed sum, or a percentage from ticket sales. The organizer might pay all the expenses, or just the accommodation and not travel. The gig might be a support gig for another band, part of a festival, or a headliner gig for the band itself. Whatever the details, one fact doesn't change. There must be enough people that buy a ticket, or the gig will not happen. I don't know what would be the minimum amount of people needed to make a gig profitable, but I guess in most European countries outside Finland, it would be closer to a thousand people.
The old saying "there's no such thing as a free lunch" works here too. When the band + crew + all their equipment travel to a different country, it costs a lot of money. That money just has to come from somewhere, which in this case is ticket sales.
Unless the band already has a lot of media exposure, radio play, album sales etc. in a given country, getting a thousand fans in a single place to watch them is really difficult. So the order is (unfortunately) - first conquer the media, get enough fans, and then you can start planning a gig. This has already started happening for example in Russia, which is why the band is able to play in venues that hold a few thousand people.
The band is very aware that there are already lots of people in several countries that would like to see them live. I know "policy" probably wasn't the word you were looking for, but in any case, I can assure that they don't have any special policies in this matter. They would pack their instruments and fly to Italy (or pretty much any country) right now if that was economically possible.
So when will they come to Italy (or any other country?) No-one knows at the moment, but everyone is doing their best to make it happen. To keep things from falling apart, the band must usually concentrate on a couple of countries at a time. They usually hire promoters in those countries, which in turn try to get their music into radios, and arrange interviews and other media appearances. Like you can see from the latest Twitter announcement, that has already worked pretty well in Sweden. Once the big ball starts rolling, so to speak, then things like arranging a gig become much easier.
Of course you never know when some surprises will happen (that's why they are called surprises...
). Maybe an eccentric millionaire who really likes POTF suddenly decides to pay all the expenses and arrange a public gig in his mansion. Maybe a DJ on a national radio channel somewhere suddenly starts playing POTF's latest single, and soon there are tens of thousands of people waiting to see their gig. Something like that might always come out of the blue. But I guess you can't count on that, and you must be prepared to take the long and winding road.
Like I always say at this point: you can do your part to help the band! Spread the word, use their banners in your blog and signatures in various forums, and so on. This is only the beginning! (Or some other uplifting & cliched adage!
)
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)... do it please!!!! we can't wait to see you!!! 
I mean, would they agree to that? 