Unknown Mortal Orchestra call out Neil Young on Ticketmaster

Fri 24 March 2023 9:34, UK

Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Ruban Nielson has hit out at Neil Young's recent comments that the touring is "over". Young made the remark in relation to The Cure's recent battle with Ticketmaster, but Nielson has since condemned the folk star's comments as hypocrisy.

On his own website, Neil Young Archives, the 77-year-old musician who recently sold 50% of his back catalogue to corporate conglomerate Hipgnosis Songs Fund for $150million in 2021, announced "It's over," in a statement titled 'Concert Touring is Broken', "the old days are gone."

Young called out Ticketmaster's fees being at 30%. He then wrote: "I get letters blaming me for $3,000.000 tickets for a benefit I am doing. That money does not go to me or the benefit. Artists have to worry about ripped off fans blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers."

He then concluded: "Concert tours are no longer fun. Concert tours not what they were." He then shared an article by Ananya Bhattacharya on The Cure's recent battle with Ticketmaster's "unduly high" fees that highlighted the US Senate's stance that the current model offers a "terrible consumer experience".

Having been a touring musician since 1963, many of Young's fans hailed his statement as a decree against the corporate structure coming from a place of experience. However, as a band currently touring, Unknown Mortal Orchestra did not appreciate him effectively calling time on concerts and claimed that his response comes from a position of privilege afforded by the same corporate indulgence he is now rallying against.

On Twitter, the band's Ruban Nielson said: "Honestly: Neil Young fuckin' pisses me off." He then shared his comment on a Stereogum article relating to Young's comments; it read: "I am literally in a bus on tour with a full band and crew all paying bills off this shit and I have to see some kajillionaire talk about how 'it's over', fuck you old man."

He added: "Neil Young has not helped a single current artist earn more streaming income. Neil Young will not help current artists earn fairer ticket income or harm these corporations at all. He is flexing on us about how much better it was in his day. Old man is not looking at my life."

Continuing: "I understand that boomers think taking a vaguely 'anti-corporate' stance is somehow rebellious, but current society is the result of that, so I'm not sure how anyone can get mad at me for calling bullshit on it."

He concluded his tirade against Young by adding: "Neil Young always thinks he's 'sticking it to the man', bro from where I'm sitting you are the man."

Ruban Nielson also offered up his own advice as to how to best counter the current situation. "The way to avoid dynamic pricing AND support your favourite band," he opined, "is to buy tickets early. Let me know if Neil destroys Ticketmaster and Spotify. I'm sure it's any day now."

Despite inflated ticket prices, one major factor that bands currently face is raising the funds to tour in the first place. As we currently learned from our investigative Price of Music feature, a US tour for the UK band The Golden Dregs is set to cost "in the region of £20,000" up front. Aside from any ticketing issues thereafter, raising capital to pay for visas and other rising expenses seems to be a huge underlying factor impacting the potential of international touring in the current economic climate.

Related Topics