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Story: Jack Foley
THE original members of Motley Crue, the raucous rulers of the
sex-and-drugs-fueled nightlife on LA's Sunset Strip, have announced
their reunion and a new world tour - Mötley Crüe: Red
White & Crüe Tour 2005…Better Live Than Dead.
After announcing their reunion plans, Vince Neil, Tommy Lee,
Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx gave the assembled 2,000 person crowd
of world-wide media and invited guests a surprise taste of things
to come by performing five songs - the first time the band has
performed together in over six years.
The event took place at the Hollywood Palladium and began at
5.30pm with a press conference announcing the tour, a new anthology
album and the debut of a fresh single and autobiographically-driven
video, If I Die Tomorrow.
The new tour resulted not only from strong demand by homegrown
audiences, but was largely fueled by the diligent efforts of Mags
Revell, a UK promoter with Metropolis Music Group, who launched
his own grass-roots campaign in the UK designed to get the band
to reunite.
Taking the unprecedented steps of placing advertising in UK media
and putting a hold on concert venues in the UK for June, 2005,
Revell’s efforts quickly gained traction with fans in the
UK who added fuel to the fire by taking to the internet and spreading
the word around the world.
Said Revell: "I honestly did not know until now whether
Motley Crue would respond to our efforts. With the help of tens
of thousands of fans in the UK and around the world, I wanted
to show the band that there was a real demand for their reunion
and I took a big risk.
"This is the band that we all never thought we'd have the
chance to see live again and I strongly admire them for responding
to their fans. It is the realization of a dream for so many people
for whom Motley Crue represents what rock music is all about."
Over the weekend, Revell, along with the band’s UK agent,
Neil Warnock, and a host of international media were summoned
to Los Angeles for the big announcement.
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Said Jordan Berliant, a senior executive
at the band’s management company, Tenth Street Entertainment:
"Motley Crue are a gang that have always thrived on passion.
It is the element that fuels their creativity and guides their
decision making.
"The band first starting thinking about a reunion after
being excited by some of the new songs that Nikki had begun writing.
"When they learned of the overwhelming groundswell of support
from fans across the world as well as from members of the music
industry, it became obvious to them that the time was right to
climb the mountain once again."
Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee, the original
members of Motley Crue, whose stature as the world’s most
infamous rock band was made legend in their NY Times best-selling
autobiography, The Dirt, will be touring the world in 2005, beginning
with 26 arena dates in the US and Canada beginning in February.
The first announced dates in the UK and Europe were announced
as follows.
The UK dates, which will feature Killing Joke as a support act,
are currently on sale.
June 7 - Helsinki, Finland Icehall Monsters of Millenium
June 8 - Turku, Finland Rock in Turku 2005/Ellysee Arena
June 10 - Oslo, Norway Spektrum Skooks
June 11 - Solvesborg, Sweden Sweden Rock Festival
June 12 - Bologna, Italy Gods of Metal
June 14 - Glasgow, Scotland SECC
June 15 - Manchester, Evening News Arena
June 17 - Birmingham NEC
June 18 - Cardiff, Wales International Arena
June 19 - Wembley Arena
Additional dates in Europe are expected to be announced shortly.
The world tour will also make stops in Latin America in May and
in Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia in November/December. A
second leg of North American dates is expected in August and September.
In conjunction with the tour, the band’s US and International
record labels also announced the release of a definitive 2-CD
Greatest Hits collection that chronicles the band’s entire
career.
Scheduled for release on February 1, the set, entitled Red,
White & Crue, includes three brand-new Crue songs including
the first single If I Die Tomorrow, which features a
highly stylized and autobiographically-driven music video.
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