Bon Jovi 2018 AFL Grand Final entertainment ? Black Eyed Peas confirmed.

[gavaniacono]

Because the Grand Final would be enhanced with relevant entertainment that accurately captures that moment in time. Imagine if…

- AC/DC performed at the Richmond v Carlton Grand Final in 1980 fresh off the release of Back In Black
- Paul Kelly debuted the then-current Leaps & Bounds at the MCG for the first time in 1987
- INXS worked the Grand Final into their 1988 Kick World Tour
- Crowded House played Weather With You and a host of their other hits in 1992
- You Am I flew the flag for 90s Aussie rock with Berlin Chair in 1994
- Empire Of The Sun unleashed the brand new Walking On A Dream in 2008
- Gotye performed global superhit Somebody I Used To Know in 2011
- Sia showed off some genuine Australian female talent with an epic performance of Chandelier in 2014
- Australia’s biggest contemporary band Tame Impala played off the back of Currents in 2015

These performances would create iconic moments, attract a wider audience/bigger ratings and establish the Grand Final’s reputation as a world class sporting event. Although I do not believe it's essential, booking current global international superstar acts would lift things to another level again.

Instead, we embarrass ourselves with awfully outdated subpar performances from INXS with JD Fortune (lol) in 2010, Meat Loaf in 2011, Bryan Adams in 2015, The Living End in 2016 and now the Black Eyed Peas. It is truly mickey mouse stuff from the AFL and genuinely cringeworthy.

Couldnt agree more. So many great current options to choose from and we get 1/4 of a pretty good band from 30+ years ago whose solo stuff is bland as unsalted butter, couple with a joke band who are still laughing that anyone ever bought their music. What a chance to appeal to a younger funkier afl audience but no we get nostalgia for a worse time.

 

[Sterge]

Couldnt agree more. So many great current options to choose from and we get 1/4 of a pretty good band from 30+ years ago whose solo stuff is bland as unsalted butter, couple with a joke band who are still laughing that anyone ever bought their music. What a chance to appeal to a younger funkier afl audience but no we get nostalgia for a worse time.

Who are these 'great current options' that are in Australia at the time?

 

[GroggSquad]

True, wonderful wonderful definitely went to number 1 in the US & UK because the Killers played the AFL grand Final

With the rise of streaming, "mums and dads" have a bigger influence on the charts than ever before as they are the main demographic still buying CDs.

Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, U2 & Eminem have all managed to release number 1 albums in the US over the past 2 years - I would argue all these acts aren't particularly relevant though and are past their prime.

Big artists of yesteryear also seem to chart well purely off the strength of their previous material.

 

[Sterge]

With the rise of streaming, "mums and dads" have a bigger influence on the charts than ever before as they are the main demographic still buying CDs.

Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, U2 & Eminem have all managed to release number 1 albums in the US over the past 2 years - I would argue all these acts aren't particularly relevant though and are past their prime.

Big artists of yesteryear also seem to chart well purely off the strength of their previous material.

Cool but you said the killers singles only did well because of the grand final, what does that have to do with streaming?

 

[Blackhawk42]

Who are these 'great current options' that are in Australia at the time?

Gang of Youths
Violent Soho
Parkway Drive
Birds of Tokyo
The Amity Affliction
Tame Impala
The Smith Street Band

Is this what you meant? Australian acts of now?
That doesn't even take into account the hip hop and solo artists who I didn't take into account.

 

[GroggSquad]

Cool but you said the killers singles only did well because of the grand final, what does that have to do with streaming?

I was simply pointing out that the album charts can be deceiving when highlighting the relevance of a band. Your boast of their number 1 efforts seem to suggest you believe otherwise.

The Killers became stale on 2012's Battle Born and it's singles didn't make much of a splash. I'm certain the Wonderful Wonderful singles would've continued that decline here if the Grand Final performance never happened.

 

[Donakebab]

Because the Grand Final would be enhanced with relevant entertainment that accurately captures that moment in time. Imagine if…

- AC/DC performed at the Richmond v Carlton Grand Final in 1980 fresh off the release of Back In Black
- Paul Kelly debuted the then-current Leaps & Bounds at the MCG for the first time in 1987
- INXS worked the Grand Final into their 1988 Kick World Tour
- Crowded House played Weather With You and a host of their other hits in 1992
- You Am I flew the flag for 90s Aussie rock with Berlin Chair in 1994
- Empire Of The Sun unleashed the brand new Walking On A Dream in 2008
- Gotye performed global superhit Somebody I Used To Know in 2011
- Sia showed off some genuine Australian female talent with an epic performance of Chandelier in 2014
- Australia’s biggest contemporary band Tame Impala played off the back of Currents in 2015

These performances would create iconic moments, attract a wider audience/bigger ratings and establish the Grand Final’s reputation as a world class sporting event. Although I do not believe it's essential, booking current global international superstar acts would lift things to another level again.

Instead, we embarrass ourselves with awfully outdated subpar performances from INXS with JD Fortune (lol) in 2010, Meat Loaf in 2011, Bryan Adams in 2015, The Living End in 2016 and now the Black Eyed Peas. It is truly mickey mouse stuff from the AFL and genuinely cringeworthy.

Wouldn't say The Living End were sub-par at all and lumping them in with the rest of the train-wrecks is a bit of a disservice, but definitely agree that they just should have been on at least a decade earlier.

 

[Big John Studd]

I was simply pointing out that the album charts can be deceiving when highlighting the relevance of a band. Your boast of their number 1 efforts seem to suggest you believe otherwise.

The Killers became stale on 2012's Battle Born and it's singles didn't make much of a splash. I'm certain the Wonderful Wonderful singles would've continued that decline here if the Grand Final performance never happened.

Listen to Molly Meldrum over here

 

[GroggSquad]

Wouldn't say The Living End were sub-par at all and lumping them in with the rest of the train-wrecks is a bit of a disservice, but definitely agree that they just should have been on at least a decade earlier.

Yeah I'm mainly just pointing out how far out of their prime The Living End were at the time there.

 

[GroggSquad]

Listen to Molly Meldrum over here

Pre-ladder accident and subsequent concussion I hope

 

[Donakebab]

Yeah I'm mainly just pointing out how far out of their prime The Living End were at the time there.

Belting out Prisoner of Society and Save the Day in 1999 would have been top shelf. Sadly there was no Grand Final played that year so we missed out on what could have been...

 

[Sterge]

Gang of Youths
Violent Soho
Parkway Drive
Birds of Tokyo
The Amity Affliction
Tame Impala
The Smith Street Band

Is this what you meant? Australian acts of now?
That doesn't even take into account the hip hop and solo artists who I didn't take into account.

Whilst they are all great bands the AFL want acts that the average punter walking down the street has actually heard of, short of Birds of Tokyo i'm sure most people you ask about any of the above would give you a puzzled look and you want them to consider australian hip hop........

 

[doppleganger]

Gang of Youths
Violent Soho
Parkway Drive
Birds of Tokyo
The Amity Affliction
Tame Impala
The Smith Street Band

Is this what you meant? Australian acts of now?
That doesn't even take into account the hip hop and solo artists who I didn't take into account.

Yeah I assume you are in your 20s, plenty of baby boomers wouldn’t even have heard of them...let alone any Australian hiphop artists.

It is a thankless task the AFL have really...you simply can’t pick an act that will appeal to the varied audience that spans multi generations.

Be like trying to get your family to agree on who is a good artist - if you have kids, your wife, your folks, your sister, your grandparents - good luck coming up with one act who all groups all like and think are ‘relevant’

 

[Mappa]

Whilst they are all great bands the AFL want acts that the average punter walking down the street has actually heard of, short of Birds of Tokyo i'm sure most people you ask about any of the above would give you a puzzled look and you want them to consider australian hip hop........

Not a knock on you, but the AFL cannot give two s**ts about the average punter. If they did, they would allow more of them to attend the game.

I would genuinely like to hear the criteria for selecting these acts. In the case of the B.E.P, have they done anything remotely decent, or in fact anything at all, to even come up in discussions ? I like to think that my musical tastes are pretty broad, but if you said "Give me 50 acts that you think would work on Grand Final Day", not only wouldn't i choose the B.E.P, but they wouldn't even enter my head TO choose. I honestly reckon if I said "Hey, what about the B.E.P ?", the responses would range from "oh yeah, I remember them", to "why ?".

I really couldn't give a continental who plays at the GF, but i am extremely impressed that many on this forum can actually name the acts who have performed over the past decade of so.

 

[Andrew Mc]

I really couldn't give a continental who plays at the GF, but i am extremely impressed that many on this forum can actually name the acts who have performed over the past decade of so.

I can name Meatloaf. And that's about it. Honestly haven't seen any of them.

 

[Andrew Mc]

Can't stand music acts for GF entertainment.... would prefer mud wrestling

Jelly wrestling perhaps. Would watch either.

 

[GroggSquad]

Yeah I assume you are in your 20s, plenty of baby boomers wouldn’t even have heard of them...let alone any Australian hiphop artists.

It is a thankless task the AFL have really...you simply can’t pick an act that will appeal to the varied audience that spans multi generations.

Be like trying to get your family to agree on who is a good artist - if you have kids, your wife, your folks, your sister, your grandparents - good luck coming up with one act who all groups all like and think are ‘relevant’

How about making the task easier for yourself and limit the scope to acts that have made an impact in the past ~5 years? It’s the 2018 Grand Final, so it should be showcasing acts that are in their prime in 2018.

The baby boomers have been trusted with the choice of entertainment for years and they continually let us down with stale performers well past their use-by date. They should no longer be the target audience when booking acts.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Whilst they are all great bands the AFL want acts that the average punter walking down the street has actually heard of, short of Birds of Tokyo i'm sure most people you ask about any of the above would give you a puzzled look and you want them to consider australian hip hop........

This is just the Aussie portion of the scenario though. This year the AFL have opted for a bloke in his 60's and a pop group well past their relevance. Anybody under 35 is most likely going to struggle through it.
Take one of those aforementioned Aussie acts in the Barnsey slot and then if you have Cher or Sting or Bon Jovi for the older crowd, at least you have attempted to cater to everyone.
Let's also remember that the game itself is the showpiece for the AFL. The game is the entertainment. The NRL have considered that this year and booked a band a lot of people over 40 might not know, but have banked on them putting on such a good show it won't matter. I wish the AFL had the same balls.

 

[Checkered]

Lmao

 

[Checkered]

Gang of Youths
Violent Soho
Parkway Drive
Birds of Tokyo
The Amity Affliction
Tame Impala
The Smith Street Band

Is this what you meant? Australian acts of now?
That doesn't even take into account the hip hop and solo artists who I didn't take into account.

Do you honestly think Parkway or Amity would be a good choice for this hahahah

 

[Liger]

The Black Eye Peas performance will look amazing under the laser light show at 2pm.

Angry Anderson and the Batmobile is all we want and will ever need.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Do you honestly think Parkway or Amity would be a good choice for this hahahah

Parkway have the songs for it now, and still absolutely slay live. They could play Vice Grip, The Void and Prey and it wouldn't feel out of place at a sporting event.
Amity probably not since their live show is very heavy on the backing tracks.

 

[Checkered]

Parkway have the songs for it now, and still absolutely slay live. They could play Vice Grip, The Void and Prey and it wouldn't feel out of place at a sporting event.
Amity probably not since their live show is very heavy on the backing tracks.

Parkway stopped being good the second Deep Blue came out.

Regardless, I doubt their new stuff would go down well with the 90% of footy fans who don't like heavy music.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Parkway stopped being good the second Deep Blue came out.

Regardless, I doubt their new stuff would go down well with the 90% of footy fans who don't like heavy music.

Don't necessarily disagree, but to be fair it does seem like the Black Eyed Peas are causing a lot of negative backlash too so at the end of the day I guess you can't make everybody happy!

 

[Starburns_]

As an MCC member who missed the ballot, at least the AFL have guaranteed me a sleep in if Richmond make the GF and I have to camp out.

That said, if there is some sort of train wreck collaboration, it could be a must-see event.

On the entertainment overall, I think nailing it like last year will be a rare occurance. Looking past the Gudinski thing, ideally you want an act who have reasonable mainstream appeal with at least 3 songs, are still relevant and able to perform near their peak, are good live and can 'fill' the stadium with sound. Then you need to do this on a budget ($600k in the past) that is probably pretty small for a one-off show likely on the other side of the world. It's not easy to do that every single year, but hopefully it's not a one-off either.