A recent article in France’s Le Monde newspaper discusses the recent festival in St. Malo, La Route du Rock, where the Pumpkins headlined a three-day event.

The article in question, “L’indie-rock cède à l’appel de l’argent”, takes the Fox News approach to fair and balanced journalism in examining what it thinks is the decline of the indie rock genre and its growing monetary demands. The Pumpkins were paid 120,000€ to appear at the festival, commanding 45% of the entire festival budget. However, the article points out that the festival had to increase its overall budget this year:

Cette année, La Route du Rock a dû augmenter son budget de 100 000 euros par rapport à l’édition précédente.

Now, budgetary inflation is understandable. Operating costs grow each year, and gas is worth its weight in gold in Europe. Heck, at a cost of about 100€ for admission and transportation fees (plus more if you wanted to camp out for all three days), the Pumpkins would have had to draw a whopping 1200 fans to break even for their appearance fees. So, how many attend? According to the New York Times, last year, the festival drew 30,000. Mon dieu.

The article barrels on to argue:

Radiohead ou Björk (inaccessibles aux budgets modérés) continuent d’être considérés comme indépendants.” Les Smashing Pumpkins aussi, présentés dans le programme de La Route du Rock comme “le groupe qui a rapidement régné sans partage sur le monde de l’indie-rock”, alors qu’ils enregistrent aujourd’hui pour Warner.

So, contrary to the article, I don’t know anyone who would consider Bjork, Radiohead, OR the Pumpkins part of the indie rock genre. They’ve been around for decades, sold millions of records, and generated kajillions of dollars in revenue. Le Monde diplomatically infers scorn upon these acts for asking large appearance fees (blogs citing the article, however, are FIERY), but I’m going to go against the grain here and assume no one is doing the proper analysis. 120K doesn’t go far, especially when you’re paying for the following operating costs of the band itself:

Please note: This post does not follow normal HU standards of proper primary source etiquette because we are not here to waste your time linking you to whiners. If ranting offends you, please disregard this post and read what the experts benignly say about That’s the Way (My Love Is).

Recently, there have been posts reporting how ticketholders have given up their tickets at the door to sold-out shows in California and Europe because they just couldn’t stand to see the Pumpkins perform again. Legions of other posters have been supporting these decisions. “I’m too old,” they whine. “Seeing them again would ruin my pristine memories of stalking Billy during my superfan days,” they posture. Give me a break.

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