Powderfinger: A career in pictures
Powderfinger
Some Powderfinger fans have reacted angrily to a venue change of their 'last ever' concert, complaining they have been duped into making travel plans to Victoria.
The finale of the band's Sunsets farewell tour was originally slated for Ballarat, and keen fans had splashed out on tickets in the hope of witnessing some musical history.
But the band announced on Wednesday it would perform another six shows and return to their hometown of Brisbane for their final curtain call.
This is the last goodbye: Powderfinger
"I'm really annoyed about this. Really annoyed. F***ing hell, just paid $400 to see them and secure tickets to what I THOUGHT would be their last shows," one ticket holder wrote on a fan website.
"We have lives, plans to make, time to take off work, flights to organise ... It seems all the work put in last week to get tickets for shows we thought would be their very last in particular cities was for nothing!"
Powderfinger's manager Paul Piticco said in a statement the band had only decided at the weekend to perform additional shows in capital cities in response to overwhelming demand.
"We certainly hadn't planned these extra dates but are thrilled to be playing to more fans across the country," Mr Piticco said.
"These will be the last ever shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide with the band ultimately finishing the tour in their hometown of Brisbane."
But fans are sceptical of the seemingly last-minute decision.
"I fail to see how they didn't know this was going to be huge. Surely their heads aren't that far up their own arses?" one fan wrote.
Another wrote: "Management would've predicted this a long time ago. It's a trend we've seen in the last few years."
The eleventh-hour addition of extra shows has long been common practice in the music business - particularly for farewell tours.
But that didn't stop some fans questioning if the well-established practice was entirely ethical.
"Why wasn't this announced at the start? I think the first lot of ticket sales were a little misrepresented and I find that disappointing," one fan wrote yesterday.
But tour publicist Rina Ferris said extra shows were "conceived and confirmed" after tickets went on sale last Friday.
"The reason for doing this was to appease the thousands of fans who were unhappy about missing out on tickets," Ms Ferris said.
"On balance, we believe the addition of these shows was the best way to move forward to make as many of the band's fans as possible happy."
Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn told brisbanetimes.com.au that under the Trade Practices Act, advertisers could make a "future claim" - like advertising the time and place of a 'last ever' concert - if they had a "reasonable basis for making the claim at that time".
"There's a history in the music business that final tours go on even after the alleged final curtain drops - that talks something about the popularity of the artist, but it can also on occasions can talk about the opportunism of the promoters," Mr Zinn said.
However, Mark O'Connor of Bennett & Philp Lawyers said disgruntled ticket holders may be entitled to compensation if the advertising of Powderfinger's Ballarat concert was found to be misleading.
He said promotion of the gig did not need to explicitly state it would be the last in order to breach consumer protection legislation.
"It can be implied ... upon a plain reading of an advertisement," Mr O'Connor said.
"The tour is called the 'farewell tour' and that's strong enough. There was also sufficient information out there in the media, which the band issued themselves."
A Melbourne solicitor tried to file a class-action against Australia's comeback-king John Farnham in 2004.
He claimed the singer had falsely advertised his "Last Time" tour two years earlier, only to return to the stage with Tom Jones.
But the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission did not take on the claim.
The ACCC told brisbanetimes.com.au yesterday the rules that applied to all businesses were the same for bands and their promoters: "Be honest and truthful in your dealings with consumers."
"In general, in looking at matters, the ACCC will look at the basis on which representations were made; whether consumers were likely to have been mislead; and any harm that might have been suffered," an ACCC spokesman said.
Queensland University of Technology associate music professor Andrew Brown said it was sound business practice for tour promoters to withhold shows until first-release tickets were sold out.
"You don't want to have six, half-full concerts if you can have three sold-out concerts," Mr Brown said.
"It's reasonable risk management."
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