Prime Circle return to Ticketpro Dome, but this time with no fans
|Published
Supplied image.
The past few months have been anything but easy for popular local band Prime Circle.
The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced the band to cancel all its shows, as well as music festivals locally and around the world. As a result, the band lost all its income.
“Losing all our income has been very hard on everyone,” said Prime Circle’s frontman Ross Learmonth.
“It’s hard to be battling and then having no way to help yourself, it’s been crazy times.”
The band was meant to do an extensive tour of Europe in the last few months, but all shows and tours have come to a complete halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We had planned a European tour and a local one, as well as our festival Primefest. It was a devastating blow to us and our team,” said Learmonth.
While the past few months have been gruelling, Learmonth and his band finally have something to smile about.
In a week’s time, they will perform at a venue they hold very close to their hearts - but without any fans.
The band takes to the stage at the Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg for their Music in Empty Spaces concert, a 90-minute global streaming event on February 28.
The band launched their careers at the Ticketpro Dome 18 years ago when they performed as the opening act for Live on their Birds of Prey tour.
“It was a show that has literally echoed in our careers. People still come up to us and tell us that they were there. It’s a special venue,” ” said Learmonth.
While they will miss their fans, Learmonth says the band is looking forward to performing at “home”.
We’ve done a few virtual shows and it is tricky playing to an audience you can’t see. But we had to adapt to play live, just this time we are doing it in an epic space that has a lot of history for us.”
Learmonth says the aim is to give the audience something creative and different.
“The thinking was to do something creative and to hopefully make some form of income. Fortunately we have the technology to still get out there to our fans who can attend, just in a different way.”
And the venue they have chosen is perfect, says Learmonth.
“It takes you to a venue that you may have had a lot of memories in yourself, or if you’ve never been, it gives you a look into a place that we as a band and many South Africans have loved for years, making this the backdrop for an epic show where the focus is almost even more on the music this way.”
Asked whether the band will find it odd to play in an empty venue, Learmonth said: “A little at first, but you just got to remember that there is a crowd, just one you can’t see, and to just play the best way we know how and enjoy it.”
Learmonth has promised fans an “unforgettable experience.” Viewers can expect to hear Prime Circle’s greatest hits like; Hello, She always gets what she wants, Pretty Like The Sun as well as their latest single, Innocence, in an interactive, 90-minute performance backed by the massive sound and lighting production, that the band is known for.
“We’ll be playing songs from all of our albums. We’ve given some of them new life. The production is beautiful and the setting is massive. It’s going to be a show to remember.”
Learmonth says the band is hoping for a jam-packed streaming audience.
“It’s a tricky new thing to ask fans to buy tickets to watch at home, and as much as bands have had to adapt so have music lovers, we just hope people get behind this concept.”
Music in Empty Spaces is a 90 minute global streaming event taking place at Ticketpro Dome on 28 February at 16h00. For more information, visit: Computicket’s website. please go to: www.computicket.com