Dear Ten Club Management,

The announcement of tour dates this year has been puzzling to say the least, and extremely frustrating to a great many people all over the world. While I’m sure you’ve received a wide variety of complaints ranging from announcing shows in small groups rather than in the tour’s entirety, to radio stations and other media announcing shows ahead of official announcements from the band, to extremely short notices for ticket sales, to entire regions being passed over for any shows whatsoever, this letter is not meant to complain any further about such problems.

I write this letter on behalf of all Ten Club members and other Pearl Jam fans who reside in the southern United States. By this time, it has become obvious that there will not be any shows in 2006 in such major markets as Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, St. Louis, Kansas City, Nashville, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, or anywhere within a reasonable driving distance of any those places. It is obvious, but there has never been any official word from Pearl Jam or the Ten Club regarding this absence of tour dates.

The purpose of this letter is not to complain about the lack of concerts, but of the lack of communication about the lack of concerts. We can understand that sometimes the band cannot play in every city that they would like to for whatever reason, but as fans, and especially as fan club members who dutifully pay our dues each year in the hopes of being able to see a Pearl Jam concert near our hometowns, we believe that we deserve to know that there will be no shows for us on the upcoming tour, and if possible, why that is.

Our complaints are two-fold:

First is the complete silence from the band and its organization about the fact that the entire southern and southwestern United States will be having no shows on the upcoming tour. It is somewhat insulting that there has not been so much as an off-hand acknowledgement of the exclusion of the South in any official notices, as if we may not notice if nobody says anything. It would seem that this tactic, such a favorite of certain overly secretive politicians in Washington, would not be favored by a band that is so outspoken against such secretiveness.

Second is that the silence on this subject, and the piecemeal manner by which tour dates were announced, made it impossible for many Southerners to make plans to see shows in other cities because they were waiting for announcements of shows closer to home. This is the part that is particularly unfair and inconsiderate, and for a band, and its fine support organization, that have always made the fan experience a top priority, this is extremely disappointing. Some times in the past year or two, it has felt as if there were an entirely new group of people responsible for such things within the Pearl Jam camp, a group who had no idea of the history of the band’s relationship with their fans and fan club.

What we would like is an official announcement regarding the lack of dates in the southern United States. A simple acknowledgement of the fact, and a simple explanation of the reason, that is all. If you couldn’t line up the venues, we will understand. If it was a higher priority to tour Europe, which has not had a tour since 2000, we will understand. If the tour had already become too long with the announced dates, we will understand. If we will get tour dates in 2007, we will understand and be thrilled. But please, don’t pretend we don’t exist, or that we won’t notice your absence. We love Pearl Jam, and frankly we deserve better treatment than this.

Your comments and suggestions welcome. Please sign on if you approve, as this is meant to be from more than me personally.

:thumbsup:

well put..... Hopefully your message gets handled differently than the not-so well put letters they've probably recieved on this subject.

Extremely well put. Everything I would have said.

you can add me as a co-signer (Matthew Petersen, Phoenix, AZ, longtime 10c member)

very well written and fair

I'm Jess Rutledge in Charlotte and I approve of this message.

I couldn't agree more. And I live in the Northeast.

You may want to mention that this is especially bad after they told fans in writing that they were going to tour Europe in Summer/Fall 2005. At some point they should learn from their mistakes.

I'm from Australia, but that is very well put together. Good luck getting a response. It's hard to imagine they wouldn't have foreseen the consequences of how they're announcing this tour.

Maybe if they had said no southern tour until 2007, a fair few of you guys could have made it to some shows. It's common sense, and to me that is simple failure from the 10c. No two ways about it.

Good luck.

I really wish I could express myself in words as well as you do, PD. Any chance I can get you to write the Ten Club a letter regarding my tour t-shirt that fell apart?

good on you pd

Hello,

If the band doesn't plan on touring the south and more midwest shows for this tour?....The ten club should make announcement to let the fan club members know...Or at least give some sort of update on what is going on...

I agree with the letter a 100%...


Jeremy
Bye

That's a lot of words for something that unimportant. Write a letter as worded as this one to you president about real problems, son.

I totally agree. Very well said. Defintely holding out hope for a Phoenix show. *sigh*

Anyway, very well said. As somone said earlier, hopefully your well thought out letter doesn't just go in the round file with some of the more "less articulate" complaints.

Looking back: that was the statement where the downfall of the tenlcub as the prime source of Pearl Jam information set in.

As for the letter: it is a very well written letter, but I'm pretty sure you won't get a "real" response, if you get a response at all.

And in a few months we'll see something like this in a rumourpit:
Q: Why weren't there any Southern US dates
A: It didn't work out

Hi,

How can say that this isn't important?....I don't see how you have to right to tell anyone what is important or what isn't important to them..

Jeremy
Thanks
Bye