The Language of Manilow

Barry Manilow has postponed his Australian tour dates set for April, 2011. Of course Australian Manilow fans are disappointed; even more so because they don’t exactly understand why Barry isn’t coming down under in April. This is where the language of Manilow comes into play. Manilow language is a curious sort of American English designed to convey as vague of a message as possible. Using Australian hotlines and press releases is a good example of how Manilow language is designed to give what appears as information while actually saying nothing at all.

A hotline dated February 10, 2011 announced that due to “current conditions” Barry’s April Australian tour dates had been postponed. Everyone living outside of Australia assumed the conditions, referred to in the hotlines meant the weather. News reports from Australia had been full of stories concerning problems rain had caused in various parts of the country. Fans in Australia quickly informed their counterparts in other parts of the world that weather was highly unlikely to be a factor in the postponement of Barry’s concerts. (Now if you check any of the official Manilow sites, no mention of weather not being a factor or disappointment of fans at this postponement will be evident. It’s all been purged. The cult in action but that’s another blog. Check the archives.)

So if “conditions” weren’t the weather what other “conditions” is the hotline speaking about? First thing that comes to mind is,does Barry have a condition that would prevent him from going to Australia? That happened once before. Shows were postponed in Vegas with vague language but that time fans got a translation from Barry himself. Remember that infamous note Barry wrote that was posted for a short time on a couple of official sites announcing his upcoming surgery? Barry’s health doesn’t seem to be the problem this time since the hotline that announced the postponement of the Australian dates also included the information that Barry will be adding the April dates to his Vegas schedule. Safe to rule out health issues, as all good fans should be concerned about Barry’s health at all times.

Australian fans cited another condition – economic conditions. Tickets were not selling well for Barry’s Australian concerts. Aussie newspapers seemed to agree with the fans. When the press release was sent to Australian news organizations the wording was changed from what had been sent out as a hotline. “Current conditions” became “due to unforeseen circumstances.” Enterprising journalists went to the official Manilow sites to gather more information, which caused them to pick up on the different wording. As good reporters do they dug deeper coming to the same conclusion as the fans -Barry’s postponement could be a case of simple economics.

The Sidney Daily Telegraph ran a story on February 12, 2011 about the performers scheduled to play in Australia around the same time as Barry. None of these acts postponed due to weather conditions. Maybe Barry’s management team felt it would be better to put the concerts off until another time when people didn’t have so many performers to choose from. What artist wants to say that they can’t compete against other artists? Barry may not even be aware of other concerts factoring into the postponement. Management’s job is to keep the artist happy. As the Aussie newspaper said, seems like Barry can’t sing in the rain but must keep high and dry in the desert. Maybe that’s what it takes to have a happy Barry.

That’s a short example of how the language of Manilow works. Another word that Australian fans may want to try to translate is “postponed.” The promoter claims that they hope to re-schedule Barry’s shows later in 2011. Some California fans are still holding on to postponed concert tickets that are close to a year and half old. Not only do I hope the Aussie fans get their shows in 2011, I hope the people holding the California tickets get their shows. What is always pointed out is that ticket holders can get their money back at any time. That’s not what it’s about for fans. Barry and the TPTB never seem to understand that part. Maybe they will one day but right now one word that needs a lot of work in the language of Manilow is “fan.”