I was reading in the "How many gigs have the Stones played?" thread, and read many of the itemized gigs. (That just shows how deep this non-Stones-at-the-moment boredom goes.) But once again I was struck by the No Security tour from '99. Not that I minded it one bit; in a way it reminded me very much of the '78 tour. Loose, great setlists, and the band was a rockin band thru and thru. they didn't seem to care. But this doesn't quite jive with the Stones of today. That they would say "Feels good; let's do some more.."
Why do you think they did the '99 tour?

£

Exactly, $$$$, and MORE $$. The BtB Tour was a success so they decided to " milk it" as they say. I happen to have enjoyed No SDecurity a lot! The Shows I saw at First Union Center in Philly were awesome!!

It was the first tour with really high ticket prices right?

I kind of thought people would answer "Money". Maybe it wasn't so much "money" as "extra money". It seems like it is to our advantage to put them into the position where it's all just gravy. the shows and setlists benefit.

East Extra Money, right. They just continued on their merry way, and the set lists were a bit different, I got to hear " I Got The Blues" live and it was worth the wait. Great shows! And yes, very expensive.

I loved the show I saw in '99. Outstanding set list, great sound. it was definitely a great time! I don't exactly remember what the ticket price was...$80.00 I think. so worth it to see the Stones in top form.

Always thought because of some tax troubles in 98 in the UK and postponed dates
because of Keith broke some ribs in spring 98 just before the european tour start...

That's correct shortfatfanny

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Keep On Rolling

Shortfatfanny is correct - its not always just the money

IMO there was some intangible in the air during the whole '99 tour. A good vibe; not caring. Again - it reminded me of the '78 tour.

Yep, all the UK btb tour dates that were supposed to happen in august 1998 were postponed until june 1999, for tax reasons, so they did another round in the US to keep the momentum going until the summer, for the UK dates, as well as a few other european shows.

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What's your favourite flavour?...........Cherry Red!!

Whatever the reason, that tour was smoking. I saw both shows in DC. The first one was good -- the second night was one of those magic nights. I count it as the best Stones show I've seen.

Why do you think they did the '99 tour?

Mr Jimmy has the answer.....



ROCKMAN

Here in Detroit, it was a rare chance to see them in an arena instead of a stadium. It's STILL the only arena gig they've done here since Cobo '75, and the only non-stadium show since the Masonic Theatre in '78.

Why not

Those were great shows! I followed them around for really the 1st time. I went to MSG, Philly, HFD, Vegas, Wembley & a coupla other joints.

The Asian Economic crisis killed the Asian part of the tour they needed to come back to US to pay the investors.

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duke richardson
I loved the show I saw in '99. Outstanding set list, great sound. it was definitely a great time! I don't exactly remember what the ticket price was...$80.00 I think. so worth it to see the Stones in top form.

I was paying $250 face in Sacramento to be near the stage...

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little queenie

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duke richardson
I loved the show I saw in '99. Outstanding set list, great sound. it was definitely a great time! I don't exactly remember what the ticket price was...$80.00 I think. so worth it to see the Stones in top form.

I was paying $250 face in Sacramento to be near the stage...

Yeah I was in the upper level... A great show. Wish I had been closer.

In Charlotte, duke? That was one great show.

yessir Elmo it was. All cylinders firing, really hot.

Great tour. I was living in Venezuela at the time and convinced a few of my buddies to fly to Miami to check the boys out. Saw a rocking loose set, and some real nuggets. Seeing them at the center of the stadium doing Midnight Rambler, just the five of 'em with Chuck. Keith playing through his tube amp. Then they did Just My Imagination and Route 66! Was fantastic. So many great songs and some unplayed nuggets. Some Girls and Moonlight Mile, You Got the Silve! WHEW!

I loved that tour. I saw 5 shows in 9 days (Charlotte NC, Boston, Hartford), and was enthralled by how well the band performed. Wish they could still do so well today.

Great tour indeed. Unfortunately, in those pre internet years, traveling outside my country to see some shows was pretty difficult (you have to get tickets, find hotels, etc...). The European leg was more a Bridges To Babylon part two than a new tour, and a bit disapointing (i saw them 3 times in London and Groningen).
There are probably different reasons why they decided to do it. THe Wembley postponing made it possible.
I tend to think they also took the opportunity to test high tickets prices and see if it worked. In those times, 250 $ was a kind of revolution. Well, it worked. 3 years later, they came back wih the Licks tour, and suddenly, you had to pay 450 $ for a good seat...

They'd already tested the higher prices at some US shows in early '98 - the 3 MSG shows, the Hard Rock club show in Vegas etc.

Even at arena shows in '98, the ticket prices were mostly the same as the stadium ones (around $65 I think), until they tried an 'experiment' at the final US'98 show at the United Centre in Chicago - charging (as far as I remember) $100, 200 and 300.

The show sold out, which in hindsight pretty much sealed any doubts about whether they could/would do an arena tour of the US and still make similar amounts of money and also set the pricing template for future tours. Even stadium ones.

Imho the US 99 tour was a good idea but the European tail wasn't : not a good gig in sight there (imo again)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-08-04 19:03 by dcba.

Stuttgart and Cologne were great shows!

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dcba
Imho the US 99 tour was a good idea but the European tail wasn't : not a good gig in sight there (imo again)

it wasnt a 'good idea' to do the decent thing and honour commitments to play the four shows they'd sold over 200,000 tickets for in their home country but postponed for a year so they could avoid paying tax?