I saw Bruce Springsteen at Letzigrund two years ago. That was my first and so far only trip to Zürich and Switzerland for that matter.

Very beautiful city. Quite pricey. The more affordable hotels are a bit of a distance away from the stadium itself but there's public transport. For mine, I had to walk over a long bridge but that did not matter.

Letzigrund had no issues itself but if you have to line up for the show you have to do it on the sidewalk right by a relatively busy street.

I lined up for two days for Springsteen, but then we did "roll calls" (at determined times) so we did not have to spend all the time at the venue.

Plenty of restaurants to choose from near the venue, also a shopping mall for food/toilets/hanging out

I can recommend Zürich to everyone! Too bad I am not able to go this time around myself.

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MingSubu
How is Zurich, as a city? How about the stadium, the Letzigrund, anyone seen any shows there?

Zürich is absolutely a great city... it is not too big, but offers everything a big city should offer. It is expensive though, food, hotels, drinks, taxi,not to mention rents for housing...

Concerts in the Letzigrund are great. Good sound, very open but compact stadium. I have seen the Stones in 2003 (but still the old Letzigrund), U2 several times, Bruce Springsteen en Roger Waters.

sjouke

Tel Aviv confirmed!

With no album to promote - past their 50th - Can't see the point or need for a European 2014 Tour [Yes I appreciate it could be the last time !!! and we should be grateful to see them perform live] but is that enough ?. are you happy with that ?

Yes, totally happy just seeing them play.

what can 4 rich boys do except to sing in a rock n roll band...

The purpose of the tour is so fans can see them at least one more time while they get well paid for it. A win/win situation if you ask me.

Ok that's fine just trying to guage opinion.I guess if you missed the 50th gigs then this is your Chance.

it could be the last time !!!

That what I hear the last 40 or more years..........there is no last time for the Stones

__________________________

MY guess would be to rock and roll, make a hell of a lot of money and give their fans a chance to see them...lol

...

.....keep on rolling.....

I never understood the purpose of the great "Sucking In The 70's" American Tour 1981 either...but I sure loved it!

But is that enough for us fans, I am not trying to be cynical I just want to conjole them into the studio to give us another killer album which I believe their lagacy deserves- I am fed up of hearing their last great album was Tattoo You.and the last relevant single was Start Me Up.

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NICOS
it could be the last time !!!

That what I hear the last 40 or more years..........there is no last time for the Stones

I guess 50 years from now they will be touring.....as the Rolling Clones

Well, it's enough for me. I just want to have a great time listening to them play music, I'm not bothered about their legacy!

You might as well ask, what is the purpose of life?

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latebloomer
You might as well ask, what is the purpose of life?

I agree to notch up as many Stones shows as possible is the purpose of life !! but is that still enough? would you not like to hear some new product ?

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Tonstone
With no album to promote - past their 50th - Can't see the point or need for a European 2014 Tour [Yes I appreciate it could be the last time !!! and we should be grateful to see them perform live] but is that enough ?. are you happy with that ?

I'd rather have them tour with new material than not tour with new material, but the Stones effectively stopped being a current band when they toured behind a greatest hits album in 2002-03 (with great success). An admission of defeat, I suppose and an acceptance that there is more money in nostalgia. The Bigger Bang tour may have been theoretically been a tour supporting an album, but it soon reverted to type and was effectively a sequel to the stadium shows on the Licks tour. A template theyve followed ever since.

Its a sign of the times. Years ago, bands toured to promote a new album, because the money was in album sales. Now - especially in the post-Napster era with record sales plummeting - its in touring as can be seen by the way ticket prices have rocketed in the last 15 years beyond anything remotely resembling inflation whereas the price of records/CDs has kept relatively stagnant.

I think of this tour as more similar to Dylan's Never Ending tour and the template that the Grateful Dead used to use - ie, mini tours of about 14-15 shows with no fixed ending point. With less musical variation admittedly, so I guess there's similarities with The Beach Boys and other nostalgia acts too.

Personally I prefer this format to a two year tour of about 130 shows and then nothing for 3-4 years afterwards. They simply dont have the time left to take years on end off anymore.

An alternative would be to play 'residencies' in a venue spread over several weeks, but at the prices they charge thats simply impractical.

Yep, the turning point was clearly 2002, although it could be argued that "No Security" led the way following the "tax cancellation" of the UK 1998 shows...there was still the vague excuse of doing an "Arena Tour" for the first time in years and the "freshness" of B2B.

The irony is that it probably didn't have to be that way in 2002 because they did manage to come up with many tracks at the Paris sessions in 2002, 30+ according to that computer screen in Four Flicks...and we all remember that Keith and Ronnie going on about "it's the best stuff we've done in years"...with a bit of work they could certainly have slapped together a half-decent album but it was too late as the whole "concept" of the "First Real Best Of" tour had been sold/announced.

Yeah, new stuff would be nice, but if it's just going through the motions and coming up with "dull" material (like most of ABB most will agree or VL, to my ears, at least in hindsight), it doesn't really make sense either does it? With D&G, they did manage to come up with a pretty decent track for Grrr/50th so it does maintains "some" illusion.

At the end of the day a Stones show is (still) a massive thrill/rush regardless of what they play.

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-25 01:33 by gotdablouse.

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Tonstone

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latebloomer
You might as well ask, what is the purpose of life?

I agree to notch up as many Stones shows as possible is the purpose of life !! but is that still enough? would you not like to hear some new product ?

I don't want to hear any "product."

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gotdablouse
...and we all remember that Keith and Ronnie going on about "it's the best stuff we've done in years"...with a bit of work they could certainly have slapped together a half-decent album but it was too late as the whole "concept" of the "First Real Best Of" tour had been sold/announced.

Uh huh. And for that, "the best stuff we've done in years" is just a fresh way of saying "since our last album" which at that point was years. 5 years.

Judging by what made it onto Forty Licks I disagree.

They're not hyping it of course but this is probably going to be it, this whole 50 And Counting thing. After this 50 Plus tour or whatever it's unofficially parenthetically called... come on! OK so you're 70 something years old now. When it winds down they'll be in their mid to late 70s. That should do it.

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Munichhilton
I never understood the purpose of the great "Sucking In The 70's" American Tour 1981 either...but I sure loved it!

I even didn't love the European Tour 1982.

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latebloomer
You might as well ask, what is the purpose of life?

X=0

I doubt so many people would hold on to those opinions if there was no merit to them stone and I also have to believe their last great album is long behind them. It would be great to see another Sticky Fingers or even Emotional Rescue from them but the've had lots of time and haven't managed anything even close in all these years.

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GasLightStreet

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gotdablouse
...and we all remember that Keith and Ronnie going on about "it's the best stuff we've done in years"...with a bit of work they could certainly have slapped together a half-decent album but it was too late as the whole "concept" of the "First Real Best Of" tour had been sold/announced.

Uh huh. And for that, "the best stuff we've done in years" is just a fresh way of saying "since our last album" which at that point was years. 5 years.

Judging by what made it onto Forty Licks I disagree.

Yes the "literal" argument was made at the time, still they could have slapped together a 10/12 track album had they needed to, probably wouldn't have aged worse than SW or ABB and possibly others...but that was not meant to be.

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

One reason for the 2014 European Tour is to introduce The greatest rock 'n' roll band in history to a whole new generation of fans that have never had the opportunity to see "The Greatest Show On Earth." Not saying there won't be a huge representation of "veteran" fans at the euro shows, but there will definitely be a significant number of "virgins" also. Of course there are many other blatantly obvious reasons for a euro tour (any tour for that matter) needless to say.

How about pure pleasure of seeing the Stones doing what they do best: performing!!

Proposal for other threads:
1- What is the purpose of eating a chocolate cake?
2- What is the purpose of watching a good movie?
3- What is the purpose of buying a record?
4- What is the purpose of creating a "what is the purpose" thread?
etc...

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Tonstone
With no album to promote - past their 50th - Can't see the point or need for a European 2014 Tour [Yes I appreciate it could be the last time !!! and we should be grateful to see them perform live] but is that enough ?. are you happy with that ?

same point as every other tour since '89... money!

Purpose? Maybe just to show that they are still alive and kicking...