I hear that US stadium shows will allow for up to 400 seats "on stage" during the concert for specially selected audience members. Has anyone heard how this will work?

I don't think there will be seats, I imagine it more like a stanging area, but I may be wrong.

[doctorstonesblog.blogspot.com]

Have a look at Van Halen's 2004 tour.
Also U2's Elevation and Vertigo tours.

Did U2 had fans on stage during the Elevation tour?


Cheers,
Wuudy

They had ~300 fans inside the "heart".

Ok, but that's like standing next to the catwalk to the b-stage.

Cheers,
Wuudy

I think this will be different than Elevation (and Vertigo)... They are plugging it as a new thing, as if it has not been done before. Plus, the whole notion of having a "good view of our (their) bums" implies the "on stage" seating will be from the back.

I envision a few rows of seats actually functioning as part of the backdrop in the stage set. Imagine a local drama theater stage turned around backward. And above that there will be all the lights and humungous screens and inflatable whatevers.

This is all speculation, I really don't know what it will be like, but that is what my imagination allows.

That would make sense.
Hopefully, rs.com will shed some light on this in the coming weeks.

not sure this will be "new" (to the Stones, yes, but not overall). They also billed the b-stage concept as new, but of course, that had been done before.

the way Cohl is using his hands in the interview when he's talking about it, it seems like the idea might be to have several clusters of fans esconced in various crannies in the backdrop. maybe we'll get goofy costumes to put on to make sure we don't clash with the color scheme.
i also have a theory that the onstage fans won't be up there for the whole gig. ordinary mortals just don't have that much (um) stamina.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

Sounds like 400 seats built into the stage means 400 screwballs on the stage the whole show. To get 400 people on and off the stage during a show will take so much time and interupt the flow of things I dont see it being a 3 or 4 song thing. I think they mean what they say.....people are gonna sit with the band....I think it will give the band itself more a "bar feel" and will fire them up.

Milo, NYC
I was driving home early Sunday morning

I've just read that the Stones' organization is reiterating its pledge that "every stadium concert" on the US tour will have "on stage" audience participants. I guess stones.com will keep us posted.

What an incredible experience that would be....count me in, please!

>> I think they mean what they say <<

and Mick did say "it won't be seats".
if they're going to keep people standing on stage throughout entire shows, are they going to first screen out the nacho-eating tourist types who want everyone to sit down? the cardiac cases, the security-risk loonies, the hyperventilators and falling-down-drunk types? will they have smoking and nonsmoking sections up there?
there are lots of interesting logistics challenges no matter how it's done.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

I've been to some venues including Shoreline in California that has a view platform/club from the side of the stage. Theres this black mesh, and when the lights are off in the off stage viewing area you can't see the people from the audience seats. This might work...

I think they'll use those one-way mirrors!
Crowd sees reflection, and "stagies" are hidden!

I think that they want the people to be seen. Now, if I'm the band, I want young hot chicks who will be naked or half naked on-stage with me........which will mean Ronnie will be totally distracted, sober or not.

With SSSoul makes good points.

Milo, NYC
If she's so wild she can join in too

The stage set will be a futuristic Jetsons type city. There will be seats in the balconies of the buildings. The seats will go by lottery.

thanks for seeing what i mean, Milo.
i saw an interview recently where Mick said: "you can't choose who comes to see you" - maybe it was the same interview where he was laughing about some hapless fat guy waving his fist with his mouth hanging open going Mick Mick - "my date" ...
when you think about all the myriad ways there are to be unfit to remain on stage, especially if they aren't seated, and/or if it's for the whole show, and/or if anyone has to look at them, it seems like there would have to be *some* sort of criteria other than just "whoever wins/pays for these tickets".

meanwhile: nice vision, Cherry Red! will we have costumes to match the set, like the Rock & Roll Circus audience?


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

Stones fans, as with the public, come in many sizes, shapes, and colors and states of health. I can't think of anything more pathetic and shallow and despicable than to choose model-type people from the audience to come on stage. I think there's a word for that---> discrimination!
The rock n roll circus audience was just regular-looking folks. This isn't some hollywood movie; we get enough images from the media of perfect airbrushed models in movies, tv, magazines as it is. Remember how disgusted everyone was that Mick used models in the front of the audience for his live video stage perf of "Visions of Paradise". Learn from the past.

It doesn't matter if you're black
It doesn't matter if you're white
Take a dollar fifty
A six pack of beer
And we goin' dance all night

And when I look in the faceless crowd
A swirling mass of grays and black and white
They don't look real to me
Or don't they look so strange

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's think of the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Let's drink to the salt of the earth








Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-06-04 20:53 by Oh No.

Oh No, i wasn't condoning discrimination on the basis of looks; on the other hand, the show isn't exclusively for the benefit of the 400 who end up on the stage, and i imagine some sort of "screening" will be done. i (obviously!) don't know what criteria might be applied, but i'm sure no one wants anybody to suffer a medical emergency on stage - or to disrupt a show by being too inebriated to be cool, or by emitting high-pitched shrieks nonstop like that nitwit in 98, or by getting aggressive, or by whining, talking on cellphones the whole time, etc. all of the above are distressing enough when they're happening in the usual audience areas; i doubt that having to watch that kind of thing happening on stage would be a lot of people's idea of a good time.

(isn't that line actually "in fact they look so strange"?)


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2005-06-04 22:17 by with sssoul.

I think that there will be cages of people suspended arround them kind of like go-go dancers, but much larger plus people on the floor like U2 & VH. I think they will be screened also judging on youth and looks. I don't agree with the screening thig either, but I got front row at an Elton John show because I looked "what Elton wants in the first couple of rows" same thing happened to my girlfriend at a Garth Brooks show.

I doubt if Fans will be "on stage" where the Stones perform. From what I gather, the stage will "appear to be, as in, "extended" into the left, right and rear seats, which use to be called "bad seating"/"obstructed and rear view".


A sketchy email said the Stones would make "it appear" as if the Fans were on stage. And no Fans will have access to the Stones, unless of course it is a "staged runner" now and then, to hype things up

Cheers

"Fuc the Rock babe, I want the Roll." (KR)

Yes, they all look so strange, that song captures the Stones' ambivilance towards 'the people' quite honestly...I wonder if this will be a rs.com lottery so supposed hardcore fans will get 'onstage' - maybe some employee going out & grabbing enthusiastic audience members. It would seem they would want to avoid 'grabbers', as with ssoul says, the deeply inebriated, the armed, & the clueless semi fans who always seem to show up at stadium gigs (& are right in front of me - they go out for beer when Keith sings, or if they dont recognize a song), not to mention the corporate privileged who leave Roseland during the third song....Hopefully, WE will be up there

i know people who were approached at Stones shows and given "ticket ugrades" to within the first few rows. just like that, out of the blue, without even asking for it - and the people it happened to are ones who have light in their eyes from the music. that criterion i can relate to.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

"but I got front row at an Elton John show because I looked "what Elton wants in the first couple of rows"

ok i'm almost afraid have to ask

So what does Elton John want in his front rows?