Haven't been to a Stones show on the floor in a while. Do people stand on their chairs, or does security keep you from doing that?

sorry post twice



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-06-20 12:17 by TeleK.

floor with chairs?

in the licks video msg ,nobody stand on his chairs so i have seen


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Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away

To my knowledge in the US they are very strict. Perhaps somebody could cliam the Stones or the promoters for falling off the chair.
Personally for me it will be a problem in Calgary as I have 7th row floor, but me and my wive are quite short-cut. So I hope at least my wive can stand on the chair for some times.

is germany the only location where the floor is not filled with chairs?

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Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away

That is one of the reasons I hate what you see at the $300 ticket shows: family outings of the wealthy sort. Where security guards tell you to put out cigarettes and the second you stand on a chair you are asked to leave. yet when Jagger comes out on his trips over on the sidewings you are all allowed to stand up and wave for the allotted time slot. "OK everybody get up and cheer loudly and clap along. Wave with the Jaggerman! OK, now STOP! Back on your seats!" Makes me wish for a Den Haag show in 65...

Tom "Wankerman" Cruise did on Oprah.

ROCKMAN

Only if they've got legs. ;`|

"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

There never used to be any chairs on the pitch at Wembley from '90 through to '99 but sadly there was at Twickenham. Even so the staff were more flexible than the fascistic behaviour I came across in the States, particularly at the Pasadena Rosebowl in '94. The chair thing seriously marrs the atmosphere IMO.

TeleK Wrote:
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> is germany the only location where the floor is
> not filled with chairs?
>

Spain and Portugal don't have the floor filled with chairs. I think most of europe is the same.

[There'll be no wedding today...]

You are not allowed to stand on your chair or on top of the shouldes of others. Why? Because it is blocking the view, and it is a security risk. Not because you may fall down, but because the people behind you will soon knock you down, i.e. you will be the cause of a riot. That is why they never allow anyone to stand on chairs or to sit on shoulders. I am talking about any venue any country with proper security.

In Europe they rarely have chairs on the pitch, except Twickenham which had it in order to keep a high ticket price on the pitch I think.

Bjornulf

Why are there chairs anyway????

- Koen.

The chairs are there in order for you to sit down, if you like, if your back is hurting, if your legs are not good, or if you simply want to sit for some other reason. And because it is easier to keep control of a crowd if they have seats.

In football it is normally a law that you MUST have chairs. Crowd control is easier then. It is easier to hide in the crowd if everybody stand up. With music you don't have winners and loosers so then normally the crowd does not riot that much. But people have died in riots even with music. Roskilde just an example. And some other places, like in the States. But usually it is pretty safe.

Many people just can't understand why others have to sit down. Personally I have no problems standing up for 8 hours. In fact I love it. But I do understand that a bad back or legs that hurt makes the need of chairs urgent. And I think it is lack or respect or just lack of understanding to think that we can all stand up like nothing for hours. Please allow people who need to sit for some reason sit, they don't do it because they hate the band or because they are bad fans. They simply need it. Also you may be tired from heat, a horrible warm-up band or because you used the gym in the hotel by accident (I did that one time, for fun, and was so tired I did not understand why my legs did not like to stand up like hours like they use to do).

Bjornulf

BV i can under stand the reason for seating as i suffer from arthritis myself, but i cant understand why they put them on the pitch <sorry i do know the reason obviously money> but it just kills it for me and when you do get up you have the added concern of spoiling the view of the person behind you and being a regular football fan i know seating has killed most of the atmosphere in the grounds.

I thought about this a bit, and frankly, it all makes economic sense. (i) they can charge more for the seats; but more importantly, (ii) in the unlikely event that someone get seriously injured or killed in a stagefront scrum, the lawsuit could cost them millions with punitive damages in the States.

I would not expect a riot with a Stones show. You may have riots with fans in the 10's, 20's and may be even 30's, but people in the 40's and 50's sit down and do what they are told. And if they stand up they still do what they are told. Younger fans drive their motorcycles in 200 km/h and are eternal. The grown up Stones fans are more happy with chairs all over. And they have more money to pay for that chair. In U.S. venues the chairs do even have a cup holder for their beer, so that they can place their beer there without spilling it.

By the way I saw Elton John a couple of weeks ago in Oslo Spektrum, a flexible venue which can be all standing or all seating or any thing really. With Elton John it was all seated. With R.E.M. some months ago it was all standing. The crowd was 25 years younger then. When the Stones play Spektrum next year I wonder if there will be standing at all. Probably chairs all over.

Bjornulf

Thanks, BV for helping those who actually need to have it explained to them that they are not the only ones at the show and that people do indeed have different needs! (Personally, I stand, but not on the chair) During a stadium show on the VL tour in Philadelphia when the hurricane was coming through during the show, a group of very tall intoxicated soldiers in the row in front of us decided they would stand on their chairs. I'm not sure why because they towered above everybody anyway. Nobody could see. The girl beside me had been carried in by her husband all the way to the 12th row floor because she had Muscular Dystrophy and was using crutches (but doing her best to stand). When eveybody asked them repeatedly to get off of their chairs, they became outraged and literally dove off of their chairs onto all of us who were directly behind them, fists swinging all the way! The girl mentioned and her husband were both injured. It was a very ugly scene. Security arrived and to our delight, threw them out. It ruined much of the show for many of us. I have witnessed several similar instances at other Stones shows that bagan with people on chairs, of which all could easily have been avoided.

Rick

A rock'n'roll concert is not supposed to be experienced from a chair!
That's my main concern about Giants and MSG when I'm going over to New York in september. On a rock'n'roll concert I want everyone to dance, move and sing with t-shirts wet of sweat. That's rock'n'roll.

The Worst...People will definetley be dancing and moving at those shows (just not on top of the chairs). Go. Don't worry about it. It won't be a problem!

Rick

I have no problem with providing chairs at stadiums. However, I prefer to be given the choice of chair or standing. That's how they used to do it. If you want to sit, buy a seated ticket. However, if you want to dance and jump about, without worrying that the poor old dear in the seat behind will wag her money at you, go on the pitch! Anyone who defends the idea of all-seated pitches is defending something that favours the rich corporate entertainment style of event (where people will buy tickets for several hundred dollars) rather than the old system of the most keen fans queing up for hours before to get nearer the front. That way, only the real die-hards got there, and everyone pays the same.

Is it that BV is getting a bit old now? - only joking, but sometimes I feel you would defend the stones even if they commited cold blooded genocide!

I am not defending the Stones. They don't know about chairs. They don't care about chairs. Valle Hovin - the venue they have been playing in Norway - have got 39,500 standing places and 500 seats. They would have been much better off with chairs on that horrible concrete place of course. I am defending the numerous people who want to sit down withouit being called all sorts of things.

Also, as half of us (not me) are not that tall, including many girls, sitting down everybody do actually help for those who are not tall. I think people who like to stand at rock shows are on average taller than 5 foot. They would probably be closer to 6 feet or taller. Then they would not know how it is to just see the balled back head of a tall guy. Or the back of a thousand. When people sit down it is easier for everyone to see, actually.

Bjornulf

I just wonder, in the States are there seats on the whole pitch? Or is a part of the pitch reserved for people standing. I´m going to see the Stones in Seattle and I got a place on the upper level but not so far from the stage, then I don´t see the idea to spend a lot of money to change the ticket to something on the pitch.

In Europe on the whole pitch people are standing and you can ciculate and get closer to the stage. In most cases I think, at least it was like that on the concerts in Sweden that the part closest to the stage had a separate entrance and higher prices. I must say that I have difficulty to value the American prices, it seems to me that you might pay much more and still be far away from the stage. Anyway sitting down on a rock concert is an insult to the idea of rock and roll. And I´m not really young, but if Mick can dance then I also can.

Mago

SJS, I am thrilled General Admission is a thing of the past because I nearly got killed in Philly in 1978 because a bunch of drunken fools pushed and knocked over tons of innocent folks on their way up front.I do NOT want any choice involved in sitting or standing; I want to pay more so I CAN SIT! And I do NOT want fools that paid $99 pushing to the front PAST Those of us that paid the $450. I tell the guards to toss out fans that do that and ruin the show for those who PAID To SIT up front! And the guards Do toss out those caught out of their seats, or standing in the aisles. AND STANDING ON CHAIRS is a NO NO! Very danderous, I have seen stupid fans knock over innocent concert-goers as they toppled over on top of them. I don't want to be the one breaking the fall of some idiot out of control!I am a Die Hard fan but I don't ruin the event for others, nor is it PROVING what a great fan you are to run the concert for the fans who have LEARNED how to behave at a show.Rock n' roll is no longer about mayhem, that went out with the 80's, that punk thing is over.

They should go back to standing with a golden circle area for early arrivals -ie real fans. It stops the drunks trying to push down the front after you've held your spot for hours.

Remember Wembley 99 anyone? I thought it worked very well.

Oh ,I forgot -not enough MONEY in it !

sc uk

One major reason for having seats on the floor in US arenas and stadiums is the lesson people learned from the The Who tragedy in Cincinnati in 1979. Eleven people got killed and many injured when trying to get into the arena.

Now you have numbered seats in the US and there is no need to hurry.

In places outside the US where you have general admission dangerous situations occur often when the gates open.

If your not one of those tall and broad ones you might see more when you have chairs on the floor as you have more space in between the rows than rather being pushed somewhere in the middle of knowhere where I only see muscles in front of me, a ellbow in my back and hair in my mouth from a person I normally would't like to be so close.
I am not pre or against the chairs, but it can be comfortable at times. Mostly the support acts to the Stones (at least in Europe since 82) have been so much out of my taste that I would rather sit down and wait for Mick and the boys.

Based on your experience, what are the odds that I would be pressed against someone (female) that I would enjoy being pressed against.

The odds are a harry breast by a man who sweats and smells. Mostly it's not the nice things of live happening pressed on the floor....
I have seen to many people fading in the front. As I used to take photographs in the seventies and eighties (about 100 concerts) I know how it is being pushed in the first row. At one Foreigner concert I got so many brouses from the barriere in front of the stage that I nearly died. The whole stage was even shaking and moving which was very scarry. So far for the experience...

As far as I'm aware, there has always been the option to sit at stadiums. Its just that the pitch used to be reserved for those who want to dance and jump and move about. If your worried about being pushed into the armpit of a hairy man then pay for a seat. However, don't ruin it for everyone else who wants to have a festive party atmosphere!

If you think that the Stones crowd is rough, you should go to some punk or rock gigs. I used to love stage diving, crowd surfing and moshing, but I am probably a bit old for that now (I'm 29 - so not quite middle aged) so I hang back a bit. I still get shoved around, but I don't care. It's all part of the experience of ROCK AND ROLL.

The day I want to sit at a gig, is the day I hang up my rock n roll for good and start listening to Billy Joel.

I remember wembley 99 and it was good even thou we was three quarters of the way back by the souvenier hut, it would be nice to get closer to the stage but i can still enjoy it from a reasonable distance perhaps i am getting complacent having seen them a few times as sjs12 states give us a option on least some of the concerts, come on mick you can afford it!