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Q’s With Concerts West’s John Meglen On Rescheduling A Stones Tour

5/24/2019
By: Andy Gensler


Nanterre France Oct. 22, 2017 (AP Photo / Michael Euler)

Late last week The Rolling Stones announced rescheduled dates for this year’s “No Filter” tour following Mick Jagger’s thankfully successful heart valve surgery in April.

Pollstar spoke with the Concerts West co-CEO and president John Meglen, who let us in on what it was like having to start, stop and restart one of this year’s biggest tours

Pollstar: Because of the start and stop again, was this a really difficult period of time for you?
John Meglen: Not really. I wouldn’t call it difficult, it just is what it is. It’s like, “Did you want to have to go and do all the things you got to do?” No. But, you know, you do it. It just comes down to you do what you got to do. Obviously, we’re excited about the Stones starting back up again.

It’s unprecedented to have a tour at that scale, cancel, then have to re-figure it all out and do it all over again.
Yeah, but what are you going to do? You do it one, so it’s proper for the artist. And two, so it’s proper for their fans. Those are the two main things you want to keep in mind. There is the old adage here, “If everybody starts freaking out, do the right thing and things have a way of working out.”

What do you mean by that?
If everybody just spent more time focusing on doing the right thing than how they can shave a little off here, put something on the side over there, then we’d be better promoters. Louis Messina doesn’t let that stuff get in his way. That’s why he’s such a good promoter. He just focuses on what he needs to do. I feel we’re the same way. If you do what you need to do, the results will take care of themselves.

I would think there would be a few other artists out there who could recover from something like this and not have it derail the whole tour.
Correct. But the organization is just full of pros. It really is. Everybody in the Stone organization is as good as you get. Everybody knows how to handle things. Everybody just goes, “Okay.” They just go and do what they need to do. That’s what’s great.

Was anybody freaking out or hair on fire? Or was everybody just calm and collected like, “We got this, we’ll deal with it.”
Very calm and collected. You never want to have to cancel anything. Your worst case is you got all the people in the building, and you got to cancel a show. We’ve been through it all. We’ve been from before it started, all the way to until 10 minutes before the artist is supposed to go on stage. So, you just deal with it, and just try to make good decisions.

Who is on the team?
First and foremost Joyce Smyth, their manager, most importantly we follow her direction and what the guys want to do. We’re also in constant touch with Tim Woolley, the tour er. We go back decades working on tours with Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Paul Simon – he’s the best financial tour producer out there.

Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth is the best production manager out there. He does GNR and AC/DC. And of course Paul Gongaware, nothing happens without him.

There’s also people in our office, Kelly DiStefano our COO, she’s brilliant. She’s the connection to the back office and knows how to get everything done within the company – she’s an incredible bridge. Stacy Welk does all the ticketing, and Marc Feinberg does all the premium ticketing. Amy Morrison does an amazing job on marketing. Jane Rose, who is Keith’s manager, is essential. With The Rolling Stones you do it their way. They’ve been doing it really well for a long time, we just follow their directions.

We were trying to talk to Quint Davis at Jazz Fest after the Stones canceled and he was just completely unavailable.
That was a hard phone call to make. He worked so hard for so long to put that together. Those are the things you hate. You hate when just human circumstances or environmental circumstances affect everybody doing a really good job working really hard on something, and then stuff like that happens.

Life gets in the way.
Yeah, that’s live. You know what our motto is at Concerts West? We may doze but we never close.

How was the Stones 50th anniversary tour? How would that rank in your pantheon of greatest hits with the Stones?
Taking the Rolling Stones to Cuba was really special. I got to work with the Stones when I worked for Michael [Cohl], who worked on their tours then. But they’re Michael’s tours. What was really special was for Paul and I to go, “Wow, we’re now promoting The Rolling Stones.” You’d like to think we’ve done a better job than anybody else. We’ve definitely made them more money than anybody else. We’re constantly figuring out how to get money from all the brokers and scalpers on our side of the fence. That’s why a lot our grosses get so good.

How do they sound now?
It blows me away how incredibly they are playing today. I don’t know if that’s just growing up and getting a little better with age, or whatever it is. But man, it’s just like you sit there and watch them and you go, “Man, they are just so on.” And by the way, there’s nothing enhanced up there. It’s all them.

[www.pollstar.com]

Nice stuff, bye bye johnny. Thanks for sharing!

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bye bye johnny
Q’s With Concerts West’s John Meglen On Rescheduling A Stones Tour

How do they sound now?
It blows me away how incredibly they are playing today. I don’t know if that’s just growing up and getting a little better with age, or whatever it is. But man, it’s just like you sit there and watch them and you go, “Man, they are just so on.” And by the way, there’s nothing enhanced up there. It’s all them.

[www.pollstar.com]

Fantastic article/ interview.
The picture stopped me in my tracks with a huge smile.
Still smiling.
I was there in Nanterre.
I’d say The RS tours since the 50th 2012
have been superior.

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Hairball
As far as I know stonesfrkk, GA 1 and GA 2 are PIT and there are no rows. SRO means standing room only.
Maybe someone else can clarify and/or verify.

GA is back of floor Pit is pit

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daspyknows

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Hairball
As far as I know stonesfrkk, GA 1 and GA 2 are PIT and there are no rows. SRO means standing room only.
Maybe someone else can clarify and/or verify.

GA is back of floor Pit is pit

Right, but looking TM ticket page (for Glendale) Pit 1 and Pit 2 are both also listed as General Admission.
Regular GA is plain old GA - SEC Field aka back of floor.
No seats in either, standing room only.

Click on "best seats" and the first on the list are Pit listed as General Admission.
You can still get Pit 1 General Admission at Standard price for $442+ right now as has been the case since day one.

Glendale

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-25 04:43 by Hairball.

Just dont try to click on those $442 tickets (pit 1)... or actually... go ahead and give it a go...

[www1.ticketmaster.com]





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-25 20:50 by Xam.

And then just to test to see if the whole site is an error.. click on the nose bleeds ... and lo and behold it works smooooooth.... so smooth.... smooth as... uhm... smooth as a... the smoothest thing. Give it a try, click on the crappy seats, they work perfect. It is hilarious... I mean once I realize it is supposed to be funny prank... yeah... it is pretty funny. ITS A PRANK BRO!

It is as funny as ticketbastard scalping tickets on the same site it sells tickets on.

That error code came up for me for $806 pit tickets for Met Life. Very funny.

Maybe they are preparing to offer lucky dips in the near future - such
as when the New Orleans show goes on sale?

Ticketmaster sucks big time.

I could be wrong but I smell a fckng rat with those high priced “general admission “ tickets.
The pit tickets are called No Filter Pit 1 or 2. It looks to me like those general admission tickets that are AT THE BACK OF THE MAIN FLOOR are getting passed off as pit tickets.
They scam you out of $500 or $1000 and it’s “oh well it said general admission”

I think you are wrong, Lem Motlow. General Admission with the pit tickets just means there are no assigned seats. If you go to the Glendale show and click the pit on the map, it does say Pit 1 or Pit 2 - Standing Room only - and you get just that, the face value pit ticket. (Right now only Pit 1 seems to go for face value).

However, if you click on the back field, you get "SEC FIELD - this section is unreserved general admission" for 117.75 a pop + fees.

Is it misleading that the ticket list on the right-hand side of the Glendale event page just calls the pits "General Admission"? You bet it is. But again, go on the map and it says Pit.

I only looked at couple of cities but it's very obvious to select a ticket you first click on a section on the map. How can you confuse PIT with Field, you know exactly where in the stadium you are selecting.

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Topi
I think you are wrong, Lem Motlow. General Admission with the pit tickets just means there are no assigned seats. If you go to the Glendale show and click the pit on the map, it does say Pit 1 or Pit 2 - Standing Room only - and you get just that, the face value pit ticket. (Right now only Pit 1 seems to go for face value).

However, if you click on the back field, you get "SEC FIELD - this section is unreserved general admission" for 117.75 a pop + fees.

Is it misleading that the ticket list on the right-hand side of the Glendale event page just calls the pits "General Admission"? You bet it is. But again, go on the map and it says Pit.

True, however there was a moment during the initial sales pre-postponement back in November where there was some sort of bait and switch.
I recall seeing PIT listed below $200, but knew it was too good to be true, and sure enough it wasn't until you had it in your cart where the details of it being regular GA SEC field were revealed.
Forget which show I was looking at (maybe Santa Clara?), but I recall sending out a "Beware" message somewhere here to pay attention to details all the way until you hit the 'purchase' button.
I think there was a few here who fell for it, and it may not have been done intentionally...could have just been a dipshit working at Ticketmaster who didn't know the lay of the land.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Burls Creek bleacher seats are getting very limited ( many sections sold out)

RH Pits (keiths side) are sold out

my lord the traffic nightmare is going to stellar,,, Canada day weekend is hell on wheels on the 400 hwy as it is,, then this on top,,

Im coming in some back ways I know of,, anyone needs a hand on how to avoid hwy 400 as much as possible, give me a shout

I may have an extra separate hotel room for Burls Creek for Friday/Saturday close to the event grounds. I know lodging is sold out or extremely difficult to find. If anyone is interested feel free to contact me.

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PalaisRoyale
I may have an extra separate hotel room for Burls Creek for Friday/Saturday close to the event grounds. I know lodging is sold out or extremely difficult to find. If anyone is interested feel free to contact me.

Message sent!

I spotted Pit tickets for Philadelphia, on Ronnie’s side (pit1), last night for $495 on Ticketmaster site.

FYI. Looked at Denver and Miami. Looks like a ticket drop has happened. Lots of new tickets avaialable and you have to check the price at each location. No rhyme or reason. Some may be $685 and the ones right next to them might be $479

I bailed on Chicago 1. Have great seats / pit for Houston and Denver

Now eyeing Miami. And new seats available and prices are not that bad!

Northern Nale 1:

We are coming to the show in Burl's Creek. I have the option of staying in Barrie or Orillia. I would be coming up on Friday and returning early Sunday. It seems that staying in Orillia would be better going and coming to the show as most people would we going thru Barrie to and from Toronto. Would you agree?

On the Friday trip to Orillia and the return on Sunday would it be better to us HWY 11 & 12 on the east side or would it be just as bad and farther?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Stonesdude

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Stonesdude
Northern Nale 1:

We are coming to the show in Burl's Creek. I have the option of staying in Barrie or Orillia. I would be coming up on Friday and returning early Sunday. It seems that staying in Orillia would be better going and coming to the show as most people would we going thru Barrie to and from Toronto. Would you agree?

On the Friday trip to Orillia and the return on Sunday would it be better to us HWY 11 & 12 on the east side or would it be just as bad and farther?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Stonesdude

definitely Orillia is the better option for travel as the vast majority will be heading north and you would be south on day of show,,

the Friday going to Orillia where are you coming from to get there?

When will we get a look at merchandise being sold.

Northernale1:

We will be flying into Toronto on Friday afternoon. Leaving Sunday from the same airport.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also if you know any local restaurants in the Orillia area we should try please let us know.

Stonesdude

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Stonesdude
Northernale1:

We will be flying into Toronto on Friday afternoon. Leaving Sunday from the same airport.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also if you know any local restaurants in the Orillia area we should try please let us know.

Stonesdude

sunday going home will be no issue,,

friday afternoon of a canada day weekend is a different story, me personally, I would avoid all 400 hiways, by taking 27 north all the way the end turn right onto dunlop, then left onto ferndale, ferndale then will turn into wilson drive, follow it upto horseshoe valley road, turn right onto horseshoe valley road, you will come to prices corner which is hiway12 you turn right there takes you into orillia

this is going to look to be a lot out of your way,it really isnt and you will be thankfull that you avoided the 400 and 11

myself I will be taking Horseshoe Valley rd over ,, im not dare going on the 400

for eats Brewery Bay is my go to when I go to orillia, which is not often lol

hope this helps,, any other questions feel free to ask

You certainly can't go wrong with Nashville...you would have an amazing time.

But you might also consider Memphis for a more blues-oriented time. Plus, Graceland, Sun Studios, Lorraine Motel.

You will love both, so there is no bad choice between the 2.

Wow. Looked into the code for New Orleans and in doing so looked at ticket prices for Chicago. HOLY CRAP. The back is $200+ a ticket!!!

2 tickets is not even half my mortgage!

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GasLightStreet
Wow. Looked into the code for New Orleans and in doing so looked at ticket prices for Chicago. HOLY CRAP. The back is $200+ a ticket!!!

2 tickets is not even half my mortgage!

Lucky Dip New Orleans?

Northernale1:

Thank you for the suggested routing and place to eat.

We are looking forward to the show in the country north of Toronto. (1 of our 9)

Take care.

Stonesdude

MetLife currently (6:30 Eastern Time) has General Admission standing (back of field) for $159.50.