Todays Culture section of the Sunday Times Say the Stones are playing London on 30th June.

Great. Venue? O2?

tarmon Wrote:
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> Todays Culture section of the Sunday Times Say the
> Stones are playing London on 30th June.


Not in my copy it doesnt, although there are some differences between the Irish edition and the one printed in London.

Can you please give details and clarify whether there is an article saying this or whether it is merely another advert from a company like "Overland Touring" with the get-out "date and venue subject to change" clause ?

I saw an AD for WWW.GLOBALEVENTSDIRECT.com saying ROLLING STONES LONDON 30 june and Paris 16 june .

The Rolling Stones
London O2 Centre
Please Note : Date & Venue may change.
Tickets Available:
Cat 1 Seating £375 Buy


V.I.P Seating £599 Buy


Cat 2 Seating £275 Buy


Cat 3 Seating £175 Buy


Economy Seating £150 Buy


30th June 2007
London O2 Centre
Greenwich , Lon


Speculation?

Doubt the Stones would ever ask 600 quid for a ticket in the UK.

All prices sound like a hopeful ticket broker.

Brokers

And anything that says "dates and venues subject to change" is basically speculation in an attempt to get you to send them a deposit

Anyone see the piece that Tarmon is referring to or is it just more broker bullshit?

Yeah, broker fur sure...but if they offer "tickets" now, an official tickets presale can't be in too far future, right?

adotulipson Wrote:
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> I saw an AD for WWW.GLOBALEVENTSDIRECT.com saying
> ROLLING STONES LONDON 30 june and Paris 16 june .
>
> The Rolling Stones
> London O2 Centre
> Please Note : Date & Venue may change.
>
> Economy Seating £150 Buy
>
>
> 30th June 2007
> London O2 Centre
> Greenwich , Lon


Since when did £150 become "Economy"?

RollingStonesFan Wrote:
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> Yeah, broker fur sure...but if they offer
> "tickets" now, an official tickets presale can't
> be in too far future, right?



Depends. Some of them are utter scam artists and the fact that they mention an artist and a date means nothing at all.

In many cases, they're aware that shows will be announced at some point and their dates and venues are merely speculative. Some are more reliably informed than others, so its very often pot luck.

Overland Touring have been advertising for the Paris and London shows on those dates now for several weeks (originally they didnt carry the 'subject to change' proviso, but now they do). They could well be correct, but theyre also the same company who advertised for sign ups for U2 shows this summer - which arent happening. I think a Danish travel company advertised before them for trips to Paris for a show on 16th June - and they werent brokers, so whilst there could well be something in these dates and venues, its best not to take them as cast-iron certainties and book anything prior to any official announcements. Taht Danish company were advertising before Christmas and we still havent heard any announcement.

The disgusting lot that is ticket brokers/legal scalpers has ruined concert going for real fans in the US. I hate it's happening to my European friends too.

Hell, I liked it better when we stood in line all night for a ticket to a show. Catch a buzz and make a few new friends.

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
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>
>
> Hell, I liked it better when we stood in line all
> night for a ticket to a show. Catch a buzz and
> make a few new friends.


I remember those days.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
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> The disgusting lot that is ticket brokers/legal
> scalpers has ruined concert going for real fans in
> the US. I hate it's happening to my European
> friends too.
>
>

Its been ruined partly because the bands, their management or promoters (or a combination of all three) have little or no interest in curtailing it. Probably because they get a nice little cut from it IMO.

That's the rub, isn't it? It would seem to be a fair question to ask whether the bands would allow this sort of thing to take place in such plain view if they were not getting a piece of the action.

I have no proof that is the case, but when you consider how the concert business is run these days, it seems hard to believe they would pass up this "revenue stream".

Gazza Wrote:
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> Its been ruined partly because the bands, their
> management or promoters (or a combination of all
> three) have little or no interest in curtailing
> it. Probably because they get a nice little cut
> from it IMO.

The Stones themselves did a good job by increasing the ticketprices so that those 100 people who normally would have bought tickets through scalpers can buy them at the box office the day itself.

Gazza Wrote:
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> Elmo Lewis Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The disgusting lot that is ticket brokers/legal
> > scalpers has ruined concert going for real fans
> in
> > the US. I hate it's happening to my European
> > friends too.
> >
> >
>
> Its been ruined partly because the bands, their
> management or promoters (or a combination of all
> three) have little or no interest in curtailing
> it. Probably because they get a nice little cut
> from it IMO.


Your absolutly right Gazza. It's more like the management,and the band looks the other way. I had 2nd row for Idaho,right off the cat and the ticket's said Band Pulls on them. Scalper's sell those for minimum 1,000 dollars,Go to Razor Gator .com,Some people want 10,000 dollar's for Police ticket's 2nd row. That is @#$%& ridiculous!

Elmo said

"The disgusting lot that is ticket brokers/legal scalpers has ruined concert going for real fans in the US. I hate it's happening to my European friends too.

Hell, I liked it better when we stood in line all night for a ticket to a show. Catch a buzz and make a few new friends."

My feelings precisely !
And you got the best seats[or rather not seats!] by sitting outside the door all day ;^)

Spud Wrote:
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> Elmo said
>
> "The disgusting lot that is ticket brokers/legal
> scalpers has ruined concert going for real fans in
> the US. I hate it's happening to my European
> friends too.

Since when has it been difficult for a real fan to get tickets for a stones concert at the "normal" price? (except for club gigs of course)
Certainly not in Europe. The only problem is, in seated arena's in the USA, that scalpers tend to have the best tickets. That I don't understand. Somebody is to blame for that.

It's certainly becoming more of a problem for shows in the UK and Ireland, Harm - regardless of size of venue, but certainly in arenas when its all-seated

However, the only all-seated arenas the Stones played in Europe in 2003 (AFAIK) were in London and Manchester. Whilst Manchester wasnt a particularly hard ticket to get, the Wembley shows were. Cant really use the Licks tour to compare, because they didnt play any indoor shows - however there was definitely a 'less than transparent' ticket selling system for the stadiums as there were for the US shows.

"Less than transparent" ! You ought to be a diplomat Gazza.

The fact is that you try to book the best seats "available" the moment they go on sale and you end up paying top price for seats in the middle of the freakin pitch, 60 yards from the stage,

Weeks later you see FOS seats advertised by the hundred !

It's bollocks.

Ok, then - 'fraudulent' it is, then! The fact that you have this circle jerk instead of simply being offered the best tickets at your chosen ticket outlet when the sales supposedly begin remains a sore point that the promoters and ticket agencies have never addressed properly

Thankfully, like many people I got wise to it. Feel sorry for the poor buggers at the start of a tour though who are the guinea pigs for this scam and who fall for it, because through no fault of their own, they know no better.

> Economy Seating £150 Buy

classic. if thats the case, they can shove it up their sorry arses

You'll be lucky to get a seat for £150 - more likely a place to stand where you can't see any of the band.....just kidding...lol

Rolling Stones Tribute

Play Rolling Stones

So what should we do Gazza? Rush in and buy straight away because it may sell out - or wait and sweat that there will be better tickets later? Not being sarcastic, a genuine question here...


Gazza Wrote:
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>>
> Thankfully, like many people I got wise to it.
> Feel sorry for the poor buggers at the start of a
> tour though who are the guinea pigs for this scam
> and who fall for it, because through no fault of
> their own, they know no better.

assuming its the same system as last time, keep the price you want to pay and stick to it. I had a fan club presale for the MSG shows in January 2006, but all that came up for 20-30 minutes when they went on sale was $450 tickets. I'd decided that if I couldnt get tickets in the next price range ($160) I wouldnt go as I refused to pay that amount. Miraculously, after 20-30 minutes, a pair of $160 tickets on the first level at the back of the arena popped up and I got them. A few days later I got the same seats two rows back for the 2nd show in a FREE presale after someone had given me the Ameriquest password. So much for the advantages of being a fan club member.

The trick is to get you to panic-buy the overpriced seats, so you log in, and about two minutes later get offered something about 30 rows back or in Block B for £150. you think "Shit, all the good ones are gone" and buy them. They did this with those 'free presales' last year for AMEX customers. So, you got hundreds of wannabee ticket touts snapping up £150 tickets in Block B for twickenham (with a 12 ticket limit - a touts paradise) and then immediately putting them on e-bay thinking theyd make a killing. Of course, they couldnt give the bloody things away and most of them lost money because better tickets were easier to come elsewhere and also TM released extra tickets in the front ten rows a couple of months later. The Stones end up 'winning' because theyve actually managed to sell these £150 B-block tickets and have got the money in the bank for them, even though the idiots who bought them en masse cant get their money back on ebay.

When they put Glasgow on sale, I had a fan club password and assumed that as this would be the slowest seller of the UK tour, it would be a piece of cake getting £60 tickets in the front 10 rows on a presale. Surprise surprise, all I got offered was £150 tickets in Block B or at the back of Block A. I passed. A week later, someone posted here at about 3 am one night that secc.com had £60 tickets in the first five rows so I snapped them up.

The problem is that the system can change slightly from show to show, and as yet we dont know where the Stones are playing. If theyre playing the Millennium Dome (as rumoured) and thats their only mainland UK date, I would imagine that they'll have a system similar to MSG in New York, in which MOST of the tickets will be in the highest price band (unfortunately they dont officially publish charts showing a breakdown of where each price range is located. Some of these charts do pop up, but its not released by the Stones organisation themselves). If they do that, it might just be a case of grabbing what you can although generally for pretty much every show they release tickets nearer the time and you can get them if youre quick - however they dont announce them and you have to rely on word of mouth or constantly checking TM. For stadiums, theres always a way.

as you can no doubt see, the system isnt complicated at all and designed to help the ticket buyer in the fairest and most consumer-friendly way possible

Gazza Wrote:
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> >
> as you can no doubt see, the system isnt
> complicated at all and designed to help the ticket
> buyer in the fairest and most consumer-friendly
> way possible


Thanks Gazza, all clear as mud .

I've managed to resist the $100 membership of RS.com, valentine pins and all. Is this the time for me to give in and sign up, is it going to make the difference between decent tickets and not?

Thats the $100 question. I had 3 memberships last tour and of the two I used, whilst in retrospect I could have got similar seats eventually, using the pre-sale probably helped reduce the sheer hassle of trying several methods afterwards to get good tickets. the 3rd membership I didnt use and am waiting on a refund.

I think it depends on the sort of show youre going for. If its for an indoor show, it may be worth it. For a stadium show, definitely not - unless its a seated gig and it gives you a shot at those £60 tickets in the front ten rows. For me, its really only worth it if you can get those £60 tickets down front. There's nothing at £150 that justifies paying that extra money for IMO.

I'd sit tight for now and wait for the announcement and see what shows you're planning to go to before doing anything like that. And if theres the option of signing up at the same time as you're offered the seats you want in a pre-sale, it might be worth your while at that point.

Thanks for the info Gazza, I appreciate it.

Gazza Wrote:
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> Thats the $100 question. I had 3 memberships last
> tour and of the two I used, whilst in retrospect I
> could have got similar seats eventually, using the
> pre-sale probably helped reduce the sheer hassle
> of trying several methods afterwards to get good
> tickets. the 3rd membership I didnt use and am
> waiting on a refund.
>
> I think it depends on the sort of show youre going
> for. If its for an indoor show, it may be worth
> it. For a stadium show, definitely not - unless
> its a seated gig and it gives you a shot at those
> £60 tickets in the front ten rows. For me, its
> really only worth it if you can get those £60
> tickets down front. There's nothing at £150 that
> justifies paying that extra money for IMO.
>
> I'd sit tight for now and wait for the
> announcement and see what shows you're planning to
> go to before doing anything like that. And if
> theres the option of signing up at the same time
> as you're offered the seats you want in a
> pre-sale, it might be worth your while at that
> point.

Exactly how I think about it. The good thing about the membership on this tour is that you can get a refund. However if you decide to use it but are unable to buy the right tickets you are @#$%& I think.

i spent a lot of time watching the US ticket sales in 05, hoping to be better prepared
when the european sales started. i learned a lot that way - the most important part being:
don't buy tickets you won't be happy with. and then be happy with the ones you buy.

with sssoul Wrote:
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> don't buy tickets you won't be happy with. and
> then be happy with the ones you buy.


Happy whatever you do?
Even if you buy tickets you won't be happy with, you're gonna be happy with'em when you bought them?

Good thing to always be positive!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-02-20 13:38 by Thommie.