After more than one year after the last "on-stage"-shows of ABB, I wonder, if it was a good idea to let people on balconies behind the stadium-stage?
During the concerts, I found it a bit funny but a really great and especially "special" idea! Did another band ever had something similar by now? I guess, no!

I liked it!

I Never sat there, but had friends that did...they seemed to like it, except at Charlottesville, VA! Not sure if anybody else has done this.

JR

For someone who have attended to many Stones shows before it may be fun to sit there.. Interesting idea. I like it and would like to try



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-16 00:57 by Amused.

I liked it a lot.

For awhile there The Stones let all kinda folks on stage.....Even butterflies



THEN something went horribly wrong........





ROCKMAN

I did it once, but thought it was a waste of money.
Noe eye contact, except when they looked up to wave their hands at us. Bad view, no enthusiasm among the crowd up there. The only excitement was that we were escorted to our places just before the band came on. I'm not buying an on stage ticket again if the occation should occur. Which I doubt.

How was the sound up there?

I'd go once...but wouldn't want to see my only show on tour to be all the way up there. Seems a bit isolated up there, ironically.

I was never on-stage.
One friend of mine (who had seen many shows by then) was on-stage in Munich and didn't like it, also due to "the bad sound".
Another fiend (who had also seen many shows), was totaly enthused and he sayed that the sound was phantastic (Dübendorf, Switzerland). They both had almostb the same places up there. So...

not a good idea. to sit behind, or at the far side of the stage in an arena show was much more to the point.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-17 21:36 by 3DTeafoe.

Quote
Sohoe
How was the sound up there?

.......... LOL .... yeah, in the crows nests ..............

i did it a couple times - from the lower level it was well worth it, you're closer than front row at a big show. Mick never looks at the crowd anyway do it doesnt matter if you're in front or behind him- keiths always good for a laugh though!

JR i was on stage (and quickly rushed off) and then robbed of keiths set in CHarlottesville- actually it was a pretty cool experience i've never seen mick lose all condfidence on stage or seen a grown man carry keith richards around and i doubt i ever will again!

OLDKR

Quote
oldkr
i did it a couple times - from the lower level it was well worth it, you're closer than front row at a big show. Mick never looks at the crowd anyway do it doesnt matter if you're in front or behind him- keiths always good for a laugh though!

JR i was on stage (and quickly rushed off) and then robbed of keiths set in CHarlottesville- actually it was a pretty cool experience i've never seen mick lose all condfidence on stage or seen a grown man carry keith richards around and i doubt i ever will again!

OLDKR

Regarding the second paragraph: do you want to tell us more? Please!

Charlottesville is where there was a bomb scare, leading to a brief evacuation
and Keith's set was cancelled. but yeah, tell us about it, oldkr - what, Keith wouldn't leave on his own?

i once had the honour of ... well but that's another story! oldkr first.

Seems like something that would be fun and interesting for a song or two... but you wouldn't want to see the whole show from there.
It obviously wasn't perceived to be a great success because it was kicked into touch. Not knocking them for trying it though.

i thought the extra costs & hassle of meeting safety requirements and insurance and all that
were the main problem that led to the demise of that experiment. maybe it was more complicated in Europe
with different regulations in different countries? it was odd that those tickets were very cheap in the US
and outlandishly expensive at the few European shows where they were put on sale.

Thanks, with sssoul!

Did it in Koln and was a nice experience, but very expensive IMO.

Nice to have a new perspective but would not pay again (but I did participate to the lottery on all the other show I went)

Think it was good for people who were there but not for Jagger who has to take care about crowd behind him, just look at Austin show.

---

Sorry for my english ; I'm a french little boy (but I like it)

We were lucky enough to win on-stage tickets for the last show at Cardiff. The really good bit about that was that I'd given up our b-stage seats to friends for their nosebleed ones as I wanted them to really enjoy the only Stones show they were going to. We'd seen all the other u.k. concerts so we wanted them to experience how great the shows were close up. You can imagine the shock & hysteria & the tears when sitting way up at the top with a faraway blocked view of the stage, we both got text messages saying go to get your passes immediately! You've won! 2 tickets each! So we took 2 friends with us. It was an amazing experience - VIP bar, goodie bags and the ability to see what the band were seeing which was a wildly enthusiastic crowd with flashes going off all the time. Brilliant prize but if you're paying, maybe you can have as good a time for much less out front.
I still have the congratulatory text message telling me I'd won, stored on my phone. It meant that much.

"I did it once, but thought it was a waste of money.
Noe eye contact, except when they looked up to wave their hands at us. Bad view, no enthusiasm among the crowd up there. The only excitement was that we were escorted to our places just before the band came on. I'm not buying an on stage ticket again if the occation should occur. Which I doubt."

exactly.i have to add very very , unacceptable bad sound or in some places even no sound at all.

also unacceptable bad view. those were loosers places and not high dollar places.
a band like the stones should do that better or just not offer something that bad for so much money.

I think Bryan Adams was the first to use audience on the stage (as well as a b-stage). He had a bridge with two levels I think, on the stage behind him during the european tour in 94.

The concept was good in theory, but it was very badly arranged, deceptively marketed (on stage seats = above stage standing), inconsistently priced (for some reason the almost normal prices in the US were changed to absolute extortionate ones in Europe which usuually ended up being used for things like radio contests) and the tickets were put on sale too long after the 'regular' on sale dates, meaning most fans already had their tickets for the shows in question.

All very true.
I think it was evident that [in the UK at least] very few of these "seats" were actually occupied by folks you'd call fans.

Probably because they waited to sell them until about two weeks before the shows and priced them at something like £350 (thats about $650 - they were priced $250 and $75 in the US, I think)

Absolute insanity. Who on earth is going to wait until a few days before a show to decide to go and THEN also be prepared to buy one of these tickets at THAT price? And you cant even watch the opening act either.

They almost all ended up as contest or corporate giveaways. Utterly idiotic planning.

>> they were priced $250 and $75 in the US, I think <<

if i recall right, the prices were more like $150 and $75 in the US, at least the first leg of the tour -
anyway they were considerably cheaper than a full-price floor ticket. and whether it was a gas gas gas or not
seems to depend largely on what one's alternative was: i know people who won them but turned them down
since they didn't want to abandon their 4th-row seats; but (see above) if you were offered them in place of nosebleeds ...

the tickets for the chicago/soldier field gig in october were $500 each!

It was a good idea if it was for that tour only.

JumpingKentFlash

I've written about my experience here before...

It was AWESOME !!!!!!

Not that I care for his music, but Justin Timberlake had a bar/bartender set up and seats on the stage for fans. (I'm hoping The Faces re-unite and do the same thing. They use to have a bar on the stage although it was only for them)