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The Rolling Stones Fan Club of Europe
It's Only Rock'n Roll

How to get tickets
The Rolling Stones No Security Tour 1999
Updated Nov. 27, 1998

For more information and details see also:

This page of information will be developed by your help. Please supply your experiences, hints, good and bad advices, so that fellow Stones fans can get their tickets, and sleep well during the nights. Don't delay! - Send your email today. I'm waiting on a friend...


General

Again, like always, we are all crazy about getting tickets to the Rolling Stones concerts. We all want front row, cheap, and may be backstage passes... Well, to be honest, tickets to the No Security Tour should not be too much of a problem. When 20,000 or so people gather, there are always plenty that would rather sell their ticket at a good price. And for this tour, even if there are only one third of the number of tickets available at an 18,000 capacity arena vs. a 50,000 stadium, the ticket prices will be higher, mening less people will spend their money.

The No Security Tour will be performed indoor only, at arena size venues - places normally used for ice hockey, basket ball or even music. Most of the venues can take approx. 20,000 people, i.e. less than half the number of people at a stadium. In a stadium you have normally approx. 10,000 people on the floor (seated in USA, vs. 25,000 people standing in Europe), and the remaining 30,000 - 40,000 people in the ordinary stadium seats. The seats behind the stadium stage are not used, because all the stuff on stage is blocking the view. With the arena concept, you have approx, 1,500 people seated on the floor, and the remaining 18,000 fans seated all around, but much closer than in a stadium.

The arena stage is smaller, all flat, and you can see the Stones from all angels around the stage, even behind. This is from experiences with previous arena shows during the Bridges to Babylon tour. For more information about these shows see the arena concert reviews from these shows. PS. The MGM (Las Vegas) show was not done on the new arena stage (not finished until the Quebec show), but the MGM show was performed on a smaller stage as well, with a smaller sized crowd. Also, the Waldb�hne was not using the arena stage, because it was an outdoor amphi theatre. But the idea is the same - smaller crowd, greater excitement! See the table at the end of this page for a complete list of venues and reviews.

The arena stage

It seems like the stage setup is similar to the arena stage setup used with the previous arena size venues in 1998 (see the list of shows at the end of this page). You may see a drawing of the layout at the right. This is the venue map of the Toronto show. The stage is small, all flat, with a 360 degrees view. The seats at the far left and right are just perfect, as you actually sit on the edge of the stage. That's why they charge $150 for those seats many places.

There seems to be one major difference between the previosly used arena stage and the 1999 No Security stage. The walkway from the man stage to the B-stage is much wider, and the B-self itself is also much bigger, almost as big as the mains stage. This makes it possible for the Stones to actually perform on the walkway, and more or less perform on all parts of this stage setup. Charlie would have to move from one place to another, may be the same way as used for the acoustic set during the summer 1995 European Tour, by a drum kit that can be pushed/moved. Or may be they just move Charlie up front - this will be interesting!

The walkway from the main stage to the B-stage seems a bit shorter than on the previous arena shows, mening the B-stage will not endv up way out on the other side of the venue. It will be more towards the center, and there may be more seats in front of it. Having seats just in front of the B-stage gives you a perfect view during the three (may be more) songs they do down there. but you are a bit more distant from the main stage. The floor seats are all perfect. They cost a lot, and are hard to get. But you are close to both the main stage and the B-stage. And often the security is bad, so you may have people sneaking in from cheaper seats in the venue.

The floor is usually numbered in sections like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, where 1 .. 3 is the front from left to right (as seen from the crowd), then 4 ..6 is the next row, etc. some times they have two sections per block, others three. If it's three then the middle section is split half/half by the walkway from the main stage to the B-stage. Lost of fans like to be there, because you can make hand contact with the Stones, as they walk both to and from the B-stage (no bridge indoor).

The seats on the floor are bad if you are less than average height, because everyone is standing up, and it's all flat. Even if the seating charts are not yet ready for all the venues, you may decidee by now how much money you want to spend, and what seats you really want. I don't want to make any specific advices here, because then everybody would ask for those seats.

Generally, in an arena, all seats are very good. I hate to call a seat good or bad, but since so many people ask, and so many people put all their effort into getting the seart I will do my own personal ranking, based on the fact that I have been seing the arena show from a lot of different seats. The main rule is the lower row number, the better, of course. Some times the lowest section might start with row number 3 or 4, because the first 2 - 3 rows (closest to the floor) are ok for sports, but not for music (the standing crowd on the floor is blocking the view for the first rows).

All I can say is, if you look at the Toronto chart at the right, then these secions are my best bets:

107-110 and 120-117 : Perfect
106-101 and 121-122 : Very good
110-117 : Very good (you see them perfectly from behind)
1 - 8 : Excellent (but not if you are small/short)
200's and 300's : Good, but try getting as low as possible

Ticketmaster

The best way of getting tickets is to buy directly at the venue box office. But if you live outside the area, then you should try Ticketmaster. With a credit card in your hand, you can call from anywhere in the world to Ticketmaster USA, to order your tickets. They will hold your tickets for you, to be picket up at the day of the concert. You don’t have to call Ticketmaster Chicago to get tickets for Chicago. Some times other offices are easier to access, but it seems you need to call within the same area, not really possible to call country-wide anymore... Also, you can usually order tickets online, through the internet. Make sure you have a map of the seats available before you call, so that it's easier to understand where the numbered seats being offered to you actually are.

See the Ticketmaster web page on the Stones Tour, about when tickets go on sale etc.

Ticketmaster Canada

The Toronto ticket sales will start Saturday Nov. 21 at 10am ET. For details about the Toronto ticket sales, including wristband policies, see the Ticketmaster Canada Rolling Stones page.

Bass does the Oakland sales

The ticket sales for the Oakland Arena is handled by Bass Tickets. For details about ticket sales see their Bass Ticket Center.

Wristband policy

Wristbands are being handed out to people in various ways in order to organize queues and ticket sales. Some places these are the only way to get access to the first 10 rows on the floor (only two tickets per person). Contact your local ticket sales office of the venue for details about how to get wristbands, and how they do the ticket sales for the coming week-end.

Ticket prices

Tickets will probably sell in the range of $45 - $300 for this tour. The seats behing the stage are some times held back until they see how fast the rest of the tickets go. If they go fast, they release tickets behind the stage as well. That happened in Portland, Rose Garden (one of the nights). In Houston they never sold any tickets behind the stage. Those seats beind the stage are not what you might expect - bad seats. Since the stage is all flat, you see all of the stage, and you see Keith facing Charlie (and you!) a lot when he is staying with Charlie many times during the shows. Also, all of the stones are nice to the fans walking the rear "bridge" of the stage, and then you are so close you can actually touch their hands from the first behind-stage row.

The exact price of the tickets are not known now, one day before they announce the tour. But the information so far tells they will charge aroud $40-$50 for the seats behind the stage (if they go on sale), then $50-$90 for the general seats in the arena. The seats closest to the stage on the left and right side might be more expensive, like $125-$150. and in some venues, you might expect prices as high as $150-$300 for the floor seats and the first rows on each side, close to the main stage.

VIP tickets will be on sale through special business arrangement. You pay a lot for those tickets, like the VIP Babylon Bar tickets during the Bridges To Babylon Tour. Then you get a good seat worth may be $150 or so, plus free food and drinks, access to the VIP area, and some times a free special T-shirt or whatever they throw in. But these $300-$700 VIP tickets do NOT bring you backstage, if you see what I mean...

VH1 Advance Access To Tickets

As reported by Ticketmaster Live Daily: VH1 on Wednesday announced a special advance sale promotion for the Rolling Stones' No Security tour, allowing Stones fans to use a special 800 number on Thursday (11/19) evening to buy tickets before they go on sale through regular channels over the weekend.

The 800 number will be broadcast during a half-hour special entitled Rolling Stones - No Security, hosted by the cable channel's Robin Dorian. The program, highlighting details of the upcoming tour and featuring interview and performance footage of the band, will air twice -- and 6:30 p.m. EST / PST and again at 11:30 p.m. EST / PST.

Once the number is announced, viewers will be able to place ticket orders. A limited number of tickets will be made available per venue during the advance sale, and information about the seat locations of the advance sale allotment was not available. Ticket sales through regular channels will take place from Friday through Sunday.

In another announcement Wednesday, VH1 and sister-channel MTV announced a pair of Internet events surrounding the announced weekend ticket sales for the tour. Joining with AOL, MTV will host an online chat with Mick Jagger at 7 p.m. EST on Thursday (11/19). VH1 will bookend the weekend with an AOL chat featuring Keith Richards on Tuesday (11/24) at 9 p.m. EST. The chats will be accessible only through AOL, and can be reached through the keywords MTV (Jagger) or VH1 (Richards).

PS. The VH1 advance sale will only apply to the US dates on the tour. The Toronto show will not be included.

When a show is sold out

Once a show is sold out, the private traders are getting god money for tickets from people in panic. Remember, there are usually plenty of tickets in circulation. Closer to the day of the concert, prices will normally drop. Also, when the stage is ready and built, they often sell some extra, front row tickets, on the day of the concert, as they know about left space. This did actually happen at a lot of the arena shows during the 97/98 Bridges To Babylon Tour. At most of the arena shows this year, including Madison Square garden, you could buy tickets at face value (or even below some times) outside the venue, hours before the show was on. But again, in other places, like Montreal, where prices were lower, the dealers got better deals. A general rule of thumb is to keep $75-$125 aside for getting a ticket if you did not succeed getting one from the original box office or Ticketmaster. But giving away hundreds of dollars to private dealers weeks before the show is just a big waste of money. Of course it is nice to have the ticket in your hand - you sleep well during the nights, and you have no worries. You have to decide yourself if you have got the nerve tol wait, or if you pay a lot to sleep well...

Ticketmaster on good and bad seats sales

Seating releases a caused by a couple of factors. One is that during an on sale, lots of people are calling and at ticket outlets and making a decision about whether to buy seats in a particular location. If they decide not to buy them, the seats become available on the system again. This can make a better set of seats available a few minutes after your first check.

Another thing is declined credit cards. In most cases, the bank responds within minutes after the sale. If the bank declines the credit card, usually a customer service rep gets a report and tries to contact the customer to get another card number. If the customer has no other card, the seats are released. In this case, the release happens several hours after the initial sale. This can make better seats available hours after your first check.

Yet another thing is that the box office may release sections or rows of seats later in the day. One variation of this happened on Bruce Springsteen's 1985 tour. A Springsteen representative had the box office place a large number of rows in various different holds before the show went on sale. As the seat selection in the venue reached the rear sections, he'd direct the box office to release the next batch of holds and available seats would jump down to the front of the stage again. They'd do this in about five waves per show. What it accomplished was that the first few people in line got great seats, then the 30th or so people got great seats again, then the 50th, then the 80th and so on.

Sometimes an artist or venue will also decide to just release extra seats after the main rush of sales is over. This is done mainly to trip up scalpers who concentrate on the first hour or so. The thinking is that by dumping seats later, more real fans will get them. This can make better seats available hours and even days after your first check.

With shows, there are almost always seat releases in the days and weeks before the show as well. The reason for this is that when they put the show on sale, they are working mostly with a drawing of how the stage will be set up and estimates of what seats will be blocked by staging and light towers and such. As the actual show hits the road, many questions are answered about what will actually be blocked. This can free up entire sections. Then, as the stage is actually being built in the venue, they can usually release even more seats once they know exactly how everything fits.

Complete travel packages

If you need to travel, it may be cheaper and convenient to buy a complete package of tickets, travel and hotel room. Such are offered by companies such as:

Dash Tours, Canada: Special packages to Toronto, Fargo etc. Call 1-306-352-2222 or 1-800-265-0000. Web-site: Dash Tours.

Ticket agencies

Then there are companies who make their living from buying and selling tickets - they normally change extra. If you have bad or good experiences, please let me know. I can take these off the list, if they are bad, as experienced by you. If they are good, then please let me know, and I will add some stars to the companies, to show quality, reliability and value. These are just a selection of agencies recommended by Stones fans and IORR members in the past:

Front Row Center (LA area tickets): Phone: 310 478-0848. Web-site: Front Row Center.

Ticket Plus: Phone: (860) 875-0060. Fax: (860) 875-6238. Web-site: Tickets Plus.

Northern Ticket Service Inc - Vancouver/Seattle area - Tel: (604) 683-3515 - Fax: (604) 669-8422. Web-site: Northern Ticket Service.

WebTickets: Phone 404.815.1888. Web-site: WebTickets

Priemier Tickets: Phone (415) 346 7222 Web-site: Priemier Tickets

Limited number of tickets per person!

When you plan to buy tickets for yourself and friends, be aware of the fact that there is a maximum number of tickets allowed per transaction/customer. The reason is mainly to spread tickets out to more people, so that nobody can take a block of 100 front row seats, and make big money later on. This time around, the limit seems to be 6 per person.

Credit cards!

If you are planning to travel to USA and/or Canada for Stones concerts, and may be order tickets per phone etc, then you need a credit card. This could be VISA, Mastercard, Eurocard or American Express. All these are international credit cards, valid as payment method all over the world. Just call ticketmaster, keep your credit card handy, and give them your card type, number, expiraction date and your name. That's it. It's a safe transaction. Nobody can charge your card unless you agree. You can even denie a credit card payment later on, say if somebody added a tip, or did an error (it rarely happens).

If you order tickets by credit card from outside USA, Ticketmaster USA will charge your card, and you can pick up the ticket outside the venue, on the day of the concert, at a box office there, no problem. If you order tickets from Ticketmaster Canada, and you live outside, they may send (by post) the tickets to you.

Travel insurance and cancellations

If you plan to spend a lot of money going from Europe to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago or other places in USA, and do this not mainly for the holiday and the days off, but most of all for the Stones concerts, then please don't forget that things may happen. You would of course need the traditional travel insurance. But also, you may get cancellation insurance from some companies, to protect you from cancelled shows. During the Bridges To Babylon Tour they had to cancel quite a few shows due to Mick's laryngitis (Syracuse, Toronto, Milano, Bilbao), bad weather (Montreal) and Keith's broken ribs (Berlin, Munich, Gelsenkirchen, Zagreb, etc).


Please give your comments! Send your email today, if you have some feedback. I'm waiting on a friend...

Don’t you panic, don’t you panic, give it one more try! No reason to worry about tickets. Be patient! If you are a real Stones fan, and work hard on the subject, then I am sure you will get your tickets!


The previous arena size shows

These are the smaller arena size shows they played so far during the Bridges to babylon tour. Read all about how the various seats, behind stage etxc worked!

Date Venue City/State/Country Crowd
Nov. 22, 1997 MGM Grand Garden Las Vegas, NV, USA 12,750
Jan. 5, 1998 Colisee de Quebec Quebec, Canada 11,993
Jan. 14, 1998 Madison Square Garden (1) New York, NY 17,875
Jan. 16, 1998 Madison Square Garden (2) New York, NY, USA 17,875
Jan. 17, 1998 Madison Square Garden (3) New York, NY, USA 17,875
Jan. 30, 1998 Rose Garden (1) Portland, OR 17,529
Jan. 31, 1998 Rose Garden (2) Portland, OR, USA 17,529
Feb. 12, 1998 The Compaq Center (1) Houston, TX, USA 11,806
Feb. 13, 1998 The Compaq Center (2) Houston, TX, USA 11,806
April 19, 1998 Centre Molson (1) Montreal, Canada 16,048
April 20, 1998 Centre Molson (2) Montreal, Canada 16,048
April 23, 1998 United Center Chicago, IL, USA 18.672
Aug. 22, 1998 Sport Hall Prague, Czech Republic 13,000
Sept. 8, 1998 Globen Stockholm, Sweden 15,600
Sept. 10, 1998 Waldb�hne Berlin, Germany 16,400
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