OT Rolling Stones

[Roger Ramjet]

Tickets on sale today for their concert at London Stadium in May for around £90. As I saw them at their peak many years ago I don't really want to go see a bunch of septugenerians on stage but you've got to hand it to them still touring when they could be causing havoc on a mobility scooter in suburban English towns like most of their generation now do.

But that's not my point.

Also today I received a bargain offer of a ticket, a buffet meal and an open bar for 4 hours before and after the concert. Maybe 200/250 you'd think. No, 700 quid. How much "free" wine and beer can you drink to justify that price?

Corporate hospitality supposedly. Scalping by any other name I call it. In that there are rules preventing profiteering on reselling event tickets at a heavy premium, how can these companies get away with it?

It will be the same for all major sports events this year, but no matter how much you dress up the package with a "free" gift etc (wow a cheap quality tee shirt and biro) it's still scalping.

 

[MadAmster]

Saw them last year in the Amsterdam ArenA. Somethinglike €75 a ticket if I remember correctly. Thoroughly enjoyed the gig.

 

[Roger Ramjet]

Oh wait, there is 20% VAT on that price, so £840.

But this pales into insignificance when compared to "from" £2700 for centre court tickets and posh nosh at Wimbledon. "From" suggests that price isnt even for finals days.

 

[ramAnag]

Love the Stones and, for some reason, although I’ve seen many, many bands, they have always escaped me.
Doubt that’s going to change now. The prices and packages for such events are, I agree, just a complete rip off, visibility in the big venues relies heavily on big screens and there’s something slightly disturbing about being in the company of septuagenarians trying to recapture their youth by watching richer septuagenarians trying to...well recapture their youth too.

Great, great band but...video, dvd and vinyl for me. Prefer smaller more intimate gigs these days with the added possibility of discovering something new.

P.S. No interest in Wimbledon but I suppose it all makes a day at a Test match look pretty good value...until it rains for all but a mysterious twenty overs which removes any entitlement to a refund.

P.P.S. Just, out of interest, who are the best and the worst of the ‘old timers’ you’ve seen. I saw Leonard Cohen in the early seventies and in 2013. Always good but outstandingly brilliant as he got older. Correspondingly Bob Dylan at Blackbush (1978?) was excellent but decidedly disappointing thirty odd years on. Roger McGuinn lived up to expectation...John Mayall didn’t.

 

[Bloomeram]

Tickets on sale today for their concert at London Stadium in May for around £90. As I saw them at their peak many years ago I don't really want to go see a bunch of septugenerians on stage but you've got to hand it to them still touring when they could be causing havoc on a mobility scooter in suburban English towns like most of their generation now do.

But that's not my point.

Also today I received a bargain offer of a ticket, a buffet meal and an open bar for 4 hours before and after the concert. Maybe 200/250 you'd think. No, 700 quid. How much "free" wine and beer can you drink to justify that price?

Corporate hospitality supposedly. Scalping by any other name I call it. In that there are rules preventing profiteering on reselling event tickets at a heavy premium, how can these companies get away with it?

It will be the same for all major sports events this year, but no matter how much you dress up the package with a "free" gift etc (wow a cheap quality tee shirt and biro) it's still scalping.

Wanted to see that new hologram tour of Roy Orbison but............A, they sold out and B, they wanted £75 per ticket at Nottingham..........................Know a lot of work must have gone into this but you are just listening to canned music and a video at the end of the day..................

 

[AdiSalisbury]

By contrast, I saw Michael McIntyre last night for £15. These big music gigs are ripping people off. "It all goes into the show"... well if I want to see fireworks I'll wait until November, concentrate on playing the songs rather than ripping off people who can't really afford it.

 

[Mistaram]

By contrast, I saw Michael McIntyre last night for £15. These big music gigs are ripping people off. "It all goes into the show"... well if I want to see fireworks I'll wait until November, concentrate on playing the songs rather than ripping off people who can't really afford it.

Adi, you would have to pay me £15 to watch him about as funny as piles

 

[ramAnag]

Wanted to see that new hologram tour of Roy Orbison but............A, they sold out and B, they wanted £75 per ticket at Nottingham..........................Know a lot of work must have gone into this but you are just listening to canned music and a video at the end of the day..................

Bloomer...do you remember in the ‘70’s or ‘80’s a TV advert - possibly for B&O - where, instead of tapes and records, there was a hologram of the selected band/artist playing, in miniature, on the coffee table or wherever? That’s one invention I truly long for...couldn’t give a stuff about driverless cars or lunar landings...but putting on the hologram instead of a CD/iPod...that I’d really value.

P.S. I was dabbling a little in certain substances in the ‘70’s but I don’t think I’ve ‘dreamt’ this advert...bloody good idea if I did...can’t understand why it hasn’t been done.

 

[Bloomeram]

Bloomer...do you remember in the ‘70’s or ‘80’s a TV advert - possibly for B&O - where, instead of tapes and records, there was a hologram of the selected band/artist playing, in miniature, on the coffee table or wherever? That’s one invention I truly long for...couldn’t give a stuff about driverless cars or lunar landings...but putting on the hologram instead of a CD/iPod...that I’d really value.

P.S. I was dabbling a little in certain substances in the ‘70’s but I don’t think I’ve ‘dreamt’ this advert...bloody good idea if I did...can’t understand why it hasn’t been done.

Remember it well, they have now perfected the idea and have a life sized Hologram of 'The Big O' performing his greatest hits......................... Would have been nice but Having to travel into Sh*t City is bad enough but £75 a ticket !

 

[ramAnag]

Be nice if they could do that with the Travelling Wilburys. Roy O on his own I might struggle with, but along with the late George Harrison and Tom Petty, not to mention Dylan and Jeff Lynn...that would be good. Two live and three holograms and I would shell out £75...even in Nottingham.

 

[The real Swaley]

Love the Stones and, for some reason, although I’ve seen many, many bands, they have always escaped me.
Doubt that’s going to change now. The prices and packages for such events are, I agree, just a complete rip off, visibility in the big venues relies heavily on big screens and there’s something slightly disturbing about being in the company of septuagenarians trying to recapture their youth by watching richer septuagenarians trying to...well recapture their youth too.

Great, great band but...video, dvd and vinyl for me. Prefer smaller more intimate gigs these days with the added possibility of discovering something new.

P.S. No interest in Wimbledon but I suppose it all makes a day at a Test match look pretty good value...until it rains for all but a mysterious twenty overs which removes any entitlement to a refund.

P.P.S. Just, out of interest, who are the best and the worst of the ‘old timers’ you’ve seen. I saw Leonard Cohen in the early seventies and in 2013. Always good but outstandingly brilliant as he got older. Correspondingly Bob Dylan at Blackbush (1978?) was excellent but decidedly disappointing thirty odd years on. Roger McGuinn lived up to expectation...John Mayall didn’t.

Agree about Cohen though he has been fantastic at every gig I've seen him from the late 70's to his last tour.

Dylan always did go from amazing to utter bilge whenever he has played. have seen him 6 times 2 excellent gigs, one back in 2014 and 1 average and 2 distinctly awful gigs.

Neil Young on the other hand has always been brilliant whenever I have seen him ,whether accoustic, his band or as CSN&Y.

 

[BoIIockchops]

I may take the biscuit on this one. After deciding i WAS prepared to pay 'whatever it took' to see Led Zep's o2 gig, and offering £1200 for a ticket, I then got lucky in the ballot for the rescheduled gig and sold my spare ticket for £1000. No guilt attached, it was just a case of supply and demand, as is all of the above.

 

[ramAnag]

I may take the biscuit on this one. After deciding i WAS prepared to pay 'whatever it took' to see Led Zep's o2 gig, and offering £1200 for a ticket, I then got lucky in the ballot for the rescheduled gig and sold my spare ticket for £1000. No guilt attached, it was just a case of supply and demand, as is all of the above.

With respect BC, I don’t agree it’s all simple ‘supply and demand’. Yes the biggest bands charge staggering amounts, but the secondary ticket market is always inflating the price of face value tickets in a totally unethical way.

 

[The real Swaley]

With respect BC, I don’t agree it’s all simple ‘supply and demand’. Yes the biggest bands charge staggering amounts, but the secondary ticket market is always inflating the price of face value tickets in a totally unethical way.

It is unethical but people are so desperate they will pay whatever it takes, there must be a way to stop touts but nobody seems to want to do that.

I remember the "good old" days when one could turn up to a sold out gig and wait until the touts selling outside were so desperate they would sell their remaining tickets at only just above face value.

 

[MadAmster]

Some gigs in NL now have the name of the original buyer printed on them. At the door you have to show photo ID that matches the name on the ticket......... Full refunds for people unable to go. Bye bye touts both in person and online.

 

[The real Swaley]

Some gigs in NL now have the name of the original buyer printed on them. At the door you have to show photo ID that matches the name on the ticket......... Full refunds for people unable to go. Bye bye touts both in person and online.

Should be simple for most venues to adopt one would have thought.