Stone rip-off

thehurricane

was really up for going to see the Rolling Stones next August in Pheonix park until i had a wee gander on ticketmaster... tkts for their UK gigs are £60-150stg, thats about €3 million. you'd think the wrich, rinkly wrockers could afford to make us fans pay reasonable prices!
is any1 else feel that they shouldnt go cos of theses prices! Ridiculous :eek:

whiskeyman

demand will dicate prices tbh.
If you don't decide to buy because of price, there'll be lots of others who'll happily part with their cash to go.

thehurricane

true man but U2 didnt charge so much...

whiskeyman

thehurricane wrote:

true man but U2 didnt charge so much...

Yeah. interesting one.
The gigs at Croker were the only ones that seemed to be "discounted" compared to the rest of the tour though.
I bought tickets for Manchester, and they started at £50 for standing.

Guess that was just a one-off for the home-town gigs.

This is one of the joys of liking music thats not in the chart... some of the best gigs I've ever been to have cost me just over a tenner or so in places like Whelans, Vicar St or The Village.
To pay the big money, you better hope you get a whole day out of it with a great support act(s).

grumpytrousers

there's been a huge debate about this over on www.iorr.org where all the Septics (filthy capitalists the lot of 'em ) are telling Europeans to stop whinging, it's the free market and if they can sell out massive venues at £150 a pop then that's that. Course I think that's a load of toss; mainly 'cos I can't afford that, and the kind of people that tend to be able to afford £150 for a gig aren't the kind of people I'd want too close to me for too long a period of time.

It is very possible that they'll try and get extortionate money out of Irish punters as well, but I think there might be guarded grounds for optimism and reasonably priced tickets for a few reasons

a) MCD nearly got badly stung with Madonna in Slane; only for the touts bought so many tickets, it wouldn't have sold out. There are people who still claim it didn't sell out - I honestly don't know. No promoter wants to be associated with a big f*ck-off act (like the stones) not selling out quickly. If that means that tickets have to be within the financial reach of those who aren't of the jet set, then so be it

b) it's in the phoenix park - it's a darned field. Leaving aside the possibility of atrocious sound, the risk of rain and the lack of decent boozers within shouting distance, you can't charge a huge amount of money to people to stand in a field unless there's a decent support line-up. So it might be pricey-ish, but we might get a mini-festival out of it

c) the press release announcing the tour said that average prices were going to be around €90. Tickets in the UK are ALWAYS expensive; they're a prosperous bunch o' people. I saw the Stones on the Licks Tour and paid £75 for a seat at the OPPOSITE END from the stage. I got a ticket for the Point for €55 and was in the thick of the action - so maybe the UK isn't the best yardstick. Maybe France is a good 'comparative' market - I'm not saying that French folks are poor, by the way, I'm just saying that as a nation they'd happily tell the stones to frig off with UK style prices. And get away with it. And the stones (and their organisation know this).

d) Touts will still swing into action and snap up a fair few tickets - irrespective of price. The higher the prices are, the less likely the gig is to be a sell-out. The less likely it is to be a sell-out, the better your chances of screwing a tout. Financially. Alas, you'll need balls of steel to avoid buying a ticket officially just to hope to fleece a tout on the gate on the day...

Oh well, rock on the announcement...Can't believe I saw 'em ten years ago and it was £25. Including fees. 500% increase since then...

thehurricane

all valid points, and i agree with the little gigs thing, magic!

OmegaDawn

grumpy trousers is i think missing the point of a number of things.

1. The gig with Madonna was a learning point for MCD showing that they are in fact a company who in any other country would be a laughing stock as people who run some of the most badly run gigs i have ever attended.Aiken are worse.With the Madonna tickets they and everyone else expected an atomatic sell-out,it didnt so they promoted it better and it sold out(apparently) either way they paid Madonna €4 million.They made €8million or so.

2.Nope it will not be a mini-festival,MCD cut corners when it comes to gigs so that includes the support.they might pull out something but i doubt there will be more than 2 support.With bands like The Rolling Stones etc they are expected to sell-out on there reputation alone.

3.Ireland has the most expensive gigs in the world and never get the full tour because again corners are cut.Ireland is the most expensive place to put on gigs and that transfers to the consumer.So expect to pay out your arse for this gig.

This is all well known facts to promoters throughout Ireland and Europe.Iv promoted gigs all over the country and work with some companies in France and England.Way cheaper to do thins over there.

grumpytrousers

OmegaDawn wrote:

grumpy trousers is i think missing the point of a number of things.

1. The gig with Madonna was a learning point for MCD showing that they are in fact a company who in any other country would be a laughing stock as people who run some of the most badly run gigs i have ever attended.Aiken are worse.With the Madonna tickets they and everyone else expected an atomatic sell-out,it didnt so they promoted it better and it sold out(apparently) either way they paid Madonna €4 million.They made €8million or so.

2.Nope it will not be a mini-festival,MCD cut corners when it comes to gigs so that includes the support.they might pull out something but i doubt there will be more than 2 support.With bands like The Rolling Stones etc they are expected to sell-out on there reputation alone.

3.Ireland has the most expensive gigs in the world and never get the full tour because again corners are cut.Ireland is the most expensive place to put on gigs and that transfers to the consumer.So expect to pay out your arse for this gig.

This is all well known facts to promoters throughout Ireland and Europe.Iv promoted gigs all over the country and work with some companies in France and England.Way cheaper to do thins over there.

Fair points all...I'm no MCD fan, and would wholeheartedly agree that, indeed, they'd cut enough corners on a square to turn it into a circle...

If your analysis is correct then, MCD (or whatever promoter it is!) will have a serious problem. The reputation of the stones will not, IMHO, be enough to carry them to sales required to fill the phoenix park if tickets are overpriced. Leaving aside artistic merit, cultural impact, mythology etc, Madonna has a bigger 'willing to pay €100 to stand in a field' audience than the Rolling Stones.

*edit* Re cheaper to do things in other countries - that's ALWAYS the way. When doing Europe/America a big band will tend to have 2/3 rigs on the road doing leapfrog maneouvres and crew going by road. For big gigs in Ireland and (to an extent) the UK, more money has to be spent with one whole crew having to fly in, one whole set to be shipped/flown in etc...

Toast

OmegaDawn wrote:

3.Ireland has the most expensive gigs in the world and never get the full tour because again corners are cut.Ireland is the most expensive place to put on gigs....

I dont know about it being the most expensive place in the world to put on a gig but I dont know where you get the most expensive gigs in the world idea from (I assume you meant ticket price). Just chose Bon Jovi at random and compared the Irish gig with a gig in Boston (it was first in the list on ticketmaster.com)

US $75.00 - US $95.00
Boston, MA


€61.50 - €76.50
CROKE PARK

61.50 EUR Euro = 72.0656 USD
76.50 EUR Euro = 89.6420 USD


I agree with the statement though about the full tour. Most smaller bands will just hire equipment rather than fly in their own stuff. However generally the larger shows will bring the lot in.