Not as defunct as we were led to believe....

[captainkurtz]

This isn't a new phenomenon. In the eighties I read a review (probably in Sounds) of a Rush gig. The hack described the band having a look of "we're gonna get our money out of you effers if it's the last thing we do".

 I think that's much the same sentiment for most touring bands. It's a slog fest and if someone is prepared to pay you more that they should why would you turn that down. Especially if it's the final? hurrah.

I'm still haunted by my front row far left Rush experience at the NEC, for the Snakes & Arrows tour. Towards the end of the interval Alex returned from the dressing room and stood a few feet from me talking to his tech. He looked utterly miserable. The tech looked as if he was talking him back onstage as he slung the Les Paul around his neck. The stair to the stage itself was more like a ladder and Lerxst hauled himself step by step to the top. He was there for about thirty seconds, concealed from the rest of the audience by cases and a curtain, awaiting his cue.

The moment arrived and he hit his note with total precision, his body jarred into an upright position and this huge painted on smile lit up his face. I was gutted! I admired his total professionalism but recognised in that moment what being a performance artist really means. It's all a sham, and it tainted my feelings about the band forever.

 I had the misfortune to win a meet & greet on the same tour. It really was fart in a spacesuit stuff and I found it excruciatingly bad. I've always had the inbuilt instinct to know when I'm not welcome, and that evening I wished I was somewhere, anywhere else. They say don't meet your heroes and that's great advice. My lasting memory of "talking" to Geddy was that he's probably hard of hearing, or he doesn't really get the Glasgow accent.

If I could turn back time would I prefer not to have met them or had that front row seat? Probably! I really am a miserable old sod, but I wanted it to always be magical. It's all fantasy. Except the music which is something of a miraculous, fleeting possibility that this universe flings up on rare occasions. Will I go to a UK concert if it happens? Absolutely yes! Stuff the price!

Thanks for posting, that's an interesting read.  Met Geddy on his book tour back in 2019, don't think he looked at me or engaged me at all whilst I was chatting.  He was quite stand offish...

[Slim]

On Reddit earlier.

Highslide Image Viewer

[Thenop]

A lot of people logging onto Ticketmaster accounts from multiple devices, plus the scalperbote doing their thing.

Once it opens it usually drops immediately.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Remember handing a human being behind a plastic screen a couple of hard earned notes? Bouncing out of the venue, usually the Glasgow Apollo on cloud nine as the queue members looked on jealously. I'd look at that ticket so many times on the way home. It was such a fragile, precious thing. I haven't even checked my phone wallet yet to ensure my 10CC ticket actually exists.

[Thenop]

I remember freezing my nuts off sitting, waiting in line for the ticket office.

I much prefer the comfort of my home.

[Nickslikk2112]

Remember handing a human being behind a plastic screen a couple of hard earned notes? Bouncing out of the venue, usually the Glasgow Apollo on cloud nine as the queue members looked on jealously. I'd look at that ticket so many times on the way home. It was such a fragile, precious thing. I haven't even checked my phone wallet yet to ensure my 10CC ticket actually exists.

Used to love going to the Sheffield City Hall box office, where they'd get the seating map out and you could pick your own seats
Used to get a cheap one up in the balcony, then a couple of my mates who worked would get stalls seats and at the gig one would then come out with the other's ticket so I could get in. Loads of folk did the same and security would keep coming round trying to count people in the rows, so we'd all bob up and down to make it harder

Didn't matter for the rowdier gigs as they'd take the front three rows of seats out anyway.

[Slim]

What I did for the first two tours was send an SAE to 

City Hall Box Office
Northumberland Rd,
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8SF

With a handwritten note saying "please send me a ticket for Rush on 11th June (or whenever). I enclose a cheque for £2"

For the Tour of the Hemispheres, I took the first train to Newcastle and joined a very long queue for the box office, stretching all the way round Northumberland Road into John Dobson Street. I was there for hours in the snow, surrounded mainly by Geordies. Some of my fellow Rush fans kept themselves amused by lobbing the occasional snowball at a passing car. One motorist naturally took offence at this and stopped his car to get out and confront a snowball thrower. He got about two feet before he had to retreat back into his vehicle under a torrent of snowballs. I can still picture him now, stumbling backwards and shielding his face with his arm with clumps of snow clattering into him.

[The Picnic Wasp]

What I did for the first two tours was send an SAE to

City Hall Box Office
Northumberland Rd,
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8SF

With a handwritten note saying "please send me a ticket for Rush on 11th June (or whenever). I enclose a cheque for £2"

For the Tour of the Hemispheres, I took the first train to Newcastle and joined a very long queue for the box office, stretching all the way round Northumberland Road into John Dobson Street. I was there for hours in the snow, surrounded mainly by Geordies. Some of my fellow Rush fans kept themselves amused by lobbing the occasional snowball at a passing car. One motorist naturally took offence at this and stopped his car to get out and confront a snowball thrower. He got about two feet before he had to retreat back into his vehicle under a torrent of snowballs. I can still picture him now, stumbling backwards and shielding his face with his arm with clumps of snow clattering into him.

I'm not embarrassed to admit this made me shed a tear. Probably the result of an unplanned extended weekend involving good wine, or maybe because I'm a sentimental old git. We lived in a better world.

[dom]

That's a great story Slim! How were the toes?

[The Picnic Wasp]

I remember freezing my nuts off sitting, waiting in line for the ticket office.

I much prefer the comfort of my home.

Boo!

[Slim]

That's a great story Slim! How were the toes?

Numb, probably. All I remember is that I was very cold.

This was the third time I'd suffered hours of freezing temperatures for my favourite band. I'd spent two consecutive nights at Newcastle Central Station in February the previous year. My mum wouldn't come and pick me up from the City Hall because the roads were icy.

[Slim]

Nothing particularly interesting in the video but the comments really tell the story.

"Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul..."

and

"One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity"

Or if you prefer your fan reactions a bit less rhetorical and poetic:

" Nothing more ugly than greedy rich people crapping on the fans who made them"

I think this may well be an astute observation:

"I'm pretty certain that anyone who chooses to watch the video instead will be quite relieved they didn't go to the concert"

[Fishy]

Yes I suspect I'll be passing on this.. if they ever make it to the UK.....just got so many other things to spend my money on.. I'll catch the performances on YouTube

[Slim]

As a fun project I got ChatGPT to go through some sums with me. I asked it to estimate their profit from playing a similar number of dates on the Permanent Waves tour.

It turns out, after adjusting for inflation, and after considering all the costs, that the two of them will be taking home in real terms about 16 times per night what they managed in 1980 - when they were at the peak of their powers and selling out venues. Roughly $480,000 each per gig, it reckons. That's without taking into account merchandise, streaming royalties or anything other than the ticket price.

[Thenop]

As a fun project I got ChatGPT to go through some sums with me. I asked it to estimate their profit from playing a similar number of dates on the Permanent Waves tour.

It turns out, after adjusting for inflation, and after considering all the costs, that the two of them will be taking home in real terms about 16 times per night what they managed in 1980 - when they were at the peak of their powers and selling out venues. Roughly $480,000 each per gig, it reckons. That's without taking into account merchandise, streaming royalties or anything other than the ticket price.

Streaming royalties are no longer theirs though. They sold that line of income.