Great Gigs

[giggirl]

Good news. If I re-mortgage my house, borrow some money from the bank, sell everything I own on ebay and get a part time job in the evenings, then I may be able to afford a ticket for The Stones at the O2 next month. Greedy bastards. I am going to their new film - Crossfire Hurricane - this Thursday night. That's probably as close as I'll get to them (?25 a ticket), because I'm not shelling out ?406 for the O2.

My absolute favourite band at the moment is Of Monsters and Men. ?14 a ticket. That's more like it.

[Otta]

?406 for a well past their best bunch of millionaires?!?! Greedy bastards indeed.

[giggirl]

I'd love to go - I really would - but I'm not paying that!

[Jah Lush]

Outrageous prices for the Stones gigs. Appalling that the tickets are out of the price range of most real fans and will probably end up in the hands of the corporate suits out with their secretaries. How they can justify this is beyond me. 50th celebration it may be but there's no way I'm paying that even if I could afford it.

[red devil]

Total greed, they make more from merchandising, so I don't understnd the need for such inflated prices, instead it would've been a nice touch if they'd put on a free show for members of their fan club to mark the event...

[RosieH]

I'm excited to go and see Shonen Knife tonight.

As the excellent Simon Price says, "There are two types of people: those who enjoy thrashy Japanese girl-punk, and those who have something wrong with them."

Come along!

[BrandNewGuy]

The Stones don't do real concerts - they just put on glitzy rich shows a la Barbra Streisand. Big night out for wealthy dumbos playing 'cool'. Saw them in 1990 and was bored even back then. Someone should put them out of their misery.

[Worker]

Violent Femmes at Sammy's Caberet in (I think) 1992. One of those concerts where you're convinced the band is having as good a time as you are and would have played for free. Dolly Parton at the O2 was pretty good too!

[uncleglen]

I saw Steely Dan in Birmingham a few years ago and it was about ?20. Also Metallica and Machine Head at the O2 was much cheaper about ?25 a couple of years ago- I know that the Pussy Cat Dolls charged about ?75 at the O2 but I expect that was to fund their umpteen changes of clothes- this is ridiculous- I am content that I saw the Stones for free in Hyde Park 40-odd years ago.

[Mick Mac]

Would like to see the Stones and would even pay a lot of money but 400 is ridiculous. Anything over 100 for a gig is incredibly arrogant. Of course it will be sold out within about 10 mins no doubt.

[Jah Lush]

There'll be doing other gigs after these "anniversary" shows later on and I wouldn't think they'll be as expensive as these ones. Probably nearer the ?75 - ?150 mark. I've seen 'em eight or nines times now since '76 and they've always been amazing live. Still, having said that I hate arena shows and I'd rather see a band in a small club and to see them in a small club would be the nuts.

[steveo]

Ungrateful wretch Jah

[Jah Lush]

Why's that Steveo?

[steveo]

You didn't mind being in an arena the last time you saw them

[KidKruger]

Portico Quartet this evening.

ETA: They were terrible.

[the-e-dealer]

The end of The Rainbow (first time!) Free Drink!

[Jeremy]

RosieH Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm excited to go and see Shonen Knife tonight.

>

> As the excellent Simon Price says, "There are two

> types of people: those who enjoy thrashy Japanese

> girl-punk, and those who have something wrong with

> them."

>

> Come along!

I saw them last year at the Brixton Windmill playing a set of Ramones covers!

[RosieH]

Ah yes Jeremy, Osaka Ramones - most excellent work.

Just for you, here's the title track from their new album, Pop Tune

[giggirl]

Tim Minchin is playing at the Coronet at the Elephant on 28th Nov and it's quite a cheap ticket for him

http://www.timminchin.com/gigs/

[MrBen]

Ticket prices well outside the reach of Joe Normal but the Stones are getting great reviews (as opposed to the usual "good") from even some of the most cynical music journos for last nights performance. And the peeps in my office who went last night back this up. Was anyone lucky enough to go?

[Jah Lush]

Not me unfortunately. It's the first time I've missed them in London since the 70s. They are a fantastic live band. The best.

[Jeremy]

I don't understand why the tickets are so expensive. Surely they already have more money than they know what to do with.

[giggirl]

The tickets are so expensive because they're greedy bastards. Also, Richard Branson is paying them a huge amount of money for these gigs so he's raking in the money on ticket prices.

I'm going on Thursday. I wouldn't cross the street to say hello to any of them but I'm dizzy with excitement about the prospect of seeing Thursday's gig. Can't stop playing 40 licks.

[Jah Lush]

So jealous. Can't you sneak me in in your handbag?

[giggirl]

I wish Jah! Reckon you'd be a brilliant person to go with.

I hope this Thursday is as good as the reviews say Sunday was. Gimme Shelter was top of my list for Thursday but I'm not sure they'll do it because they had Mary J Blige to help out with that one and I don't think she'll do a repeat.

The thing that's annoyed me most in the run up to these gigs (even more annoying than the ticket prices) has been the anti-ageism that always accompanies any Stones activity (and has done for decades). Anti-ageism is the final frontier. These days you can't have an overt pop at someone for being black, or female or disabled; but you can still stick the welly in because someone's old. People need to wise up to the fact that every one of us is going that way.

This is their 50th year and, yes, they should be giving fans a break on ticket prices. But they've never looked after their fans so I guess it's expecting too much for them to start now. I think the ticket prices are embarrassing but I also think the comments people make about them being too old/too wrinkly are embarrassing.