The Backstreets magazine/website is closing down after more than 40 years of celebrating the phenomenon that is Bruce Springsteen.
There hasn’t been a physical magazine in more than 10 years to the chagrin of many, but the website existed as the main source of Bruce news, an online store and a set of very busy message boards. The magazine was great, but I guess the internet providing instant news, concert dates and setlist updates devalued it
The recent controversy regarding ticket prices and the consequent clueless response by the Boss organisation to a lot of criticism seems to have been too much for owner Chris Phillips and he is pulling the plug
I have been a member there for about 20 years, have bought and sold tickets there, read some amazing concert reviews and learnt a lot on the message boards. It’s actually pretty sad that it has come to this. In the tradition of The Afterword, lifeboats are currently being sought so the message boards can continue but it won’t ever be quite the same
Do you think there is a possibility that the outcry over the high ticket prices for the current tour provides a very convenient excuse for Chris Phillips to pull the plug on the site in an apparent fit of “I’m doing this to stand up for the real fans” pique when he may very well have been considering packing it in anyway after so long? I’d imagine it took up a great deal of his time.
It was his job, his main (only?) source of income. The fact he kept promising for years (!) that the next magazine was imminent was not a good look, I wondered if he just didn’t have the capital available to do the print run, he promised to refund subscriptions if people asked for it, no idea if that was done.
Some speculation that after he (unusually) criticised Bruce on the tickets issue then his team withdrew cooperation like complimentary tickets and special album versions etc to be sold through the site. No idea if this is true
Some of the best gigs I have seen have been Bruce gigs and I have tickets to see him in Rome which I am looking forward to. However the setlist for the current tour seems pretty safe so far with very few surprises when one of his pluses was the continual changing of setlists. Add to this his apparent bloated appearance I guess this might be his last E Street band tour. Maybe Mr Backstreets thinks it may have run its course.
Could be totally wrong but the portents suggest otherwise sadly.
I’ve swerved the tour this time as I really am getting a bit old for bloody stadium gigs filled with people more intent on getting pissed and talking through the whole concert, especially at those prices.
However, Bruce is 6 months older than me – I am pretty fit and healthy, and I just cannot imagine doing what he does for 3 hours or so!
I wanted my kids to see Bruce before he retires but no luck. We were on two laptops and both got kicked out of the queue several times and had to start over before it sold out. I was pretty pissed off. If you’re in the queue, why get bumped?
Keep checking, more tickets will almost certainly be released , and check Twickets too
Neither can I @NigelT but that is the sadness of it Always thought Bruce was indestructible but the gap between gig nights suggests he needs longer to recover after each show.
Setlists are often unchanging at the start of tours and this is the first one in 6 years so it is not a surprise. Btw Steve and Soozie missed the latest show (Covid). Obviously close to the end, but to announce this at the beginning of a probable 2 year tour is strange timing @SteveT
@dai not wishing to foretell the end of his touring days with E Street band, fed from it but from where I sit it does seem different this time around.
I hope I am wrong and I hope that the gig in Rome is barnstorming. Maybe he will do solo Nebraska type gigs but please not the On Broadway thing which was hard work and somewhat unconvincing.
I really liked Broadway but you probably had to be there, seeing him in a venue that only held 900 people was amazing. And you had to think of it as a show with music, rather than a gig. My guess is that he may take that show (with some changes) around the world after this tour.
Apparently Nils now has Covid too, how many more before gigs are postponed/cancelled?
This keeps up and BS will be on the blower to Ian Anderson and asking if he can do a set of Jethro Tull covers
Sorry to hear this, dai. Sad news.
Were there financial issues? Have they sent in Boss adjusters?
Afraid this was one crisis from which they didn’t emerge Bruced yet unbowed
As a btw of anyone wants to experience or preview the tour without paying a king’s ransom all shows are being released as high quality downloads a few days after they happen. Set duration is currently around 2 hrs 40 so about 3 CDs worth:
https://www.nugs.net/bruce-springsteen-concerts-live-downloads-in-mp3-flac-or-online-music-streaming/
2 full CDs worth, can’t edit for some reason
I think that if they’ve seen the prices for the Madonna and Beyonce tours, Bruce fans may feel they’ve gotten off lightly.
There was a story in the papers the other day that the Ibis hotel in Cardiff had rooms going for £10,000* – TEN THOUSAND POUNDS – on the day of Beyonce’s show in the city. A spokesperson put it down to a ‘technical glitch’ and it was duly amended, but I do wonder whether that was only due to the righteous furore?
*One wag commented that it didn’t even include breakfast 😏
I work at the O2 occasionally, not on music events and the Holiday Inn near the venue becomes prohibitively expensive when there’s a concert on. There’s a newish better hotel right next door and we never even try to stay there.
There aren’t enough hotels in Cardiff for big events, I would recommend getting a train to Newport or the Valleys to find a Premier Inn or something but the station after a big event is also appalling, even if the trains are still running when it finishes
In Dublin on the River tour Dublin hotels were putting up their prices threefold. I ended up paying over E300 for a veey average B and B.
This time around i block booked free cancellation hotels for both nights and nights either side. Still cost me E200 but no way am i driving the two hours it takes to get home
The thing to do is to pay attention to tour rumours and book a (cancellable) hotel before tickets go on sale
Exactly what I did in anticipation of extra nights. Ended up getting the two original nights and E200 is not that bad for a Friday and Sunday in Dublin
That’s what I do too.
Just announced he is playing the suburb of Ottawa where I live (in November)! At a push, walking distance from my house but I won’t walk (6km as the crow flies)
I came across that news earlier today. He’s playing a tyre centre. That’s cool. I have a tyre centre near me, but I can’t imagine Bruce Springsteen playing there. It’s quite dirty and smaller than my garden.
Yes the tire (note spelling) centre is actually the (ice) hockey stadium, sponsored by Canadian Tire who sell tires (and lots of other stuff, like an unbelievably big Halfords). We have the biggest one in the world here in Ottawa. we are extremely proud of it 😉
Look at us now – some things hurt more, much more than tyres and girls…