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  3. Have seen them 28 times. But I have retired from the Stones live experience before they have. Last time I saw them in Toronto 2013 was pretty great and my (lucky dip) ticket cost about 50 quid and I was in the pit, practically on stage.

    * unless they play a non stadium in Ottawa or Montreal

  5. I’d pay top dollar to see them just play stuff from their ‘Blue and Lonesome’ album and drop the pantomimic hits run through. I also have no interest in seeing anyone in a stadium. Except Cardiff City perhaps.

  6. Last time for me was the 50th Anniversary do at the O2 with Mick T and Bill rejoining (briefly), and they fleeced me for over £200 for a seat at the back. It was a great night, but my stadium/arena days are probably done for all sorts of reasons. As above, if I got the chance to see them in a small, intimate venue, just playing it straight without all the big show shenanigans then I’d pay almost anything.

  7. Hmm tempted…. it’s really too late now, and I hate stadiums as concert venues, butI’ve never seen them live…

    Mind you when I see the prices I might change my mind……

  8. The leap in ticket prices is incredible and I don’t begin to understand the appeal now.

    In 1990 I’m sure I paid no more than £15 for a Rolling Stones ticket.
    At the time that could probably have bought 1, possibly 2, CDs or three 1st Division (i.e. Arsenal, West Ham, Tottenham, Man. Utd. etc.) football matches … I came across a QPR v. Liverpool terrace ticket recently, F.A. Cup 6th Round, it was £5.

    It certainly didn’t seem especially expensive, but then neither did the football.

    • It was £10.50 to see them at Wembley Stadium in 1982, which was the most I’d ever paid for anything. By comparison, Pink Floyd The Wall at Earls Court the previous year had been £7.50. And just £3 to see the World Speedway Finals!

      • I’ve just remembered a CD I bought last week – The Supremes “Greatest Hits Vols. 1 & 2.”
        It was released in 1987, 20 tracks, and covers various A and B sides up to “The Happening.”

        The price sticker is still on it … £11.99 … in other words, a Supremes CD circa 1987 pretty much equates to a ticket to see The Rolling Stones.
        I’m sure that seemed daft at the time.

  12. Ticket prices are extortionate – £89.95 for unreserved seating/standing
    £250 for the “gold circle” and £275 for priority (whatever that means)
    I did write to the London stadium expressing my displeasure that reserved seating was unavailable and they replied saying that reserved seating goes on sale through ticketbastard this Friday with these links :
    https://blog.ticketmaster.co.uk/music/rolling-stones-announce-headline-uk-shows-37426

    https://www.axs.com/uk/events/350408/the-rolling-stones-tickets?skin=stones
    but as both London gigs are on a Tuesday (why ?) I can’t see me rushing to partake in this. As others have said if they were playing “Blue and Lonesome” or the recent BBC releases I’d be first in the queue but a couple of hundred quid to hear a turgid version of “Jumping Jack Flash” doesn’t really float my boat – or perhaps I’m just a miserable old sod.

    • Re:Tuesday – there was a compelling theory I heard once that bands will save Fri/Sat for towns where they think they’ll have trouble selling out, and if they’re a cert to sell they’ll chuck it on a Mon-Thu night. Maybe that’s an Australian thing…and probably doesn’t apply with the military logistics of moving the Stones from place to place. Maybe they just wanted the weekend in London free.

      • I shouldn’t imagine yer Stones will have any trouble selling tickets for any of their gigs.
        Quite possible extra dates will be added after the advertised ones sell out.
        Who knows, maybe they’ll do a “secret” small club gig somewhere, of just the “Blue And Lonesome” stuff.

  13. I really like the Stones but I can’t understand why anyone would want to shell out hundreds of pounds to see them- or anyone for that matter- in a stadium. Who are these people? Are they ‘rock tourists’ who want to witness some kind of circus or ghoulish types who think this may be their ‘last time’ to see them?

    Sigh. Perhaps it’s me though. I’m not generally bothered about gigs or the ‘live experience’ (i.e. being shunted around in some horrible venue with a sticky floor and plastic beer glasses whilst being forced to listen to surround-sound bores yelling to their mates about their vast gig history). All I know is that you can buy a lot of records for a hundred quid. And they last longer. And sound better. And, best of all, you can switch them off when you get a bit bored.

    • Sitting at home listening can never match the exhilaration of a good gig. Doesn’t applyto the Stones of course but with streaming evaporating album sales , touring is the only source of revenue left for most.

      As Jason Isbell tweeted, don’t believe it when a band says they are touring to promote a new album of a reissue..they are touring to survive.

      • Seems to me the Stadium Gig audience is a completely different beast to the Concert Hall Gig audience, although some of the same people will be there at both.
        It’s like the difference between a package tour holiday where you know exactly what you’ll be getting down to the last detail; and just going on holiday to somewhere you like and enjoying yourself and what the place has to offer.

    • Sitting at home listening can never match the exhilaration of a good gig. Doesn’t apply to the Stones of course, but with streaming evaporating album sales , touring is the only source of revenue left for most.

      As Jason Isbell tweeted, ….don’t believe it when a band says they are touring to promote a new album or a reissue, they are touring to survive.

      • Each to their own I suppose. One person’s exhilaration is another’s unwelcome jostle and spilt beer. Personally I prefer records to gigs and always have done. Live, for me, is pretty much secondary. Or even thirdy. If such a word exists.

        Which it doesn’t of course.

        • Really? I understand the antipathy to stadium and arena gigs, but seeing a bunch of musicians perform at their best live has an excitement and connection for me than can never be replicated at home. I love my Van Morrison CDs but I’d trade them all for that night at the Dominion Theatre: same with Paul Simon at Hammersmith Odeon, Ry Cooder at the same venue, Eric Clapton in Torquay (yes, I know), Rory Gallagher in Liverpool, BB King in Reading, and many others. Whether the Stones at outrageous prices at the back of an arena would have the same effect is another question altogether.

          • Yes, ‘really’ I’m afraid. And I’m not being awkward. I will go to the occasional gig (Ian Hunter, The Waterboys, Morrissey, Jonathan Richman) but I would seriously rather play the records. I can pause it when I need to go to the loo or get a beer from the fridge, I don’t have to worry about traffic on the way home, I can put on another record when I get bored and I’m unlikely to be surrounded and jostled by hundreds of other people.

            I think I’ve probably just read too much Sartre.

  14. A pal of mine lives in Twickenham. A long while ago now the Stones were playing at the Stadium. He was at home that evening and could hear the muffled booms of the show going on.

    About 9:30 – 10pm he decided to head out for a swift drink in his local. His route took him past the stadium. Several catering lorries were queueing to leave the venue by one of the gates, through which said pal could see straight onto the pitch and the throng enjoying the climax of the show.

    Although not a particular fan, he was bored and feeling cheeky, so he sauntered in the gate past the lorries and ambled onto the pitch and watched them for 30 mins. Then he went home.

    Some time after that, he found himself in New York at a reception at which Stones keyboard player Chuck Leavell was present. He told Chuck all about sneaking in at Twickenham and watching them for nowt.

    At which Leavell said, ‘So! YOU’RE that guy!?’

    Funny.

  15. 1. A friend of mine saw the Stones at the San José Civic Auditorium in December 1965. He says they were brilliant. I’m sure they were.

    2. In July 2003, the Stones played a small gig (capacity: around 1,200) in Stockholm at Cirkus.
    Tickets on the black market were going for around £1,000.

    There were, apparently, very good, digging out some really deep cuts for hardcore fans.
    If anyone’s interested in their setlist that night, this is it. It does look pretty interesting, I must admit….

    Start Me Up
    Live With Me
    Neighbours
    Hand of Fate
    No Expectations
    Worried About You
    Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
    It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)
    Stray Cat Blues
    Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
    Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Solomon Burke cover)
    That’s How Strong My Love Is (O.V. Wright cover)
    Going to a Go-Go (The Miracles cover)
    The Nearness of You (Chick Bullock and His Orchestra cover)
    Happy
    I Can’t Turn You Loose (Otis Redding cover)
    Honky Tonk Women
    Tumbling Dice
    Brown Sugar

    Encore:
    Sympathy for the Devil

    • I was at that show @duco01 was indeed superb. That was my summer of The Stones, I saw “club gigs” in Stockholm, Utrecht and London (The Astoria), as well as quite a few arena and stadium shows. The London one was the weakest, think Mick was under the weather as a Twickenham show was postponed around that time.

      Also saw a club show in Boston 2002, great setlist!

      Jumpin’ Jack Flash
      You Got Me Rocking
      All Down the Line
      Brand New Car
      Parachute Woman
      Dance Pt. 1
      Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
      Heart of Stone
      Going to a Go-Go
      Love Train
      Slipping Away
      Before They Make Me Run
      It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)
      Rock Me Baby
      Hand of Fate
      Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
      Honky Tonk Women
      Start Me Up
      Brown Sugar

      Tumbling Dice

    • I didn’t register for anything ever and got a presale code at 10am.

      I’m a fan of their imperial phase n bits n pieces outside but it would be just crossing one off the list while wishing it was 1969-72 version I was watching. Which if you go n see The Rolling Stoned or similar is what you will get.

      Saw said tribute band at 100 Club round the time of the real thing playing Twickers and was full of Stones fans from around the world in town for the shows and having a blast watching the copyists.

  17. What Is interesting Is that the gigs start in 10 weeks. These days I would expect them to be for next year. Mind you they might not be with us next year.
    And I thought it was too late to see them in 1982, so I’m not starting now.

  18. This is the post-eBay scalper ticket pricing in overdrive – charge upfront what people are prepared to pay on the “secondary market”. I also despise ‘the Golden Circle’ idea – let’s be absolutely clear what this about . It is segregating your standing audience in a stadium according to their material wealth. Very Rich People can go at the Front (i.e in the same post code as the band) rattling their jewellery so Mick doesn’t have to get within sniffing distance of anyone who can’t afford to spunk £250 plus booking fee without a second thought. In the second class section – people who can scrape 90 quid scuffling in the dirt at the back looking at the video screens. For that alone, they can fuck off.

    • Yes and no; you’re right that the concept of splitting the audience in such a manner sucks. HOWEVER, (if previous tours are anything to go by) they’ve somewhat diluted this by the mechanism of Lucky Dips which, essentially, mean that after a certain length of time where the expensive golden circle tickets have been on sale and there’s no sign of any more sales, they sell the remaining tickets for less. You don’t know what you’ll get but from fansites I’ve browsed, plenty of *genuine* fans (who’d similarly have no time for the price gouging) have been pleasantly surprised to open their envelopes and find themselves rubbing shoulders with somebody who’s paid a multiple of what they did.

      In other words, the GC tix will go on sale at eye watering prices, but when the GC is full on the day of the gig, that doesn’t mean that everybody there paid that price.

      It’s breathtakingly cynical in a sense but there you go…

      • Yeah that’s what I had for Toronto in 2013, inside the tongue stage for 50 quid. For another show in Toronto I noticed there were unsold tickets near the stage, I had a lesser ticket and phoned Ticketmaster and they upgraded me for no extra cost. Also when inside venue you can sometimes get upgrades if high priced areas are not sold out. Stones don’t want to see empty seats from the stage.

        Main rule is never buy high priced tickets when they first go on sale especially in a stadium. They will some way or another be cheaper later.

      • Thanks for that info @ivan. I had a look today, caved in and went for the Lucky Dip option which was there from the off. They’re still bastards for charging £250 to stand anywhere near them but for £30 I’m happy to take a punt. It was nagging at me that The Stones would be playing a few stops from where I live and I’d miss it. At that price, at worst I’ll be up in the gods on a plastic seat near some chatty fuckwits who are louder than the band, and at best I’ll get lucky and get a decent view or a standing place – however it turns out at least I haven’t paid 100 quid. I got no expectations, so I’ll make the best of it.

        What I did notice today was that there were Stones posters prominently plastered all over Manchester Record Shops, even the 2nd hand shops – Vinyl Revival had them all over their window , Vinyl Exchange had them up…and a whole wall of them in Fopp. Clearly the Stones aren’t taking any chances and doing lots of offline advertising in the most old school way.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rIqBeMZAMc

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