RE: The Who Mailing List Digest V9 #58

["Nigel Morton" <nigel@adastey.demon.co.uk>]

kevin mc - for the love of the game

I've got to agree with the point made by Kevin regarding ticket prices.  You
can't, any longer, expect an act, their management, their promoter(s) to
have all seats at a rate we ALL consider reasonable.  The prices on their
recent UK dates were managable for most people - the warms up shows were
thirty odd quid and the RAH ones ranged from twenty five to around one
hundred.  At the end of the day enough of them could be called reasonably
priced.  The same seems to be the case in the States and there's also the
advantage that the venues being played there all have much greater
capacities than the RAH (- around 5,500 in it's "largest" configeration), so
there'll be more tickets available to suit the majority of pockets.

The Who are one of the few exciting "live" acts prepared to go out that's
still capable of being pretty close to the standard they set for themselves
during their heyday.  How many "oldie" acts are there out there who are
still recycling the same tunes in the same way with the same actions and
introductions as they've used for the past twenty / thirty / forty years -
answer, too many.  Whereas with The Who they're digging around in an
extensive catalogue of material, changing their sets around introducing new
angles of many old faves - they're still "trying" and it's not all being
done by rote.  We should be with them celebrating their talents and,
unexpected, longevity, not belly aching about ticket prices.  I agree
Tickmaster seem to suck, but I think the list already knows my opinions on
"corporate" rock and how it suffocates the majority of things - eventually.
I believe that for all their failings The Who are still standing away from
the majority point of view adopted by most "rockers over thirty".

I know the money I spent in getting to see them on a couple of their recent
English shows (yeah, what happened about Scotland / Wales?) is more than
I've ever spent on getting to see any act in over thirty five years of going
to gigs!  But, every penny was well spent, they were utterly brilliant.  I
would be most surprised if the shows they're doing in the States fail to
satisfy and I hope that those who get to any of them have a brilliant time
and share it here on the list.  Rant over, now back to listening to the
recordings from Watford and RAH - superb!

Nigel