Re: We will get fooled again

["Greg Retus" <gretus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know where this hotshot got his numbers, but the TM prices for the
Dallas show are 55$ to 150$.  Also, if he was referring to ticket
brokers....the who get none of that xtra money charged.  It would be nice
if facts were presented.


                                                                                                              
                      Brian Cady                                                                              
                      <brianinatlanta2001         To:      "thewho@igtc.com" <thewho@igtc.com>                
                      @yahoo.com>                 cc:                                                         
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                      owner-thewho@igtc.c                                                                     
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                      07/17/02 12:16 PM                                                                       
                      Please respond to                                                                       
                      thewho                                                                                  
                                                                                                              
                                                                                                              




>From Rocky Mountain News (Denver) at:
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_1267605,00.html


Campos: We will get fooled again
July 16, 2002

Hope I die before I get old, sang Roger Daltrey in the
classic Who anthem My Generation 35 summers ago. Only
one of the original band's members - the endearingly
lunatic drummer Keith Moon - actually managed to pull
off that particular feat. When bassist John Entwistle
died a couple of weeks ago, he was, like the rest of
the baby boom generation's leading edge, pushing 60.

In a gesture that captured the spirit of that
generation the band's surviving original members,
Daltrey and Pete Townshend, decided to carry on with
the concert tour that had been scheduled to start on
what turned out to be the day after Entwistle's death.
After a 15-minute search for a studio musician to fill
the void Entwistle's death had created, the band
played on. Daltrey and Townshend explained that John
would have wanted it that way.

As a long-time fan of The Who's music, I was rather
shocked by what seemed like a callous attitude toward
the death of someone who had been such an integral
member of the group, not to mention a close companion
of the surviving members for almost their entire
lives. Then I checked out the ticket prices for The
Who's latest tour, and this attitude began to make
more sense.

For example, tickets are still available for The Who's
Sept. 21 show at Dallas' American Airlines Center. A
pair of fourth-row tickets will set you back $1,220,
while for the budget-minded, two nosebleed seats at
the very top of that 20,000-seat arena go for a mere
$230, not including the inevitable "service" charge.
Given that they are raking in an aptly termed gross of
several million dollars for every concert on their
current 40-show tour, even the most sentimental fan
should be able to appreciate the sacrifice it would
entail for the band's members to observe even the
briefest moment of silence in honor of their fallen
comrade.

This, apparently, is "what the market will bear," and
charging what the market will bear has become a matter
of almost religious obligation for aging rock bands
that don't wish to suffer an exile on Wall Street.
Speaking of which, a pair of good seats to The Rolling
Stones' show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre in
November go for around $7,000, while general admission
tickets cost more than $2,000 each (and no, I'm not
making these numbers up).

A cynic might point out that neither of these bands
has released a good record since the Carter
administration (in fact The Who haven't released new
music of any kind in 20 years). A historian might note
news stories from the late 1960s, that described
complaints from fans about the "outrageous" price The
Rolling Stones were charging for concert tickets (the
price in question was $7). An economist might marvel
at the amazing power of the laws of supply and demand.


Leave all that aside. I was born at the tail end of
the baby boom, and I grew up in the 1970s listening to
the best of what these bands produced - and the best
of what they produced is as good as this kind of music
gets. Like a lot of people my age, I will always have
a good deal of affection for the young men who made
that music. But let's call a spade a spade: the old
men those young men eventually became are shameless
pigs.

Their once-great talent having departed long ago, they
now wallow in the mountains of cash they continue to
extract from aging boomers, who apparently will pay
absolutely anything in the effort to recapture magic
moments from their increasingly distant youth. Things
they do look awful cold.

Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of
Colorado. He can be reached at
paul.campos@colorado.edu.


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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