Van Morrison (1 Viewer)

mjp

mjp

Founding member
So I thought, hey, why not go see Van Morrison perform Astral Weeks at the Orpheum theater here in Los Angeles. Nice venue, excellent songwriter, seems like a mellow night out for old people who don't know anything about heavy music.

So I logged on to see if any good tickets were available, and what do you know, 12th row, center aisle, perfect!

Price? A mere $350.00.

Per ticket.

What am I, an unemployed AIG executive? Who the fuck pays $700 for a couple of tickets to a concert? A nostalgia concert at that.

Sweet bleeding Jesus. Gary Glitter is turning over in his grave. You know, when he dies.
 
If it was a Gary Glitter concert-now you're talking.

How about a Michael Jackson/Gary Glitter concert with procedes going to the Catholic Church?
 
Michael Jackson/Gary Glitter/Iron Maiden/VALERIAN - now that's a $350 ticket. Imagine the all star jam at the end, when they all sing and play VALERIAN'S Bluebird!
 
I had tickets to see Van 15 years ago, but did not go. I believe that they were under $20 back then.

Van is a notorious prick. He has been know to call out audience members and walk off and leave if people don't show the correct reaction to his songs.

Trust me, 12th row is too close. If he don;t like the expression on your face, he can call it quits, leaving a bunch of pissed off soccer moms and frat boys that were just waiting for "Brown Eyed Girl".

Bill
 
He wants adults to pay adult prices but does not want them to do what adults are allowed to do.

..."Morrison battled alcoholic addiction in his younger years and is now teetotal. However, his spokesman insisted that the ban is not related to the singer's personal history."

BULLSHIT!!:)
 
Interesting. He was addicted to alcoholics in his younger years.
I have to say, I really like Tupelo Honey, Into the Mystic and a few others, but just go away, Van. I hope nobody shows up.
 
I love so much of his music too. It really sucks when people turn into jerks. Can you imagine back in the day someone telling him that he or his audience couldn't drink/get high?
He would of never let that fly. He would of refused to play.Cindi B.:)
 
Out of respect for an older person and a fine artist, if I had the money I would pay it and not buy a drink there.

1. that's easy to say since I don't have the money.
2. I would bring a flask-but with good scotch.
3. My wife likes Van Morrison.
 
Out of respect to Van I would not drink if I was going but I would dress up like Gary Glitter and have simulated sex with Asian marionettes during his performance.
 
I didn't want to take any of the attention away from Van but actually my puppet show is the opening act for this tour & I believe i have extra tickets for MJP if he's interested. Of course, he would be expected to help in "preparing" the marionettes.
 
I can prep a marionette with one hand tied behind my back. I expect to see my name (plus one) on the list at the door.

Van Morrison may be a tremendous asshole, but few great songwriters or creative types of any kind are without fault. And he's written some great songs. Maybe not lately, I don't know. I don't really follow his career. I see him like a Bob Dylan or Paul Simon, Paul McCartney - you get the idea - really, really talented songwriters whose best work is long behind them (easy now Dylan fans, you know it's true - the first step is acceptance). But at least that old work is still there.
 
I know Paul Simon deosn;t get the air play but he still is pumping out some good stuff that isn;t a repeat rehash of a tried and true formula me my guitar and some guy named Art-I've always thought Art was the 2nd luckiest person in music-you know from a coat tail perspective.
check out the new stuff you will be pleasantly surprised-and there were otjher pinoneers I'm sure but his willingness to use (and don;t shoot me here) world artists broke soome ground for people who normally wouldn;t listen to that music or those artists.
I saw Van in a hockey arena so the music lost meaning between the hash marks and the blue line.
 
mjp said:
I can prep a marionette with one hand tied behind my back. I expect to see my name (plus one) on the list at the door.
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I'm not quite sure if you understand what the prepping involves, MJP. If you are aware what a fluffers job is in the adult film industry than you have a complete understanding. By the way the marquee will read Tonight Featuring Van Morrison and underneath Slimedog & his Dancing Asian Marionettes-I know we should get top billing but I'm getting more of the take so I can't complain. And this invite is not just offered to MJP, I'm extending to all on this forum. Just show up outside two hours before the show, I'll be the one dressed in a white jumpsuit (like Gary Glitter along with the marionettes) who appear to be Asian. Hope to see you all there.
 
He was interviewed about in Rolling Stone a couple issues back and... well, he sounded like an ornery old guy... complaining about how people try to make him folk, or rock, or whatever... then complaining about how musicians today just scream over guitars...

I dunno, I started having flashbacks to my relatives back east and took the time to reflect on why I moved 3000 miles away... so I never finished the interview. I'll assume he probably said something about movies having too many special effects and then talked about how when he was young... water was wetter dammit!
 
I'm a long time Van fan. In fact my username (connswater) is from a Van song. I've seen him over 50 times in past 20 years.

Is he cranky? Not chatty with audience? Yes. But I believe he is the best improvisational singer of the past 30 years and certainly one of the best songwriters ever.

Here's a recent interview Van did:


"The only thing I love is the music. The rest of it is pure shit." - Van Morrison, Village Voice
 
About him, seeming to handle fame well, I liked his answer. "Seem is the key word" he said. Simple but right on. I love his early stuff very much. I have "Into the mystic" on my desk top.
But I would not pay $350. for a live show, anything can go wrong, like someone singing along in the seat next to yours.:(
 
Black Swan said:
But I would not pay $350. for a live show, anything can go wrong, like someone singing along in the seat next to yours.:(
Click to expand...

...or they ask you to hold their i-phone and film while they go out to find something to drink ...
The man is a fantastic talent...
But he should let his fans have a fucking drink if they so choose to do so.
How much is a ticket to see Gary Glitter? If the Marionettes like to party,I'll 'BYOB' and share.CRB:)
 
Now he's doing a show at the Greek in October. Ticket price? $375.75 for the good seats. Hey, that's only a $25 increase over last year! Van Morrison, sensitive to your ongoing unemployment, and keeping prices low for you!

In all fairness, you can get a ticket for $77.70 if you want to sit on a metal bench way in the back and watch through binoculars.

What happened, man? When did it become okay to charge hundreds of dollars for one ticket to some show? We don't go out much, but whenever something does catch my eye, it's at a point now where if the tickets are $75 I think, "Oh, not bad!" That's pretty fucked up.

I have a bunch of ticket stubs from the 70s and very early 80s, and it was unusual to pay, at the very most, more than $10. When I was a teenager going to the arena shows, it was not uncommon to see three bands for $4 or $5. Not rinky-dink bands, either. I'm talking about Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Who, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd - big, famous, bloated arena groups.

Okay, I just went and pulled out the crusty old envelope of ticket stubs, and the first one that is more than $10 is U2 in May of 1983; $11.50. That would be a $25 ticket in today's money. Something tells me you'd pay $25 just to park your car at a U2 concert now.

Looking at it the other way, Van Morrison's $375 ticket today would have been like charging $95 to see him in 1975. Almost twenty times what a concert ticket went for in those days.

WTF, indeed.
 
I'm wondering how much one will pay to see Sonny Vincent this month.
Wild guess: €15 - €20.
 
$375 is absurd. I hope he plays to an empty house. Bastard.

I used to typically pay between $3.50 and 10.00 for tickets to concerts.
 
I was fortunate enough to see him in New Orleans at Jazz Fest this year. Only $50. Of course, I had to also pay for airfare, hotel, taxi, etc. Oh - I also had to be a little pushy to make my way down to the front of the stage amongst all the others trying to do the same. But it was worth it. The $50 also covered 11 other stages and was good for 8 hours of music. Van only played for a little over an hour.
 
this is also a major bitch of mine.. (ticket prices). there are many, many shows in the area here that I would love to see, and in the old days (70's, 80's) would have seen them all, but now shit! WTF indeed? we're talking close to a weeks pay for a couple to have a night out. It amazes me that enough people will pay these prices to support these tours. but I guess its a matter of population. I did manage to get a good seat at the "farm aid" show in milwaukee for $100. I'm happy.
 
My wife and I saw McCartney last summer for $99 each, and considering the high quality of the show and what other ticket prices are these days, it seemed a fair price. Of course, each ticket also had a $16.50 fee.
 
I don't see where the quality of the show or performance justifies price gouging. The cost of putting on a tour has not increased 10 or 20 times in 25 years, but ticket prices have. That's just flat out greed. They aren't satisfied making 5 or 10 million profit on the summer tour. It has to be 50 or 75 million. Plus merchandise sales.

And please, does Mr. McCartney need 50 million more dollars? At what point is it enough and you do a free tour, or a tour at cost, or put out a record free or at cost? The more wealthy these people become, the more of your money they want. The Beatles are the worst example of that greed. I understand not devaluing your music by keeping the price high. That's simple marketing bullshit. But when is enough enough? Why is a Beatles CD still $15 (or $18-$20 per disc for the mono box)?

Not trying to get all Fugazi about it, but the amounts of money raked in by popular musicians used to be ridiculous, now they're just obscene. $100 to see a concert? $375 to see a concert? Fuck you!
 
I guess my point was that I didn't consider $99 to be price gouging, especially in light of some of the other prices such as that for Van Morrison.

And I paid $15.50 per disc for the mono set and $11.99-$12.99 for each stereo re-master last year. But it is ridiculous. For years I was convinced that the prices remained at $18 per disc because the baby-fucker owned the catalog and had legal bills. Prices have come down since then. But the whole Beatles thing is just a money-suck. One I gladly partake in while holding my nose.
 
My friend went to see Van Morrison at the greek theater a couple of nights ago. She paid $250.00 per seat to sit in the orchestra section, but was enraged when she learned of Van's no alcohol rules. However she said that the greek was allowed to serve alcohol all the way up to 10 minutes or so before the show started. She said there were signs everywhere, even on the big electronic billboard outside the greek announcing the alcohol rules. She said they were also allowing you to buy 4 beers at a time? Not sure if she meant 2 per person though, since she was there with someone. Anyway once the lights went out, that was it, alcohol done.

I guess that's why the greek charged so much for tix, because the $250.00 was face value and I'm sure they take a risk of not earning anywhere near the money they would earn when alcohol is served throughout the night.
 
nervas said:
I guess that's why the greek charged so much for tix...
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The venue doesn't always set the ticket price. Typically there is a contract between the promoter and the venue that says, "It will cost you two million dollars for a few hours of Mr. Morrison's time," then the venue has to do the math according to their seating and pricing tiers. In some cases the promoter will cap the retail ticket price, which is why you get a lot of the added on fees that make your $25 ticket cost $37.50 (TicketMaster isn't getting all of that).

It's a racket (what isn't a racket now?) and a far cry from the old $5 concert days. Back when they used steam engines to power the amps.
 
nervas said:
Van's no alcohol rules
Click to expand...
The Smiths once canceled a festival gig because a hamburger stand stood on the field.

MeatMurder.jpg
 

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