Posted on 08/18/2006 7:31:56 PM PDT by freedom44
Mick Jagger and his bandmates will never have to worry about where the next paycheque is coming from.
And that is, perhaps, something they should be grateful for judging by the apparent apathy surrounding tickets sales for the Rolling Stones's homecoming concerts in Britain this weekend.
Incredibly for the biggest grossing tour band on earth, hundreds official tickets are still available for their Twickenham concert on Sunday and next Tuesday as well as their concerts in Cardiff and Glasgow.
Many more are also languishing on the internet auction site eBay with bids starting at as little as one penny.
Promoters have taken the unusual step of erecting hastily arranged billboards on the main roads into London advertising the shows - and are also taking out newspaper adverts to shift them.
But perhaps most embarrassing of all for the band who have a combined age of 249 is that cut-price tickets are also being sold to pensioners through the company Saga.
Saga, a company offering value-for-money services for the elderly has stepped in to offer half-price tickets to see the band during the European leg of their 'A Bigger Bang' tour.
The Kent-based organisation, which offers the elderly cheaper options for lifestyle opportunities such as holidays, insurance, financial products and entertainment, boasts on its website: 'See Gods of rock for yourself - The Rolling Stones return to rock in the UK live.'
Saga spokesman Paul Green added: 'We're delighted to be able to offer our customers this fantastic opportunity to see one of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll bands.
'It's an indication of what a lively bunch of today's older people are that we can encourage them to go to stadium rock concerts.
Users of eBay will have been surprised to discover yesterday that tickets for the concerts at Twickenham stadium - a few miles from the first ever Stones gig in Richmond 40 years ago - were failing to attract bids even as low as a few pence.
In one case, a pair of tickets costing £100 each had just one interested customer bidding for them - with a starting bid of just a penny.
Failing other further bidders being interested in the next 24 hours, the tickets will indeed sell for that sum.
There were seven other examples of pairs of tickets failing to meet bids of more than a penny yesterday afternoon. The tickets of 37 other ticket-holders failed to meet bids of more than a pound as of yesterday.
Postings on an unofficial Rolling Stones website yesterday put the apparent apathy to snap up tickets down to touts buying up hundreds of tickets in advance and failing to sell them all off. However official ticket lines only allow buys to purchase six tickets at a time to avoid just that happening.
Everyone seems to be at the mosque instead of the concert halls in Britain
Over the hill........................
Bobcat Goldwaithe on the Stones:
" If I wanted to watch a queen prance around to the oldies, I'd rent a Richard Simmons video."
I don't really care one way or the other, but it has always surprised me that they still draw crowds. Some of these shows with ancient geezers seem a little creepy, especially the rock ones. Jazz and blues singers, OTOH, just seem to get better with age.
President Kennedy said they were a flash in the pan, guess he was right.
Gathering moss, no doubt.
New math. And what's the combined age of, say, the team of current Dallas Cheerleaders, huh?!
Strolling Bones....
Shhhhhh.... it's a secret! But I've yet to see or hear a live Stones concert that looked exciting, or where the music didn't sound "mechanical" and rushed!
The Superbowl halftime fiasco in Detroit last year, with its mediocre-at-best performance, didn't exactly shake my opinion.
I dunno, maybe it's like the Dead concerts, where it's more of an event than a concert?
Mick, it's over. Just stop, already
I'd be at the mosque also if you told me tickets were selling for hundreds of dollars.
So that "Sweet NeoCon" song didn't win them thousands of new fans?
Maybe the Stones and the Dixie sluts ought to just hang it up.
Key demographic.... they should have quit in 1981, or in 1991, or in 2001.
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