Gordon Lightfoot Forums

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- - Deb (http://www.corfid.com/vbb//showthread.php?t=19876)

My husband and I have been listening to Lightfoot for over 40 years. We are not rich folk. It is distressing to see that tickets to see Lightfoot are over 100 dollars in Missoula, Montana. A price we cannot afford. It is disappointing that only folks with a lot of money can go to see him. We are bitterly disappointed.

Hi Deb,
I went to the website of the venue in Missoula and tickets are selling for $50.00, I don't know if that's still too high but if not you should go. I'm sure you both would have a lovely time.
http://ev10.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncomm...ller=&appCode=

Bill :)

Bill... I think Deb meant that a concert (FOR TWO) is $100. And this is before TicketMaster and the other usual array of service charges.

Seeing Gordon does get to be pricey. I think I paid about $12.50/ticket in the late 1970's to see Gordon.... so given inflation since then, the tickets today are probably a little higher today, relative to what they cost back then.

My first GL concert was back in the late 60's in Santa Monica at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. I bought my tickets 3 days before the show, paid $3.50, and sat in the second row on the aisle. Course, gas was $.23 a gallon back then too.

I bragged about that to one of my college buddies who had transferred in from the University of California at Riverside, who laughed and said, "Heck, we had him at our fraternity last year. I sat in front of him and didn't pay a penny."

Van Morrison is coming to Massey - Sept. 30 and Oct.2 - cheap seats start at 95.00 and prime real estate that is 80.00 for Lightfoot is 250.00 for Van Morrison..goodgrief..ut his fans will be there with bells on...regardless of their financial status.

http://www.roythomson.com/eventInfo....arMonth=2009,9

These days everything is more expensive for everyone including the talent..fuel for flights, taxes, car rentals, hotels, meals, wages for roadies etc.
it's 2009 not 1989 or 1979 any more... as much as I wish it was....

There's lots of folks who don't have a lot of money that go to concerts, Lightfoot concerts included..we all have choices to make if it's something within our budget or if we want to spend those extra bucks, budget be damned and experience a most sublime evening with the performer of our choice...

I know what my choice has been, is and always will be when it comes to Lightfoot..
I'm there!
;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dachatz (Post 154004)

I couldn't agree with you more. Concerts are becoming as pricey as going to the movies (I go about four times a year, if that. Even matinees are becoming too costly.) My heart goes out to a family of four trying to go to a movie now - are you listening to this, Brad Pitt? Oh, of course not! Maybe you keep some of that $20 MILLION a picture you're paid in your ears! Summering in your CHATEAU in the SOUTH OF FRANCE....) I have a friend who lives outside of Missoula and she barely scrapes by from month to month, and she's working herself to exhaustion.

This Spring, I paid over $100 for a Fleetwood Mac concert here in Sacramento for a fairly lousy seat - and then they decided to cancel the concert about one hour before it was to begin, with no explanation given! I think there was a Jimmy Buffett concert I wanted to go to and good seats were $350!

This doesn't help you but "misery loves company" - a single ticket for a Lightfoot concert here in California is over $100! If these prices continue, ever spiraling upward, these artists might discover their fans have no choice but to stay away in droves. Oh well, they can just kick back in their mansions and keep busy by telling us how WE should live - particularly "going green" when they're riding around in big limos and flying in private jets! It kind of reminds me of pre-Revolutionary France, with the stars assuming the nobility's role, "Let them eat cake!" :mad:

Off the soapbox, sorry! I sure hope you all will find a way to attend! Best wishes...SherylKat

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlene (Post 154008)

I know what my choice has been, is and always will be when it comes to Lightfoot..
I'm there!
;)

And don't forget to take your video gear to the bust unveiling. Hopefully you'll be able to catch some of his guitar performance, if it happens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RM (Post 154010)

And don't forget to take your video gear to the bust unveiling. Hopefully you'll be able to catch some of his guitar performance, if it happens.

you know I will!

Myself, I think that scalping tickkets, no matter how small the amount, should be criminalized. Also, I consider TicketMaster to be nothing more than a bunch of legalized scalpers. When Gordon came here in '08, I'd heard about it in the first part oof summer, so I waited until the tickets when on sale in August & then went straight down to the ticket offices of Celebrity Attractions on the first day & bought mine. I paid $52 for mine & come the big day, I had the best time of my life.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MistyMoppens (Post 154012)

BTW - The Eagles were getting $190.00 per ticket at the Greensboro, NC Coliseum last spring. It was a sold out show. Some scalpers were getting in the thousands for great seats. wow...

Yep...I paid $195 for my ticket to see the Eagles in Auburn Hills, MI. It was worth every penny, and then some. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dachatz (Post 154004)

It is disappointing that only folks with a lot of money can go to see him. We are bitterly disappointed.

i don't see a lot of rich people around me at GL gigs...it's about choices....$50 aint bad....it's not like he's playing 20,000 seat venues and charging three figures a head

btw, fleetwood mac minus christine aint worth even $20, imo

In 2002 I decided to buy tickets to Gord's concert originally scheduled for October in Syracuse NY because [a] it was as near as he'd ever been and [b] the date was close to our wedding anniversary and I thought it'd be a nice surprise for my husband. To my dismay, the venue was cancelled. Checking the Massey Hall dates that November we saw that the next day was the annual Santa parade. My husband thought our daughter might enjoy it; at 13 I thought she was way too old but she was enthused (because it was a trip to Toronto, not because of the parade, lol.)

Well. The tickets were $42.50 each, and we'd have a hotel stay overnight, too. But, what the heck, I ordered them.

And then 2 things happened almost simultaneously: I lost my job and Gord nearly lost his life.

And I held on to the tickets. Blind faith, bottomless hope, whatever, I hoped that one day I would be able to use them and I'd still have money enough for a hotel.

I was still out of work when Gord came back but, by golly, I reserved a junior suite at a very nice hotel near Massey and we made a mini-vacation out of it. Never regretted it. Paid cash.

I'm not one who travels all over and has seen 30, 40, 50 or more concerts. I've seen him twice, the first time way back in the day (1974) and the second time 30 years on.

My grandmother - who raised five kids during the Great Depression - always said, it's only money; it's what you do with it that counts. Making memories is up there for us. Your mileage may vary. As someone else posted, the artists' have their expenses too. Touring is not cheap. I do not know enough about it to say who decides what to charge at each venue. I expect that's something worked out between the artist's manager and the venue. Charge too much and you have empty seats; too little and you don't cover expenses.

I've been out of work (again) since October of last year - great timing, what? - but oddly enough, the closer I get to retirement (and this might be it, who knows?) the less I stress about money. This is in spite of having our daughter halfway through college AND getting married in two months. We took a hit when the market fell off a cliff last year, not as bad as some, but have largely recovered since March. But we've been reviewing our assets and pension stuff and know we'll be okay financially when my husband retires in 2012. Managing expectations is as important as managing money, which is where I think a lot of folks get tripped up.

i hope dachatz reads you response, a fine one...btw, all the best going forward

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auburn Annie (Post 154040)

GREETINGS! Well, how about paying $52 to see a movie? Yep, go to the Orillia Beatles Celebration 2009 website, and there's a film to be shown in the Gordon Lightfoot Auditorium - price, $52 per adults! I'm lucky enough to be spending my birthday in Toronto and NYC this year, and here I thought that the Toronto International Film Festival was OUTRAGEOUS to charge over $19 for each movie you want to atend. Being the HUGE Beatles fan that I was and still am, I'll probably pay the $52, too , for theBeatles film (lots of rare footage....)

Your words really hit home for me - I was out of work for 10 months last year, and since February of this year. Against all reason, I decided to travel (hate that when you have the money, you don't have the time, and vice versa). Being single, and not having a job with a pension, like most of my friends, we're all resigned to the fact we'll probably have to work until we drop! So, yeah, I spent what was earmarked for retirement and right now, I'm happy I did - to get to travel and have mobility to see what I want to see before I'm relegated to having to travel with a group of senior citizens. ("Not that there's anything wrong with that"- the closer I get to my "seniority".:eek:)

So, I've managed my expectations - my major goal after this last, or next to last, trip this year, is to KEEP THE HOUSE and PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE. I do have crises of conscience, though, thinking about my grandparents, who raised 10 kids during the Depression, and managed to not only feed their kids but the friends of the kids who stayed up until suppertime, and also fed the hobos riding the rails - my grandmother found the "X" put someplace on their property so the next "hobo" would know the mistress of that house would share some supper. Guess what our grandparents thought of as critical and what we think of as critical is at least a ligjt year or two apart!

Besides, the world's supposed to end on December 21, 2012 (according to a History Channel show last night) so hey, NO WORRIES! :biggrin:

Best of luck to you, Auburn A! SherylKat

by figuring I'll have to work 'til I drop. (that is, if I can get a job that will allow me to do that!) My major goal is to keep the house! I

Quote:

Originally Posted by SherylKat (Post 154052)

Besides, the world's supposed to end on December 21, 2012 (according to a History Channel show last night) so hey, NO WORRIES! :biggrin:
I

My husband saw the same show last night and said - "well I guess I'm going to have a real short retirement" LOL - he plans on retiring in April 2012.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auburn Annie (Post 154056)

My husband saw the same show last night and said - "well I guess I'm going to have a real short retirement" LOL - he plans on retiring in April 2012.

Hi, A.A.! I remember when I was about 11, the "world was going to end" one day at 4:30 or so. I would be in Girl Scouts running around. Must not have thought TOO MUCH about it because if the world WAS going to come to an end, I'd think I'd rather have been home with my family. Anyway, I remember looking down at my watch and seeing it was 4:45 and bring a little disappointed because I had a lot of math homework that night and wasn't going to get out of it!

Similarly now, first thing I thought after hearing about the prediction of 2012 from Nostradamus, Cayce, the Maya, the Hopi, etc., I thought "Great! Now I can do LOTS of travel, melt my credit cards - eat, drink, and be merry!" So I guess my mindset hasn't changed very much, it's just gone from homework to debt! (P.S. I was "supposed" to retire in 2017...) Take care and have fun! Sheryl:biggrin: