Let Sleeping Dogs Lay

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act III. Scene II.

In response to on-going criticism about how ticket sales are being handled on the latest Springsteen Tour, John Landau put out a response to, what he feels, is unwarranted bad press. Here's some of what he said:

"Yes, we do hold significant numbers of tickets when we play New Jersey, New York and Los Angeles, as does every arena headliner. These holds are used by Bruce, his band members, and longtime members of his extended organization, their families and close relations; by the record label for their staff, for reviewers, and for radio stations; by charities who are provided with tickets for fund raising purposes, such as special auctions; for service people who help us on a year-round basis; and for other similar purposes."

Anyone who is remotely connected to going to a concert, follows their favorite bands, or is in anyway into popular music, knows about having connections. Does Mr. Landau suppose that no one has ever seen "Goodfellas", when Henry takes Karen to the Copa? Of course, bands hold the best seats for their own people.

What made me laugh was this line:

"Secondly, with regard to seats held in the best sections on either side, we always blend guest seats with fan seats so that there are never any sections consisting entirely of guest seats."

Somehow, that should make fans feel better? Sorry, John, I'd rather see an entire section of "guests" sitting with tee shirts on saying "I'm with the band" then finding out that the guy next to me got in for free because his aunt was the road manager's first grade teacher while I had to pay a couple of hundred to sit next to him and then pay thirty bucks for a tee shirt to boot. (Which, BTW Springsteen Tour, are not very imaginative or stylish.)

Landau concludes with,

"Final thoughts: We have no interest in having an ongoing conflict with Ticketmaster/TicketsNow or anyone else. That has not been part of our history."

Then why would he say this in the previous paragraph,

"It's not we who earned vastly larger sums when fans paid way over the face value of the tickets. It was Ticketmaster/TicketsNow."?

For as long as I can remember this scam with tickets has been going on. Fans are inured to the fact that if you want to go see a big time show, the best way to get in is by knowing someone who is connected, or by stepping up and opening the wallet. To claim there is some other way, or to act shocked at the practice is demeaning to all involved.

I know that Bruce Springsteen, who I admire and have always enjoyed, wants to keep up the image of being a regular guy. And, from what I can discern, for the most part he is. But regular guys don't hob nob with the rich and powerful. Regular guys aren't in the rock Pantheon.

In the past few months, the Springsteen camp has had to come out with explanations about business policies. First there was the Wal-Mart greatest hits album deal. Now it's a ticket controversy. Both times, the explanation has been, Oops! Sorry about that. In the Wal-Mart album deal, the claim was that they were so busy in getting the new album done, it slipped by. In the ticket controversy, the reason given is that it's not us, it's them. Anyone with a basic knowledge of Springsteen's history knows about the protracted litigation with his former manager, and how that incident made him hyper control his musical destiny. After 40 years in this business, we should believe that the Springsteen camp is unaware or slipshod?

That insults his fans more than knowing that Springsteen, Inc. plays the game.