[Slowhand] EC's pricy tickets

[Fabio Dwyer]

I'm amazed when I see someone saying that it's EC's fault/responsability the 
high prices of his tickets. I say that because I attended at three Clapton 
concerts in my life: 1990's Joruneyman's Tour, 2001 Reptile tour (twice). 
The first two were in Rio de Janeiro and the last in Porto Alegre, both 
cities being important capitals in Brazil. All these times I paid something 
around 20 US dollars, and I watched the concert at a free area (no seats) in 
front of the stage at something around 15 meters (you americans/british do 
the math). I was SO CLOSE of Eric and his band for a ridiculous price, there 
were only 3 or 4 people between the stage and I. I missed only one concert 
in São Paulo 2001, the reason: high price. This was the only one administred 
by Ticketmaster. Why is so cheap to go to an EC concert in Brazil, 
considering all the structure needed to bring the whole entourage to South 
America and it's so expensive to see him in his Europe/America backyard? 
That's because EC loves brazilian fans more that the rest??? I don't think 
so... The problem is probably with the venues and the companies that run the 
sales.

Last month we had two mega-tours here in Brazil: U2 and Rolling Stones. 
Ticket prices? U2 around 90 US dollars, ran by big ticket companies. Rolling 
Stones: zero, nothing, absolutely for free, their biggest audience in more 
than 40 years. I've seen many great concerts here, Mark Knopfler, B.B. King, 
Paul McCartney, The Stones, Santana, Sting, Neil Young, Clapton, and I never 
payed big bucks for any of these concerts. Don't blame the artist for that! 
Some of their best concerts are for free, believe me, THEY LIKE to see 
thousands of people dancing, singing and enjoyng their concerts, but they're 
only a part of a big money-maker machine and they don't have the power to 
decide that alone. Who knows if some of these artists are fighting with 
their management to decrease the prices of the tickets? Think about that;-)

Just my two cents,
Fabio


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