FOR THE TURNSTILES: Neil Young Plans to End Platinum Tickets ... On Future Tours
Ah, yes, For The Turnstiles, Cough Up The Buck$, Watch Out For The Greedy Hand ... yet again.
Or ... trending hashtag #SwiftedAgainBreakupTicketMasterLiveNationMonopoly.
Neil Young plans to end sales of "Platinum Tickets" on his future tours, per a statement on Neil Young Archives.
This summer's LOVE EARTH tour tickets were offered by TicketMaster with a “Platinum” option in order to thwart scalpers. From Neil's statement:
“My management and agent have always tried to cover my back on the road, getting me the best deals they could.They have tried to protect me and the fans from scalpers who buy the best tickets and resell them at huge increases for their own profits..Ticketmaster’s high priced Platinum tickets were introduced to the areas where scalpers were buying the most tickets for resale. The money went to me. That did not feel right. Very soon, Platinum tickets will no longer be available for my shows.I have decided to let the people work this out.Buy aggressively when the tickets come out or tickets will cost a lot more in a secondary market.”
OK, "buy aggressively" should work pretty well against sophisticated, deep pocketed scalpers. Not.
Cough Up The Buck$ Crew
HarryO, Volume Drinkers: Brand New Guy, Paul D.
Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY - 12/15/2008
HarryO, Volume Drinkers: Brand New Guy, Paul D.
Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY - 12/15/2008
(See Expecting To See Neil Young: For The Turnstiles, Cough Up The Buck$, Watch Out For The Greedy Hand)
Labels: #SwiftedAgainBreakupTicketMasterLiveNationMonopoly, concert, neil young, tickets
by thrasher@PermaLink: 3/17/2025 09:51:00 AM
27 comments
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27 Comments:
OK, not trying to be too cynical here... but ...
Good on Neil for pursuing fairness over profits. While him saying that the extra $$$'s "did not feel right" demnonstrates integrity, at same time offloads blame onto management and agents.
C'mon Neil. Recall the mantra ... full accountability, disclosure and transparency.
See, like we've been saying for like decades now, when we allude to the Big Shift is happening ... truth and reconcilation is coming. Denying the inevitable doesn't make it go away.
The Big Shift may be in full swing in the US. Huge numbers of people are protesting Trump’s Fascism. It’s a wake up call. Get out in the streets and protest. Americans protesting? That IS a big shift!
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
Hmmm, the Platinum tickets at the upcoming Hyde Park concert are for a separate area by the stage and are not ones that are attractive to scalpers. What annoyed me though is that the Platinum pricing was 'tiered' so that Amex card holders got the best price. As with the Glastonbury fiasco (will he? won't he?), Neil is too prone to doing stuff without due diligence and then rowing it back. Very frustrating!
PS Thanks Thrasher for that photo of me from 2008 – that tour was a blast!
@Alan - thanks for being here.
Re: The Big Shift. again this isn't a political thing. A Left/Right thing. We realize that this has been confusing for many over the years. Hopefully after the TW re-launch, we can come back to posts such as The Big Shift and re-clairfy our intents.
Our sources put the The Big Shift at about 12 or 13% of population. Once it hits about 15%, a tipping point will be achieved.
@brandnewguy - wow! too long. that was like 20 years ago. What a night @ MSG w/ Neil & Crew.
And here we are ... still coughing up the buck$s?!
We're planning on Dublin. Will The Volume Drinkers be there as well??
@thrasher – not Dublin, alas, but London, Brussels and... Shoreline in September! See you there??
I follow lots of international news sources and do not see large scale protests in the USA just now. BBC says your president in fact has incredible approval ratings. I am also not sure how a government aggressively reducing itself in size can be fascist.
@ David Rart : You don’t see yet but we all will. Trump is angling to sieze the Social Security money which belongs to tax paying citizens. You don’t think Trump looks Fascist? How about deporting a citizen for free speech? Please explain how that is normal and somehow NOT Fascist.
@ Thrasher : I don’t see the Big Shift as being inherently political, but the effects of it could be very political. We shall see. I look forward to reading more about it. I look forward to any positive news these days!
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
"Buy aggressively"....."I've decided to let the people work this out".....I'm sorry but this is a total cop out on Neil's part. Firstly, what exactly does buying aggressively entail? Buying lots of tickets? Being first in the queue? Some people are at work when tickets go on sale and can only try to buy later in the day, and some people only want a ticket or two, and can only afford that. As for letting the people work this out, that seriously pisses me off. We're the paying public, we're the people who put Neil where he is and keep him there and it is not for us to sort this out. It is up to the artist, his management, ticket sellers, promoters, venues etc etc to sort this out, you know, the people who are supposed to be the experienced professionals within the industry. It's Neil's hippie dream, nothing more, and we're supposed to carry on coughing up the bucks.........
More cryptic Big Shift talk with no transparency about what is meant or accountability ("our sources"?). This, sadly, is where you lose me @Thrasher.
Neil Young, Musician, poet, entertainer (?). One can always get off the ride. Many of us are worried about the ride ending before we are darn good and ready.
“I have decided to let the people work this out”……… Interesting approach Neil. The people worked it out a long time ago. Those with deep pockets bought up the best tickets and sold them at inflated prices. There’s nothing new here, and technology has just made it easier for them to do it. Not offering Platinum seats isn’t going to change that. Nor is buying aggressively.
Not everyone has the luxury of buying aggressively, and frankly, the suggestion is insulting. Especially for those of us who are struggling just to get by.
The whole concert tour scenario has become less accessible and more expensive for decades now. And there’s no going back to the good old days where we used to stand in line to buy tickets.
For those who are able to afford tickets and travel the world; good on you. I support your willingness and ability to do so. I hope Neil makes the investment worthwhile for you.
Peace🙏
We totally hear you here Dan.
Right now, we'd say to Neil: Recall that scene in JTTP? The scene where the fan goes look at ticket prices?! Used to be 3.50 or $4 a ticket. Now it’s 5.50 or 6.50!!
As we Recall, the scene is the box office @ CSNY at Fillmore 1970.
Inspired For The Turnstiles.
At least we got a great nostalgic song out of the whole saga.
DR supports fascism
This comment has been removed by the author.
On ticket prices, it’s almost comforting (in an absurd, Kafkaesque kind of way) to know that some things never seem to change. Whoops! Is my literary reference too condescending?
Seriously, learning doesn’t need to be formal education or multiple degrees, (and I’ll leave aside, for now, who’s responsible for the prohibitive cost of higher education), but people who don’t know history are liable to repeat it. Everyone then has to live with the consequences. The way to know history is to actively learn. No one is born with all that knowledge.
I also appreciate that not everyone thrives in an academic setting. That’s not a failing or a mark against one’s character. Education only works when it can connect with all learning styles.
At the same time, refusing to pander or mince words isn’t condescension. If anything, it’s more disrespectful to water ideas down where adults can handle straight talk. Free speech “absolutists”, of all people, should know why I’m not inclined to self-censor for appeal to anyone’s sensibilities. Nor will I be held to stifling standards of decorum, not when the ethics and competency expectations on right-leaning political figures are clearly hovering somewhere in the subterranean range.
The starting point for good talk has to be seeing and acknowledging each other as individual people. I’m not someone else’s stereotype of a progressive or “lefty.” I don’t say things for show or pretension. I’d appreciate the basic good faith of recognizing my communication style is honest reflection of me. I try to assume the same for everyone. We’ll never get anywhere unless we see each other as we are, not as we want each other to be.
@thrasher:
Left, Right. Not a “political” thing? Yet you choose “politic speak” (left, right) to ‘splain…
I called bullshit on neil. Now I’m calling it on you, thrasher.
The “Big Shift” could very well be the nexus of your statement. Or the responses to it. Or. Both.
Btw, Neil backed out of Ukraine. What a moronic move that would’ve been. To play in a war zone. WTF? I stand w/ Ukraine.
But garnering all that good will probably didn’t hurt the upcoming, international tour…
@alan
bro, “positive’?
Ya lost me. there
“Let’s Make Music Great Again, Donny”.
@Dan
CouldNOTAgreeMore
I think nearly all Artists change. Once they become billionaires.
@thrasher
Sadly, I recall those prices. The scalpers. Sometimes. yer only way in during sell-out. Meet up @ a landmark via classified ads in, gasp, a newspaper. Or Fanzines. NYApprciation, top of mind. Lately, though I think more along the line “Flip. Flop!”
Not too surprised about cancelling a Ukraine show - in the age of long range missiles there's no such thing as "behind the lines" any more and I guess the cost of insurance for the crew alone would have been astronomical and no obvious sign of ceasefire now, let along what might be happening in June.
An additional tour note - in the latest letters page there's a few about no shows listed for France and in a reply Neil says his agent only suggested one outdoor gig in Nancy, "SO we have decided to play indoor in Paris because it is the last show".
No venue or date mentioned, so we're all still waiting on how the backend of the Euro tour pans out, with hints of another UK show(s) and now Paris as the finale.
Hambone in the UK
The whole idea of playing a concert in Ukraine was a fool’s errand for the get go, although it obviously was stated with purely good intentions. The country is under siege, and people are continuing to be killed on both sides.
This next month will be a tipping point in the war, and the possibility of more bloodshed is a distinct possibility. So a concert by Neil Young or anyone else would be a ridiculous proposition. Not to mention, a serious threat to everyone involved.
Peace 🙏
Duh?
Makes sense to me.
Unfortunately, common sense is in short supply & shorter demand. These days of late.
"Fool's errand"? I beg to differ. Although my country enjoyed relative safety for the last 80 years, thanks to American friends, all the wars during this time affected us in Central Europe (such as in former Yugoslavia, Near East, now in the Ukraine with 1.2 million refugees in Germany alone, not to speak of Poland with her additional millions of Ukrainians seeking protection there). There is a lot of coming and going in Munich and Upper Bavaria (more than a 100 000 refugees), soldiers on temporary leave, families travelling back and forth. It's true that there is no place in Ukraine that appears to be absolutely safe. But that's true for the nightly streets of (insert American city) or under-staffed American air traffic safety of late.
Is it that Americans never had a war close by or even in their country since 1865 that they tend to overlook that even in war-torn countries people have to work, eat, sleep and desperately try to keep up some normality under these conditions? They go to concerts, watch movies and play football. And they would go and attend a Neil Young concert, just like American combattants not too far from the frontlines did enjoy shows by almost every major artists of their time, everywhere in the world where Americans fought for good or bad reasons.
I do understand and respect that Neil Young and his management walked a away from their idea but also believe that there could have been "show formats" with fairly safe perspectives and conditions. Maybe that would have required "to keep the trap shut", go for it and talk about it later? Lwiw, the next large town in Ukraine is about 1000 kilometres from München, a long day's drive and a distance that some Neil Young fans easily would travel to a Neil Young show. Gauging risks from any American territory being more than 7000 kilometres away is very difficult and reminds me of my mom being very concerned about hurricane Katrina hitting the South while my family and I were in Minnesota.
Thanks to all forbeing here and participating.
Many thanks Dionys for continuing to bring us a different perspective on EARTH events. And -- maybe just as importantly -- thanks for listeningto diffferent perspectives on theother sideof the pond.
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2025/03/neil-youngs-ukraine-benefit-concert.html
I have not seen many celebrities doing the Ukraine circuit since the change in US government. Perhaps Neil has been told not to play by the new administration as similarly others were told to go.
@Dan Swan surely with peace talks the ‘distinct possibility’ is less bloodshed?
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