Why don't U2 do some 'fan-club' only shows?

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leamspaceman

leamspaceman

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I posted this elsewhere on the forum but thought it might warrant some interesting discussion in its own thread.

When doing indoor shows, why don't the band do one fan club only show in each city?

Only U2.com subscribers can attend.

They have a registration page on the U2.com site that is secure. You register and give your payment details. They make every ticket the same price... £100. Then, they do a draw and you get allocated a ticket based on the draw... so it's completely random. So if you get GA, great, if not, you get a seat. So there's no 'on sale' date, no stress or anxiety trying to buy tickets. You register and what you get is down to luck.

The tickets can be 'souvenir' paper tickets with your name, address and U2.com membership number printed on them. You can have 2 tickets and on the day you have to bring 2 forms of ID showing your name and address, such as a utility bill or credit card statement. Everyone would know the drill as it's a special fan club show so it should all be relaxed.

Also, the band could do some obscure stuff on those nights as fans would be familiar with that material.

Even better, it could be free. Well, free as in you've already paid £50 to join U2.com.
 
Very cool idea, but it would never happen in a million years. Venues would want no part of checking utility bills or anything like that.

As for U2, it's all they can do to change out 2-3 songs each night, and the rarities can't be thrown into the mix since the stage production has to account for them. As much as many of us would like to think they have some big wish to mix things up with their set lists, it's just not the kind of band they are.
 
I attended a free Coldplay show for Viva la Vida at MSG. Was short, but free.
 
And then we'd have the bitching over how it's not fair, just because I don't pay 50 bucks for that stupid site doesn't mean I'm not a fan, I have feelings too, blah blah blah

Honestly though it's a great idea... I'm hoping the Dublin shows have some element of this, but alas, 99.99999% sure something like this will never ever happen.
 
Perhaps have a minimum subscription period, say 5 years as a reward to the people who keep up their subs in the fallow years

Sent from my GT-I9195 using U2 Interference mobile app
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
And then we'd have the bitching over how it's not fair, just because I don't pay 50 bucks for that stupid site doesn't mean I'm not a fan, I have feelings too, blah blah blah

Honestly though it's a great idea... I'm hoping the Dublin shows have some element of this, but alas, 99.99999% sure something like this will never ever happen.
Click to expand...

Also the bitching about how the Propaganda subscribers should have preference over the ones that subscribed just last week....
 
There just aren't enough people anywhere to fill an arena for this kind of show. Remember, you're talking 30,000 people in the same city (you might get a few hundred who would fly in from elsewhere...maybe). 30,000 in the same city subscribed to the site? I highly doubt it. And what's the advantage here? To reward the handful of people who pay $50 a year while alienating a huge (95+%) of the fanbase? If you though the release of SoI was a debacle...
 
Perhaps what they could do is on the day of a show play a brief set before the doors open. Only people with a fan club membership can enter, and people who waited in line all day for floor seats. Come out and play a handful of rarities.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
ApolloAndy said:
There just aren't enough people anywhere to fill an arena for this kind of show. Remember, you're talking 30,000 people in the same city (you might get a few hundred who would fly in from elsewhere...maybe). 30,000 in the same city subscribed to the site? I highly doubt it. And what's the advantage here? To reward the handful of people who pay $50 a year while alienating a huge (95+%) of the fanbase? If you though the release of SoI was a debacle...
Click to expand...

Something like that...
 
ApolloAndy said:
There just aren't enough people anywhere to fill an arena for this kind of show. Remember, you're talking 30,000 people in the same city (you might get a few hundred who would fly in from elsewhere...maybe). 30,000 in the same city subscribed to the site? I highly doubt it. And what's the advantage here? To reward the handful of people who pay $50 a year while alienating a huge (95+%) of the fanbase? If you though the release of SoI was a debacle...
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be 30,000. I'm talking about ONE night. So if they do four nights in a city then make one of those the fan-club only night. The O2 in London has a 20,000 capacity but it's the only city they are playing in England so it doesn't mean you need 20,000 u2.com subscribers in London as people from all over the UK will be getting London tickets.

Similarly in North America and Europe, shows are pretty sparse so people will be travelling to shows from all over each country.

Even so, once the fan-club show draw is made, the show could get opened up to the public if it were not sold out. So if the O2 in London has 20,000 capacity and there are 15,000 u2.com applications for the fan-club show, allocate the best 15,000 tickets to them and once allocated, put the other 5,000 on general sale.

I don't think it would come to this though as u2.com subscribers would be coming from far and wide for this show, not just from London. In effect, the 'catchment' area would be pretty big for the fan-club show in each city.
 
Do it in Ireland, plan ahead. People will come from all over the planet to see u2 in their hometown already, and for a special fanclub show that they get to see for free? Oh you bet that there'll be a suspiciously high amount of people holidaying in Dublin at that time. :wink:
 
Hawkmoon269 said:
Also the bitching about how the Propaganda subscribers should have preference over the ones that subscribed just last week....
Click to expand...


That's just the tip of the iceberg, can you say "set list, set list, set list"!

I can here it now "they didn't play XYZ and that's bullshit, what's the point of going to a fan club show if they don't play XYZ"

Note: "XYZ" can be With or Without you or some random demo song they recorded in 1978. Oh, and then there is Mercy.... :(


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
"Hello, hardcore fan club fans!
Glad you could make it to Dublin city

This is PRIDE IN THE NAME OF LOVE"

:|
 
U2.com Fan Club show

01 - Beautiful Day
02 - Vertigo
03 - Get On You Boots
04 - Stay (Acoustic)
05 - In A Little While
06 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
07 - Pride (In The Name Of Love)
08 - One

Encore
09 - Vertigo 2

Outro song: Streets
 
Out of interest - and I realise this information may well be available quite close by on this 'ere site but I'm too full of curried pork to be bothered looking - how many subscribers does U2 dot com actually have? Anyone know?
 
SpiralStaircase said:
Out of interest - and I realise this information may well be available quite close by on this 'ere site but I'm too full of curried pork to be bothered looking - how many subscribers does U2 dot com actually have? Anyone know?
Click to expand...

I don't think they've ever shared that info, and why would they? A small number (whatever that is) would make the band look unpopular. A large number would only discourage new people who want a shot at the ticket presale ("20 million members? I'll never get tickets in that crowd").

My completely random guess is more than 100,000 but less than a million.

FWIW, in the 2012 atu2.com Fan Survey, 1762 respondents (45% of those who took the survey) reported that they were current paying members of U2.com.
 
I'd say 250,000 to 400,000.
I think the fanclub show could be feasible, especially if they kept it to 1 ticket and only did it in
4 US Cities, 1 Canadian, 3 European and 2 Australian.
They could also have you purchase with no seat assignment, swipe your card to get into show and not assign seats until then
 
What I think it should happen is to include the cost of 1 concert ticket and 1 album with the yearly subscription.

If the band releases an album in that year, good for you, you'll get the album for free (or if you have iTunes, whatever).

If the band put some tour tickets for sale, good for you, you'll get 1 ticket for the show you want (limited only for availability) instead of the pre-sale.

If the band doesn't release an album or a tour that year, well, we'll send you an aditional gift at the end of the year.
 
Bad Exit said:
What I think it should happen is to include the cost of 1 concert ticket and 1 album with the yearly subscription.

If the band releases an album in that year, good for you, you'll get the album for free (or if you have iTunes, whatever).

If the band put some tour tickets for sale, good for you, you'll get 1 ticket for the show you want (limited only for availability) instead of the pre-sale.

If the band doesn't release an album or a tour that year, well, we'll send you an aditional gift at the end of the year.
Click to expand...
Right so membership fees are what $150 annually, and every 5 years maybe you get a ticket and an album? Brilliant idea.
 
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