From Bowienet, David Bowie's "Music Club":


VIP Packages & Travel Packages

A REALITY IN CHICAGO WITH DAVID BOWIE

ON SALE NOW


Experience David Bowie’s U.S. A Reality tour in the storied city of Chicago, IL! Meet up with other David Bowie fans worldwide and watch his live performance at Rosemont Theatre from preferred seating within the first 5 rows!

You’ll stay at Hotel “71”, one of Chicago’s finest hotels, jut a short walk to the renowned Magnificent Mile shopping district. Enjoy nighttime entertainment, a Chicago tradition, what with the House Of Blues being just a quick minute away! The city is very accessible by foot to enjoy the architecture that helped define this country’s ingenuity, and you’re within an easy stroll of cultural landmarks, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art & Photography.

The city of Chicago offers much and it’s giving you Bowie, too!

THE DETAILS:

CHICAGO, IL
JAN. 12-14, 2004
3 DAYS // 2 NIGHTS

3 days and 2 nights hotel accommodations @ Hotel “71”, Chicago
Ticket within the first 5 rows to the show on Tue. Jan 13 @ Rosemont Theatre
Autographed A Reality Tour Program
VIP pass to pre-show reception
Exclusive T-shirt & souvenir laminate pass designed Rex Ray
Welcome reception

Price is $1,295.00 per person based on two people to room.
Price for Single Occupancy is $1,420.00

This sounds more like a vacation package. What would it cost you for 3 days / 2 nights accomodations at that place on its own?

Nonetheless, it just sounds like a huge waste of money. No celeb should be paid a grand just to shake hands with you. We look down on prostitutes for charging for sex, but these fools are charging a grand for a "hello" and a handshake.

are we really comparing prince to bowie?
do you really wanna open that can of worms yo?
cuz somebody gonna cry yo

anybody see bowie play live lately?
sure he's a artliculate fellow,
but i just saw him do some live stuff and
talk about being lackluster, visionless
and boring.

i wouldn't go see bowie for free.

kinda sad really, but so is his whole postmodern world.

HiinEnkelte said:

Check out www.npgmusicclub.com and then tell me who lives in a sad postmodern world...

Neversin.
[This message was edited Thu Sep 25 14:23:01 PDT 2003 by Neversin]

also Bowie's package is a waste of time, but at least regular tickets, at least in europe, cost 35 euro.
And Bowie is still BIG live!

HiinEnkelte said:

No, this isn't a thread asking folks to compare the two artistically.

This is a thread meant to compare the PRODUCTS that these two artists are offering on their tours.

Both are offering VIP packages. Both cost a pretty penny. Are they both good values, rip-offs, or is one better than the other?

That's what I meant to dredge up with this thread. No, this is not an artistic pissing contest among Prince and Bowie enthusiasts.

I think both VIP packs are rip-off..for that price you should have a dinner together, at least

alexxa15 said:

Bowie will be lookin like Mealoaf by the time he's done eating all them dinners LOL

i don't need any musician to be my travel agent, but insofar as we are 'comparing the PRODUCTS they are offering', then it is necessary to consider the value of the show to which one will be going.
yes, this has everything to do with deciding how valuable such a show is, and rather than compare the Radisson to the Hilton (waste of time) one must inevitably compare the musical products one expects to receive (i.e. your so called pissing contest)

so long as you assume that bowie show = prince show
then the rest of the package math is easy, and your thread is useless.
Why should prince or any enthusiast of his music look around to see what bowie fans pay to see if s/he is charging too much or getting a good value? you implicitly assume that bowie is somehow comparable to prince, and ask that we imlicitly compare their musical 'products'-and so I actually asked that we refrain from this comparing-- 'because somebody gonna cry'

Or should we just speak 'objectively' as if we considered them equal in artistic merit? If i offered a VIP package for a show that i could improvise this weekend for $200, who would care? and why should that reflect on the value of anyone else's show?

you ask this as if if everything that fell under the same arbitrary classification should be regulated by some fixed market price. why should we approach any kind of regulation between artists and their conditions for its reception?
i would rather ask in what way is bowie's art anything like prince's?
what about asking what its worth to you?
it would saying something for you to just say outright what you would pay for each package. which is why i said i would receive bowie's vip package for free.
what good is there in trying to lump everything into some fixed pricing system?
when mary possessed of seven devils burst into the house of simon to wash with feet of jesus with tears expensive alabaster ointment did not judas accuse her of wasting money foolishly?

let each person discover for himself his own pearls of great price that lead to the one.

Yeah right, there are other's offering these ridiculous packages too. The Duran Duran newsletter offered the following for a concert in Las Vegas in July...



Doesn't matter which concert, it's not worth it (well, as long as it's not Jimi Hendrix doing a gig with John Lennon, George Harrison, Keith Moon & Freddie Mercury all at once.

Besides, come on: *If* I'd buy a ticket to sit onstage with Prince I'd regard myself as being instrumentalized. Prince would not have to say anything, it's just like: "Look - those people sitting up here... THOSE are the real fans. They paid that enormous amount of money just to sit here at my side, and to exchange some three or four words. Aren't them sweet & stupid?" Even more uncomfortable it'd be to become integrated in some of his religious speeches. And if it comes REAL hard, I'd have the privilege to give out copies of The Watchtower.

Btw, someone remembers the link in NPGMC's Digital Garden some weeks ago? It was an article about I think Ticketmaster and the fact they test auctioning the best tickets to shows now. Then, I considered it to be a hint to how greedy the industry is. Since long, I had to agree to the NPGMC's obvious opinion. Now I'm asking myself - what's the next step at NPGMC? Maybe... auctioning the tickets? Talking 'bout double standards...

alexxa15:



Well, one should add that (at least in Cologne) there are four categories of tickets to the Bowie show (all regular tickets available to the public, no VIP):

1. 64.50 EUR
2. 54.00 EUR
3. 50,50 EUR
4. 33,00 EUR

So the Bowie package is even more unnecessary since the first category will most probably be seats with a good view.

Wolf

HiinEnkelte said:

You can't put an objective value on subjective tastes. That's why I didn't want this to turn into a thread on artistic merit or a "my icon can beat up your icon" thread.

I know you wanna take it there, but I'm just not interested. Start your own damn "Crappy Bowie" thread and see where it gets ya. I wish you would.

There's been a recent controversy about Prince offering VIP tix at outrageous prices. This has been going on with other artists for years, and it's becoming more of a standard now than ever. Ticketmaster is getting more ridiculous than ever with the whole concept of auctioning off tickets. It's getting to be a situation in which "big name" concerts are becoming so bloated and greedy that these folks are bound to start choking on their own tails soon.

I'm a fan of both Bowie AND Prince. A year or two after becoming obsessed with the music of one of these men, I found myself totally entranced with the music of the other. They're apples and oranges, but at the same time there are striking similarities. Hell, I even had an article published on this very topic. Would I pay these prices simply to have a politely sanctioned nod-and-smile with my pop star superheroes? HELL no. I would much rather run into a smaller artist hanging out in the audience before the show at a smaller venue, and be able to interact with them as a human being. Prince doesn't want to be treated like an idol because it's too "worldly", but he makes his fans treat him like a golden cow. Explain?