It isn’t often that the MSG Network is mentioned in this column but on Thursday, April 9 at 10 pm the channel will premiere The Beacon Theater: A New York
Picking my favorite GSW song was a lot harder than I thought. They certainly have plenty of fun songs that I used to love dancing to when seeing them live
Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of The Dead will appear on ABC Television’s The View (Syndicated, check local listings) this morning. The guys, through a new text messaging system set
Last week, Ticketmaster took some major heat for an unplanned and accidental presale for tickets for Phish’s four performances at Red Rocks this summer. Fans that thought they had stumbled onto a surprise jackpot had their orders canceled and received an email from David Butler, President of Ticketmaster North America, explaining why.
In an exclusive Q&A with Hidden Track, Luke Sacks spoke with Butler, who is responsible for Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing business in the US and Canada, via phone about the cause of the error, how Ticketmaster is working to thwart scalpers, what band he has seen nearly 50 times himself and more.
LUKE SACKS: Let’s start with the incident last week when tickets for the Red Rocks shows went on sale early. Speculation among fans has ranged from a simple computer glitch to Ticketmaster secretly activating that link so scalpers could get in and do their thing. From your perspective, can you walk me through what happened?
DAVID BUTLER: Absolutely. It was fundamentally human error by an employee of Ticketmaster in our Rocky Mountain region. An experienced person, who has been with us for years, accidentally, in releasing the show to be visible on the website that the on-sale was coming, accidentally made it appear to be on sale against the desires of the promoter or the artist. It was really just human error. She was trying to set it up so the show would be apparent with the future on-sale date so the fans would know it was coming. She just goofed.
LS: So that happened, all these orders were filled and eventually the decision was made to cancel these orders. Who made the decision to cancel the orders and subsequently to send out the $50 credit? Were those solely Ticketmaster decisions? Was the band or their management involved?
DB: To be clear, the mistake was totally ours at Ticketmaster and that’s why we sent out the gift certificates. Our policy is, if there is ever an error and the event goes on sale prior to the on-sale date, even if its on our website, that we will invalidate all the orders and if any money is taken we will refund it because we have to protect the integrity of the artist and the promoter that the show goes on sale as announced to the fans. So that’s exactly what we did.
READ ON for more of our exclusive interview with David Butler…
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will have a purple and paisley feel this week as Prince performs on March 25, 26 and 27. The high-heel wearing guitar genius will be
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, one of the most underappreciated bands of the last 30 years, are the subjects of Runnin’ Down a Dream airing on the Sundance Channel on
In the opening of the new Wilco DVD Ashes of American Flags, Jeff Tweedy, donning a cowboy hat in a Neil Young sort of way, leads his band through the title track during a soundcheck at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa.
As the camera narrows in on Tweedy’s eyes, he stares out into an empty room looking more anxious than his status on the music scene would suggest. Although he is as established as any singer/songwriter of his generation, Tweedy still seems to have the eye of the tiger each night on stage and performs as if he’s still proving he’s worthy of a next gig.
In the span of that opening song, a tone of intimacy, both musically and visually, is set and lasts the duration of the film, the first-ever Wilco concert DVD. It’s hard to believe that a band as successful in the digital age as Wilco has waited so long to release a live DVD but it was well worth the wait.
READ ON for more of Luke’s thoughts on Ashes of American Flags…
Van Morrison, who usually shies away from public appearances outside of stepping on stage, will find himself front and center this week. Van the Man will perform on the first-ever
VH1 Classic will air the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster tonight at Midnight. Released in July, 2004 the film features unprecedented access to the band members as they recorded
Wilco has just announced a string of April dates that will take the band through the Midwest and South for nine shows. Prior to already announced festival appearances at Bonnaroo
