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Marketing 5,000 tickets to ceremony cool but leaves some upset fans who just got busy signal
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
POSTED: 03:04 p.m. EST, Jan 28, 2009
Can you feel the excitement?
No?
OK, then I'll tell you about it and maybe that will jump-start your excitement meter.
As we all know, the 24th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is going to take place in Cleveland at Public Hall on April 4.
In a smooth and smart marketing move, about 5,000 of the tickets to the ceremony were sold to the public for the first time ever.
In a less smooth move, according to a Uniontown reader who is a longtime rock hall member, it was impossible to get anything but a busy signal for the hour he tried to purchase tickets during the members-only advance sale on Jan. 22 and 23 before he finally gave up.
I imagine a plain white room full of chimpanzees sitting at a phone bank trying to peel the receivers and picking ticks out of each other's fur, but maybe that's just me.
Anyway, in addition to the members-only sale there was also a one-day Saturday walk-up presale with the rest of the seats made available to the public on Monday morning at 10 a.m.
According to rock hall officials, all of the tickets were gone about an hour later.
So, what do you do if you missed the Monday morning boat or, like the reader, just fell prey to monkeys who haven't quite mastered the intricacies of the modern telephone?
Well, according to Margaret Thresher of the rock hall, the hall is ''reasonably sure'' that more tickets will be released. Folks can send an e-mail to membership@rockhall.org to be put on a list to be notified about additional tickets. Members automatically will be notified first. People can also receive additional seating notification by signing up for the rock hall's newsletter at http://www.rockhall.com/induction2009.
So there is still a small chance that you may be able to spend the evening in the same (big) room as Metallica and Jann Wenner.
But even if you don't make it inside Public Hall for the big event, the rock hall has scheduled a slew of events leading up to the ceremony that probably won't feature appearances by Wenner but a couple of them ought to be interesting. The rock hall is of course hoping that aside from local music fans, hard-core fans from far-flung places will find their way to Cleveland and go back home with (surprise!) nice things to say about the city and the museum.
So here is the current list of events with more details to be filled in later.
March 28: Majic (105.7-FM) Moondog Coronation Ball at Quicken Loans Arena.
Not many details on this one yet, but I'm guessing there will be plenty of music and alcohol available.
March 29: Free community gospel concert.
For gospel fans this event should be huge because the concert doubles as a tribute to gospel icon the Rev. Shirley Caeser. Through her 50-year career, Caeser has recorded more than 40 albums garnering her 11 Grammys, 13 Stellar and 18 Dove awards.
I'd tell you where the septuagenarian gospel queen will be honored but apparently the location has yet to be finalized.
March 30: Students Rock!
This is a special class provided by the rock hall's education department using its ''distance learning'' program On the Road, which will take a look at the lives of all of the 2009 inductees through their music. Hey, at least you'll know where your kids will be on that day.
March 31: Teachers Rock!
This event is for educators who use the history of rock and music as a teaching tool in their classrooms. Between 4 and 6 p.m., teachers will get to see special performances and win prizes including a chance to win tickets to the induction ceremony.
April 1: Exhibit opening.
It'll be April Fool's Day but fans of ''The Boss'' (no, not Diana Ross) will be apoplectic as the museum opens up the ''world's first exhibit devoted to the life and music of Bruce Springsteen'' called From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen.
April 2: Free community concert at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center.
This one ought to be pretty good as it will feature past hall of fame inductees. Which ones? Ummm, I don't know as (again) details will be filled in later, but this one's got the potential to be a pretty good show. Don't be surprised if there's a doo wop group involved.
April 4: Free day at the rock hall.
Entrance into the rock hall will be free.
April 4: The 24th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
The really big show happens right (near) here in Cleveland. One interesting change from past years is that the rock hall and VH1 have apparently broken up.
Broadcast on FUSE
This year's ceremony will be broadcast live on the rock hall's new broadcast partner FUSE, the cable music channel that skews younger than VH1 and features considerably fewer televised shows centered on troubled skanks and dimwitted self-absorbed losers trying to get laid . . . I mean, find ''love.''
FUSE is a music channel that actually shows music videos usually in the time-honored countdown format and isn't on as many basic cable systems as VH1 though Time Warner customers ought to be fine.
Nevertheless, as this is their first year handling the ceremony, it will be interesting to see if/how the simulcast changes. Will all the honorees be inducted by uber hip young bands? Will Lil' Wayne (who currently has a show called Lil' Wayne's World 2 on the network) be tapped to induct Run-DMC? OK, that one's pretty obvious.
But will FUSE producers enlist other youngsters that the inductees never heard of to welcome them into the hall (i.e. ''ladies and gentleman to induct Jeff Beck, please welcome the Pussycat Dolls!'')?
Will they skip the traditional between-set, time-killing montages (which always include the clips of Beach Boy Mike Love taking a verbal jab at Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck playfully jabbing at Rod Stewart) and run a series of miniature video countdowns (the bulk of their programming) instead?
Who knows, but it should add a little bit of excitement to the lengthy proceedings.
Come April 4, whether you're inside Public Hall, at home on the couch watching or even if you simply don't care, this event is pretty important for the museum and for Cleveland. Good notices from the famous folk and the national and international media that will descend upon Cleveland (the year I went to the ceremony in New York I had brief but interesting conversations with journalists from Japan and Europe) can only help a city and area that are still the butt of way too many unflattering jokes.
No, it's not the one-shot panacea that everyone seems to be looking for to turn Northeast Ohio around (hint: there ain't no such thing), but a few days of worldwide good press with ''Cleveland'' featured prominently should help the rest of the country realize that Cleveland isn't just an industrial and middle-class graveyard.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Can you feel the excitement?
No?
OK, then I'll tell you about it and maybe that will jump-start your excitement meter.
As we all know, the 24th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is going to take place in Cleveland at Public Hall on April 4.
In a smooth and smart marketing move, about 5,000 of the tickets to the ceremony were sold to the public for the first time ever.
In a less smooth move, according to a Uniontown reader who is a longtime rock hall member, it was impossible to get anything but a busy signal for the hour he tried to purchase tickets during the members-only advance sale on Jan. 22 and 23 before he finally gave up.
I imagine a plain white room full of chimpanzees sitting at a phone bank trying to peel the receivers and picking ticks out of each other's fur, but maybe that's just me.
Anyway, in addition to the members-only sale there was also a one-day Saturday walk-up presale with the rest of the seats made available to the public on Monday morning at 10 a.m.
According to rock hall officials, all of the tickets were gone about an hour later.
So, what do you do if you missed the Monday morning boat or, like the reader, just fell prey to monkeys who haven't quite mastered the intricacies of the modern telephone?
Well, according to Margaret Thresher of the rock hall, the hall is ''reasonably sure'' that more tickets will be released. Folks can send an e-mail to membership@rockhall.org to be put on a list to be notified about additional tickets. Members automatically will be notified first. People can also receive additional seating notification by signing up for the rock hall's newsletter at http://www.rockhall.com/induction2009.
So there is still a small chance that you may be able to spend the evening in the same (big) room as Metallica and Jann Wenner.
But even if you don't make it inside Public Hall for the big event, the rock hall has scheduled a slew of events leading up to the ceremony that probably won't feature appearances by Wenner but a couple of them ought to be interesting. The rock hall is of course hoping that aside from local music fans, hard-core fans from far-flung places will find their way to Cleveland and go back home with (surprise!) nice things to say about the city and the museum.
So here is the current list of events with more details to be filled in later.
March 28: Majic (105.7-FM) Moondog Coronation Ball at Quicken Loans Arena.
Not many details on this one yet, but I'm guessing there will be plenty of music and alcohol available.
March 29: Free community gospel concert.
For gospel fans this event should be huge because the concert doubles as a tribute to gospel icon the Rev. Shirley Caeser. Through her 50-year career, Caeser has recorded more than 40 albums garnering her 11 Grammys, 13 Stellar and 18 Dove awards.
I'd tell you where the septuagenarian gospel queen will be honored but apparently the location has yet to be finalized.
March 30: Students Rock!
This is a special class provided by the rock hall's education department using its ''distance learning'' program On the Road, which will take a look at the lives of all of the 2009 inductees through their music. Hey, at least you'll know where your kids will be on that day.
March 31: Teachers Rock!
This event is for educators who use the history of rock and music as a teaching tool in their classrooms. Between 4 and 6 p.m., teachers will get to see special performances and win prizes including a chance to win tickets to the induction ceremony.
April 1: Exhibit opening.
It'll be April Fool's Day but fans of ''The Boss'' (no, not Diana Ross) will be apoplectic as the museum opens up the ''world's first exhibit devoted to the life and music of Bruce Springsteen'' called From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen.
April 2: Free community concert at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center.
This one ought to be pretty good as it will feature past hall of fame inductees. Which ones? Ummm, I don't know as (again) details will be filled in later, but this one's got the potential to be a pretty good show. Don't be surprised if there's a doo wop group involved.
April 4: Free day at the rock hall.
Entrance into the rock hall will be free.
April 4: The 24th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
The really big show happens right (near) here in Cleveland. One interesting change from past years is that the rock hall and VH1 have apparently broken up.
Broadcast on FUSE
This year's ceremony will be broadcast live on the rock hall's new broadcast partner FUSE, the cable music channel that skews younger than VH1 and features considerably fewer televised shows centered on troubled skanks and dimwitted self-absorbed losers trying to get laid . . . I mean, find ''love.''
FUSE is a music channel that actually shows music videos usually in the time-honored countdown format and isn't on as many basic cable systems as VH1 though Time Warner customers ought to be fine.
Nevertheless, as this is their first year handling the ceremony, it will be interesting to see if/how the simulcast changes. Will all the honorees be inducted by uber hip young bands? Will Lil' Wayne (who currently has a show called Lil' Wayne's World 2 on the network) be tapped to induct Run-DMC? OK, that one's pretty obvious.
But will FUSE producers enlist other youngsters that the inductees never heard of to welcome them into the hall (i.e. ''ladies and gentleman to induct Jeff Beck, please welcome the Pussycat Dolls!'')?
Will they skip the traditional between-set, time-killing montages (which always include the clips of Beach Boy Mike Love taking a verbal jab at Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck playfully jabbing at Rod Stewart) and run a series of miniature video countdowns (the bulk of their programming) instead?
Who knows, but it should add a little bit of excitement to the lengthy proceedings.
Come April 4, whether you're inside Public Hall, at home on the couch watching or even if you simply don't care, this event is pretty important for the museum and for Cleveland. Good notices from the famous folk and the national and international media that will descend upon Cleveland (the year I went to the ceremony in New York I had brief but interesting conversations with journalists from Japan and Europe) can only help a city and area that are still the butt of way too many unflattering jokes.
No, it's not the one-shot panacea that everyone seems to be looking for to turn Northeast Ohio around (hint: there ain't no such thing), but a few days of worldwide good press with ''Cleveland'' featured prominently should help the rest of the country realize that Cleveland isn't just an industrial and middle-class graveyard.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
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