ARAb StAtES diSMAyEd At WESt'S cOMPlAcENcy - Kuwait Times

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
Rolling Stones release low-priced seats ahead of LA show
Wild horses couldn’t drag many of
the most die-hard of Rolling
Stones fans to the kick-off of the
band’s North American tour - at least not
at prices of up to a whopping $600 a ticket.
Three weeks after tickets went on sale,
and a day before the British band take the
stage yesterday, the Los Angeles Staples
Center was far from sold out for the “50
and Counting” gig. Secondary ticket sellers
StubHub had more than 500 tickets
available 24 hours before the May 3
show, Good Seat tickets said they were
slashing re-sale prices by 40 percent, and
Epic Nation rolled out a 10 percent discount
code.
The veteran rock band announced on
their official website this week that they
were releasing an additional number of
tickets at a modest $85, the only price
point that quickly sold out for the May 3
concert. According to the website, some
of the $85 seats will be among the best
seats in house in the “Tongue Pit,” with
others spread around the arena. Buyers
will be notified of their seat location on
the day of the show.
Concert promoters AEG denied they
were cutting prices, saying tickets once
thought to have an obstructed view had
come to light after the tongue and lip
shaped stage was set up. “Seeing (the
stage) in this setting for the first time, we
were able to determine that seats previously
thought to have obstructed views
were in fact unobstructed and could
immediately be offered to fans for $85
each,” AEG said in a statement. On
Thursday, seats at prices ranging from
$250 to $600 were still available, according
to the AXS website operated by AEG,
which owns the Staples Center arena that
seats about 19,000 people.
Biggest Stones tour in six years
Yesterday’s show officially kicks off the
band’s 17-date North American tour to
mark their 50 years in the music business.
It’s the biggest tour by the Stones in six
years and follows a handful of dates in
London, Paris and New York at the end of
2012. Tickets for the London shows in
November sold out swiftly despite complaints
from fans over similarly high
prices. “Having a $600 price point for
prime seats is definitely pushing the
envelope,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editorin-chief
of Pollstar, a concert industry
magazine. He noted it was a particularly
tough sell to core Rolling Stones fans
who have seen the band many times. “It’s
easy for someone who has seen them to
rationalize and say I’m not sure I want to
skip my mortgage payment to see them
again,” he told Reuters.
Nevertheless Bongiovanni expects sales
to pick up with the lower prices. “I wouldn’t
expect a lot of empty seats because they’re
repricing tickets to whatever it takes,” he
said. The band played a more reasonably
priced $20 “surprise” gig in Los Angeles last
Saturday. The Rolling Stones last went on
the road from 2005 to 2007, playing 144
shows globally and grossing more than
$550 million, one of the world’s most lucrative
tours. —Reuters
Ed Sheeran performs at the Nokia Lumia Concert at The Box in New York on Thursday,
May 2, 2013. — AP
Picture shows the organ of Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral in Paris. — AFP
Where’s Lindsay Lohan? Not in rehab, apparently
Lindsay Lohan appeared to have
skipped out on a court-ordered
rehab program on Thursday,
before doing a disappearing act and
Lindsay Lohan arrives at the amfAR
(The Foundation for AIDS Research)
gala in New York. — AFP
possibly violating her probation again.
Although her lawyer assured a Los
Angeles judge on Thursday that she had
checked in to start a 90-day stint
imposed for a June 2012 reckless driving
case, Lohan was photographed about
the same time shopping in a Southern
California electronics superstore.
Santa Monica city prosecutor Terry
White told the Los Angeles Times hours
later that he had learned that Lohan, 26,
spent only a few minutes at the rehabilitation
facility in Newport Beach before
leaving. “Ms. Lohan is in violation of her
probation. That much is clear,” White
told the newspaper.
Lohan is still on probation for a 2011
jewelry theft. Any violation could make
her liable to arrest and being ordered to
jail. Celebrity news outlet E!, quoting
unidentified sources, said Lohan never
got out of her car at the Morningside
Recovery Center and that she may be
headed back to New York.
Calls to Lohan’s lawyer and publicist
were not returned on Thursday and
celebrity news websites reported no further
sightings of the troubled “Mean
Girls” actress. Lohan, 26, was sentenced
to 90 days in a locked rehab center as
part of a March plea deal. She avoided
jail by pleading no contest to charges
that she lied to police when she said she
was not behind the wheel of a car that
smashed into a truck in the beach city of
Santa Monica in June 2012.
Lohan had until Thursday to start her
treatment and had initially agreed to go
to a rehab center in New York. Her lastminute
switch, reportedly because she
could not smoke in the New York facility,
left White fuming on Thursday
because he said he had not had time to
vet the Morningside Recovery Center.
Officials at the Department of
Alcohol and Drug programs said the
center was not licensed to provide the
kind of 24-hour residential alcohol or
drug detox program that Lohan was
ordered to attend. The center said in a
statement that it operated sober living
homes and certified outpatient services
at a clinic and had “successfully treated
thousands of patients through our program.”
Its website shows pictures of sunsets
on the beach, and offers clients group
trips to Disneyland, sailing and kayaking.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James
Dabney gave prosecutors a week to
investigate the Morningside Recovery
center. Lohan has spent at least five
stints in rehab in the past six years for
unspecified issues. — Reuters
Family tried
intervention for Jackson
Apolice detective has testified that Michael Jackson’s mother
told him the family had tried drug interventions for the
singer, believing he was addicted to painkillers. But
Katherine Jackson said her son refused any help, saying he didn’t
have a drug problem. The testimony came on Thursday under
questioning by lawyers for a concert promoter being sued by
Katherine Jackson in connection with the star’s death. Police
detective Orlando Martinez said Katherine Jackson spoke of several
attempts by the family to do interventions and get Jackson
into rehab.
She also said she never met Dr Conrad Murray until after her
son was dead. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter
after giving the anesthetic propofol to the pop star. Five days
before Michael Jackson died, his manager called the singer’s doctor,
told him Jackson was sick, and implored him to have blood
tests done, according to a voicemail played Thursday in court.
The message left by Frank Dileo was retrieved by police from
the cellphone of Dr. Conrad Murray and played during the trial of
a negligence lawsuit filed by Jackson’s mother against concert
promoter AEG Live. “I’m sure you’re aware he had an episode last
night,” the message said.
“He’s sick ... We gotta see what he’s doing.” Plaintiff’s lawyer
Brian Panish acknowledged outside court that the episode
occurred on the day Jackson was told by Kenny Ortega, the
director of his “This is It” concert, to go home from a rehearsal
because he was pale and shivering. Panish suggested that if
Dileo was aware of the incident, so were AEG executives. —AP