Meet and Greet Photos
 

Question and FYI for those getting ready to attend a M&G:

FYI:
The event coordinators do NOT allow cameras during the M&G. A few of us snapped a handful of pics with cell phones or consumer cameras, however, they're quick to find you and tell you to turn it off. You are NOT allowed to take your own photos with Mick. They have their own camera, they will take two photos of you, then "post them on a website within 48 hours".

Question:
For all of those who went to the Columbus show, any idea WHERE on the website these photos will be published? I've been checking a few times today without any success. My fear is that it's going to be pulling teeth to get them, given the fact that the GroundCntrl guys were really disorganized.

I'm worried about that, too. Groundctrl has a reputation for botching things, and as I told you at the venue (great meeting you btw) I have first hand experience with their ineptitude and poor customer service. I was thinking it might be under "news" but no luck yet. I'll email them if they're not there by Monday.

I hope you get your pictures posted for those people who paid alot of money for that Meet and Greet with Mick Fleetwood.God I hate to see people get ripped off you know.

Gonna be interesting how these meet and greets will progress over the coming months.
I can't make up my mind if fans will get treated worse/better as time goes on.

By September when they come to the UK, will Mick be totally bored with doing them or will him and the team have it down to a fine art.

Be interesting to see which way it goes.

I just hope it isn't a shambles like the recent Justin Bieber meet and greets.

I wonder if there say three or four people in a group, will they make you have a group pic or if you can ask if you can have individual pictures.

Also I wonder if mick will sign album covers if you have them.

Questions, questions!

I'm going tomorrow and will be sure to ask! Did they let you have individual pics or big groups?

Can anyone provide more details about how this went down from beginning to end? Did they actually let you on the stage? Did they take you backstage? Were you allowed to take photos??

I am curious as to what makes this VIP??
So what do you get??
From what I heard about the Unleashed tour it was not very consistent and they got less and shorter as the tour went on...

Here's the rundown of what happened at Philly. From what I've heard, Columbus went off much better.

At 5pm we were able to get our tickets from the box office.

Sometime, not long after 530, this guy comes out with a list and checks off your party by checking IDs. You then get a "VIP" badge.

Now, we were told we were going to be delayed a little bit because they were having difficulties on the stage with the a/v stuff.

While we were waiting, we were told that Mick will take a picture with us (individual or group) up on the stage in front of the drum riser. We were also told that he would autograph one item and that he would conduct a Q & A up on the stage, and to just yell out questions informally. (or something close to that). Basically it wasn't an individual meet and greet where you got your x minutes with Mick.

So I guess around 615 or maybe even after that (later than expected) we were escorted into the arena and down to the floor seats by the stage. Some manager, I don't know if it was Micks, the crew's, etc, came over and explained that they had to alter this and how we would get to still do the stage pic, but that afterward Mick would come down and talk to us while we sat in the chairs.

So the picture taking was extremely quick. (Think Santa in A Christmas Story). But we did go up on the stage and for me that was the best part. Just standing there taking in what it must be like to be performing in an arena of that magnitude. I absolutely took a moment to take that all in.

Oh, they absolutely warned us a bunch of times about not taking pictures or having our phones out and if they catch up they will throw us out of the VIP event. Now, i don't know what trade secret they thought we'd be giving away an hour before the doors opened, but they were all serious about it. This woman begged the manager to let her husband take a pic of her with her own phone in front of Stevie's Mic and he said ok, but he has to monitor to be sure it's just that one picture. Then of course some other management guy flies across the stage all huffy and puffy about it. Anyway, I digress. No personal pictures.

So we got our picture with Mick and we went last so he possibly spent an extra moment with us, but otherwise you are talking 60 seconds, if that with Mick.

Then back down in the chairs, they rushed the Q&A segment along, making Mick do his autographs standing up while he talked, which I felt left him a tad bit unfocused. And one manager kept prodding him that he needs to get ready. He maybe took about a half dozen questions, albeit some people just kept shouting out numerous questions before others could jump in.

Bottom line, my group I was with really felt like we were shafted. Basically we paid what close to 300 over face value (platinum thing aside) for a picture with Mick, that we aren't even sure will surface.

Honestly, the best perk was getting to the merchandise stand before the doors opened at 7.

I really hope the future events go off better.

So do you still need me to truly answer the backstage question? :)

I don't want to discourage anyone from doing this. I'm glad I can say I did this once and maybe I'll have a pic out of it with Mick, but it certainly felt very short of expectations because we were constantly being told while this event was going on that it's normally done another way.

Hope that helps. And again, just my opinion of how it all went down.

thanks - yep it sounds rushed and you dont get treated very well.

as i have said before - it will either get worse or better during the tour.

i will warn my parents not to expect to much - the main thing is having a decent seat and enjoying the music.

if you dont expect too much then anything is bonus.

it will also be interesting to see if halfway through it they will change it to group pics only.

So how long is the Q and A - 5 mins?

How can he autograph stuff if you are in your seats for the Q and A?

trying to work that out!

i reckon they will change it so you give him ya stuff to sign that is when they will take the pic - which wont be very good.

also did you get area to a special VIP area/lounge like they promised?

thanks :)

p.s. the only reason they dont want you to take any pictures is $$$$$. thats what it always comes back down to the money.

It may change from venue to venue but in Columbus there was no "VIP lounge" - at least not one we were permitted to visit.

I actually had quite a good experience, as I detailed in another thread... at least, I did until I realized that the photos that were promised to be online in 48 hours have still not yet surfaced, although I see that they have had time to post another advertisement for Mick's VIP experience on their "news" section. Not the update I was hoping for. I'm afraid something happened and we'll never get them.

Despite that, compared to the fact that the Eagles charge $900 for front row VIP and $625 for Rows 2-10 and still you don't even get to meet anyone from the band, this seemed like a really good deal to me.

I just want them to deliver what they promised.

There was no VIP lounge. They herded us through the doors, into the arena, down the stairs and up on the stage. You could take group or individual pictures (and, I THINK) if you were in a group, you could do both? Not sure since I was by myself.
He does sign album covers. Basically, anything you want, I believe...but, just one.
And, yup, he signed as he stood. The guys just collected one or two things, he signed, they returned them to the original owners and got some more. As he answered questions.
I found it to be okay. I expected worse, actually.

its sounds to me the same as the justin bieber meet and greets.

the photos get uploaded to a public site and the whole world can see them.

i dont like that at all.

what was the VIP laminate like? - can they be signed?

It's the same picture as Mick has on the opening page of his website.
Yes, it can be signed (although mine bled a little...on the poster I bought...and that was hours after it was signed).

Thanks for the info. Looks like it might be a little different at each venue, depending in gircunstances. Mine's not until July.

Hmmm. Now, I think I'd rather pay $900 for front row. I only got that for one meet and greet, the rest of my seats are further back.

It was annoying, even for that $30,000-$40,000 jet experience the people aren't even guaranteed front row. The first 5 rows just don't cut it.

Michele