[Amlyn]

Originally Posted by jkmaletic

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??

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.