For the first time in the history of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the annual induction ceremony will take place in an arena, at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The ceremony concert will be held at 7 p.m. on April 10th. In previous years, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies were held at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, but this year will mark the very first time that the concert tickets will be sold to the public. About 10,000 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction tickets went on sale this morning and promptly sold out. The primary market face prices range from $66 to $576. There are now over 5,000 tickets is available on the secondary market with an average price of $357 and a get-in price of $108. The most expensive ticket available is priced at $3,030.
This year’s class features nine inductees across a wide variety of musical genres. In comparison, last year’s class features eight inductees, while 2012 featured a record 17. The massive class of 2012 stands out as somewhat of an outlier amongst the smaller classes of late. The 2007 class of five inductees was the smallest in the museum’s history. There are currently 295 total inductees in the hall. Because 104 of these inductees are groups, the number of people enshrined is actually 719. This comes out to an average of 10.54 inductees and 25.68 people enshrined per year. Early classes often featured a dozen or more inductees, but now that the relatively young hall is properly populated, such large classes have created some concern that too many artists are being inducted and the museum is overly commercialized.
Over time, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has evolved into more of a museum for music as a whole rather than just rock, but as this year’s class indicates, it is very rock heavy. There is perhaps no better band to Rock and Roll All Nite Long at this year’s arena ceremony than legendary arena rockers KISS, who will finally be inducted nearly 15 years after first becoming eligible. However, with typical Rock and Roll dramatic flair, Kiss will not be performing because they can’t agree on whether the current or original members would perform. Without Kiss, fans who plan to attend can look forward to seeing Cat Stevens, Hall and Oates, Nirvana, Linda Ronstadt, Peter Gabriel, Andrew Loog Oldham and The E Street Band. With a variety of different musical genres represented by this class, there is a little bit of something for everyone.
Despite the fact that E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt performed with Springsteen during The Boss’ induction ceremony performance, he wasn’t inducted. Along with Van Zandt, E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons will be honored posthumously at this year’s event. Clemons’ nephew Jake will be filling the void left by the passing of his late uncle. He’ll also be manning the sax on Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes tour which kicks off in April for 15 shows, most of which in secondary US cities. As of now, Springsteen does not have a show planned at Madison Square Garden, a usual stop for any of his tours. With that kind of notable absence, there has been speculation that The Boss and crew will announce more dates in the coming days and weeks. Even with some additional dates, they’d still have a long way to go to match their “Wrecking Ball World Tour” of 2012, which was the second highest grossing tour of the year and ninth highest grossing tour all time.
Peter Gabriel is one member of this year’s class that is actually already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a result of his work with Genesis. Gabriel will become the nineteenth performer to be inducted more than once, joining such luminaries as Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton, who is the only member of the hall to be inducted three times. When Genesis was inducted back in 2010, Gabriel was actually on tour in Europe and could not attend the ceremony. While Gabriel will once again be touring Europe this summer, beginning April 29 in Frankfurt, Germany and culminating on May 25 in Berlin, he will be present this time around for his own solo induction.
In Rolling Stone’s recent interview with Gabriel, he spoke about how he interacted with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain years back at an MTV Video Music Awards show. Although Gabriel “expected to be dismissed as part of the old generation,” Cobain was incredibly respectful and shared his admiration of Gabriel’s influential work. This blend of new and old across a diverse variety of musical genres makes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame special. While the Barclays Center is a newly constructed venue hosting the induction ceremony for the first time, Brooklyn is rich in culture and local music fans clearly respect the elder statesmen of rock. Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones have actually performed at Barclays since it was built, and put on some of the most noteworthy concerts in Brooklyn over that timeframe. When McCartney played Barclays on June 8 and 10, average ticket prices were $330 and $343, with get in prices of $95 and $86. McCartney gave the fans everything they would have hoped for and more, performing 38 songs for over three hours. Not to be outdone, demand was through the roof when the Stones played at Barclays in December 2012. This show marked one of the single most expensive concerts of the year, with tickets selling for an average of $1,079. The least expensive ticket available went for $291. These figures just go to show that while some of these elder statesmen of rock may be past their prime, they are not retired and can still pack an arena.
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