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Meet & Greet Experiences

As far as autograph collecting and music fan experiences goes, I find the range of stories I hear about various meet & greets to be pretty fascinating. I've heard of people paying modest fees (or nothing) for wonderful, fun experiences - and other stories of fans shelling out large amounts of money for a massive disappointment. And, of course, everything in between.

I thought we should have a comprehensive thread on the topic. Have you been to a pre-show or post-show meet and greet or know someone who has? Was it a bargain or a ripoff? What was the mood - structured and hurried or casual and fun?

My favorite band does meet and greets at every headline show they perform on this tour, chosen at fandom by fans who sign up for their fanclub and enter the show-specific drawing. There is no charge, and (usually) I don't believe a show ticket is even required. They were asked about this in an interview early this tour, and the response from one of the band members, Martin, was pretty passionate about musicians who charge high prices for meet & greets. FYI: I get that this band isn't quite a household name yet, so there might be a sentiment of "Who are they to say . . ." However they have an interesting perspective as both successful musicians with Top 10 records and huge music fans themselves).

Here's that portion of the interview:

https://youtu.be/l1da-ZW_3OA?t=6m48s

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on December 10, 2015 at 5:37pm

My cousin is his US music director and drummer. They were recently in ny and played at Barnes and noble.

Permalink Reply by Ian Baldock on December 10, 2015 at 4:26pm

A great seat and two autographed items. if you are a big fan this is worth it.

( Brian Wilson)

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on December 10, 2015 at 4:35pm

I agree Ian, I actually would be happy with the God Only Knows sheet (one of my all time favorite songs) I really hope he plays near me this summer again.

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Permalink Reply by Coachgd on December 12, 2015 at 5:24pm

I had the opportunity to shoot Earth, Wind and Fire this past spring. It was my first show as a photographer/concert reviewer and it was great. They were selling meet and greet passes at the merch table and announced it before and after the show. I decided to check it out, and it was $100 bucks to meet the band (3 long time members) and get your picture taken with them. I rationalized that since my ticket was free, I may as well get it and try and get my 2 albums signed. As the 20 or so people were in line, the manager announced that there would be no autographs. I thought, what the heck for 100 bucks I should at least get 1 album signed, so I figured I'd be the last in line and give it a try. After I got my picture taken with them, I asked Philip Bailey if he would mind signing an album for me. He said sure and did it for me. I then asked the other two guys, Ralph and Vernon and they happily obliged. I didn't want to seem greedy and only asked for the one lp to be signed, but I did get Vernon on my HOF poster.

So to me, it never hurts to ask even when the manager says no. As it turned out, there was another couple that got the set list from the stage and had the guys sign it as well. So I wasn't the only one!

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Earth Wind Fire and I2.jpg, 227 KB

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on December 12, 2015 at 5:32pm

Same thing I did for Mike Love and Bruce Johnstown as you know. I didn't want to miss my opportunity without asking.

One of the guys I was talking with at the Brian Wilson show tried being last in line for the meet and greet. I think that back fired, Brian seems in better spirits in the beginning and more rushed towards the end. I am pretty sure they rushed him out at the end. Brian (obviously) is a tad awkward in these situations.

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Permalink Reply by Barry S on December 12, 2015 at 5:33pm

Yeah that's a cool picture.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 12, 2015 at 9:23pm

By the same token, I've noticed that with the informal post-show "by the bus meet & greets," sometimes the tour manager or security will come out and tell the group waiting that the person will not be stopping, signing, taking photos, etc. While that's sometimes true, in many instances I think it's more of a tactic to shrink the crowd a bit - or perhaps to not get fans' hopes up should the musician not feel like stopping.

For one of the meet & greet videos I posted above (Grimes), her tour manager actually did come out and tell us that they had to head to the airport (she was booked on a Canadian TV show the next day) and that Claire had to head straight to the bus. I almost took her at her word and left, as I can tell you that she's an autograph I rarely see on Ebay despite a good following and now sharply rising popularity. My friend suggested we stick around for another half hour or so, just in case. Good call, as even though she moved quickly, she did come out and made sure all the fans got a photo, autograph or at least a hug.

Wish I'd had more than just the ticket stub, but the physical release of her album wasn't out yet, and the line for the merch stand (where there was a poster or two) was absurd.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on December 13, 2015 at 10:17am

I was a a festival called the Vans Warp tour, it was a punk rock festival. The informal meet and greet i had with an Australian band called Grinspoon was, they had the backstage area fenced of but there was a bus that made part of the fence up and i crawled under the bus slipped backstage to have my album signed, then slipped back out again.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on December 13, 2015 at 10:30am

Haha, no one saw you?

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Permalink Reply by Paul on December 13, 2015 at 10:38am

No one.

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Permalink Reply by Terry G. on December 13, 2015 at 3:49pm

We're getting off-topic here- meet and greets are events that a fan pays for in order to meet the artist(s). Standing out by the bus or hotel is not a meet and greet, IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 13, 2015 at 4:08pm

Maybe we should more clearly define what we mean. We can eliminate informal post show/pres how "by the bus" meet and greets, but not all organized meet and greets are paid events.

Let's stick to organized events - preshow or postshow - that are advertised in advance and (generally) limited to a certain number of fans. These can be paid or free (i.e. radio station contests, fan club events, etc).