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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 Rich on December 7, 2015 at 6:33am

My preference has typically been to go to a show and then wait for the band or artist post show by their tour bus. I've been to only a few paid meet and greets. From what I'm seeing described, most of the paid ones almost sound like they have an inherent awkwardness to them that can't be avoided.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on December 7, 2015 at 6:49am

Yeah, I think anytime you are paying someone for their time it can be awkward. I don't know if some celebrities understand the working class still. With the amount of energy and money put into any fandom. However even asking someone for their autograph is awkward really. It is basically telling them they are in some regards that they are in some way superior to ourselves, so ego obviously is involved. I am not again waiting outside a venue for an attempt at an autograph, their are only a handful of musicians I would pay to meet. I would just be bummed if I missed a select few if I could guarantee it.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on December 7, 2015 at 6:50am

Not against...stupid autocorrect.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 7, 2015 at 7:01am

In the past year I paid $45 for a Kimbra meet & greet, $50 for a Shirley Manson meet & greet and $75 for a private event with my favorite band mentioned above. In the latter two cases, 100% of the proceeds were to benefit a cause.

The Kimbra meet and greet included a mini tour poster and some novelty buttons. 10 of us were taken upstairs to a table at the venue's bar area. She sat right next to me, and each of us were allowed to ask a question. When I asked about a song she'd recorded for an upcoming Disney compilation album, she started singing it to me. Afterwards, we were each allowed a photo with her and one autograph per person. Nice experience.

Shirley Manson is wonderful to her fans in every scenario possible. It was very late at this postshow meet and greet. I think the venue would have preferred that things hurry along, but Shirley took her time talking to each fan, signing whatever you wanted, taking multiple photos, etc.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on December 7, 2015 at 7:21am

That is awesome, very cool!

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Permalink Reply by Null on December 7, 2015 at 8:38am

I was checking out TOOL's website for their upcoming tour, for $500 you get a "VIP experience", where they take away your phone, you get a QA with 1 of the members (which one it won't specify 100%), and maybe a photo op. Just insanity. Anything over $150, these people can go shove it.

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Permalink Reply by Barry S on December 7, 2015 at 2:04pm

I was going to buy a tool ticket but noticed all seats are $77 and all are GA. Not sure how that works at a 10,000 seat coliseum, I guess there will be a huge line! I've never seen this done, I kind of like to know where I'll be. I'm sure this is to fight the reselling of their tickets, which is cool I guess. Im off to Hall & Oates now. Row Q seat 10. :)

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Permalink Reply by Terry G. on December 7, 2015 at 2:37pm

I've never participated in a meet & greet. But the fact that I'm hanging around venues trying to get signatures an awful lot has given me some insight into this fairly new practice of a M&G. I've seen many happy fans come out of one, and I've seen some really unhappy ones. I've invested the time to to talk to some of them this past year because it's interesting to see what actually goes on for the money. Some that stand out:

Dwight Yoakam: was scheduled for a M&G at 5 PM for a 8 PM show. Got stuck in Orlando rush hour traffic, called venue to reschedule the M&G to after the show. Showed up at venue at 7:10, decided to do M&G at 7:30 for 70+ fans, some of whom had left the area after being told it was rescheduled. The ones that remained were hustled into the venue, told no pictures (were given a glossy 8X10) and told 1 auto per person. Dwight walked in, sat at table, signed for everyone, manager cut people off if conversation went on too long, no pictures were taken except those on cell phones standing 15-20 feet away. Dwight left, walked straight to stage at 8:10, played 85 minutes, straight to bus and hit the highway. Cost of M&G: $300, took less than 30 minutes for 60+ fans. Many, many unhappy campers that night-some missed beginning of show because they were in different building for M&G.

Cheap Trick: odd one. Held M&G for 15 fans in the walkway leading to stage from outside venue. Poorly lit, pictures turned out awful for most people. band did sign anything and everything, posed, and talked openly. Just an odd place to hold it, IMO, as a matter of fact, I could see it happening from the street, and after it was over, the band stood there waiting for their intro music to play, and came over and signed my stuff, lol. Cost: $150 Some happy fans, some disappointed it wasn't as private as it could have been.

KISS: different tours, different prices, $1000-3000. No guarantee that all 4 will participate- last tour stop here in Jax, no Gene or Paul in M&G, fans were ripping mad. Got swag bag with posters, key fob, laminates. So some people paid $3000 to meet Bruce Kulick only.

Ozzy: $3000 for less than 3 minutes with him. Signed for about 5 people, shook a few hands, then left the room. Left everybody else without actually meeting him, handlers took stance that the M&G was with the band, not just Ozzy. Physical threats were made and people escorted from venue.

Chris Isaak: $100. Every single fan who bought the package met him, talked to him, got everything they wanted signed. He took them all into the venue and let them watch soundcheck even though it wasn't advertised as part of the M&G. Spent over an hour with about 15 fans.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 7, 2015 at 2:46pm

The Ozzy and KISS scenarios described sound pretty unforgivable.

Maybe I'm off here, but didn't KISS use to be pretty good to their fans?

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on December 7, 2015 at 2:48pm

I agree. I would be bummed in those cases.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on December 7, 2015 at 2:50pm

I think, regardless of how much disposable income those fans have, "furious" is a legitimate response. Not shocked to hear that that's what happened with Ozzy.