Anonna

Contrary to popular belief, Covid is not over. Here in Britain, the government and the people have decided to ignore it and live like it doesn’t exist any more. Unfortunately, it does. It’s there to catch you. Watch out, people.

Yeah, stop making the endless supply of those ugly T-shirts and apparel instead!

As I posted on the Merch Pics thread (p.2), a number of major artists who used to have a program/tour book on every previous tour have stopped producing it for their latest tours. There may be an “ecological concern” behind this trend like ticket going paperless on smartphone. Team Madonna may be following the trend, too.

I normally buy a program/tour book (as otcoam posts above, they are synonymous and refer to the same thing in common sense AFAIK). But when I arrived at the Manchester Arena for her Rebel Heart Tour 2015, I found it too expensive in the first place, way more pricey than M’s other tours (I don’t remember how much to be exact, though — does anybody remember?). And I was so gutted by the late start/truncated show I boycotted the purchase, eventually. FTR the program for the Madame X show was reasonably priced so I bought one (again, I don’t remember the price, 15-20 quid? It was definitely cheaper than the RHT one) — although I was treated to the abridged show once again!

On the AXS website, these £93 seats (section 401 and 422) are described as “LIMITED VIEW”. I could accept that, but what matters is how limited the view is. Does that massive rig suspended in the air block the view from these sections? I’d appreciate the comments, especially from those who attended the show last weekend.

I wish you a good luck!

Frankly speaking, M’s intention aside, they look to my eyes more like an army of zombies or ghouls rather than master artworks. Just scary

And imagine Rebel Heart Tour ending after Material Girl. …Oops, that happened to me in Manchester, at that now legendary fucked-up night. My worst Madonna concert bar none. And I was at one of the abridged Madam X shows at London Palladium, the last night of her residency at the venue. Curse my choice and bad luck.

Hi thanks. That would rule out keeping the setlist secret from the public as the reason of the unavailability of the tour book on the opening night. Wonder if it is sold in the merch today (I doubt it).

My theory or speculation is that M deliberately picks all these ugly images for some artistic purpose. Surely it’s intentional. There may be irony or whatever it is behind the decision. Whether it fits or works for the career-encompassing tour under the title, “Celebration”, I don’t know…

Can you consider catching one of her forthcoming North American shows? It is much closer from you in Brazil than Lisbon (or Europe for that matter). She will also play Mexico City — even closer and no jet lag whatsoever. I hope you will be able to make it, amigo!

Ugh…more like “Deconstruction” tour

At the expense of prospective earnings from the sale of the program on the first night? Sounds like a strange assumption to me… Adding to that, AFAIK the majority of concert programs don’t put a setlist for fear of spoiling concert-goers’ experience to begin with. I don’t have M’s tour books from previous tours at hand, though. Did any of them reveal the songs to be performed on stage beforehand?

I hope so. However, all of the artists I mentioned in my post used to have a tour book/program prior to the most current tours or shows, and none does any more…

The most current tours of the Stones, Springsteen, Depeche Mode didn’t offer the tour book. There wasn’t a program in the merch at last year’s Clapton concerts as well as the Jeff Beck Tribute in May. Seemingly the long-standing tradition of program/tour book is becoming a thing of the past. It’s paperless age, baby. The physical ticket is gone, now the program. The disappearance of memorabilia. Sad. Instead we are getting more and more of flimsy, poor-quality but pricey T-shirts. Awful.