Elton John to perform at Ralph Engelstad Arena March 24
February 21, 2012 at 1:01 am in Grand Forks Herald
“This will be one of the biggest (name) concerts we will ever have,” said Chris Semrau, director of special events and marketing at REA. He said the Ralph has been working to bring John to Grand Forks for at least three years.
Where was the Alerus management. The Alerus has a 22,000 seat potential compared to the Ralph’s 15,000.
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They are city employees now, they don’t have to work too hard for their money…..they have all of us to support them.
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Why go to the effort of booking concerts when you’re subsidized by the private sector to compete…with the private sector?
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Elton has a much wider appeal.
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Is scalping legal in N. Dak.?
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It was outlawed in the 1760′s in the US territories. I hope you weren’t planning anything. It is only Elton John afterall.
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Good one
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Scalping tickets that is.
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People vote no if you ask an honest question here?
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Depends who’s asking, I guess.
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North Dakota is one of four states that leave that issue up to state municipalities. I remember it was illegal years ago in Grand Forks but I don’t know if it is enforced. I suppose it takes someone to complain before anything is done to prevent it.
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I ask because In Minnesota the scalping was made legal 3-4 yrs. ago & now the scalpers buy up all the tickets over the net as soon as they go on sale & then mark them up 400% for sale on the internet. Theoretically a scalper could buy all the Elton John tickets & sell them from EGF with the prohibitive markups.
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I lived in the Cities during the Twins World Series years when scalping was illegal, but, there were a lot of tickets for sale in the Tribune from out of state that were very much marked up. It was determined then that if you called an out of state person to buy a ticket, then the point of sale was out of state and the scalping laws didn’t apply. In other words, the scalping law wasn’t worth much.
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So is scalping legal in GF?
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There is nothing in the city code that mentions ticket scalping.
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As a stockholder (taxpayer) in the Alerus Center, it is a real disappointment to see this one go to the Ralph.
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As stockholders if would have been nice to sell off this turkey long ago and minimize our losses.
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I saw him last year in Bismarck. Absolutely AMAZING concert. I believe it was a sellout.
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Elton is an entertainer who is trying to put a show in as many cities as he can, hence Bismarck last year and Grand Forks this year. He doesn’t need the money or the ego rub. I have been to many of his shows spanning 25 plus years. Generally won’t disappoint. Gets stronger as the show goes on. One show was 4 hours and 20 mins long. 8pm to 12:20am. Starts right on time. Great showman! Great band!
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Whitney didn’t receive royalties because she didn’t write songs. Elton earns in excess of $100 million/year so if he has a note at the bank he should be able to at least pay the interest.
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Huston’s $100,000,000 left her with only a part of that since it was largely hype to enhance her draw for fans. She had no use for the leeches in the industry that managed to take much of the 100 mill.
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P.S. Why not ask Alerus management why they didn’t want Elton? There must have been a very good reason.
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According to Elton’s website, the dates for the Ralph have yet to be confirmed. If the management at the Ralph is unsuccessful in marketing this show, I doubt he will come. Considering the demographics for Elton’s concert, it would be pretty hard to screw this up. He is an excellent entertainer and many have informed me his shows are second to none.
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No, Walter was dead by the time I could appreciate music. How about you?
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Rich(ard Cranium) Guy, funny you bring Liberace into this discussion. You remind me of him in every way.
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I’m going to apologize to Bubba right away for this and add that if you pick on someone else you open yourself up to teasing.
Bubba: Used as a term of endearment…or in an insulting sense…for a man who is overweight or has a large body frame. In prison slang it is often joked that new male prisoners will share a cell with a large physically powerful inmate called Bubba who will become forcibly sexually intimate with them.
So how did you get your nickname Bubba?
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Your mother would scream it out loud during throws of passion. So it kind of stuck.
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Great come back Bubba.
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Does anyone know if there is a “presale” period? I hear about this option (always after purchasing the tickets normally) and would like to know where to do this and how to qualify. I want to get some good tickets to see Elton!
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The ticket sales will probably not be there and Elton will bail out to Duluth like The Eagles (with a schedule conflict). Not bitter about it still!
(8 years later!)
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So if you all had a choice between Neil Diamond and Elton I assume you’d all choose…
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5fdp…it’s a no-brainer.
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Foster the People…..pumped up kicks.
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Tough call. Diamond gave a great performance at the Fargo Dome, and the place was packed. Strange the Alerus took a bath on him…or maybe not.
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I’ve seen Elton John many times, but his solo appearance in Laramie, Wyoming to raise funds for the Matthew Sheppard Foundation, a few years ago, was the one I’ll always remember.
Elton did three hours in front of a spellbound audience. He even pulled out “Roy Rogers” from the Yellow Brick Road album, and from that point on, had the Wyoming cowboys in the palm of his hand. It was an emotional night. When he sang “American Trilogy”, a song he said he never sings anymore, about Matthew Sheppard, there wasn’t a dry eye in the Arena. We “got” the message that night and it was delivered with class. No lectures, no pointed fingers, just a simple song that spoke to us all. It was the only time I’ve ever seen Elton break down and cry on stage. Elton raised over $500,000 for the foundation that night.
Elton has talent, class and benevolence. My kind of man. He makes a ton of money and gives most of it away. That’s a RICH GUY I can respect. Long live Sir Elton. He will rock the Ralph.
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You have been doing that since you turned 21….what would be so new about that?
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Oh, THAT’S who the guy is in the violet Little Lord Fauntelroy get-up!
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And no, richyrich, there is no way I’d ‘respect’ an obvious homophobe.
Elton John is one of the few classic artists of our time.
Bet you were all thrilled with Simon and Garfunkle when they released “Sounds of Silence” or “Bridge Over Trouble Waters”, weren’t you?
Suppose they fell off your ‘hitlist’ too, right?
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Because of the stupid sioux soupe…We’re reduced to aruing over Elton John…..What’s next? Why stop signs never seem to change? Geeeze
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No…I’m not drunk…I just write that way when I’m tired…Sure sounds like it though
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Hold me closer tiny dancer!
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Oh, OK…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tmGdQDS7HE
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I will never be the same after watching that.
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How come we can’t attract talent that isn’t covered in dust? Someone with a little less mold on them would be nice for a change. I could do without the old man smell.
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Man…You leave an opening for a bus to drive through on that one….But I’ll be civilized and not do a slam dunk……..The simple answer is because the “New and Improved” acts have extremely “New and Improved” pricing that requires much larger venues…That would actually fill. I think they kind of hope some of us old foggies will bring along some of our youngun’s who grew up listening to some of that music on those ancient sterophonic machines…..
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You are right Tundra…how rude of me…I forgot to include the part about Elton John being an old fossil.
I know the older crowd is worried about the younger crowd being driven insane by rock and roll music. Somethings never change. We were promised they were going to bring better bands to town when they were trying to get the younger crowd to vote for the Alerus Center.
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I suppose they could get the band my son-in-law is in, but some of the stuff they play goes all the way back to the ‘swing’ era.
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“I know the older crowd is worried about the younger crowd being driven insane by rock and roll music”
You have heard of Zepplin, Hendrix, The Who, Alice Cooper….And many more that were active when this Older Crowd were teens haven’t you? I think the idea that we might have worries about the younger generation being driven insane by rock really doesn’t hold much water………Maybe becoming goofy by rap……But not rock because we all know that real hardcore rock is good for the soul….
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Wasn’t that a list of drug addicts? Acid rock bands if I have this right? Lots of good music though and they are definitely on my oldies list.
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The old mantra was “Sex, Drugs, And Rock & Roll”…..And there often was an over indulgence of it all back in the day,……So like I said…So like I said…Old time vets of that era aren’t too concerned about modern rock (Hip Hop) driving anyone insane…..Hell most of us made it out alive….Maybe a bit crisp around the edges…but alive and kicking
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This old fogie saw Ozzy, Haggar, Ratt, Molly Hatchett–and more in concert in my day–AT UND! I think the fact that I don’t believe Brittany and Bieber can touch their bat eating, dive bombing, tequila drinking talent does anything but prove my sanity.
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If we could get any of those bands to come back I would be happy to go and see them. It would be better than Elton, Cher, Neil, Brittney, or the Bieber.
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Sorry, tj. Other than Jagger, Ozzy, Alice, and a few others, most of the real rockers are gone.
Morrison, Janice, Hendrix, Lennon, Harrison, Zappa, and the list goes on and on.
What we have left these days are worse than the Disco era. I haven’t even seen anything from Fogerty, since “Centerfield”. Rap sucks. HARD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np0solnL1XY
This is rock.
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The guitar solo at the end is worth the wait.
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You convinced me…I ordered it on Amazon.
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It’s nice to see a discussion about music instead of the UND logo that usually dominates the list of topics.
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Now what could be wrong with that post?
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So the word referring to male anatomy gets moderated. Hal 2001 at his best.
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IOW Peterson’s 1st name is Richard.
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Must be all the leftover comments that included Nixon’s nickname?
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You are cracking me up Spearman….first the weather and now this.
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So tj you remember Richard Peterson of Blue Cheer. Fantastic. He died about 2 yrs. ago so I’m sure you made his day.
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