Thank you

July 28th, 2010

  Dear TFC Fans,

 We want to thank you on behalf of our more than 80 Partner Charities for making The Troubadour Reunion Tour an example of the power of fans, artists and charities uniting to support positive social change. 

 Thanks to you, this tour’s charitable impact has been enormous. Altogether, your generous charitable donations generated $1.4 million for over 80 nonprofit organizations. 

 The funds you helped raise supported national and local charities that work to do everything from end hunger and poverty, to protect our environment, and support children’s education. 

 To get a fuller sense of the impact of this tour, read the latest Billboard article which we think really captures its spirit. 

 Stay tuned for more from TFCBackstage as we gear up for future great tours this fall – and follow the tours that are already in full swing on www.ticketsforcharity.com

  • Share/Bookmark

A look back…

July 20th, 2010

It’s so hard for us to believe that we’re almost at the end of the Troubadour Reunion Tour! 

But before its over, we want to take a moment and look back at where we’ve been through the great photos our VIP Tour Manager Adriene posted on Twitter. Here are our top five:

First show of TRT in Portland!! Check out James & Carole Going to Carolina!

Celeb sightings in NYC Stage Seats SJP, Matthew Broderick, Katie Couric, & the mean Legally Blonde lawyer 

Yoyo Ma in Tanglewood! Great surprise!

Denver: Searched all day for the pot of gold. Those leprechauns are such liars. Great artists though

The last submarine ride on the TRT. Las Vegas to Oakland. 

  • Share/Bookmark

Behind the scenes with Adriene part 5: Load in…

July 16th, 2010
Hi all, it’s Adriene!
So after Wednesday night’s show in Denver, the buses rolled to Salt Lake City to prepare for Thursday’s show.  We made excellent time.  That is, until we were unceremoniously brought to a screeching halt at the first weigh station after crossing the Utah border.  There were some tense moments when we thought there might not be a show at all!  The reasons for our grounding are still vague, but after two hours of negotiations between state DOT officials and our lead bus driver, we were on our way to work.  Lucky for us, one bus rolled early last night, so there were at least a handful of crew at the venue ready to work on time, but load in was seriously behind schedule (3/4 of the crew having missed the first 4 hours!), but the game was afoot and roadies love that kind of pressure.  
Watching the crew work like an army of ants to get the show up in record time reminded me of how unfathomable it really is that we get this thing up and running on even a normal day.  Here is how a “normal” day looks out here:
1. 6:00AM – Tour riggers measure and mark the venue floor, then run the chains that will hang the “rig” from the ceiling (speakers, video screens, projectors, cables, lights, etc).  On this particular tour, the rig weighs 94K pounds and is suspended by 52 chain hoists.  That’s what hangs over your head during the show! 
2. 7:30AM – Stage manager, production manager, and the remaining touring crew enter the building. The local stage hands arrive and prepare for work.   
3. 8:00 AM – Directed by touring crew, stagehands push gear and road cases to voms (hallways) and into the house (the arena floor) until all 12 trucks are completely dumped.
4. 9:00 AM – Local stage hands are assigned to departments.  For the next 4 to 5 hours, each department – carpenters, video, audio, lighting, backline (band gear) – works independently to assemble their respective parts of the show.  Then they all come together to integrate the puzzle pieces.  The stage is pushed into place, followed by the stage seat pods.  
5. 3:00 PM – The sound department does a line check (microphones, monitors, circuitry, wireless, instruments, etc) in preparation for soundcheck. Lighting and video also perform system checks during this time.  
6. 3:45 PM – Stage Seat VIP guests arrive for the afternoon’s festivities
7. 4:00 PM – Artists arrive at the venue and head to the stage for soundcheck to rehearse for the evening’s performance.  
8. 6:30 or 7:00 PM – Venue doors open
9. 7:30 or 8:00 PM – Showtime!
10. 10:30 or 11:00 PM – Show ends.  Do it all over again . . . in reverse!  Disassembling everything and packing the trucks takes half as much time as load in.  We are pretty sure this is because there is a reward when the truck doors close: a beer and a shower! 
11. 2:00 AM – Get on the bus for the ride to the next city. 
That’s the quick and dirty version of my day.  And I love every minute of it!
 
TFC Note: Follow the pictures to see the stage come together!
  • Share/Bookmark

Charity Spotlight

July 15th, 2010

As The Troubadour Reunion Tour begins to wind down, we wanted to give one more shout out to our fantastic Partner Charities that are eligible for up to 60 percent of the donation made with each Stage Seat purchase. Here are just a few of the dozens of great charities we work with:

Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Boys & Girls Clubs of America is one of our many great Partner Charities working to make a difference. Club programs and services promote and enhance the development of boys and girls by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging and influence.

For more information, visit www.bgca.org.

Farm Aid

Farm Aid is a non-profit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on the land. Farm Aid promotes food from family farms, links consumers looking for good food to the farmers growing it, helps farmers thrive, and challenges the dominant industrial food system.

For more information, visit www.farmaid.org.

Habitat for Humanity International

Since Habitat for Humanity International was founded in 1976, the non-profit has built more than 300,000 houses worldwide, providing simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than 1.5 million people.

For more information, visit http://www.habitat.org.

For a complete list of all of our Partner Charities, click here.

  • Share/Bookmark

Where were you?

July 13th, 2010

We loved talking with this Stage Seat fan who was actually at the original Troubadour concert in the early ’70s!

Where you were when you first heard James Taylor and Carole King? Come on…we know you remember!

  • Share/Bookmark

Carole & James thank fans for helping to raise nearly $1.4MM for charity!

July 7th, 2010

Carole and James took time out of their back-to-back performance schedules to thank fans for helping to raise nearly $1.4 million for NRDC, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and over 75 other nonprofit organizations through Tickets-for-Charity. We were thrilled to have NRDC Executive Director, Peter Lehner, and Alliance Executive Director, Mike Garrity, join us (from NYC and Montana!) to accept checks on behalf of their organizations and remind us all just how critical their conservation efforts and environmental advocacy work is in this day and age. Jord Poster, our CEO and founder, was also there to MC the presentation and accept a check on behalf of the 75+ Partner Charities that have benefited to date. The type of genuine, passionate commitment to environmental justice that Carole King and James Taylor have as Artists is rare. They’ve been doing well by doing good through their work and music long before it was popular. And as Carole says here, we hope it catches on!
(FYI, Charity Stage Seats are still available for final tour dates in Denver, Salt Lake City, Oakland and Anaheim)

  • Share/Bookmark

Going Behind the Scenes with Adriene Part 4

July 6th, 2010
Hi there, Adriene here!
Traveling for a living is a very specific lifestyle.  It is necessary to posses a certain unique personality to be successful out here, and the things that keep roadies coming back for more are equally unique.  Here are a few of them:
1. The organized chaos of load out.  Big rigs in the double digits being conducted in and out of loading docks by mad scientist drivers is a sight to behold.  Stagehands and crew bringing down the show and pushing cases with what seems like wild abandon.  Love it.  
2.  Rolling in to hotels at a ridiculously early hour of the morning after a show.  For example, when the four buses pulled up to the Affinia Hotel in New York City last week, we all piled out, hauling luggage up 7th Avenue in our pajamas.  It’s like a game!  A typical schedule: arrive at 5 or 6 in the morning, stagger to the hotel room, sleep as long as possible, then emerge in the afternoons like overworked vampires.  
3. A new city at least every other day.  Need I say more?
4. The people.  The friends I have made on the road are some of the best human beings in the world.  I can always count on something interesting to happen when roadies are around.
5.  Adventure. Adventure. Adventure.  
6.  The sound my bunk curtain makes when I slide it shut at 2:30AM, when the bus is about to roll out.  A small thing perhaps, but it’s so distinct.  When this tour is over in two weeks, I will miss that sound.  
7. The infinite possibilities of tour schedule.  Where are we going?  When? Great!  Count me in. 
8.  The fans.  Music makes people happy.  It shapes lives, and I get to be a part of that. What’s not to like, right? 
9. The bus parking area during the hour or so between the end of load out and time to leave.  Skateboards, cold beer, and the occasional rousing Connect Four tournament (you laugh, but that game can get heated, trust me!).  We fool around with a frenzy and cause as much havoc as possible.  It is the one piece of touring life that can never be recreated anywhere else.  It’s a roadie secret that I might get in trouble for sharing . . .
10. The adrenalin rush that comes along with being a part of a large tour.  It’s like a machine out here.  So many moving parts!  To watch it come together each day is like magic.  
The road is my favorite place to be.  But after a while, the pace becomes exhausting and it’s time to take a break. Two more weeks on the TRT!  Sad, yes.  But the best part is I never know what will happen next time . . . !
  • Share/Bookmark

What’s your James/Carole story? (Part 2)

July 1st, 2010

We know the VIP Stage Seats are unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, but we really love it when we hear that from the fans, especially from avid concert goers like Jennifer C. Jaff who has seen James in concert more than 35 times:

Photo taken by Jennifer C. Jaff

I’ve been a James Taylor fan for his entire career, starting in Junior High School.  I have never missed a chance to see him live.  I’ve seen him alone, with a small band, with a big band, with an orchestra, and even singing along with himself on a reel-to-reel tape recorder.  So when I learned that he and Carole King would be playing in Connecticut on my 53rd birthday, I didn’t even have to think about it; of course, I would be there.

Then I got an email from JamesTaylor.com that said Tickets-for-Charity was selling VIP packages, which included a Stage Seat, access to the sound check, and a VIP reception. 

I had to think long and hard about this; it was a lot of money for me to spend, even to see James Taylor and Carole King.  But I decided to go for it anyway; to sit so close so that I could see James’s fingers on his guitar and the look in his eyes has been a dream of mine for so long.  And it was my birthday.  The stars were aligned; it was meant to be.

Photo taken by Jennifer C. Jaff

Before the concert even started, I was overjoyed by the experience.  The sound check was really fun – a private mini-concert for us.  We had a preview of what was to come that left us all wanting a whole lot more.

The first song of the concert was one James has been opening with pretty regularly over the past few years, Something in the Way She Moves.  But to hear it with Carole’s piano and vocal harmony was extraordinary. 

 

Song after song displayed these two stars’ generosity, singing and playing back-up for each other, while also singing duets, most memorably on You’ve Got a Friend and Up on the Roof – both songs Carole wrote that James has been singing every night for as long as I can remember.   When they finished the first set after Natural Woman, I was so blown away that I couldn’t believe the concert was only half over.

It turns out that the Stage Seats are a bargain; what would you pay for the best night of your life?  I’m so grateful to James and Carole for working with Tickets-for-Charity to make this experience so incredibly memorable and thrilling. 

Jennifer C. Jaff

Farmington, CT

Photo taken by Jennifer C. Jaff

  • Share/Bookmark

The Stage Seat Effect

June 30th, 2010

 Just in case you’re wondering how your Stage Seat donation is helping the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the other charities you donated to -this article spells it all out.

The best part isn’t that this is the largest single donation the Alliance for the Wild Rockies has ever received, or the fact that the non-profit organization can take three years off from fundraising thanks to the Stage Seat donation. The best part is that since the check was presented at the halfway mark for the tour, there are still more donations on the way for the Alliance, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and all our other Partner Charities!

Who knows, maybe if the Stage Seats keep selling as well as they have been we can turn those three fundraising-free years into five!

  • Share/Bookmark

Favorite VIP moment

June 29th, 2010

We love it all – getting to arrive at the venue early and walk around with no one else there yet, getting to sit and listen to James Taylor and Carole King play around with their hit songs during the soundcheck, getting to meet fellow James and Carole super fans and nosh on some delicious food at the special VIP reception, and, after all that, getting to watch two of our all-time favorite artists perform their classic songs just inches from the stage!

It’s nearly impossible to pick just one, but from our stage seat fans already lucky enough to have the VIP Stage Seat experience, we’d love to know – what was your favorite VIP moment? And if you’re concert is still coming up – what special access moment are you most looking forward to?

  • Share/Bookmark