There are some fantastic VIP concert packages up for auction on ebay for the final LAST EVER Police Reunion Concert to be held on August 7, 2008 at Madison Square Garden. All of the proceeds from the auction will benefit charity too, so it’s a great cause if you’ve got the cash! Sure wish I could afford this, sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime for some big Police fan with a big wallet! Here’s the scoop:
eBAY CHARITY AUCTION FOR PUBLIC TELEVISION ROCKS! COMMEMORATES HISTORIC FINAL CONCERT OF THE POLICE
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE B-52s
As part of this extraordinary collaboration, a limited number of once-in-a-lifetime concert experiences and memorabilia will be auctioned online through eBay Giving Works.
Beginning July 14th at 7pm (ET) through July 24th, several VIP Concert Packages will be available including for example: The Police Ultimate VIP Package for Two which features an intimate meeting with The Police, Access to the band’s final Sound Check (a few select guests will be invited to join the Police on stage to lend their rock star abilities to the rehearsal!), Front row seats to the final show, Pre concert dinner with a cocktail reception, and Limited edition souvenirs. There is a B-52s VIP package for Four, which includes a private Meet n’ Greet, Rare access to the B-52s Sound Check, Front row seats, and Four one-of-a-kind signed memorabilia gift sets. There is also The Police Snake Pit Ticket package for Four (the only Pit tickets available to the general public are in this auction!).
Auction, Wave 2: Begins August 4th at 7:00pm (ET)- August 14th.
The second wave of the auction will feature a complete set of The Police’s autographed instruments including: Sting’s Signature Bass, Sennheiser Microphone and Stand (used during the 2007/2008 world Police tour); Andy’s Signature Fender Telecaster; plus Stewart’s Tama Star Drum Set (played at 2007 GRAMMY Awards).
GO TO WWW.EBAY.COM/PUBLICTELEVISIONROCKS
100% of the proceeds from both auctions will benefit Public Television Rocks!, an initiative formed between NY Public Television stations, Thirteen/WNET (thirteen.org) and WLIW21 (wliw.org). The Police chose to support these stations in recognition of their contributions to art, music, and culture both in New York, and nationally. For more information, visit www.publictelevisionrocks.org
I caught The Police at the beginning of the tour in Seattle and also last week in Portland. Night and day between those shows. Wrote a review at http://isorski.blogspot.com/2008/07/concert-review-police-again.html. Check it out!
Wow, I just checked the first wave of the auction and the Ultimate Police VIP Package for Two at the final Police concert with the meet and greet went for $12,000! That is so far out of my price range, it’s not even funny! I wonder what the instruments will go for now in wave two of the Police auction on ebay?
WOW! I just checked the auction results and the big seller for the instruments was Stewart Copeland’s drum kit. I cannot believe it sold for $31,900! That is a staggering amount of money! Here is the auction results:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=180273362773
And with 118 bids it was a highly contested auction! Looks like there were two bidders who really wanted that drum kit! I don’t know who trapperres is, only that this winner is from the US, but my goodness he paid a bundle for that kit. He must be a huge Copeland fan.
The rest of the Police instrument auctions were puny by comparison – $9720 for Andy Summer’s Fender Telecaster Guitar, $5700 for Sting’s Fender Bass and $4000 for Sting’s Mic/Stand.
Billboard article confirms that this auction was an extremely successful fundraiser:
http://www.sting.com/news/news.php?uid=6125
09.03.08 Billboard: Every Pledge You Take – New York Public TV Buoyed by Police Tour Finale…
New York public TV tapped into the final date on the Police reunion tour at Madison Square Garden in a unique fund-raising effort that may serve as a template for stations seeking to broaden PBS’ demographics through live music.
About one-third of the tickets for the Police finale were offered as “rewards” for donations to New York public TV sister stations WNET and WLlW, launching their Public Television Rocks marketing initiative and raising some $3 million in funds for the networks.
The deal was orchestrated by the stations’ reps; Entertainment Marketing Communications International founder/CEO Jay Coleman and RZO Productions partner Bill Zysblat, co-producers of the Police tour; and Police/Sting manager Kathy Schenker. Tour co-producer Live Nation and the Garden also were involved in marketing and promoting the program.
Coleman says the way tickets were distributed opened up a “new paradigm” that could be used again. About two-thirds of the tickets were sold through Ticketmaster (which donated much of its service charges to Police charities), and one-third of the house was distributed over the air and online to serve as rewards for New York PBS pledges.
The first row alone generated $140,000 via an online auction, which Coleman thinks might be the highest-grossing first row for a concert.
WNET deputy general counsel of program business affairs Ranfi Rivera says the stations wanted to connect with potential donors beyond just over the airwaves. “We put our thinking caps on to come up with other ways that we could draw attention to what we were doing, to reach people who ordinarily don’t seek us out,” Rivera says. “One of the ways we were able to reach folks was to launch a twowave eBay auction.”
In the first wave, front-row seats averaged about $4,200 each as a donation to New York public TV, with such perks as a band meet-and-greet and sound check rounding out the “experience” package. “It’s a contribution and obviously people get tax benefits from that, but it was a nice package for a Police fan and it also supported a great cause,” Coleman says. Beyond the auction, other price points for pledges ranged from $750 to $100 per pair of tickets for donations.
The second wave, launched after the concert, was an eBay auction of signed Police instruments that raised another $50,000. Throughout the promotion, the two stations served up plenty of Police content on the air.
“It worked, it was great, and it gave [the stations] an outreach to a whole new audience,” Coleman says.
“I’m talking to them now about lots of new opportunities for next year. Rather than do this once in a great while, what we can do is take this platform and use it in a way that will engage younger viewers with continuity.”
Rivera says the success of the Police promotion will be followed by more music events as part of the stations’ Public Television Rocks campaign, though details have not yet been finalized.
Coleman points out that with a dearth of broadcast TV opportunities for live music, bands are seeking TV exposure. “Public television is a fabulous outlet for this,” he says. “They are very interested in reaching out to this audience who loves music and would love to see it without commercial interruption.
I believe public television is going to become a very attractive place and as this continues, they’ll do more and more music. What needs to be done is figure out the economic model of how to fund it, and that’s what I’ve been working on.”
© Billboard by Ray Waddell