Israel Matzav

The real rolling stones

Heh.

Labels: Rolling Stones

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:23 PM 0 comments

Look who's here....

I'll be busy working when the holiday ends.... Give them credit - they arrived before the holiday. More here.

Labels: Rolling Stones, Shavuoth

Rolling Stones concert pushed to 9:15 pm to attract religious fans

The Rolling Stones concert in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night has been pushed to 9:15 pm so that religiously observant fans can make it (the holiday of Shavuoth ends around 8:25 pm on Wednesday). The city had to waive an ordinance forbidding noise after 11:00 pm to make it happen. Incredibly, it sounds like there are still tickets available.

An announcement released by promoter Shuki Weiss said that following many requests from observant fans, his office and the Tel Aviv Municipality agreed to to extend the 11 p.m. curfew on public performances.

Opening act Rami Fortis will hit the stage at 8 p.m and the Stones will follow at 9:15 p.m.

One possible explanation for the late-breaking arrangements is to generate more ticket sales to the show, which some reports have as being sluggish. Whether a surge from religiously observant Israelis deciding they can now get to the show in time will do the trick and fill the park is in the hands of fate.

It would still be almost impossible to make it to the park in time from anywhere outside the Tel Aviv area.

Labels: Rolling Stones, Shavuoth

Rolling Stones to do Shavuoth

When I first reported the Rolling Stones concert in Tel Aviv, someone pointed it that it's on Shavuoth. I thought it would start after the holiday, and it is. But barely. If you're keeping the holiday, you probably cannot go to the concert unless you live within walking distance. Here's why.

Gates open at Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park for the concert at 5:30 p.m., three hours before the holiday ends. The iconic band is expected to take the stage right at the end of the holiday, at 8:30 p.m., reports Yedioth Ahronoth. As a result, religious fans will have to arrive late, or miss the show altogether.

MK Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) is among the Rolling Stones fans who are sorely disappointed by the timing of the concert. He contacted promoter Shuki Weiss who arranged the concert on Wednesday, and asked him to postpone the show a day or move it forward two days.

"On Israeli Memorial Day they wouldn't have let something like this happen. Something is messed up here. Only money is important? What about our values?" lambasted Slomiansky.

"It cannot be that they'll hold a concert that will cause a desecration of the holiday by hundreds of thousands of Jews," noted Slomiansky. "It's not logical to force the Israel police to work from two in the afternoon...and harm the honor of the holiday of the giving of the Torah."
Remarking on the widespread observance of the holiday, Slomiansky added "precisely on a holiday that the non-religious public joins in Torah study, such a massive event comes along, which one can't really attend without desecrating the holiday.

But promoter Shuki Weiss has a history of this sort of thing.

Weiss reportedly pledged the band $6.7 million for the one-night show. Slomiansky noted this isn't the first controversial move by Weiss, saying "last time he tried to bring the band Depeche Mode on (the fast day of) Tisha B'av, and in the end they didn't come."

Slomiansky took a picture of himself wearing a Rolling Stones shirt, to express that "I don't have anything against the band, the opposite. It's an excellent and important band, and I value that they're coming to Israel at a timing like this, when many are boycotting. But why can't religious Jews like us go enjoy the performance?"

Oh well. My kids were sort of daring me to go. Now for sure it won't happen. Not that I was likely to spend that much money on a ticket in the first place....

Labels: Rolling Stones, Shavuoth, Tel Aviv

BDS'ers go after the Rolling Stones

That sure didn't take long. The BDS'ers are going after the Rolling Stones Tel Aviv concert.

“Palestinian organizations urge the Rolling Stones to refrain from playing in apartheid Israel and not to condone Israel’s violations of international law and human rights against the Palestinian people,” wrote a member of anti-Israel apartheid, Rafeef Ziadah.

“The Rolling Stones were at the forefront of enforcing a cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa, but performing in Israel at this time is morally equivalent to performing in South Africa during the apartheid era.”

In addition, a petition by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel has called on the Stones to cancel, and has garnered 2,477 signatures as of this morning.

"We are writing to urge you to refrain from playing in apartheid Israel and not to condone Israel’s violations of international law and human rights against the Palestinian people,” read a statement released by PACBI. “We wrote you previously, in 2007, after hearing of similar plans, and back then you did not play in Israel. We hope you will heed our call once again.”

If the Stones do not, however, heed their words (we certainly hope that they don't), it is only rational to assume that Roger Waters and even Alice Walker will write them open letters asking them to cancel as well. The former has already written an open letter to Scarlett Johansson and Neil Young asking them to distance themselves from Israel as well.

Sounds like another BDS Epic Fail in the making. Heh.

Why is it that every time I read about this concert, I think about Mrs. Carl's and my friends going to the Simon and Garfunkel concert in Central Park 25 years ago? Hmmm.

Labels: BDS, Rolling Stones, Tel Aviv

#BDS-Fail: It's official: Rolling Stones playing Tel Aviv's Park HaYarkon on June 4

It's official: The Rolling Stones will be playing in Tel Aviv's Park HaYarkon on Wednesday June 4. Prices range from NIS 700 - NIS 2,900. Tickets go on sale on March 27 (that would be Thursday), but you can get them immediately with a NIS 100 discount if you have a Pelephone (one of the cellular companies). For those who are wondering how much that is in other currencies, it's about NIS 3.50 to the dollar, so it's about $200 per ticket for the cheapest tickets.

After a few years of inactivity, the band returned with vengeance at the end of 2012 for their 50th anniversary, and toured extensively throughout 2013. The '14 on Fire' tour was launched on February 21 in Abu Dhabi and continued through Japan and China before landing in Australia last week. Before the first show on March 19 in Perth, Jagger was informed of Scott's death and the band cancelled the remaining shows on the tour.

The Stones' Tel Aviv show will undoubtedly be one of the most talked about in Israel's history, rivaling high-profile visits in recent years by Paul McCartney and Madonna.

Tickets go on sale March 27, but Pelephone customers can get tickets immediately through their carrier’s website, and get a 100 shekel discount. Shuki Weiss is also giving away a free ticket to one lucky fan who posts a photo on his Facebook wall.

Lawn tickets sell for NIS 695, Golden Ring for NIS 1,790, and VIP tickets--which will include seats--for NIS 2,850.

Hmmm.

UPDATE 5:22 PM

In the comments, Devorah suggested that I check the date. She's right. It's Shavuoth. Since the holiday is only one day in Israel, I assume that the concert will start after nightfall and after the holiday ends. However, there will be massive desecration of the holiday by people trying to get to the stadium on time. Gevald!

Labels: BDS, Rolling Stones, Tel Aviv

#BDS_Fail BDS'ers ballistic over Stones

In yet another manifestation of #BDS_Fail, the BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement has set up a Facebook page to fight the decision of the Rolling Stones to perform in Israel.

Just days after The Jerusalem Post broke the story that the Stones were closing in on a June 10 show at Ramat Gan Stadium, the BDS movement opened a Facebook page Wednesday, calling on the band to cancel their plans to play in Israel "due to the state's crimes against humanity."

A Thursday post on the Facebook page claimed that pro-Israel hackers had unsuccessfully attempted to take down the site.

"This page has been under attack by unskilled Mossad-paid script-kiddies. They've been neutralized. Now it is time to bring the Zionist regime to it's knees, be it by stones or with a swift kick to the wallet. Don't bother, Rolling Stones. Israel will probably not exist come June."

A previous BDS efforts failed to stop R&B singer Alicia Keys from performing in Israel last year.

And you thought all they were after was Judea and Samaria....

Labels: anti-Semitism, BDS, Rolling Stones

#BDS_Fail Rolling Stones to gather in Israel

39 years almost to the date that I saw them at Willard's rat hole (the old Boston Garden), the Rolling Stones are coming to Israel.

According to Yediot Aharonoth, the legendary band is in discussing the show with Israeli promoters Marcel Avraham and Gadi Oron, and apparently will hold the performance after the group's 2014 European tour sometime in late May or early June.

The Rolling Stones have reportedly been offered $4.5 million for the show, which is thought to be the largest amount ever offered to an artist to play in Israel. Tickets are expected to cost around 400 shekels ($113).

The band has been one of the most influential rock groups; it was formed in 1962 and has released 25 studio albums.

Reports of the upcoming concert cautiously note that 2013 rumors that the band was planning a performance in Israel for the nation's 65th anniversary turned out to be false, disappointing fans.

...

If the concert materializes, it will be one of the biggest failures of the boycott calls urging international artists not to perform in Israel. Last November, it was reported that several top musicians were planning 2014 shows in Israel, including Justin Timberlake and Beyonce.

JPost is reporting that the concert will take place on June 10.

Labels: BDS, Rolling Stones