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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Matthew Cantor

‘Paul McCartney winked right at me’: the fans who buy nosebleed seats – and get whisked to the front

mccartney cheers while holding bass
Paul McCartney is among the stars who haul the biggest fans to the front. Photograph: Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns

Billy Joel has announced he’s finally winding down his record-breaking residency at Madison Square Garden, after a decade of playing one sold-out concert a month at the New York venue.

Legions of fans have flocked to the arena to see him in that time, but early in the residency Joel said he wouldn’t sell tickets to the front rows, because, he told Billboard in 2014, they were often sold at inflated prices to rich people; he’d see them “sitting there puffing on a cigar, ‘entertain me, piano man.’ They don’t stand up, make noise.”

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