Tired, fed up and ticketless

[willo]

Today was the first day of ticket sales for the Chili Peppers UK tour. I was charged with trying to go online and get tickets for me and my mate.
 
So I'm up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 8:57 with my computer all loaded up, on ticketmaster.co.uk hitting the 'refresh' button to try and get a slight headstart on everyone else, and at 9am, tickets go on sale. So I'm clicking on the buttons saying 'Manchester Evening News Arena - STANDING', cos that's what it's all about, the standing. I figured it would be busy, it was last time, although we did manage to get tickets (seated) 4 hours after the sale started, and of course, two hours after we got our tickets they announced a second date which another mate somehow fluked two standing tickets to by virtue of the fact he woke up later and more hungover than the rest of us! Anyhow, never trust technology! It kept telling me 'Tickets on sale', then you'd click the link and it would say 'Event Removed from site' or something, and it was only 1 minute past 9??! So by the time it eventually decided that it would search for my tickets, and that the event hadn't been removed from the site, it was 9:07, and I was placed in a queue while it searched for my tickets - this process put me on hold for 7 minutes. So, at quarter past 9, it says 'no tickets'. So I try the second date, on the 11th July, and I'm waiting for 6 minutes or so in my queue when the website develops a fault and apologises as it has to return me to the start of the queue again. Next queue comes up with the promising message 'Your request will take less than 15 minutes' (great...) By the time that's all gone through, guess what, no tickets!
 
So I check out the seating tickets, cos, God I want to see the chili peppers. They have a few tickets, but the order for my tickets was going to cost £91 - £91?!?!? To sit in a shitety plastic seat next to some steward dressed up in those banana suits the MEN has, and surrounded by hormonal 15 year olds???? $%&# that...it's funny cos the other night me and my mate were saying about how much we would pay, and I said '£40?', but we both agreed that that was a ludicrous price and never going to happen so why bother thinking about it?
 
Honestly, though. I wish it was 1989, when the chili peppers were actually as good as people think they are today, and you didnt have to hammer the shite out of your 'refresh' button to try and fluke some tickets. I know I should try not to be bitter, but really, this has to be a result of their increasingly pop-centred music and the subsequent fans it has brought, kids rinsing their dad's credit cards for tickets. I always  hated the fans who would criticise bands and say 'oh, they sold out', but frankly, £40 a ticket is a $%&#ing joke anyway. The guys are absolutely minted - the Hyde Park gigs made like £19,000,000 in profit - PROFIT!! see the zeroes on that number...why do they need the money? It's not like they even have expensive smack habits anymore...
 
Or we could go to London and one of the 4 nights they are playing there...fingers crossed another date will be announced for Manchester, but I highly doubt it!
 
Bah humbug. So what's the lesson in all this? Don't support popular bands, they'll only disappoint you! So I'm going to go and find the worlds most hopeless band, a band full of cretins with stupid haircuts that no-ones ever heard of, and they'll be my new favourite band. And I'll keep them all to myself...

Incidentally, if you thought that was boring to read, you should try and experience it first hand   :lol:

EDIT: and to top it all off, I just checked ebay. Already, some guys are selling tickets on 'Buy It Now' for £85...each :?

[jt]

:D To be honest with `ya mate £40 a ticket is about standard these days. I`ve finally recieved tickets for the Gary Moore/ BB King gig at wembley in April & there £40 each so your paying no more than the rest of us.

Why didn`t you phone them up to get tickets ?

 :D  8)

[willo]

It was engaged...surprise!

And even if it is standard, I still think its a pisstake. I saw them like 2-3 years ago and it was £22 - that rise is more than inflation...

[Ratrod]

Try getting tickets for U2. Forget about Ticketmaster. You'll need to be at the post office in the middle of the night, maybe even some 12 hours before they open. Tickets are close to 100 euro's, maybe more.

DO NOT BUY TICKETS ON E-BAY OR SOMETHING SIMILAR! These guys buy hundreds of tickets via hired personel and charge double the going rate. These practices are making it almost impossible for normal fans to get a ticket for a normal price.

[Kilby]

I missed the Dave Gilmour tickets the other week, to quote his website they sold out in under a minute :(

Rob...

[Dakine]

LOL
Try getting Rolling Stones tickets, 100's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, got 2nd row Ozzfest tickets last year on Ebay, for ALOT less than stamped ticket price. Thing with ppl. buying so many to sell, they are gambling they WILL sell. They make profit at start so can take what they can for what they have left near concert time. Worth a look.

I have gotten alot of tickets from Evilbay this way, let someone else do the leg work lol.

Also, and maybe not Manchester (maybe not at all anymore) but years ago (when I used to live in UK and go to concerts in London) bands often did an un-announced warm-up gig in a club which was usually much better than the actual main gig :)

[willo]

Cheers Dakine, I'll keep my eyes open. I might catch a train to Manchester on gig night anyway, last time I bought tickets from a tout outside the venue I got them at face value (which was handy for me cos I was drunk and left my previously-purchased tickets in the pub)!

I'll tell you though, what really makes me sick, is just checking some of these 'ticket-specialists' on the net that have plentiful supplies of the tickets, and charge £95 a go for them. Where do they get the tickets from?

It makes no sense to me - I've just found one that is selling at £140 with a £30 delivery charge! How does this happen?? I'm seriously fed up with the whole organisation of this ticket sale, I think it's completely bent. I hear what you say jt, but £40 is still a lot for a bunch of multi-millionaires to bounce around on stage for 90 minutes. They will be making an absolute killing. What, do you forget principles when you become famous?? What makes it even more ridiculous, is that these are the reasons that John Frusciante left the band in '93...a band supposedly all about the fans, but really, its a band that is rolling in money, charges $40 to join the fanclub, deals out a healthy dose of tickets to corporate sponsors and even had the nerve to entertain putting out the same album 13 times each with a different bonus track! Behind their facade, they are as greedy as the next lot, so $%&# em.

*rant over*

[Dakine]

Willo, do'nt qoute me on this but ALOT of bands LOSE money on tours and only do them to promote their material and play live for the fans.
The money machine is the promoters and venues!!!!
I guess I am in for a rude awakening back in UK.
Tickets over here are better priced (for most part) but more over venues and dates are more plentiful!!!!!!!

Closer to the date, scalps and vendors become more twitchy about actually selling tickets.

Over here companies have actual accounts with the likes of Ticketmaster and buy blocks.

Also worth noting (here anyway) tickets (usually v.good ones) are held from sale for "band use" i.e. family/friends of the band and go onsale day before (ones not used that is as usually too many are held back).

Never say never, just keep ya eyes/ears open and "Do'nt Panic Mr.Mannering!" LOL

[willo]

Willo, do'nt qoute me on this but ALOT of bands LOSE money on tours and only do them to promote their material and play live for the fans.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers' summer shows at London's Hyde Park, which grossed $17.19 million, will be named Top Boxscore at this years Backstage Pass Awards, to be presented Tuesday (Nov. 9) at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. From Billboard.com

 :?

That's gross profit, defined as:

Calculated as sales minus all costs directly related to those sales. These costs can include manufacturing expenses, raw materials, labor, selling, marketing and other expenses.

So, I'm sure the chili peppers love playing their songs for me...

I thought after Led Zeppelin & Peter Grant's handywork, almost all profit goes directly to the band now, and touring is where the money is made. Album sales, only typically $1 per album goes to the whole band. That's the impression I was under, but I may be wrong - feel free to correct me!

I'm aware this is coming over all whingy, and I apologise. I'm obviously a little disappointed I didn't get tickets, but I'm more offended really by the machinations of the online ticket industry. I've never bought tickets online before so I've never really seen how it actually is.
I just don't understand what it is in a person that lets them go along with these ideas. I'm sure the pricing plans come from management etc, but surely the band must be aware of it? It's like when you go to the FA Cup final or whatever and you find yourself surrounded by businessmen from Surrey or whatever and its Liverpool VS Man U. It makes no sense, other than financial, and it disappoints me deeply that people still let this practise go on, in music, in theatre, in football and in everything. People are so obsessed with money these days, even our so called 'artists', it makes me sad.

[Dakine]

Unfortunately much is due to supply and demand (I reckon).
Hang in there and keep checking, esp. close to date. Ya might get lucky!

"Do ya feel lucky punk? well do ya?"  :twisted:

[willo]

Unfortunately much is due to supply and demand (I reckon).
Hang in there and keep checking, esp. close to date. Ya might get lucky!

"Do ya feel lucky punk? well do ya?"  :twisted:

Nope  :lol:

I completely understand supply and demand, thats what threw me really - the sheer demand! It was like I was trying to get tickets for a Justin Timberlake concert or something. And the fact that lots of bigger bands seem to know that they can charge whatever they like and it will still sell out.

And Ticketmaster's website was playing up something rotten. I just went on the official RHCP board to see if anyone had similar problems - and lots did, which is unfortunate. Incidentally, when I was on the board I found I couldn't view all the subforums without 'upgrading' to Silver Membership for the princely sum of $30.  :lol:  :lol:

I don't know, I'm still going to check ticketmaster, but I'm finding the whole thing pretty ridiculous now...I can still get seated tickets but I'm not fancying paying that much and spending the whole night wishing I was in the pit...Incidentally, the last time I saw the chili's they requested that everyone stopped moshing, they really don't seem to like it...bizarre.

But thanks for your kind words of encouragement! :)

[jt]

:D The band will agree to play for a certain amount of money. The promoter will work out were the band will play,[country] he will then contact the Agent the agent will then book the venues. The promoter/Agent/Manager will then book P.A  Lights Stage props etc. Light companys will charge a standard of 20% of gross P.A companys will charge 20% of gross, The Agent will charge 20% of gross, The promoter will charge 20% of gross, Then the band have to be payed as do the road crew and the bands managment oh yer & before i forget the promoter will charge the band for the actual adverts etc oh & don`t forget the publicity agents will also need to be payed.

£40. for a ticket is not that excessive, as for the bullshitee about millionaires not needing money or should be charging less B*ll*cks !!!  Even if i was a millionaire i wouldn`t go through all that shite of touring for nothing just because some student thinks i should. I`d rather stay at home & enjoy spending my money !!  If you`d want to see me play then you`d have to make it worth my while !!!

It doesn`t matter even if they only charged £5 for a ticket ypu`d stil be faced with some C**t on Ebay charging £140 + £30 delivery charge !! It`s not the bands fault. I agree the system is totally unaceptable but that`s not the bands fault. Get in contact with the trading standards office & lodge a complaint & let them dig around to find out what happend to all the tickets.

 :D  8)

[blue]

every time a big show goes on sale here in ireland (it seems to be the same in england) the tickets are virtually impossible to get anywhere.  u2 played three nights at croke park in dublin, about 88,000 people a night, and each one sold out in minutes!  i tried  online for all three, was online before 9 o'clock each time, and was completely unable to get through each time.
 
i'm no coldplay fan, so i wasn't lookng for tickets, but i found out that the tickets for their dublin show were alost all "pre-sold" to english agencies before they went on sale, so only a tiny handful of irish fans were actually able to get any.  the same has now happened with the robbie williams gig.  

the whole system is crooked, and it almost puts me off wanting to go to shows, having to find new ways of finding tickets and being expected to always pay over the odds for them.
 
actual fans are being ripped off and pissed all over by crooked ticket agents.

[willo]

Hey JT, I thought gross profit was the money made after expenses had gone out to promoters, agents etc...like I said before, that might be incorrect, I don't know.

Even if i was a millionaire i wouldn`t go through all that shitee of touring for nothing just because some student thinks i should.

Firstly, what does it matter if I'm just 'some student'? Does it make my opinion any less significant, any more worthless? Or are you attempting to go with the stereotype that as I'm a student I don't pay for anything and want eveything for free? Well, either way, you're very much misguided - I certainly do believe bands should make money and I definitely do not begrudge them that!

And whether £40 or not is fair in relation to other bands isn't really the point I'm getting at. What I'm trying to question is whether or not £40 is ever actually a fair sum to pay to see a band, if that makes sense. Or is the profit margin being pushed higher and higher? When I saw the Chili's 3 years ago at the same venue they are playing this year, tickets were £25 inc. booking fee. Now, that £20 increase (again, including booking fee), is surely an increase above the rate of inflation?

I don't begrudge bands making money, I'm happy for them to do that. I'm just sad and frustrated at what I perceive to be artists taking their fans for a ride. As I said before, the $30 needed to join the RHCP fanclub so you can get access to pre-sales; the ever-spiralling ticket prices; the constant reissue of albums with 'UK Bonus Track' and so on...I'm just finding it hard to stomach all that, what I see as blatant dollar-chasing. I think some companies aren't treating their punters with a fair amount of respect, basically. I expect to pay to see bands, I expect to pay to get a CD, I never said otherwise. But I am disheartened, like Blue, with the seemingly ceaseless corporatization of modern music.

It may be unrealistic; it may be naive; but I'm still allowed to have my principles.

(For what it's worth JT - I don't want this to come across in any way as a personal thing with you, cos its not mate, it's just my opinion about the music biz and it winds me up!  :) )

[jt]

:D Gross profit is the sum total of all moneys gathered before any deductions. You`ll notice that all the people involved are taking a minimum of 20% of the gross. Do you remember Bros the pop band ? They wrote a book i don`t no what its called were they explained how it was that they had sold out tours of football stadiums & not ended up with a single penny. It`s because everybody was taking there money out of the gross. Again mate you`ve missed the point. The bands don`t dictate the prices of the tickets or there availability it`s  being done by promoters Venues & agencys. Again don`t hold the bands responsible complain to the Trading standards office in your area. Ask them to investigate, the more noise you make the more they will have to do something. As for the rise in ticket charges again you`ve missed the point. Name me anything that`s got cheaper in the last 5 years...........exactley you can`t.  Nothing gets cheaper the increases are in line with everything & most other bands. The more people want to see the gig the bigger the venues the higher the overheads etc. And on top of it all the managment/promoters/agents etc all taking there % of the gross this is why bands don`t make any money touring.

 :D  8)