Tour 2017!

For chat about the current tour.
Could contain SPOILERS

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Si
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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Si » Wed Dec 14, 2016 4:55 pm

jram wrote:
Si wrote:
jram wrote:I went with AXS presale (I think - the AEG Live one linked to from the official site), and the best it could give me was 32 rows away from the stage...
No, AXS have their OWN seperate presale starting tomorrow, as does ticketbastard.
Unbelievable. I didn't even know the company existed until today, and now there's a chance that they'll be the ones with the best (non VIP) tickets! :-/

Long gone are the days when (in 2001) I phoned up the Edinburgh Playhouse direct and asked for a seat "somewhere near the front" - got second row in the stalls. This is poor, I don't want to be half a mile from the stage, and from the very start I'm already priced out of the first ten rows.
The whole mess has been avoided, mostly, in previous years by having general admission, (or the best seats available from AC.com). Then to a degree it was up to you to do the work, get there early enough and have the stamina to stand in place all evening. Everyone was more or less on an even footing (no pun intended).

I would like to hear a reason for it all being seated. I can`t think of a good one.

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by jram » Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:05 pm

Si wrote:The whole mess has been avoided, mostly, in previous years by having general admission, (or the best seats available from AC.com). Then to a degree it was up to you to do the work, get there early enough and have the stamina to stand in place all evening. Everyone was more or less on an even footing (no pun intended).

I would like to hear a reason for it all being seated. I can`t think of a good one.
I'm sure it's financial - hard to charge £500 for front row if you can't guarantee the space...

I've been lucky a few times with seated tickets (in Glasgow's Armadillo, for example, where only the first 5 rows were allowed to leave their seats and go stand at the stage), but I'm 100% in favour of standing tickets - not least because last time I saw him, in Edinburgh, I was close enough to catch and leave with Alice's cane.

Plus, this past year or two, I've realised that the further back you are, the more your view is interrupted by the small lights and distracting screens of a hundred camera phones.

As with most of you, I'm sorely disappointed that there's no standing access this time.

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Si » Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:21 pm

jram wrote:I'm sure it's financial - hard to charge £500 for front row if you can't guarantee the space...
And this is why a show ticket should never be included in the VIP experience price.
It worked fine for some years, with the VIP package being separate from the ticket ie you got the M&G/Photo/Tour/Goodies etc but you had to buy your own entrance ticket separately.
Never had a problem with that.

But it's been shown year after year that the 'VIP including ticket' screws most of the biggest, most dedicated fans, unless they have money to burn. No one can be expected to pay for 5 VIPs to get good seats for the tour! That's probably over £2500 before you even add in travel and hotels, just to get good seats! The majority of us just don`t have that sort of money.

With the current situation what you normal end up with is the front rows being pretty "dead", with many people sitting quietly watching, or playing with their phones, while the real fans are stuck further back like cattle. It kills the show for the fans and the musicians. There's no excitement or anticipation before the curtain drops. I've been to enough shows to have seen it happen too much.

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by jram » Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:44 pm

Si wrote:
jram wrote:I'm sure it's financial - hard to charge £500 for front row if you can't guarantee the space...
And this is why a show ticket should never be included in the VIP experience price.
It worked fine for some years, with the VIP package being separate from the ticket ie you got the M&G/Photo/Tour/Goodies etc but you had to buy your own entrance ticket separately.
Never had a problem with that.
That sounds like a much fairer way to work it, or tie it to a ticket if it's standing and you still have a shot at front row.

I don't follow Alice on tour, but I do follow other bands and completely agree - it's the diehard fans that suffer.

I considered VIP for this one, but £200 is double what I would pay - and I don't need photos or posters or even tours of the stage (it's my line of work, there's no novelty). Even meet-n-greets, if you can find the stage door then you've a chance at saying hello, free of charge.

And let's be realistic, it's five years since Alice toured here - it's possible the next tour could be the last. He's not getting younger. It'd be better for everybody if he was playing directly to his dedicated fans.

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Ravenred » Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:02 pm

When I checked Leeds just now £200 gold VIP would only get you row G...... platinum VIP tickets with a MnG row E for £426!! front row rightly called "insanity package" £482.50!! Utterly ridiculous.
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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by wind_up_toy » Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:14 pm

Yeah, I was considering VIP but no way am I paying nearly £1,000 for one night's entertainment with my wife.

I did it in 2005 and it was much much cheaper.
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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by del » Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:25 pm

Row S in second block from front after a 9:01 booking for Glasgow. Ridiculous.

Now got to get over the feeling that I've been conned once again by pre sale. Never doing this again as there is absolutely no benefit. This smashes most of the excitement of the tour announcement yesterday. The Hydro is likely to be well less than the @10,000 capacity for a seated gig and I'm going to have to sit towards the back behind folk who really don't mind if it's Alice or Adele as it's just another good night out. Utter crap!

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Si » Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:29 pm

Now if you click on the links on AC.com they all take you directly to the Leeds show only.
What a mess..

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by rgallie » Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:29 pm

Do we have any cancellation rights, just thinking if better tickets come up at a fair price

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by rgallie » Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:31 pm

Si wrote:Now if you click on the links on AC.com they all take you directly to the Leeds show only.
What a mess..
Yup just seen that.

I was well excited last night. Now i just feel let down, i know the feeling will fade but right now im just picturing myself at the Hydro resenting my seats.


Ticketmaster are utter scum given that they own the sites the touts will be reselling via and taking a commission on every touted ticket

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Ravenred » Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:44 pm

It does take you directly to the leeds show, but there's an option to change it. I have no idea what has happened to Wembley though...Its disappeared!?
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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Si » Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:55 pm

Ravenred wrote:I have no idea what has happened to Wembley though...Its disappeared!?
If only....

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Si » Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:07 pm

Wembley just reappeared, but still there are no tickets to sell

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by ElectedPlus » Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:09 pm

Are we sure Birmingham is seated? The arena layout looks like it isn't, and the tickets it continually offers is Block B, Row Z, 3 + 4 on the floor ....
----edit---
forget it. deffinetly seated. offered row R...no seating plan on there though

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by alicebackstage » Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:14 pm

Si wrote:Now if you click on the links on AC.com they all take you directly to the Leeds show only.
What a mess..
I've just changed these links AGAIN. Really terribly sorry for all the confusion guys. Once again, presale is a fiasco. I posted the link I was given and was told it would work. Then, when I saw everyone having trouble I was told another link was the correct one. So I posted that one instead. And now I'm told that there were individual links to the shows, which I never got until a few minutes ago, so I've changed THOSE to the correct links, which I'm "told" are here:

Leeds: http://www.axs.com/uk/events/329554/ali ... =aegliveuk
Glasgow: http://www.axs.com/uk/events/329555/ali ... =aegliveuk
Birmingham: http://www.axs.com/uk/events/329556/ali ... =aegliveuk
Manchester: http://www.axs.com/uk/events/329557/ali ... =aegliveuk
Wembley: http://www.axs.com/uk/events/329558/ali ... =aegliveuk

All of this is so frustrating for someone like me, who is supposed to be the guy with correct information to pass on to you guys, and I wasn't even told we HAD a UK tour until the morning of it's announcement. Anyway. I feel for you guys, I know it's frustrating with the lack of good seats, the lumping of the tickets in with the VIP package (something several of us have fought against), the fact that the front row seats go to high rollers etc. It's all frustrating and on top of that not having it be organized is really unacceptable. So I'm sorry to you guys, the real fans, the ones I know are ignored a lot of the time and are marginalized.

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by wind_up_toy » Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:26 pm

Thanks for your efforts Kyler, how about you guys put on another intimate little gig somewhere for us Sickthings and then we can let all the others fight over the tickets in Row ZZ of Wembley Arena :-)
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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Si » Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:27 pm

All those links appear to work correctly, thank you.
Just nothing worth buying available.

I think all we can do is wait and see what appears tomorrow, or even Friday. If it's nothing better we'll be fighting each other on ebay etc over the same tickets. Madness.

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by del » Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:36 pm

How many people actually buy these overpriced 'VIP' tickets? 10-30 folk at best for most gigs I'm guessing. To block out so many seats for a couple of dozen folk is madness. No offence, does sorry really get us very far here? It will happen again and again...

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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by Ravenred » Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:46 pm

Si wrote:All those links appear to work correctly, thank you.
Just nothing worth buying available.

I think all we can do is wait and see what appears tomorrow, or even Friday. If it's nothing better we'll be fighting each other on ebay etc over the same tickets. Madness.
Si, you don't get tickets on eBay anymore... it automatically sends you to StubHub.
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Re: Tour 2017!

Post by alicebackstage » Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:48 pm

del wrote:How many people actually buy these overpriced 'VIP' tickets? 10-30 folk at best for most gigs I'm guessing. To block out so many seats for a couple of dozen folk is madness. No offence, does sorry really get us very far here? It will happen again and again...
I believe the MAX we can sell for VIP seats is 60. I could be wrong on the breakdown I can't quite remember and they just changed VIP companies again. But it's 30 Paid who meet Alice, and 30 who get the ticket/merch package. Some sort of combination of varying levels. There are other factors too, like venue VIPS or reward programs like AMEX etc. So that's a big chunk of seats there. I can understand holding off sections from the first two rows, but leave SOME for folks to buy. I think they do, but they are snatched up by resellers almost immediately. I'd love to find a way to hold a dozen or so tickets in the front row specifically for real fans that aren't available for automatic purchase online. But that'll never happen. I'll speak frankly. The VIP package sold incredibly well last year. This was in part due to the fact that Ticketmaster and other retailers added the ticket into the package. That itself didn't cause the uptick, but when they are selling the packages they also promote them on their site. Meaning the exposure is much bigger and they sell well. So I don't see them untangling the tickets from the packages now that it's been proven to be economically beneficial. That doesn't mean we can't somehow assess what's working and what's not and find a balance. But it's frustrating to see the same issues arise time and time again. You are absolutely right, it is madness. It makes financial sense to them, but it really hurts the true fans. I won't get into other practices that also harm true fans experiences... but yea. I feel all your pain.

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