leonardcohenforum.com

disgusting.

The promoters, venues and touts (call them what they are and not their fancy respectable names) are operating as a cartel designed at depriving honest people of their money and illusions.

Two tours ago we went for a hospitality package but this time it wasn't available except for companies who have annual memberships - perish the thought that mere mortals should mix with the masters of the universe. So Lenny, maybe you can ask those at the front to rattle their jewellery or platinum cards.

Ticketmaster has released tickets for two new blocks close to the stage 113 and 118.
The seating plan differs from the one at the start of this thread.

http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/350 ... norcatid=1

They only have about 100 tickets left in the rest of the 02.

There has been a huge demand for these seats and I think that we are very lucky to be offered any presale seats.
There will only have been 300 seats or so in block A2 in the first 10 rows. Even if all of those were in the presale most people would have missed out.

[quote][/quote]. Did anyone else, like me, just think "forget it!"? I'm rapidly getting tired of the whole farcical situation with agencies, and will probably only bother to go if something really good drops in my lap.

yes...

FOXWOOD wrote:
There has been a huge demand for these seats and I think that we are very lucky to be offered any presale seats.
There will only have been 300 seats or so in block A2 in the first 10 rows. Even if all of those were in the presale most people would have missed out.

So that begs the question, who of us on the forum managed to get one of the 300 A2 ticket in the first 10 rows through the pre-sale?

Thanks Jarkko. I have managed to get four seats in Block 109 - not as central as I would have liked but quite happy with this, particularly given the speed they seem to be selling tickets for this venue at. I had the privilege of being at the O2 concert when his live album was recorded and apart from the fact that the acoustics were superb (much better than I had been led to believe), from what I could see, virtually all seats had a good view of the stage. As others have said on these pages, it is almost certain that other UK venues will be added to the tour - whether this is a deliberate ploy to fill seats, who knows - I am just glad to be getting another opportunity to see the man I have followed for the last 45 years.

Vicomte wrote:

FOXWOOD wrote:
There has been a huge demand for these seats and I think that we are very lucky to be offered any presale seats.
There will only have been 300 seats or so in block A2 in the first 10 rows. Even if all of those were in the presale most people would have missed out.

So that begs the question, who of us on the forum managed to get one of the 300 A2 ticket in the first 10 rows through the pre-sale?

Row 11 here...I now consider us very lucky - got 2 central seats on row 11 in Block A2. As I've mentioned before, if another UK concert is announced that we can get reasonable tickets for (always happy to avoid London), another forum member is welcome to our o2 tickets at face value.

Does anyone seriously believe that a single seat in the first ten rows of A2 has been sold to the public at a straight price (or for that matter has yet been sold at all)? Surely no-one here is that naive?!

John Etherington wrote:Does anyone seriously believe that a single seat in the first ten rows of A2 has been sold to the public at a straight price (or for that matter has yet been sold at all)? Surely no-one here is that naive?!

I would imagine that most, if not all, of these prime tickets would have been kept for people directly connected to the concert or it's promotion. Some or all of them willl find their way to the secondary market to be sold at a huge mark up ( or the market price - enormous though it is)
I still feel that in all of the presales, whatever the problems, that forum members have ended up with far better tickets than they would have if they had to buy them in the general sale.
I have tickets better than 95% of the rest of the audience for the O2 show thanks to the presale and so am quite happy.
If the secondary sellers can't sell at inflated prices they will lower their price as the concert date approaches.
Just because we have joined this forum it doesn't mean we should be handed prime tickets at every concert. I wouldn't be going to the O2 if I hadn't got good seats (A3 Row N ) but I wouldn't have got those if it hadn't been for the presale.

rhona wrote:Row 11 here...I now consider us very lucky - got 2 central seats on row 11 in Block A2. As I've mentioned before, if another UK concert is announced that we can get reasonable tickets for (always happy to avoid London), another forum member is welcome to our o2 tickets at face value.

I may be interested in taking up your offer closer to the time, so please put me at the head of your queue for these.

o2 venue slated! [in review of festive panto].

...AS a theatrical venue, the cavernous O2 has twice proved its unsuitability this year.

The ear-bleeding stadium revival of Jesus Christ Superstar is among my worst theatre experiences of all time, while those who saw the Michael Jackson tribute show shortly afterwards say it was even worse.

So it ought to be good news that the venue has erected a semi-permanent theatre under the massive Dome canopy, rather than expecting showgoers to rattle around in a rock venue.

Unfortunately it still inflicts the worst aspects of the O2 on customers expected to pay up to £50 for tickets: obnoxious security, three ill-trained bar staff for a venue seating nearly 2,000, bitterly cold front-of-house areas, uncomfortable seats in enormous rows and a noisy heating generator in the auditorium that makes you feel you’re sitting in the Heathrow flight path...

...Preview audiences at this three-hour debut panto – optimistically subtitled “A Dream Come True” – walked out because the heating broke down and when they fixed it others walked out saying the mechanism drowned out the performers...

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/364 ... -O2-London

re secondary sales and ticket touting - interesting articles :

Revealed: How high-tech touts use illegal software to harvest thousands of the best concert tickets...

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigation ... uts-u.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/busin ... d=all&_r=0

Thanks for the links sebmelmoth2003. Interesting reading.

Oh, the irony of it. The botnets get round the captcha codes to be even quicker. All Ticketmaster can do is make the captcha codes even more difficult - making it much harder for us mere humans to get it right first time. And I thought it was my elderly and diseased eyesight letting me down .....

Wendy

Thanks for the links sebmelmoth, it makes very interesting reading. In my opinion it should be made illegal to sell tickets over the ticket face value but it's never going to happen.
You only have to look at eBay now to find loads of tickets for sale at inflated prices:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=l ... 97.c0.m627

Also Stubhub (mentioned in the second link that sebmelmoth posted) have tickets in the front row for £840!!!!

http://www.stubhub.co.uk/leonard-cohen- ... 3-4188364/

I didn't search for tickets until Wednesday evening but managed to get one in block B1, row C, seat 16. Does anyone know what the view will be like?
Not that it matters too much it will be good to see Leonard again, irrespective of view!

John Etherington wrote:Does anyone seriously believe that a single seat in the first ten rows of A2 has been sold to the public at a straight price (or for that matter has yet been sold at all)? Surely no-one here is that naive?!

I don't know how, but I got A2, row B, centre. I logged on to AXS at 9 am on Friday and these came up. I'd already got some side seats in the pre-sale (block 101), but obviously had to buy these. The selling of these tickets has been odd, and I'm surprised that I got these seats without the help of ticket-bots or whatnot.

The question and perhaps the answer to some of the problems with ticket sales.

http://www.double8tickets.com/concert/5 ... ckets.html