you dont get any (more) of my dough dude
TTFN, et al,
We are all worthy, except me, and thank you for your observations in regard to the subheadings (and your incorrect assumption related to the frowning face); nice to see your looking for details though, and thus back to our purpose for being here (once again).
You remain optimistic and easily dismiss the logistics of the screw up before the tour; hence, it is impossible to sell tickets to kids and rectify the fact that most of these people have limited funds and were forced into obtaining inadequate seating.
The reason people joined the membership drive at the fanclub, was to obtain an advantage and thus be able to be several steps ahead of the hordes. As an example, my kid wanted to go see these old Irish men perform, so I broke down and bought a membership for $40 (the night before tickets were to go on sale: January 24), we hesitated, but we sincerely hoped for the best, and shared your current optimism, and then sat back to wait for details; to be specific, the club said U2 would be in Seattle April 24th, so in all honesty, we ignored far too much of the fine print, and simply assumed we had priority rights to presale ticketing, because we obviously just paid $40 (for something which was never too clear).
Sad and long story today, so hang tuff and remain positive.
Like idiots, I logged on to the member area the morning of January 25th, with credit card in hand and waited for the 10 a.m. horse race, but I was surprised to see the Seattle show listed as TBD, i.e., to be decided. After a more in depth analysis of the U2.com member ticketing info, I realized that the April 24th Seattle show was somewhat of a lost footnote, e.g., “(All additional on sale dates will be announced in the next few weeks)”. Thus, I called U2.com to see when we could buy tickets and of course no one had any idea, they told us to keep checking the U2.com webpage, and at that point, that seemed ludicrous, because if tickets were sold on a first come first serve basis, we would have to have neural net chips embedded deeply in our brains to alert us to what U2 was thinking and when Principal Mang would give a handful of tickets to U2.com for limited presale frenzies; ludicrous, unethical and bogus!
I called U2,com to see what they would say about a refund -- although I didn’t care a bit, because I would let my credit card company dispute the charge anyway, but, as it turned out, Larry writes a short PR letter and cries and sobs about the little mix up and offers a full refund -- like its some unprecedented loss of revenue for the billionaire band/corporation. Needless to say, I cash in my chips ASAP and explain to my increasingly distressed daughter that we will give this casino one more roll and buy in person, when the tickets go on sale to the scummy general public.
In a few days, we drive 30 miles very early to the small music store (which time forgot, i.e., Port Townsend, WA) and of course, no one is around, but a poster on the door states, tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m., so we wait. A small crowd of about 35 people eventually prepare for the blood-thirsty mania to unfold. We all draw tickets in a unified lotto for places in line (inside the small store) and then we all have to pre-commit to what types of seats we want and method of payment. The clock ticks off those seconds, but wait, I’m told that if I buy the two general admission tickets, I will have to buy the reserved seating separately in another transaction, and if I have two transactions on the same card, ticketbastard will cancel the second transaction and refund my hard earned cash (cause of those darn scalpers)…..so what to do, as the clock ticks away…..hmmm?
My daughter has never been to a concert before, but at 15 ½ she is almost in tears, because I’m ready to drop out of line, because I was planning on going with her and a few of her friends, but since there are about 5 minutes left, I decide to shoot for what she wants, i.e., 2 general admission floor tickets and then let her go alone (with another inexperienced concert go’er).
Tickets go on sale, and we are 6th in line, we get up to the counter within minutes, they punch up the request, and bingo, no general floor tickets, so we get forced into the next split second decision, to get reserved seats with the nosebleed crowd……so we panic and say yes, yes, please God give us the tickets, we will pay; the show sells out after we get our request punched in, it took about 8 minutes, but she got her dream! My daughter is thrilled to have scored her first ticket deal and we proudly exclaim that when we get these f-cking tickets, were not gonna stay in our little town, were not all gonna drive all the way to F-ucking Seattle, but this time, just this time, three of us will go and Ill drive the Friggn car around in circles in Seattle while my kid watches a concert with her first boyfriend; ..., and when they come home, they can share that experience with me, cause I have never seen U2 and Im still pissed I missed them back in Denver (by one night) years ago…..when they were playing a very small club that may have held 1500 seats (The Rainbow); it still pisses me off that when I heard U2 for the first time, it was a re-broadcast of that previous nights concert, and I was driving home from a dumbass Graham Nash show at The Rainbow; and I’m still pissed that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young never booted his ass out of CSN……but I digress; I’m still pissed that for all the years I’ve loved U2, I will be driving around in circles and wondering why I joined the U2.com fanclub for $40, so that I could get U2 tickets in advance? Ill spend $40 on gas now! Eat your heart out Larry! My gas, my car, you dont get any of my dough dude!
In the end, this is not a tragedy, because I raised my kid with lots of quality music, and she has her head on very straight, I’m very proud of her, and hope she enjoys the show, but little microscopic dramas like this are at the heart of this ticket fiasco.
I did get my money back (I think), but the aggravation of the process makes me think a lot less of U2 and the music industry; the greed associated with these processes devalues the art and it takes away from the good things people try to do. In retrospect, I wish our family (our tribe) could all watch this show together and share the experience, but instead, our family will be divided by the red tape and bureaucracy of the ticketing business. It would be nice, if we could just watch this on a TV and use a pay-per-view system and then be done with it. As it stands, this is a circus for the rich and the well connected and of course, those that are willing to pay for scalped tickets that I should have been able to buy @ U2,com; it, leaves a bad taste in my mouth!
As for the grammy acceptance, no, I don’t watch Tv.
As a bonus, for getting through all this crap, here is an example of great lasting entertainment:
THE GET BACK REHEARSALS
/Gallery/GetBackRehearsals/Rooftop
Thursday - 30 January 1969
Apple Corps (Roof), London
The Beatles' celebrated rooftop show. An idea conceived during a meeting on 26 January, it was the first of two consecutive Beatles/Billy Preston performances which concluded the Get Back project, for on 31 January they ran through numbers inside the basement studio.
This day's work has passed into history as the Beatles' last live performance, even if it couldn't be classified as a concert. The 42-minute show (about half of which comprises the sensational close to the Let It Be film) was a lunchtime blast into the cold wind - imagine a high London rooftop in January - that brought part of the capital to a standstill, until the police, in turn, brought the show to an enforced conclusion.
*** As for U2, the wax museum may be the final lasting legacy (for the lads); where, 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me' will play in an endless loop for generations to come!
Sincerely,
Pissed
P.S. As for Jick: who can really say?
smilie in your last response to me.
