MERGED--> GA admission chaos/mess at Manchester + hysterically panicking

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
cmb737 said:
man..the more and more the tour goes along in Europe I am starting to think it wasn't so bad here in the states. Not that I was ever an advocate of the general malaise and bitching that went on about the US leg (my feelings were clear about the lottery however) but I liking what happened here more and more.

The setlist hasn't varied at all from the US leg (perhaps it will..but hasn't yet), the security seems lightyears better, the worst spot on the floor is lightyears better than the worst on the floor in Europe, the production is bigger and better...but it hasn't wowed me like I thought it would.

I am just saying perhaps we didnt' have it so bad...

Curious Chizip what you think...minus the lottery and elipse of course...?
Click to expand...

this is the post i was trying to respond to when all of the nonsense started

i have to say when i first saw the eurigo stage i was extremely jealous, but after seeing pictures and video of it in use, i have to say it hasnt wowed me as much as i thought it would. they are pretty much using the same graphics that they used on the curtain of lights, sure the resolution is a little better, but its not like 100 times better.

So given that, along with all of the conveniences of seeing them in an arena compared to a stadium, i have to say most of my jealous has faded away. I think both the arena and stadium shows have their advantages, and if I had to pick one I actually think I'd pick the arena show.

A week ago I would have never thought I'd say such a thing.
 
Chizip said:


this is the post i was trying to respond to when all of the nonsense started

i have to say when i first saw the eurigo stage i was extremely jealous, but after seeing pictures and video of it in use, i have to say it hasnt wowed me as much as i thought it would. they are pretty much using the same graphics that they used on the curtain of lights, sure the resolution is a little better, but its not like 100 times better.

So given that, along with all of the conveniences of seeing them in an arena compared to a stadium, i have to say most of my jealous has faded away. I think both the arena and stadium shows have their advantages, and if I had to pick one I actually think I'd pick the arena show.

A week ago I would have never thought I'd say such a thing.
Click to expand...

My sentiments exactly, and I thought you would feel this way. Glad to have ya back out of Setlist hell.
 
U2 GA Manchester Mess.

The Manchester GA was the most heart breaking experiences I've ever had. I got there with my lady and two of my friends who were very excited about their first u2 experience.

When we got to gate B security were starting to put up a compund around the few that had camped over night and we were told to make a cue on the other side of the compound. So we took our place at the front of the cue at 11.30am and got ready for the long wait.

After around 2 and a half hours of waiting, security decide they need to create two seperate que's, this then changed a half hour later to three, then four. Then they started a whole new que of to the side of where we were. Suddenly we went from being at the front of the que to being about mid way with all of the additional ques that had been made by security.

Doors opened a good hour late, just after 5, got inside and suddenly found out that all the wrist bands had went already (security telling us they all went to the people that camped over night, bullshit, no way did 4,000 people camp outside that stadium).

When we looked in the enclosure it was pretty emepty and rumours of people and members of security were selling wrist bands for£10 started to filter through. Myself and my friends were done in by this point. It had turned out to be a full on nightmare. We took a seat in the stand thinking this would be the best we could do. Suddenly my mate noticed they were starting to let people into the enclosure without wristbands. We ran down to the gates.

Two gates were opended and the crush to get in worsend, my lady getting caught in the cross fire and being crushed against the barrier. Security just didn't give a fuck and to be honest neither did the people trying to jam their way in. Eventually got inside but at a price as my lady wept about the whole thing. I tore a chunck off the nearest security but all he said was 'I know, I know'.

I'm happy to report u2 were more than able to make up for the shocking events of the secuirty team at Manchester.

Be warned all of you going today, they're a bunch a clowns that have a no fucking idea of what they are doing. I can honestly say I will never go to City of Manchester Stadium again for a show. instead of bands being given to the people who cued for the honor they just gave them out in bataches to who ever they deemed fit.
 
shambles

turned up at 5.30pm. We had GA tickets ,two of my friends got into the enclosure when they opened the barriers after Snow Patrol, it was a free for all and a F**k up. I did not get in and had to make do on the floor.
Shit view, not impressed with visuals but music made up for it.
 
The security were holding back wristbands and selling them on at Earl's Court on the last tour, meaning that those that had queued all day were shunned. We should make a stand against this at Twickehnam - sounds like they are up to the same tricks again...
 
I got my wristband from a security bloke who was giving them out as he wondered around the stadium.He was being quite 'secretive' so it was hard to know what he was upto and i only realised when i heard a bunch of girlies screaming.It was'nt obvious how to get hold of the wristbands and i only got mine by chance.....lucky me!!
 
This doesn't sound good at all. Hopefully they'll be more organised at Millennium Stadium...
£10 for a wristband on top of the insane GA prices is disgusting.
 
I really feel for you Lo-Fi.. when you are looking forward to something like this, these things can be really grating.

I've sent an email to Principle Management about this sort of activity as it's really unacceptable.
 
Wow, that's totally awfull, I'm so sorry that this happened to you.
That's totally unacceptable that they pick and choose who gets the wristbands.
:(
 
I agree with you completely.

Although I was there at 9am to queue up, I had to wait for my tickets to arrive at 2pm. In the cold. Already not happy. But I got in queue and ended up right at the barricade, which was fun for awhile. Then I saw people getting out of the second barricade area and re emerging at the 'ellipse' cheering and waving their arm in the air like it was some trophy. I was wondering how they got it, then I overheard them talking to their friends who didn't go get one, and I learned this was getting kind of screwed up. The 'ellipse' seriously could have held so many more people!! during U2 people were dancing, lying down, and sitting in this enclosure while I was watching people (including myself at about half way through the show) being pulled out over the barricade because they were getting squashed. I thought it was sickening how poorly we were treated.
 
Surely, the best way to avoid this mess is to allocate tickets to the people who buy the tickets first. It's not perfect but it's better than people getting screwed at the "discretion" of the venue security.
 
I contacted Cecilia at PM who responded straight away and is taking this up with their head of security. I told her about me experiences on the last tour and references some comments made here. If anybody had some more evidence of security taking back-handers i can pass it on to her.
 
manchester farce

i arrived at 12.oo, were quite a large 'Q' had already formed at B2 entrance, at about 4.oopm someone informed us that 'B1' was empty so we rushed round and started to form a queue. When the gates opened nobody gave out any wrist bands. We heard stories of people arriving early morning and they didn't get any too !!. Nobody that queued up at 'B1' got any wristbands. I gave up trying to enter the 'members area' and sat down. Then we noticed people getting in without wristbands and joined the crush to get in. I was lucky and got in !!.
After the show it got worse, the buses to take us back to piccadilly was a free for all crush, some lady got her foot ran over by the bus, we got back into town at 11.20, out train home left at 11.17, there was no more trains, no buses or fuck all to get us home, manchester is a joke of a city, £40 taxi ride home

ps u2 were brill, but fuck off manchester
 
Ther was plenty of room in the elipse so i dont know why they didnt let more people in.I was wristband number 3100 and id be suprised if that many were in there.
At one point,about 45 mins before u2 came on, i did see one of the members of staff dishing out wristbands by the entrance/exit(edge's side) and i overheard someone saying that they were being sold on BUT i dont know if they meant by the staff or by people who were already in the elipse getting another wristband and selling them?!?!?!
As i said previously so many more people could have got in and there was a massive space behind us that no one was standing in:( :(
 
unfortunately I could only get there for around 5 o clock yesterday as g/f is a school teacher so couldnt set off on the long drive until 2.45

When we got in I went and asked security how you got in the elipse as it seemed very empty in comparison to the area out passed the next barriers. Was told to go back to the gate I came in and they were just giving them out (I questioned whether they were checking bar codes tho like US gigs and she nodded to that as well) and that there were 3000 available.

Ended up quite far back as the second barrier is quite a way from stage but good enough view for my height (not for the g/f unfortunately).

Overall tho the whole organisation seemed pretty poor and personally, I thought the crowd was very very poor. It let down the gig for me a bit. May of just been the area I was in but the number of people who appeared to not even know the likes of WOWY and One was unbelievable. Either that or they just didn't want to enjoy themselves and get into the groove.
 
They were being sold, we were standing on Adams side and were not moving for love nor money, i eventually gave up and stood to the left of the gate, after that i decided to go to the toilet were surprise surprise a guard was there selling the bands at a tenner each, I didnt buy one cos the whole thing was just wrong, although i was first in line when they started to let people in willy nilly, but even that was painstaking, girlfriend almost got crushed behind me.
 
makes me wonder what I should do in Glasgow next week.

Had been hoping that last night they had gave presale tickets a specific gate where wristbands were available only so that would kick in for me next week but obviously not.
So makes me wonder whether I should look to stand near the entrance gates or go round speaking to security for a while.
 
Dont see the problem myself. If I walked into the stadium and saw a guy selling them for £10 each, I would pay it gladly and be on my way to the ellipse.

Glad they didnt make u pay for them tho BSB.
 
Aardvark747 said:
Dont see the problem myself. If I walked into the stadium and saw a guy selling them for £10 each, I would pay it gladly and be on my way to the ellipse.

Glad they didnt make u pay for them tho BSB.
Click to expand...

I see a big problem with it. On the Elevation tour at Earls Court, people who were less that 200th in the queue (who had been there since early morning) were not given wristbands, and by about 5 - 6pm the same security people were selling the wristbands, asking individuals to leave £10 or £20 hidden in the portaloos for them to collect. It's bang out of order because I for example had taken a day off work to get there early but it was a waste of time.
 
Aardvark747 said:
Dont see the problem myself. If I walked into the stadium and saw a guy selling them for £10 each, I would pay it gladly and be on my way to the ellipse.

Glad they didnt make u pay for them tho BSB.
Click to expand...
oh dear....taxi for Aardvark and make it snappy...i think your gonna need a quick exit on this one mate:ohmy:
 
I was surprised by the amount of people selling bootleg material INSIDE the stadium last night.

On the floor there were people walking round selling "programmes" for £5. They were not offical though. Also people walking round selling T-Shirts as well altho didn't get a good look to see if they were official.

On the way out saw a bloke selling the £5 programmes again on the concourse under the stand. A lad went to buy one then realised it wasn't official so gave it back and took his £5 back. Sales bloke ripped the £5 back from his hand threw a programme at him and walked away despite the kid standing saying he wanted his money back and not the programme.

Disgrace the whole way it was run inside that place.

As much as I did enjoy the show the atmosphere was not good I thought and it let the whole experience down a bit for me.

Hoping the Scots can show a better example in Glasgow next week.
 
I'm absolutely amazed at these stories. Bootleg stuff being sold inside the arena. Here is the U.S. I personally witnessed bootleg vendors being chased by the police and U2 merchandise personnel in the parking lot of Philly 2 and the Subway in Boston after all 3 shows.. Bootleg tour merchandise selling did not seem to be tolerated

Nevermind the selling of wristbands by venue personnel. That just seems so 3rd world to me.

No offense.
 
I was envying the people who went to stadium shows in Europe etc, earlier. Now.....not so much. Im happy with the arena show I saw, and will see again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
  • Locked
NBA 2022-23 Thread
46 47 48
Replies
1K
Views
46K
U2inUtah
U2inUtah
A
The little stranger chapter 12
Replies
0
Views
736
annj
A
A
The little Stranger chapter 11
Replies
0
Views
755
annj
A
LemonMelon
Desert Island XI - QUARANTINE ISLAND - Group 2 Listening Thread
4 5 6
Replies
175
Views
6K
namkcuR
N
A
The Little stranger chapter 16
Replies
0
Views
1K
annj
A

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom