Flag rant

[vampyresheep]

I try not to complain about Flag Promotions, as i do appreciate that they have a tough, thankless job and they have actually been a lot more competant of late; and i don't like to complain on a public forum unless my issue is justified.  However I'm seriously pissed off about my ongoing wait for Aesthetic Perfection tickets.

I try to do my bit to "support the scene" by purchasing tickets as early as possible - OK, partly because its one of my favourite bands playing ON my birthday weekend and hoping that if there was lots of demand, they might have considered moving to a bigger/better venue.
5 days before the gig and guess what, no f****ing tickets!  After trying to chase them up for weeks, I get an reply last week stating that they've been busy and nobody in the office this week because of the AP tour, so they've not been able to get the tickets sent out yet.  "They *might* send them out sometime this week if they have time, otherwise shouldn't be a problem showing my email confirmation at the door"   Its all well and good trying to send a friendly, personal email, however an anxious customer doesn't want to hear all their personal woes, they just want to know when they're going to get something that they paid for 3 months ago.

The last thing I want on my birthday is stress of worrying whether I'll have problems getting in or not. :-(

To add insult to injury, of course I've missed out on all the support bands selling reduced price tickets AND somehow they've managed to send tickets out to people buying from them, so how the fuck don't the promoters themselves don't have the bloody tickets!

After pointing out that I've tried to support them by purchasing tickets directly, as a result missing out on the cheaper tix, I was promised a refund as an apology.  Guess what, no refund and I very much doubt I'll see one either.

I can't even find out what time doors open, as i have no tickets giving me that info (no times mentioned on their website of course) and as Rob is now working on Saturday, this is now making it impossible to plan when to get there as we don't know if he needs to get home early or if we'll end up missing half the gig.

Seriously pissed off that a gig I was looking so much towards has been ruined by the incompetant and unprofessional behaviour of the ticket sellers. :-(

Edit: and apparently there is a goth gig at Slimes this weekend too?  Is one pre-slimes and one during, if so, which way round?  Totally confused now, Slimelight website is pretty much obsolete and I don't know where to find accurate info now. grrr.

Comments

[chimera-s.livejournal.com]

According to what I've been able to find on-line for AP

London - Electrowerkz, Saturday 26th November - 7pm £10 adv (+ Kommand & Kontrol + Die Kur) - However their (AP's)own FB says Uberbyte are support


The Goth gig at the Slime is Rhombus (26 November · 19:00 - 23:00) - times are

8.05 Riot in Paradise

9.00 Grooving in Green

10.00 Rhombus


It's looking like the two gigs are on at the same time - unless they have two seperate sets of doors (one per gig), then selling / handling reserved tickets on the door for two different promoters should be "Interesting".

[stevek.livejournal.com]

It could be very interesting, you might find people paraphrasing Withnail with: "I've gone to a gig by mistake". ;-)

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

I'd better bloody not end up at the wrong gig! ;-)
Its bad enough that it clashes with the last Vagabonds (might try to get there after though), let alone if I can't get to see the band I want after all!

[chimera-s.livejournal.com]

Wish I was able to make it to Vags - but the Inkies don't come off stage until 12:30 (there's no way to make it back before it closes). Still it's not the Last Vags - thats the NYE one. Whilst it may be a combined Vagabonds / Reptile do, it should be closer to being a Vags than a Reptile (Dj wise).

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I'm not here for that one either! There didn't seem to be much going on for NYE, so we decided to go away for the first time.

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know Uberbyte are supporting (if I'd known that earlier, would have got my tickets from them!) and Surgyn too - 3 million support bands as usual! That was my concern, as Rob's decided to work on Saturday, so that he could have the day off on Monday (my actual b'day!) and now if the doors open fairly early we won't be able to get there for the start.

One gig website (songkick I think), had it all muddled and stated that Rhombus and Grooving in Green were also supporting AP! That would have made for an odd line-up. ;-)

Two separate gigs is going to make it even more stressful trying to prove that I have paid for tickets, but the promoter hadn't got round to sending them to me!
At the very least, i should demand a refund for the postage charges, let alone the "goodwill gesture" promised but not seen, of the full refund.

[erming.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in seeing Rhombus but really not interested in any of the other bands and given the usual quality of Slimelight's sound systems might just give both gigs a miss and go straight to Vags.

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

yeah, I was rather disappointed that AP chose to play there. The sound was bad enough for them at Koko earlier in the year, so it would have nice to have been at a venue where you could actually hear the vocals!

[erming.livejournal.com]

I think people in the UK put up with crap sound in venues because they don't often experience better.

Most bands would kill to play in venues like Musikzentrum in Hannover, yet the best I've seen in a while in the UK is XOYO near Old Street.

I like to think that if enough punters boycotted bands playing in crap sounding venues the promoters would insist they upgraded their sound systems, but most likely promoters and venues would go out of business.

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

Probably more the case of not having much option! Band comes to UK, plays limited number of venues across the country, so its a case of seeing them in the nearest crap venue* or not at all.
Added to the fact that Slimelight does have a worldwide reputation, overseas bands actually *want* to play there!

Similar reason why I hate to bitch about Flag Promotions in general too. If Frank threw the towel in (and I understand he is planning to scale back the gig side of things next year), there is nobody of that equivalent in London to book the bigger name bands. I don't want to have to go up to Sheffield whenever I want to see a band because that will end up the nearest promotor (the Corporation lot) to book the bands I like! :-(

*not all venues in London are crap, of course! I was pleasantly surprised by Nambucca last week and do actually like going to see bands at Islington Academy, Dingwalls and the Electric Ballroom.
Its more a case of which venues the promotors are able to book, seems that some venues are just getting greedy and too expensive to be feasible unless the organiser can guarantee a full house. Slimelight, i understand, is cheap.

[erming.livejournal.com]

Oh I agree about those venues, but more often or not they are at the underworld or slimelight both of which aren't great.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the Roundhouse and even Wembley Arena (when I saw Roxette) and Brixton Academy's main problem is location rather than it's sound.

I'd rather pay a quid or so more and they play Dingwalls rather than the underworld and a couple of quid more and see the bands at the Islington Academy than Slimelight.

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

I do like Wembley Arena - for the right band and I have to be in the standing area. Think the sound there is fantastic and I do enjoy the buzz of being at a massive concert now and then.
Brixton Academy can be hit or miss. I've found that guitar bands tend to sound great there but less so for electronic bands.

Heh, I forgot about the Garage. Only been there once and my god it was loud! :-) Couldn't really give a subjective opinion on the sound quality as the band I saw was rubbish but I think they had a pretty good system.

[erming.livejournal.com]

Garage is also rather nice since they refurbished it. Can get a little hot in there though and most of the beer fridges are flogging relentless rather than decent drinks.