U2 tickets

Re: ..

legend99, I thought it was just me. I have loved u2 all my life and will still love them when I calm down from this but I have been feeling a bit peeved with them lately. This charging for the website carry-on is a bit Irish (harhar) and then I think I heard a quote from Larry this morning more or less saying that fans who complain about it are not real fans and they can f*ck off. Hope the lads aren't getting a bit arrogant in their old and extremely wealthy old age.

Back to snivvelling into the keyboard now :(
Rebecca
 
Re: U2

I personally think its an enourmous snub to us all. They are playing London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester in the UK. But they can only lower themselves to play one city here.

The population of each of those cities is possibly each in excess of the population of Ireland. It's all about the numbers - the pocket over-rules the heart.
 
U2 - No Sunday concert

04 February 2005
U2 dates sell out, smashing box office records
U2 have broken all box office records in Ireland, with 160,000 tickets for their Dublin shows in June selling out in 50 minutes.

Promoters MCD have confirmed that a third concert will not be taking place.

Tickets for the concerts at Croke Park on 24 and 25 June went on sale this morning at 8am, with lengthy queues having already formed at outlets days in advance.
 
Re: U2 - No Sunday concert

Ah now, Glasgow has only a population of approx 600,000. Fair enough the UK population is a lot more than ROI's but I wonder what level U2 fans per 1000 of population works out at compared to here! ;)

Rebecca
 
Re: U2 - No Sunday concert

Promoters MCD have confirmed that a third concert will not be taking place.

...Until they suddenly announce with no warning that there is one. Wait and see.
 
Re: U2 - No Sunday concert

The population of each of those cities is possibly each in excess of the population of Ireland

Ah now, Glasgow has only a population of approx 600,000.

Well, I did sort of make up that Glasgow is more populous that Ireland :eek: .

Between Edinburgh and all towns in easy commuting distance, they have a bigger pool of punters to fish from, more so than, say, Killarney.

Probably :eek: .
 
..

Are you going to honestly say after what was seen this morning that they would not be able to sell another 200,000 tickets in this country??

there is no way in the world they would nto see out a third Croke Park, along with 2 nights in Cork, or 2 nights in Thurles.

And anyone who says otherwise is taking the p*ss.

P.S. I speak as someone who has every album on CD, many of the CD singles, and who has seen them in Cork, Slane and Boston.

I am genuinely disgusted they seem unwilling to play extra irish gigs. As i already said, its the least they could do to reward irish fans.

And it drives me nuts too to hear Bono banging on about drop the debt. He doesn't seem to go out of his way to help too many of his fans. I say this based on not being allowed bring bottled water into Slane and then being forced to pay abotu 2 quid a bottle. Add in about 5 quid for a manky burger.
You might claim that its contracted blah blah blah for the food sellers, but you can be well sure a lot of it ends up in bonos back pocket.
 
Re: ..

Interesting to note that while the tone of posting on AAM is inevitably free-market oriented, as soon as it comes to U2 it seems that they "owe" their Irish fans something. It's a business - they don't care about their fans and why should they? They'll maximise their returns from this tour ("manky burgers" and all) - their Irish fans are just sources of revenue.
 
U2

For those interested, Larry has posted a statement on the U2 website regarding various complaints from fans about cock-ups on the ticketing front - www.u2.com.

At the end of it he takes a pop at people claiming to be U2 fans and simultaneously criticizing the ticket "fiasco".

Well excuse me Sir Mullen but being a fan of a band does not mean you are not allowed to criticize them.

Would have to agree with people who are pissed off there are only going to be 2 Irish concerts (that we know of), speaking as one who has every U2 CD album, quite a few singles, 3 or 4 videos, books about U2 etc. I am seriously considering not bothering about Croke Park at this stage.
 
Re: ..

Well said oysterman.

Sure, wasn't there all that mullarky about a free concert in Dublin some years back which never came about....

Lets face it, U2 are a marketing machine. All they care about is selling as many tickets as they can at the highest price possible. All this nonsense Bono spouts about 'coming home to the people' is exactly that - nonsense. This premium for the website is another example of the band's desire to get as much lolly out of the genuine fan as they possibly can.

I'd be very suprised if there is not another concert on the Sunday night. No doubt after a lot of messing about, 'the boys' will come out and announce that they have pulled out all the stops to sacrifice yet another night of their hectic schedule to their Irish fans because they love us all so much. Slane all over again, the dogs on the street knew there'd be a second night long before it was announced.

Anyway, rant over. Apologies in advance to all the U2 fans I may have upset....
 
U2

paulocon,

far from being offended judging by the comments on this thread most of us U2 fans are starting to agree with you!
 
Re: U2

I would have liked to go to the concert. I'm not a hardcore fan but I like them nonetheless. However, I refuse to pay 40 euro to u2.com for the privelage of being allowed pay them more money for a ticket. I'm not daft enough to queue somewhere in the cold for three nights for a one and I value my kidneys too much to hand one over to a lowlife, s***bag tout.

U2 do actually owe their Irish fans something. Every big band owes their fans (especially the ones who made them) something. It might sound idealistic but it happens to be true. I don't think I've seen worse treatment of fans in a long time.

No band/concert is worth this hassle.
 
Re: U2

The music industry might be more about industry than music nowadays but not everyone involved in it is motivated by money. Art is about creativity and music is about collective appreciation and the money side is supposed to be ancillary. I'm with Maranello and Gabriel. I didn't think being a u2 fan made me the same thing as a Girls Aloud fan but they are proving me wrong fast. The bit I don't get is that they already have the money which makes it seem all the more icky.

I might even go so far as to argue that their latest album is their least innovative in a long time and hope that it doesn't signal that they are going to start making their music to a formula. But it sticks in my craw to say that about them... yet.

Rebecca
 
..

"They'll maximise their returns from this tour ("manky burgers" and all) - their Irish fans are just sources of revenue. "

I would have thought that they would maximise their income by far by playing in Ireland because that is where the have the most fans willing to pay the most money.

if they were following the free market then it would make sense to put more concerts on in Ireland...bear in mind, they'd have no accomadation costs either....they go just scoot off back home to bed!

Secondly, if they owe anything to anyone it is the Irish people. We're the country who allow them take their royalty income tax free....

And while I personally think its great to have such an incentive for the arts, is something like 100k not enough to take tax free. Why there is not a threshold above which you start paying tax is something I cannot understand or accept...
 
"Just got through to an agent on the phone 0818-719300 - Got Sat night tickets for lower Hogan stand, about 1/2 way down the pitch - woohoo!"

Rainy,

Must feel like your birthday so! ;)
 
legend99,

Would have thought accomodation costs would be one of the smaller cost elements involved with bringing the tour to any city. I hardly think Bono is going to invite all the roadies back to his gaff somehow.... :)

Totally agree with you as regards the tax incentive, it's bewildering when you think how much must be taken in by the band each year in royalties. I could be wrong but the last time I checked, I didn't see Bono and The Edge busking on Grafton Street trying to collect enough money for a pint of Guinness..

Personally, I think the band have been lacking creatively for quite some time. I like my music but I'd be hard pushed to name the tracks from their last few albums (is it just me or does Elevation sound like Vertigo?). Don't get me wrong, I liked some of their earlier stuff and thought they were awesome at Live Aid but I'd imagine most true fans must feel more and more alieniated by the huge marketing machine that surrounds the band (and indeed that seems to have become the band).

This nonsense of "We're playing another night... hold on, we're not (wink wink)......but wait, maybe we are....' really ticks me off. Why not just put the three nights up for sale at the one time. Most people do have lives to be getting on with after all...
 
..

So taking into account the fact that the GAA premium ticket holders had option to purchase, the U2.com ticket allocation, the tickets held back for the crew etc as its the hometown concert...I wonder how many tickets were actually for sale today?
It was obviously nowhere near the 160k mark. Would there even have been 120K i wonder?
 
Re: ..

Decided after Slane that I'd seen U2 enough times Live
(Zooropa in RDS, Pop Mart in Lansdowne, and of course Slane).

First two gigs were great. Jason McAteer's goal was the best part of the Slane gig. I didn't try to get tickets for Croke Park. Can't say I'm too bothered about going.

Bono's chatty bits between the songs seem to have gotten more scripted and quite frankly patronising. It's as if he believes that everything he says is monumentous and historic.

Maybe he was always like that and I've changed, I dunno.

Anyhow, enjoy the gigs if you got tickets.

-Rd
 
tickets :(

No tickets. Am gutted. Queued from early this morning but no joy... saw them in Croke Park in '87 and many times since then. But... for the first time... I'm starting to get peeved. Never thought I'd hear myself say it but yeah, I do think they should play more Irish gigs, and show some respect for the phenomenal demand here. And this lark of 'will they won't they' for the third gig is just appalling. What are we supposed to do, keep the radio on constantly in the hope that we're walking past a Ticketmaster outlet when they go on sale for, oh, 20 minutes or so? I'm a huge, huge, huge U2 fan but the sad truth is that their live shows are now the source of more grief than enjoyment - ie the months of fretting about tickets, the queuing in the cold and then, worst of all, the crowing from the eejits who blagged corporate tickets and then spend the whole event in the bar. Sorry. I'll probably regret this rant later. But once again I'm looking at weeks spent begging borrowing or (hopefully not) stealing a precious ticket and it's starting to get to me.
PS - I don't necessarily agree with the interpretation of Larry's letter on the site - I think he was getting at the people who complain about 'U2 inc'. But on a day like today...
What I'd really love to see is him turning up incognito and sitting out side a record shop for an entire Irish winter night. Might change the oul attitude...
 
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