After trying for 3 days now to convince the support people at the npgmc, they have made it very clear, that only members with presale tickets will be granted access to the soundchecks. Does our membership count for nothing? How do you guys feel about this?

Sounds ok to me

only members buy presale tickets so only members go to the soundcheck. makes sense to me.

Maybe I wasn't clear...only members w/ PRESALE tickets can attend. This means even people w/ $125 tickets who are members cannot attend. I'm sorry, but I don't see the logic in this.

HotThang said:

If you're a member, and you're going to spend $125, then why wouldn't you get presale tickets???

MKevon said:

Exactly...I'm confused...

Are you saying that you bought the $125 tickets during the sale to the public?

If you are a member, why didn't you buy the tickets during the presale? The presales were set up for the club members.

Exactly. I think you've got us all confused.

The situations were a member might lose out would be, I guess:

1. Where the pre-sale takes place whilst you are out of town and unable to access your PC. So a member inadvertently misses the pre-sale, and has to buy a general ticket.

Solution (I guess): plan ahead where you can, register (under your profile with NPGMC) and use a remotely accessible email address such as hotmail whilst you are out of town. Work out how to check your email and get to NPGMC on a daily basis whilst out of town.

2. NPGMC purchase a limited number of pre-sale tickets for members and they run out during the pre-sale.

I guess this is part of the balance NPGMC are trying to have to strike. The purchasing of tickets by NPGMC to sell directly to NPGMC members is being undertaken to prevent the sort of scalping that left members sitting in balcony row ZZ at the beginning of the tour. But NPGMC have to make a judgment call on how many to purchase to satisfy membership demand. If some members miss out , they should - I guess - mail NPGMC during the pre-sale to explain their predicament. It's worth a try. But it's a risk we all run.

So, for some reason, you goofed and didn't buy a ticket during the presale and now you'd like to blame it on the NPGMC???

No, I didn't goof. I'm a broke college student trying to support Prince the best way I can. I won tickets through a local radio station for the first night and bought a ticket for the second night through the presale. Due to date changes I only had 4 hours to participate in the presale. Regardless of how I obtained my ticket, as a paying member of the NPGMC, I should be granted access to the soundchecks and aftershows as a condition of my membership. After emailing the club several times, they basically stated that unless you purchase tickets exclusively through the presale all of the other "benefits" of membership are null and void, except of course CD's and downloads.

HotThang said:

So, if on the second night you bought a ticket through the presale as a NPGMC member, then you have access to the soundchecks, aftershows for that night, correct?

But on the first night, when you got your tickets free through a radio station, then you would not have access to the soundchecks, aftershows because you did not BUY a presale NPGMC ticket.

If I am understanding it correctly, I think the deal is that you buy the $100 membership, which entitles you to have access to the $125 tickets first before the general public can get to them.
As the purchaser of the $125 presale ticket, you are given a laminate, which gives you access to soundchecks and aftershows.

If you didn't BUY the $125 presale ticket, you don't get a laminate.

I think that NPGMC has to do it this way. If they didn't, then club members in say Grand Rapids could show up for a soundcheck in Detroit just to attend the soundcheck without bothering to buy tickets to the show.

they have to do it this way now because since it's general admission starting in Atlanta, when you go to soundcheck, you get your seat right there at soundcheck in the npg section up front. So if you bought row M during the general public sale, get into the soundcheck and grab a seat in row CC, that takes the seat of someone who did buy their ticket in the presale. The presale and the soundcheck go hand in hand.

Plus, another thing to remember is that these soundcheck things really are just a bonus. They are not guaranteed cuz stuff happens (Prince sleeps late, the drum kit explodes, band gets stuck in St. Louis, etc.) and the npgmc only really ever promised that they would offer you a presale. And they have. All last year he did maybe one or two soundchecks where members got in. yet people were still members, still paid the same amount to join, even when they were just happy to be at the show and didn't sweat the soundchecks.

Things are this way now in the first place because members complained to Prince, to his face, in front of crowds of people, about how much Ticketmaster sucked. So what did they do? They made it stricter and tighter. Yes, that means it's tougher when you don't follow their rules to the letter, but it's got to be that way now. Otherwise we go back to reading about front row seats on eBay, non-members clowning in the soundchecks, and people in tears because they got a balcony seat.

I understand both sides of this issue, because I am also a member that did not get tickets until after the presale, because I was not able to get my $125 dollar tickets until after it was over. I don't blame the club, but I do hink that there are ways around it, other than the way it is being done right now. Regardless to when a person buys a ticket or joins the club(within reason), $100 is $100, it is not a small amount of money for something like a Fan club membership, and all members should have access to the same benefits all the time. If not, they should go back to different levels of membership, depending on what benefits you want access to.Something as simple as a membership card could do away with the need for member laminates, along with your ticket in order to get into the soundcheck. That being said, if any club members attending the Thursday Atlanta show want to be kind enough to let me and my freind come into the soundcheck as thier guests, let me know at drhodes777@comcast.net.
peace

Question, somebody help me out. I've got 2 presale tix 4 both nights. Does each ticket entitle me 2 1 soundcheck guest, for a total of 4 attendees, including myself? Even if my guests don't have tix 4 the show? Thanks.

herbthe4 said:

Are you talking about Atlanta? Each NPGMC member is entitled to bring in ONE guest to the soundcheck. As far as I know, the guest is also supposed to have a ticket to the show.

So, I believe you would be allowed to have one guest on one night, and one guest on the second night.

herbthe4 said:

I think you should go to the NPGMC site and read the rules there regarding presale tickets, laminates, and soundchecks.

If I am understanding what I read correctly, your guests will not be allowed access to the soundchecks in Atlanta if they do not have tickets to the show.

The NPGMC presale tickets for Atlanta are general admission and are located within the first 6 rows. The members who bought their tickets in the presale are going to get their seats for that night's show at the soundcheck. The seat that club members get at the soundcheck will be their seat for the show.

If your guests who don't have tickets attend the soundcheck and grab seats in the NPGMC section, then they will be preventing club members from getting the seats that they are entitled to get.

In other words, if your guests who don't have tickets for the show attend the soundcheck and grab seats in row BB or CC, your guests are preventing the NPGMC club members from getting those 2nd and 3rd row seats.

I think you should email NPGMC, explain your situation, and make sure that you understand the policy on the soundcheck admission.