well just putting down a few lines of my two concerts and aftershow experiences on the 1st and 4th august at the o2 ...well i bought two vip tickets at a cost of 470 pounds for the opening night with my brother..
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i already knew that i didnt get a seat on the floor or within the first ten rows as was advertised when i bought them but i just couldnt be bothered fighting with them as i knew i had made a mistake buying them in the first place so just decided to make the best of it...got to the o2 around six which was the time stated on the tickets that the vips would be allowed into the arena...well this , of course , didnt happen and they left us queing up until 6.30 before they finally opened the doors which was bad enough...so we got a wristband on and where given a free cd ...no programme, no goodie bag...nothing..!!!!..
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so i said ok ...it can only get better as we have paid 200 quid over the normal cost of the ticket for this so it must be great in the backstage bar !!!!...got into the backstage bar and we were given a drink as we entered and we took a seat overlooking the arena which looked amazing...so we sat there having a drink and wondering when we would get some of our 400 pound buffet ???...time went by and i went to the bar to get another drink...we had three vouchers each...one for beer or wine and two vouchers for a spirit ????....so if you happened to prefer spirits...you could only get one free drink at the bar ??? ( am i wrong in thinking they are talking the piss with this ??? ) ..
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so i got a beer and went and sat down and after about half an hour, we managed to grab some small portions of food off a passing waiter...( you had to move fast or you got nothing )...me and my brother both got a few small portions of food but were so hungry when we took our poor vip seats in the corner ...i had to get two hot dogs ???... the backstage bar was getting busy after about an hour and at this stage...the bar was so busy ...my brother took over half an hour trying to get a drink..(they only had three bar staff on ??? )...i just couldnt believe how bad it was and how little we got...i didnt feel like a vip at all...i just felt ripped off but as i said...i wasnt going to let it spoil my concert experience....so at 8.15 ...they told us to leave the backstage area and head for our seats...we were told that we couldnt go out the way we came in as thats were our corner seats were...we had to walk right round the whole arena to get to our seats and missed the start of the concert ???.....
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once there ...we enjoyed the concert although the ending was a bit of a mess with the lights going up and then he came back for another 20 minutes which was a bit chaotic but he is great live.....
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went to aftershow...was very tired and a bit drunk..stayed til 2.30...saw a bit of prince but was out on my feet so jumped a taxi back to hotel....
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went to saturday 4th gig...went with my non fan girlfriend who now after the gig ..sees why i rate him so highly ..just had normal 31.21 tickets in lower tier but the experience was far better....has a better view of stage...sound was better...he was amazing ...didnt play enough hits for me as he is playing to a lot of casual fans so i really think if he is going to play these huge venues then he needs to pull out the big guns more often...just a small moan but as a diehard ...i dont care what he plays...he is just a fantastic performer...one of the best gigs of my life..
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again went to aftershow...stayed until 2.00..seen a bit of prince again...enjoyed listening to the dj and having a wee dance.....dont know if its worth 25 quid but i paid it so it must be ...
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so had a great few days...the vip experience was pretty bad for me but anyone going hopefully it will improve for you...just dont get your hopes up...
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saturday gig was amazing....
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hope to go back down again this saturday 11th...isnt definate yet ...bye for now
[Edited 8/6/07 3:34am]
[Edited 8/6/07 11:24am]

just to add...the london underground is an experience in itself !!!...thought i was going to pass out with the heat a few times...

thanks for sharing that. I know where you're coming from. Opening night I was on the Thames cruise VIP which was only available on that night and cost £264 rather than £235. I'd say it sounds like the cruise had better food. A proper dinner that you had to queue for, but nice. drinks were also pretty easy to get at the multiple bars. but entertainment was pretty non-existent. a dj but it was hard to hear the music and at one point he played michael jackson which really got my goat. all in all, an incredibly stupid waste of £458 for two in 70 minutes!! Once arrived at the o2 pier that was it, vip experience over and we walked in to the arena with everyone else coming from the station. no escorting or whatever...

I was surprised at the total lack of imagination on the part of the promoters as to what to provide vip ticket buyers. afterall the tix themselves have a face value of 31.21 regardless and have been purchased as such in the run up to the shows. but not even a program. It should have been something that we all came back on here ranting about how happy we were to have done, rather feeling like a mug amd warning others not to make the same mistake.

Where were you sitting by the way? For me that was the final insult. Block E1 3rd row neckbreaker seats watching prince's back and hearing nothing but the drums and bass.

And being the fool that I was, I also bought VIP for this saturday at the same time as I thought the preshow VIP party in the white room sounded fun too!! well tickets came through this morning and at least it's block d1 which is front facing and having watched the encore from roughly there on the opening night the sound seemed better too so pleased about that!

i was sitting in lower tier ...section 112...row f ..a few seats from the corner...