JeePee said:

Like Prince said : you know who you are !!

xenophobia2002 said:

I do. Do you?

This JeePee is definately not the same person as JP who helped organise the queue ticketing system. For a start, on JeePee's website, he's got the setlist wrong in places and it's incomplete. The JP that you're trying to refer to carried a book in which he listed every single song as it happened. I know this as I even helped him identify a couple of songs while we were waiting in the lobby, and was front row near him and could see him writing and drawing sketches.

The ticketing system was by no means perfect, but it was a good way of noticing those French people jumping the queue!

I originally turned up at 7:30am on the Saturday. From that time until the doors opened at 4pm I was in line all day except for when I had to go and check out of my hotel and move my car, and one toilet break. The raffle ticket helped me do this. I was in line for 7 and a half hours, so I saw alot of the people who came to get their raffle tickets. There were signs on the doors and people going around telling others about the system. As The Dawn NL have said, the system worked right up until we got inside. I was bloody grateful for the two main guys JP and Hans, though I had a few gripes about Cisco.

Anyway, it's history now. If the NPGMC do the same 'free for all' system again, I'll let you all sit around for hours without being able to move and then have nothing to show for it when the French guys step over you two minutes before the doors open and get front row!

I'm rambling, I know, but I've said my piece now

Gee, cant we all just get along. Yo Gav. I am assuming it's you from your avatar and name.
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[This message was edited Mon Oct 7 14:22:43 PDT 2002 by DolphinFriendlyStarfish]

ScottNPG said:

Yes i agree. but only if the tickets THEN NOT come from NPGMC,
because i ordered my london tix very early and had "only" 12th
row (K). a friend of mine how ordered his london tic at the
second day had row 3 (C).
so it looks like npgmc was packing the printed ticket for the
first 15 row with no order in the envelopes. so with that
system it's better GA.

i personally loved the TM System more. while i was fast with
ordering the tickets for the march Concert over the internet
i had all my tickets in the first 8 rows! saginaw was 1st row
on 2 other concerts i had second row and "only" in chicago i
got only 8th row because of the many members. but that was ok
4 me.

Nikkie said:

Not 2 own them is ok?!!???

i don't think so! i have a lot of boots! why? because so i
can hear the cool sound of Prince! without them i'm not shure
i would ever b a so big prince fan, because i could not say
how good Prince is. i have it not heard...

... so think first.

I went to the London Apollo to all three nights and I have to say that all this people at the front of the queues are some of the most selfish people I've ever meet.

I don't want to hear all the crap (we were doing it for the fans)I don't think so, you were doing it for your own benefit, and also so you could get to the queue at any time you wanted knowing that one of your mates was going to be there covering your space.

What really pissed me off was what happened on Saturday when I got to the Apollo with my mate.

We joined the queue at about 3pm, and when we got there we joined the queue,(like you do when there's one, unless you go to a Prince concert and a bunch of saddos are organising it)and about half an hour later we were aware from one of the saddos that you had to collect a stupid number if you wanted to go in the venue, none of us including all people around where we were standing knew about this, so we quickly went to get a ticket, just to realise that some people that had started queuing after us already had these tickets, and therefore they will go in the venue before us even though we got there a lot earlier than them.

Straight away we all started moaning and they agreed with us that it wasn't fair and that the tickets would be invalid from where we queuing on, fair enough we said.

But it was only untill the people in front of us tried to enter the venue when one of the saddos told them that without one of this tickets they wouldn't enter, and when he was told what the situation was about these tickets, he still woudn't have it.

That's when one of the people in front of us asked him, who the f*ck are you? and he replied no-one, so he said again:I've had enough of you lot since thrusday, and everyday since then there's been a f*ck up, if you're nobody then who the f*ck are you not to let us in, and after this we all went in no questions asked.

And this is my point, this people were not only doing this queues for their own interest, there would also try not to let you in if you didn't comply with their silly rules, and at the end of the day who are they not to let anyone in when they are just people like you and me but with the only difference that they will go to any length to make sure they're on first row.

camille69 said:[quote]

We joined the queue at about 3pm, and when we got there we joined the queue,(like you do when there's one, unless you go to a Prince concert and a bunch of saddos are organising it)and about half an hour later we were aware from one of the saddos that you had to collect a stupid number if you wanted to go in the venue, none of us including all people around where we were standing knew about this, so we quickly went to get a ticket, just to realise that some people that had started queuing after us already had these tickets, and therefore they will go in the venue before us even though we got there a lot earlier than them.

I can understand you're angry, but there were large signs about contacting the queue manager in front of each door of the Apollo.
We queued since 8 am to collect our numbers, I think it is a good sistem, obviously is a bit difficult for those who can't rech the venue so early in the morning. Queue managers were in good faith, I'm sure

The point is...Didn't we all have an amazing time and meet amazing friends???I did!!!Thank you London!!!

pazzuzzu said:

well said!

DolphinFriendlyStarfish said:

tis me !

how ya doing Mr S ? Recovered ?

camille69 said:

I agree. There was a cock up with the queueing system at Manchester last night too. QUEUEING SYSTEM??!! Jesus, u just stand behind the bloke in front of you! Anyone approached by a guy with raffle tickets or lists at future shows, tell them to piss off and GET A LIFE!!

First of all, watch out what u all are saying and who u accuse. It's very dangerous to call out names, I saw a lot of names coming by who didn't match. Also it's great that somebody or more are trying, at leat, to get as fair as possible. If everybody works with the same system and no one's cheating then it works fine and fair. We could all choose. Working with a queing system and 80 % is satisfied or no system and just fight for a fucking place up in front. An no I wasn't in the front rows

Malloy said:[quote]

camille69 said:

Whatever you think of ANY system, telling someone to "piss off and get a life" really isn't the best thing to do.

4 French people at Hammermith tried this, refused to acknowledge the "system" used by the Dutch guys and consequenently got told by the Apollo staff that they would be refused entry if they refused to acknowledge the queuing system.

At the end of the day, in the case of Hammermith at least, the venues security staff ASKED the fans to start a system. There's never going to be one that works 100% but its at least better than violence which is exactly what occured last time there were general admission UK gigs (Wembley Stadium).

Malloy said:

lol, this sums it up perfectly. why the fuck does a queue need a system - like my man said, you go to the queue and stand behind the person on the end of it !

bluebird said:

because some fuckwit always pushes in as happened on both Friday and saturday in London. The ticket system proved to security that they'd turned up later than they said.

Gav said:

Tell that to those who had raffle tickets on the 8th, and were then told "Oh its all gone to pot.Sorry, get to the back." It doesn't work. I'm not going to anymore shows so I hope you all enjoy them and get in without too many probs. Just beware, thats all I'm saying.

Malloy said:

Didn't realise that Malloy, that's f***g terrible.

When it started to get tetchy on Saturday, a few of us worked with the Apollo security to get as fair a system as possible.

To say "oh sorry, it didn't work" is just plain crazy as the venues security staff should be glad of an organised system as it makes their life easier.

At the end of the day there is only ONE solution to all of this - BOOKED SEATS THAT EVERYONE ABIDES BY !

Gav said:[quote]

Malloy said:

There is no need for any member to take a superior stand over another.

The interests of those organising was purely self-serving. One of them (no names mentioned) even had the gaul to 'pretend' he was a member of Prince's staff.

If security 'asks fans to start a system' then queueing in a straight line is always most effective.

Lording it up over others, saving places for yourself and others, arrogantly shouting commands at the line and refusing good mannered, honest people admission is not a system it is a travesty.

I don't know what your involvement or interest was in this 'queueing system' Gav, but you are certainly not revealing the entire truth of the events I witnessed over the 3 nights.

camille69 said:

Ditto.

Thanks for telling THE TRUTH about what happened outside the venue and not this sanitised, 'we did it for the good of the members' BS that's being posted here.

Yes they were lording it up big time, I saw one of them sucking up to Prince's head of security like he was part of the inner sanctum...it was very cringy indeed

Camille69, this was me and my friend at the door - and me who asked "Gav" in the line who the f**k he was. (Even though I knew – as did everyone else.) Who do these people think they are telling everyone to back up – do this – do that. I bought tickets the same as everyone else and the system was (or should have been) first come first seated. It worked on the US leg of the tour perfectly well. I would have imagined that if anywhere obsessed fans wanting to be on the front row every night would be handing out tickets, it would be in the USA. But NO – it was in the UK. Scary! (although I realize it wasnt only UK fans – the annoying scruffy Dutch guy with the tic and his little clique was involved as well as many others) Talking of which I heard Ian (Unique) has got himself a girlfriend – that annoying American women who was on queue duty!
Another point - If these people are doing this for the sake of what is fair and right why do they refuse to tell people who they are.
One idiot who was there directing the people, around asked me to run his mailing list a while ago – then refused to meet me to discuss it - he wanted to remain anonymous. DUHHH
If you want to remain anonymous don’t start up mailing lists and acting up at concerts like you own the place.
I had two nights of this crap – first night they decided to start a list – but whoever had this idea wasn’t too smart – they took first names only for the first twenty or so people on their scrap of paper, then the last night the whole raffle ticket farce. The only night this didn’t happen was Friday and guess what – it went the smoothest of them all in London. People queued, we were let in we walked straight into the sound check and took the seats we wanted. Hmmm go figure!
This whole name and raffle ticket deal was done only for selfish reasons. So people could turn up at 9am get a ticket, clear off down to the pub (or wherever they go - I have my own opinion on that one) and then expect to turn up at 5pm go to the front of the queue with no one saying anything about it. I have no aspirations of going to the front of the stage night after night if you want to - fine! If you want to introduce tickets so you can do this fine! But don’t start expecting me to play along with it, and I urge everyone else reading this to tell them to sod off in the future. You pay your $100 per year to get in the 1st 15 rows (GA) and you pay enough for the tickets to the gigs (and in some of our cases air fairs and hotel fee’s) to attend the gigs. I don’t care who you people think you are, if you’re not big enough to stand up and admit who you are don’t expect people to trust you or not to challenge you. It was a sham – a CON it was pure selfishness and ego at work.

The ticket system in London worked to a degree, however it is a system open to heavy abuse. I recieved ticket number 79 in London altho there was only actually 15 or so people there at the time, looked like the organisers were holding a lot of the tickets back for friends etc. Didnt bother me that much cos i didnt want to queue all day anyway, id prefer a pint or 2 myself! but if i queued there from 11am and then a whole bunch of people turned up at 4pm and just jumped in front i'd be pretty pissed off, as happened to few people in mnachester and also the eventual downfall it seems to the ticket system in manchester also. The ONLY way it seems for this to be sorted (and pretty much the bloody obvious way if you ask me!) is for the NPGMC to sell pre-sale tickets by email and then do a ballot themselves for PRE_ALLOCATED seats so there is absolutely no argument as to who sits where. I say email because a friend of mine expected 2 tickets at the manchester gig and was told only one had been reserved and that the website had cancelled the other ticket! what the hell are the NPGMC on? sounds like theyre taking all the $100 memberships and spending it on crack cocaine. There was a lot of aggreivement and embarrasment caused cos of this obviously (also there were no NPGMC staff around, and the apollo staff didnt really know anything of the arrangements) and sours an occasion when we should all be havin a good time and not worrying about if our tickets have even turned up!

IlikeFunkyMusic said:

I have mentioned this several times but I'll repeat it.

I WAS NOT THE GUY ON THE DOOR!!!

I was ticket number 124, not anyone at the front, or even on the door

If you're going to make acusations, make them to the right person !

IlikeFunkyMusic said:

Christ almighty, where do you get this shit from ? If you're going to get personal at least get it right. Unique was standing with, and is friends with an American girl WHO IS MARRIED, not his "girlfriend". Why do you feel this has to get personal.

As to Friday night, there was a list, again ran by the dutch guys and in fact this list prevented the aforementioned french gang cutting into the line at 4.00pm. Therefore the reason it went smoothly as you put it is because a system was in place that worked.

THat's 3 facts you have wrong in your post. I have agreed with all the points on here that the ONLY system that will work is a ticketed pre-allocated system as Daf suggests but at the end of the day they'll probably be people complaining about that.

Just put it down to experience, move on, and stop making personal accusations based on pure guess work.

So you were helping to organise the queueing system then Gav?

That explains why you're lying about it.

I don't care what ticket number you ended up with, your arrogant attitude towards those in the queue was sickening.

There is no excuse for 'lording' it up and hollering at the line like they were your subordinates.

You are a regular NPGMC member like everyone-else. You and your 'assoiates' (or would bum-buddies be a more apt phrase?) had no right to attempt to refuse admission to honest members who had queued like everyone-else.

Your 'organisation' was seriously flawed. Once the line was more than about 20 people long, all of your signs regarding your oh, so professional raffle tickets were blocked by the people queueing.

I'm suprised you've remained so confident on these pages. You must have missed the 30 or more people standing behind you calling you various expletives.

You made what should have been a relaxing start to a fantastic night, a worrying and anxious experience.

Prince did his job and put on a fantastic show, you should have done your 'job' as a regular NPGMC member and shut your mouth and lined up like everyone-else.

I arrived early on Thursday and I can personally vouch on my word that there were no requests from security for members to regulate the line.

I suggest that you and your 'friends' here just drop the BS and admit what your intentions were and that your entire organisation of the queue was a farce.

Try and be the men here that you so obviously were'nt on Thursday and Saturday night (incidentally the worst, most stressfully organised entrances of the entire dates).
[This message was edited Wed Oct 9 7:38:49 PDT 2002 by Mr7]

IlikeFunkyMusic said:

Ha ha - that'd be the same system in the US that was used in the UK was it ?

Some people really need an anger-management course !!

As far as I was aware there was no queuing system on Friday night and in my opinion thats why everything went smoothly.

You say move on Gav but I did happen to notice you down front row every night, of course you will say move on, you didnt fall foul to your own bloody system as well as all your other cronies!!!. I never wanted front row, I just wanted a hassle free time which I didnt get because of sad egotistic freaks running the show!!!

IlikeFunkyMusic said:
---
Camille69,

Talking of which I heard Ian (Unique) has got himself a girlfriend – that annoying American women who was on queue duty!


The only night this didn’t happen was Friday and guess what – it went the smoothest of them all in London. People queued, we were let in we walked straight into the sound check and took the seats we wanted. Hmmm go figure!

---



Christ almighty, where do you get this shit from ? If you're going to get personal at least get it right. Unique was standing with, and is friends with an American girl WHO IS MARRIED, not his "girlfriend". Why do you feel this has to get personal.

Firstly - lets leave Christ out of this - Prince wouldnt like this blasphemy at all!!!


Secondly - i didnt say you were - however when you where coming down the line gobbing off why when challenged did you back down from trying to organise and cajole?

Because you are a regular NPGMC member like everyone-else. You and your 'assoiates' had no right to attempt to refuse admission to honest members who had queued like everyone-else.

As to Friday night, there was a list,

Oh really - not one that i had to suffer!!!
Thank goodness for that

Therefore the reason it went smoothly as you put it is because a system was in place that worked.

IT DIDNT WORK - it may have worked for you! but not for the rest of the people who were queueing

THat's 3 facts you have wrong in your post.

I have agreed with all the points on here that the ONLY system that will work is a ticketed pre-allocated system as Daf suggests but at the end of the day they'll probably be people complaining about that.

I think allocated seats would work - of course they would - but

Just put it down to experience, move on, and stop making personal accusations based on pure guess work.

Unique was standing with, and is friends with an American girl WHO IS MARRIED, not his "girlfriend". Why do you feel this has to get personal.

Because it becomes personal when people decide to come up the queue and try to tell me what to do while i am standing in line. I will not allow people to treat me in this way


NOT AN ACCUSATION GAV its a matter of fact!!
This happened at Manchester - check it out and keep up!!!
I think its funny - they are well matched!!

OK ive moved on now

Have a nice day

starbass said:

again - GET YOUR FUCKING FACTS RIGHT

Thursday - Row K
Friday - Row E
Saturday - Row A (to the side and regretting it)