This Wednesday I went to see The Decemberists at Kentish Town Forum.

Never before in all my gig-going have I ever been driven to leave the auditorium, stride up to the box office and say "I want my money back".

Now in the band's defence, at this point, they were only about 1 minute into the rumbling, groaning Prelude. It was nothing to do with them.

My issue was with the venue owners - HMV. We had tickets for upstairs in the sit/stand section. However this was so oversold that all bench seats were full and all standing areas chockablock. Even standing on the step thoughtfully provided at the very back, we couldn't even see the lights at the top of the proscenium arch. (I am 5'9" = 175cm so pretty average) After 20 mins of being moved on by stewards every time we did find a line of sight, usually about 1" into a stairway, that was it for me and off I strode. I don't pay £19 plus booking fee to not A DAMN THING.

Never have I seen a more blatant application of the attitude "it doesn't matter how poor the audience experience is if we can sell a ticket".

To be fair to the Box Office manager, he defused us gently by getting us in downstairs- where, standing, we could see the top of the drummers kit and all the lights, with the odd lucky glimpse of the stagefront musicians- exactly what you expect at ground floor at a gig and therefore acceptable. Just strange that all those months ago when I bought the tix, the downstairs was already sold out. And even more bizarre, his explanation that "this type of gig with an older audience, they can be a bit... fuller. Which might be why the seats are all full." I'm not exactly sure who this insults, but its definitely someone.

The band were great but the night's enjoyment was undeniably dented by this at the beginning. Now I feel I have passed some sort of personal rubicon and will probably complain more readily in future (very un-English, that).

So I'm posting this to see others' opinions of venues exploiting the paying audience in such an unreasonable way, or people's own experience of exercising their "I want my money back" muscle.

(One other side note- I'm not sure how this blog part works and whether anyone else on the Word site will actually see it- but this whole thing has riled me sufficiently to leap into the 21st century and seek the views of the massive)

Malcolm

I really enjoyed the playlist of grownup songs for kids in the latest edition- and think this could form the start of a great resource for parents. So worth a post?

But first I should promote the Tweenie-avoiding approach taken by some friends of mine- it has to be executed while your kids are below 3, mind:
"the car can only play grown-up music, yours won't work"

Assuming you are too late for this tactic, here are my other suggestions not covered by James Medd's article:

The Lion Sleeps Tonight- Tight Fit
Trouble- Shampoo
La Bamba- Ritchie Valens/ whoever
Nellie the Elephant - Toy Dolls (not sure which side of the line this falls)

Any more?

Anyone else played this game?

1 - Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 or http://www.quoteland.com/random.asp
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. You can refresh if unintelligible.

3 - Go to flickr's "explore the last seven days" http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Put it all together, that's your debut album.

It's hugely addictive. For example:
Check out the new solo artist, Philip George Houthem Gell, whose album is "Admirable inventions of man". Former frontman for some US Alt-rockers hits middle age, cue solo album
http://www.flickr.com/photos/haoz/2576939463/
of earnest plodding through various aspects of the human condition.

That's your Friday afternoon sorted.....