The Gig-goer's Worst Enemy: Booking Fees

First of all I would like to say that I have no idea if Gig-goer's even makes sense. But basically for you rather silly people out there it means someone who goes to gigs.

This morning when I was thinking about something to write about I looked at my bookmarks bar on Safari and saw “Ticketmaster” and suddenly the idea hit me to write about how much booking fees annoy me. And possibly millions of other people who go to gigs/concerts/events around the world.

As an example to prove my point I’m going to go to Ticketmaster and pick an artist who I could possibly go and see at some point this year or next. For the sake of not being able to think of anyone that great I’m going with “Trivium” who are playing a show at Barrowland next year in March. To start off with a ticket costs £16.50. This is a reasonable price for Barrowland because it’s not a huge venue and its standing only. I’ve selected 1 ticket and after going through the near impossible CAPTCHA checks I’m taken to the page where I select my postage method. At this point it displays the service charge and postage costs with the service charge being £2.75 and postage being £2.50. That means that the £16.50 ticket I want to buy actually costs me £21.75 which is £5.25 more expensive than I thought. £5.25 might not seem like a lot but it’s almost one third of the price. As an actual percentage it’s 32% more expensive than I thought. So it’s as near as makes no difference 1/3 more expensive than I thought which is quite annoying.

I don’t understand where the hell they get £2.50 for postage from because it’s standard delivery. Not special delivery which would cost me around £5. I don’t where they get their stamps from but someone is being ripped off. And that someone is us, the gig-goers.

Let’s try another artist, someone who will be playing at a larger venue, for example, U2 at Hampden Park.

For this event the only tickets left are £150 each which is a fucking rip off in itself before we even get to the service charge which is £13.50. Because this is a large event I am being forced to choose the special delivery postage which is £4.95. So the total is now standing at £168.45. when you consider paying £150 for a ticket I'm sure that if you can afford that £15 pound won’t be too much of a reach into the wallet but that isn’t the point. The point is that you have to go through pages of information and filling in details to find out at the end that your tickets are costing you at least 10% more than you thought.

Maybe everyone should take notice of the Kilimanjaro Live event organisers. They are the people behind Sonisphere, the rock/metal festival touring across Europe this year. A weekend ticket cost £67.00. With no booking fees. I don’t know why they chose to leave out the booking fees but there is an article in Classic Rock magazine that explains why.

I don’t know how well I have put across my point, probably not very well at all, but what I am trying to say is that booking fees are ridiculously expensive and just an excuse for ticket sellers to make a tasty profit. When booking through Tickets Scotland the booking fee for larger events peaks at £1.50 from what I have seen. Even though it is still a booking fee it is nowhere near as ridiculous as £13.50

So people maybe if you complain a little and tell a friend to do so we might get somewhere eventually. Postage costs also need to be brought down, I mean how dear can a stamp really be?

Facebook & Things

I worry myself at times. I sign up to way too many websites for my own good. Seriously. In the past year I must have joined almost every popular site there is. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, and also this one. What the hell is it about these sites that I, and other people, like so much? What is it that draws us in, makes us feel warm with its friendly interface and then gets us addicted with all its features to be discovered?

Its easy to understand why YouTube is so popular. It has a a simple concept: people can upload videos to the internet and they can watch other videos uploaded by other people. If you like a particular user's videos you subscribe. And then you think, oh this is good to have a few subscriptions. Then you see your subscription box is blank and go looking for other videos. You watch related videos, featured videos. Before you know it your subscriptions box will never be empty!

MySpace took off in America very early but I don't think it quite caught on as well here in the UK. Again it is a simple concept however with the HTML customization etc. some people are thrown off.

Step into Bebo which is a very simple site. It's now owned by AOL and has changed very much since the takeover but the same idea still remains there. You create a profile page, find friends, a cool skin, write a bit about yourself, write a blog post here and there. Search for videos, leave comments and Luv. Then they introduced the apps to try and copy Facebook. Facebook's apps are so much better.

Facebook... I don't really know much about this one. I'm new to it but already I fell like im becoming as addicted as I did with Bebo and Twitter.

Twitter is a very simple concept: post what you are doing in less that 140 characters. But its not just what you are doing. You can post links to YouTube videos, blogs, general internet stuff! And the fact that a lot of YouTubers use it is good for me, because I like to know a bit more about people outside their YouTube world. Celebrities use Twitter too. Like @StephenFry for example.

Blogger is self explanatory, although I struggle to find interesting things to write about. I might do an app review one day for Pocket God for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Or I might write about some crazy adventure I go on, if that should ever happen.

Well, by now I've realised what I have said might be a load of bollocks but oh well. And just for the record, I don't think I'm some sort of crazy guy who knows everything about all the latest websites because I'm not. I'm just one of the sheep who joins the latest craze. But I actually continue to use it after it dies so I'm a little bit of a different sheep. I keep on going when its not "cool".

Tbh, if you think I'm stupid because I use a particular site that is perfectly fine. I won't really care much because at the end of the day it comes down to this: I do things in life to please myself, not to please you, pal. So if you think I'm uncool because I use Twitter or have a YouTube account or use Facebook rather than Bebo I'm really not fussed because as I said, I'm not doing any of it to please you.

Goodnight people, or goodbye depending on the time of day/night.

Chicken or the Egg?

The Egg.

Eggs have been around since dinosaurs existed so the egg came first. Unless people are talking about an egg which hatches into a chicken, in which case I'm not sure. But people don't really specify which kind of egg. It is logical to think people are talking about a chicken's egg, but they only ask about "the egg" which refers to eggs in general.

I actually found something interesting on Wikipedia which shows a few valid points about the argument with regards to what is regarded as "the egg". Here is is.

But what do you think?

Quick Question

Chicken or the Egg?

DISCUSS

Religion and how it is fucked up.

Religion is fucked up. And it is also full of flaws, as are religious people. Well not all religions are, but at least the most well known ones are.

I have noticed that a lot of Religions have a set of rules which people are encouraged to follow if they want to avoid a date with the Devil when they pop their clogs. They also have a list of things people shouldn't do to avoid this date as well. Here are a few examples.

In Christianity, in the Bible, I am sure that there is something which condemns homosexuality and says that homosexual people are sinners. It also says that you should not murder - which I agree with, for some people anyway - and that you should on the 7th day that people should rest and should not take part in any form of work or that you shouldn't use the Lords name in vain.

People who follow the religion of Islam are forbidden from drinking alcohol and taking part in sex before marriage. If you do and you want forgiveness you need to pray to God. Who doesn't exist.

So there I have presented you with a few examples of "laws" which religions have in place. If you don't stick with these laws you’re going to piss off the Big Chief and when you get to the Pearly Gates you better be saying your Hail Mary's.

But one thing confuses me, it shows complete idiocy and lack of logic and I really don't understand in the slightest. It's another question and one that I would like to present to some high up religious leader one day, just to see what his answer is. Here it is:

If God does not want people to do these things which are sinful, and wants people to follow his every rule then why the hell would he give us the ability to break these rules?

It defies logic! The guy is a bloody tool! I mean he can create a whole planet in 7 days so don't you think he could take maybe a few minutes of his time to make it impossible for people to do any of these things that make him so mad?

If anyone can answer my question then please, PLEASE do so. Because I am clueless as to why this great powerful man can't even take the time to perfect his planet and its people

Another thing has just popped into my head that also kind of proves the Bible is flawed. What the hell happened to the dinosaurs? I know we didn't know about them back then when the Bible was written but surely there would be some mention of them? I don't know what religious people say about dinosaurs but the fact that they existed and didn't get a mention in the bestselling book of all time is a bit disrespectful.

I mean Mr. T-Rex and his buddies didn’t really have a choice when that meteor hit the Earth a few years ago but it would have been nice to give them a little dedication in the bible. Maybe Jesus didn’t die on the cross but maybe he got his head chewed off by a Velociraptor. Shit I forgot, Jesus is a fictional character in a book.

I'm sure there are more flaws out there with Religion but I’m getting bored picking them out just now so I’ll leave you to go and do whatever you want now.

Lend a fellow blogger a hand?

Blogging isn't easy for me. I think the reason for this is that I can never find anything interesting to write about. I don't really want this to be a blog about my life where I give an account of what I do each day because that isn't very fun to write about. Perhaps I should write about something I am passionate about? Or something I feel strongly about? If anyone ever has any good ideas for a blog please let me know because I am truly out.

One thing I have noticed is that I like to change the colour and font of my posts a lot. It kind of makes up for the lack of a decent layout for my blog. I think I'm going to go look for one just now, gives me something to do and gives me time to think of something interesting to write about.