Below is a copy of the letter that I have sent to SeeTickets, Gaming International Ltd (owners of MK Bowl) and Sony Music Entertainment UK (record label of the Foo Fighters) regarding the shambolic Foo Fighters gig on Sunday 3rd July 2011.
I’ll keep you posted, and see what happens.
SEE GROUP LIMITED 2nd Floor, Norfolk House 47 Upper Parliament Street Nottingham NG1 2AB 5th July 2011
To whom it may concern,
I bought 2 tickets (ticket #: AA12345 and AA54321) to the 3rd July 2011 performance of the Foo Fighters at the Milton Keynes back on the 3rd November 2010 using the O2 Priority service, a day earlier than general release. Despite, being logged on some time before the 09:00 release of tickets, by the time I got through the queue all of the Saturday tickets had been sold.
Knowing the uncertainty of live music I was apprehensive as to whether I should proceed. However, due to the advertised door open time of 14:00 on SeeTickets.com and 13:30 on FooFighters.com, I expected a warm up act or two with the Foo Fighters coming on around 17:00 for an 20:00 finish.
Given the 3 hour travel time to Milton Keynes from Norwich, I expected my partner and I to return at home at a reasonable time such that we could attend work the next day at 07:00.
As it turned out, we arrived at 14:00 to spend a non-advertised £7 on parking (ticket #: 1234) before having to walk 2 miles to the MK Bowl. We then preceded to sit in the MK Bowl for 2 hours and nothing happened. Nothing at all. No music at all.
It was at this time when discussing our frustration with another music event go-er that we were interrupted by a Milton Keynes local stood behind us who informed us that there were no less than 4 warm-up acts, with the music not even being planned to start before 16:30 to 17:00. When we asked where he got this information, he replied that it had only been in a local newspaper
At this point another woman behind us added, that she had a “camping ticket” in which the event organisers had arranged for a series of coaches to ferry people between the MK Bowl and the campsite. She informed us that the buses were booked for between 01:00 and 02:00.
Clearly, there was no intention of the Foo Fighters coming on until at least 22:00 or 23:00 and playing until gone midnight. If we include time to get out of the venue (~15 min), the 2 mile walk back to the car park (~30 min), trying to get out of the car park (
30 min), plus journey time to Norwich (3 hours) using the optimistic 01:00 finish, we would not have returned home before 05:00 to be up at 06:00 for work at 07:00.As a result, my partner and I decided to cut our loses and left the venue at 17:00 having been in Milton Keynes for 3 hours and HEARD ABSOLUTELY NO MUSIC.
Quite frankly I am disgusted that the advertised time had absolutely nothing to do with when the music would start, and was somewhere in the region of 9 hours from when the billed act were to perform.
Had I known such was the state of affairs I would have never had bought the tickets in the first place. As a result I find myself in a position where I shall be boycotting all of your future products and shall be advising others to be doing the same.
Yours faithfully,
Morgan Bye
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