leonardcohenforum.com

....but, of course! (you must realise I'm running on automatic pilot, tonight).

Cilbo wrote:I was incredibly lucky to get seats in the front row.
However, I am at the very far right, seats 49 and 50.
Does anyone know if there will be speakers or anything obstructing the view? I know lots of you often get front row seats, and I wondered if anyone has experience of this.
I know how lucky I have been - and I'm certainly not complaining - but I would be grateful to hear from someone who knows.
In Stuttgart I bought a front row seat from a member of the forum, and the stage was really badly organinsed, with big boxes and speakers in the way, and it's made me wary!
Hope someone can help.

Cilbo,
I have just returned from the London, Ontario show where our seats were on the far side of Stage left. We had a view of Alexandru's side and mostly Mitch's back. Thankfully, we were able to observe Javier's virtuosity and had a great view of everyone else. This was an arena and the stage was about the average height of a woman. There was equipment placed at equal intervals across the front, none higher than the stage.

My only concern were the speakers to our right (the same as at the other end), not because of the height (they were one to two feet higher than the stage and it looks like they were placed so that they did not obstruct anyone's view), but because the volume might be too loud sitting that close to them. I was worried for no reason. From where we sat, the sound was perfection. They are indeed the 'quietest rock band in the world'.

I think that the crew is aware of any potential problems that may affect the audience and really do strive to take care of them.

Best regards,
Mary

Cilbo, you were so lucky to get seats in the front row! I was in front of my computer at 9 am (well, 10 am here as I live in France), didn't even notice where my seats were, clicked to pay but because my bank operates a verified card scheme, the transaction was delayed while I waited for the automatic telephone call. Which didn't come because after some time I realised that when I moved a couple of months ago I hadn't changed my telephone number with the bank. I then got on to the bank website and changed it, then tried again, still no telephone call. Called my bank who told me it would take a day to change!!! In desperation I called my sister in the UK and used her credit card details. But by this time it was 11 am here so that meant I got seats in 101 row L. I was hoping for better but I'm just pleased to have the opportunity to attend another LC concert and I know I'll love it even if the seats aren't as good as I would have wished for.
BTW, got an email from AEG yesterday inviting me to click as of 9 am UK time today to buy pre-sale tickets. Wonder if they would have been any better having read all the comments on this forum about the dubious behaviour of ticket sellers.

PS Forgot to say thank you to Jarkko for arranging the pre-sale.

I've just had an email from AEG - they are releasing some tickets today. I've just had a bash - there's some in A3, but the ticket selection system is a bit irritating. You get offered the best tickets available, but if you don't want them, you have to wait in the 'waiting room' to have another go. See what you think - you might get lucky.

I've just tried AEG and the best they offered me was 102 row Z but I did ask for three seats! So no regrets over 101 row L.

Cilbo, I've just been on to the O2 website and it states that the O2 arena has been designed to have perfect sight-lines from every angle of the venue. So, enjoy!

Just typed in LC Tickets on Google. Interesting that you can buy tickets NOW from almost any seller. They are all offering seats IN ALL PARTS of the 02, take your pick. The prices are marginally more than the real price BUT they wanted £70 handling fee.
So does this pre- buying for us real fans mean anything at all? Why are these seats available elsewhere but not for us?
I hope you all enjoy the concert but I am not going to be blackmailed into seeing Leonard and I hope at some point he may get to know what is happening.

It seems to me like the floor area is much smaller that the Wembley's. Is that right?

Cilbo wrote:In Stuttgart I bought a front row seat from a member of the forum, and the stage was really badly organinsed, with big boxes and speakers in the way, and it's made me wary!

Usually there are two cameramen between the stage and the audience, recording for the screens. They might block the view for a while time to time. Sure it can be a bit annoying but first row has a special level of intimacy which makes it worth it.
Eva

Yiannis - O2 is almost twice as big as Wembley Arena. I think Wembley holds up to 11500 people and O2 can hold up to 20,000. From memory the arena area at 02 -is twice as long as Wembley.

Cilbo - I would not say that front row, at the side is either good for sound or vision in any venue (I can't remember how high the stage is at O2). No side seats in the front few rows are particularly good. Better to be more central, further back. If you manage to get better seats, you would probably not find it too hard to sell front row seats at the side (just because it's front row).

Some people here still don't seem to realise that presales don't necessarily offer the best seats (especially when they're widely advertised presales). AEG's presale for O2 was probably the worst Leonard presale to date.

By the way I see that there is an announcement of a new (presumably) European show, here tomorrow at 10.AM CET - one hour after the official O2 sale starts. It would be ironic if there were great seats for somewhere nice like Paris, after people have forked out for the bloody O2!

John Etherington wrote:It would be ironic if there were great seats for somewhere nice like Paris, after people have forked out for the bloody O2!

Exactly what I'm waiting for!!!

Joy

I think I've sussed the promoters game plan,already...They've put O2 up first, as it's the least popular venue, but want to get it filled up as much as possible; tomorrow they will probably announce Paris which is appealing, but obviously more expensive than the U.K. Soon after this, I expect they'll release a whole string of UK shows prior to the London show, in reverse order, so that those who like to go to first concerts in the U.K. will have to book for every one (assuming they're that obsessive or rich)!

John Etherington wrote:
I think I've sussed the promoters game plan,already...They've put O2 up first, as it's the least popular venue, but want to get it filled up as much as possible; tomorrow they will probably announce Paris which is appealing, but obviously more expensive than the U.K. Soon after this, I expect they'll release a whole string of UK shows prior to the London show, in reverse order, so that those who like to go to first concerts in the U.K. will have to book for every one (assuming they're that obsessive or rich)!

John,

Ah, so cynical, for one so young.....

But probably spot on!

I have said this before but AEG are very clever at selling LC tickets: they know many fans will attend several shows so they never release the full tour schedule in one go even when they have it. Almost every other touring artist has their tour schedule released when all the dates are final and not before.
I think you would have to be naive to believe that LC himself does not support this approach.

LHHUNTER wrote:I have said this before but AEG are very clever at selling LC tickets: they know many fans will attend several shows so they never release the full tour schedule in one go even when they have it. Almost every other touring artist has their tour schedule released when all the dates are final and not before.
I think you would have to be naive to believe that LC himself does not support this approach.

Interesting comment. Way back in 2008, both the Summer and Winter tours were announced as complete packages - all dates, in order. We had much the same thing of course for the 2012 legs of the Old Ideas tours - one announcement with all dates, though there were some changes and additions to the European dates.

However, in 2009 we were waiting for an announcement of the full tour from AEG via Jarkko on the forum when local promoters started to put individual shows on sale. The two German shows on July 1 & 2, 2009 spring to mind. Local forum members found these shows and told the rest of us via the forum. I remember some debate followed about whether we wanted to wait for a full announcement or whether we wanted to have details of individual shows as they were confirmed. The general consensus was that people wanted to know about individual shows just as soon as they were confirmed.

AEG are on a hiding to nothing in Europe as they are dealing with different local promoters in each country over whom they have very little control. The local promoters want to put their own tickets on sale just as soon as they have signed the contracts, which is what happened in Germany in 2009 for example. Contrast the situation in the US and Canada, where AEG are the sole promoter and have control over the schedule and on sale dates. The only additions to the schedule were new shows in existing locations, not new locations, and most of those were entirely predictable by looking at the tour schedule.

I am not trying to defend AEG per se but I don't think they are anything like as Machiavellian as you are suggesting.

Wendy