"All over the world they call me Prince, but you can call me Mr. Goodnight"It is nothing new that Prince doesn't know how to control big projects. It became very obvious during the so-called "Crystal Ball" disaster where he took orders from thousands of fans and had his employees use post-it notes to manage the order process which - not surprisingly - ended in complete chaos. Now he has demonstrated his lack of ability to manage big projects once again. More than 2 months - TWO MONTHS - ago he started selling tickets through TicketMaster and SeeTickets for his 21 upcoming shows in London. To my knowledge no tickets have been received by the fans today July 21 (although TicketMaster now seem to be preparing them for dispatch...) The first shows starts on August 1. The fans are quite nervous since they don't know if they will receive their tickets in time for the shows. It is possible to change the order so you can pick them up at the venue, but if 21.000 people do that it will turn into a riot and last all day. One word pops into mind in flashing neon lights: DILETTANTE. As if this wasn't enough, I'm afraid it gets even worse. They started selling the best seats to O2 customers first. Then they opened for the general public with the best seats being sold as VIP packages at £ 235. Then they started selling another bunch of the best seats as auctions. Now as an action to really piss off the loyal fanbase they have relaunched the NPGMC where you as a member can buy yet another bunch of best seats. What the hell are they trying to do?! Do they want every fan to buy multiple tickets for each show? In what sick mind does it not seem logical to sell the fan tickets first before you release tickets to the general public? This has made a high percentage of the fanbase extremely angry and with very good reason. As I see it, Prince simply takes a piss right in the face of his most loyal fans. It is totally unheard of and in my view it even tops the before mentioned "Crystal Ball" disaster. It remains a fact that Prince is a fucking jerk when it comes to managing big projects. Goodnight Prince. You cannot possibly have been awake during this project.The fansite housequake.com writes about the chaos and disorder in the Prince camp.UPDATE - July 24th: It seems that many tickets are now despatched from TicketMaster and SeeTickets. However VIP tickets are still not released. UPDATE - August 9th: I guess most fans got/get their tickets one way or another. But it surely could have been handled a hell of a lot smoother. Latest addition to the milking of fans is now "Purple Seats" (closest to the stage). These seats are for most concerts reserved for jerks in suits that are somehow important? For tomorrow AEG has released a bunch of these via Ticketmaster for £250!! They are really fucking with the Prince fan base here. I just got almost as great seats yesterday in section C2 front for £31 each. (Except a little champagne and a sausage roll.) This has to be the worst ticket handling ever and I believe a large number of fans are furious as hell. I'm flying to London tomorrow, and I'll enjoy the gigs for sure, but damn this is a black spot on Prince's image, no matter how responsibility is distributed between him and the promoters AEG.
Content Type: Music Comment
Language: 
Updated: 2007-08-09 21:33
Created: 2007-07-21 22:26
