Arcade Fire

Live at the Barrowlands (Glasgow)

The gig can be downloaded at http://teawithtufty.blogspot.com/2007/03/blog-post.html

Whole gig at the top of the page and then individual tracks afterwards.

I think the Arcade Fire bug has finally bitten me, Wake Up has been stuck in my head since last night and I woke up this morning still singing it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEKC5pyOKFU

check this out if you like arcade fire…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceWc-JJpync

also i got this published in my college magazine recently and it’s gonna get published into a book of investigate stories by the end of the summer.

TOUTS ABOUT

Everybody detests them but touts have been around for a long time and are unlikely to disappear overnight by Paddy Murphy.

Anybody buying or selling tickets? Anyone got a spare ticket? as we approach the venue you can hear the mating call of ticket touts on a wet and blustery night in Dublin. A scalper approaches us as we get closer to the front doors of the Olympia on Dame Street. Here buddy, he says, you looking to buy a ticket? I say no, but tell him I might be back later, first Im going to try and blag my way into see the Arcade Fire with my concert pass, otherwise known as my NUJ card.

Scalpers, touts, theyve got a bit of a bad reputation. Scumbags, I call them says my partner in crime tonight, Brendan Morgan, former journalism student in Griffith College, Its not fair I queued up for these tickets on release day and just because I havent got a credit card I cant get a ticket. Nobody seems to like the touts but the ticket buying public, be it for a match or concert, simply accept them as a fact of life. Our NUJ cards dont work, we didnt think they would, but well get in, well be cold and soaked by then but, so what, its Arcade Fire, theyll be worth it in the end.

Deputy Editor of Hotpress magazine Stuart Clark said in a recent article: Its the real fans who are suffering when tickets are soaked up by those who have no intention of going to the show themselves and are only interested in making a quick profit. Theres a real need for legislation to stamp out touting for good. Hotpress recently started their Out a tout campaign with some success. While researching their articles they contacted Ticketmaster about people reselling tickets on eBay and had them cancelled. Sounds good but is it making any difference?

So what drives a tout? Is there really much money to be made doing it? Whats the law on the issue? I go onto eBay and surfed around for some up coming concerts and sports events. Arctic Monkeys tickets are going for about 85 each, face value 49.20, Ireland versus Slovakia in Croke are fetching up to 100, face value starting at 55, two tickets for the Rolling Stones at Slane are on sale for 575, which at the time of writing are not even on sale yet!. It seems that nothing much is actually been done.
I contacted Ticketmaster to ask them some questions; their customer services department directed me to their P.R man, former award-winning environmental correspondent and music critic for Independent Newspapers Tony OBrien. I emailed him and he responded sharply with two official press releases and answers to some of my own questions. The official Ticketmaster line on touts, according to managing director Eamonn OConnor is: We are determined to beat the touts and where we find tickets being resold for inflated prices on outlets such as eBay we will cancel those tickets where we can. I asked Mr. OBrien if the police are doing anything about the touts but he said that is a matter for them to answer. I also asked him would stopping the sale of concert tickets online help get rid of touts, I ask this because I refuse point blank to get a credit card, ever, and because of this I always have to queue up for tickets usually with disappointing results, hence the standing in the wind and rain for the Arcade Fire. He says that no it wouldnt stop the touts and queues outside shops have posed health and safety issues in the past.

Thats fair enough, I suppose, but on a personal note I think its quite unfair that Ill queue for a couple of hours for tickets that sell out in four minutes on the internet and then I end up paying 300 for two tickets from eBay later on, with somebody elses credit card; Pearl Jam last August, although it was worth every red penny.

I also contacted Aiken for some quotes but they werent bothered replying, even after two emails and three phone calls. In fairness to MCD and Ticketmaster it looks like they are at least trying to do something, however Aiken dont seem to have any official statements available.

Next to the actual touts, scalpers, whatever you want to call them. After more searching on eBay and on www.gumtree.ie I found some people who were only to glad to answer a few questions. Bob Davis from Dublin and Anne Davitt from Kildare were the best of the replies, not their real names obviously. Most people I contacted responded in a friendly manner but some did not want to answer any questions in case it would ever come back on them. Thats fair enough, some of the people I emailed, who prefer the term resellers to touts, could stand to loose a fair bit of money if Ticketmaster cancelled the tickets they were reselling.

Anne had some spare tickets for Justin Timberlake on Saturday 30th June, something has come up and she cant go. Anne says shes just looking to get the face value back but she reckons that shell made a few extra bob from reselling the tickets. Anne also says that she has a problem with Ticketmaster; she bought her tickets hoping to go on the Saturday but now wants to go on the Sunday, however Ticketmaster dont let you swap tickets for different dates, and she says if she was the boss she would let fans do that. What about eBay and other sites where you can obtain tickets? Annes got no problem with these, she says if she likes a singer/group enough shell pay whatever she can afford to see them live. I know exactly what she means.

Bob Davis from Dublin got into reselling tickets a few years ago when he had two tickets for a WWE event in the Point Depot but couldnt go, he put his tickets on eBay and more than doubled his money, he says you could make a lot of money from reselling tickets but youd need a lot of capital to begin with and be willing to take a few risks. Bob sounds suspiciously like the entrepreneur type to me. Is he a so called real fan of music? Does he actually go to many or any gigs?

His first concert was way back in 1985, Monsters of Rock, Donnington, thats some way to pop your concert cherry! The line up included Bon Jovi, Metallica and headliners ZZ Top, hes camped out overnight for tickets for big rock concerts in both the UK and Ireland when you could still buy tickets from shops instead of over the internet. Currently in the UK the reselling of tickets, above face value, to football games has been made illegal, and the government is coming under increased pressure to make the reselling of all tickets to all events, above face value, illegal. Bob says Touting shouldnt be made illegal Touts do provide a service, if a gig went on sale and only genuine fans bought tickets but you didnt then you would not, under any circumstances be able to attend that gig, touts give you that option of attending a gig if you dont have a ticket.

In the UK, for the Glastonbury festival ticket buyers must present a form of ID at the point of entry to prove its their name on the ticket. I asked Tony OBrien and Bob Davis what they think of this. Tony says Ticketmaster are monitoring the Glastonbury situation, while Bob says Glastonburys shite and for hippies, one long haired hippy looks the same as the next so photos may be a problem!
Im still not satisfied that enough is being done so I keep searching the internet, whod have known that the internet was so full of so many useless and time consuming website? Then, as beautiful and as inspiring as a Jimmy Page guitar solo, I come across a small website, StopTout.com. Its the brainchild of Gary Taylor and it gives the chance to fans to swap or buy tickets at face value. Heres how it works. StopTout.com runs its own online auctions with a difference, instead of bidding money to buy a ticket, members bid for the right to buy a ticket at face value using our online currency called Etix. Etix are StopTout.coms own unique trade marked online currency, which rewards fans for selling their tickets at face value. Thats sounds great but StopTout.com unfortunately has only 1688 registered members, but this doesnt bother Gary I felt that if we set up an online community where everyone sold their tickets at face value, less people would bid at auctions and this would also help to bring down the auction prices on sites like eBay.

Now Im happy, this sounds like a really great idea where genuine fans will resell to other genuine fans, its free and all you have to do is register your name and a few details, maybe, hopefully, somebody will set one up for Ireland too.

Maybe I couldve gotten two Arcade fire tickets there. While standing outside we heard it through the grapevine that supporting them was Patrick Wolf, we decide hes a bit too Adam Ant for us and we head to the nearest pub for a hot whiskey and well come back in a while. Wed been offered some tickets but they were ranging in price from 150 to 250, we knew all wed have to do is bide our time. So we have a couple of drinks and head back down at nine fifteen, bands usually come on stage in the Olympia for about nine so we might get the last of the touts selling the last of the tickets.

Success! Eventually we get some tickets for 60 each at a quarter to ten. I tell the tout Im writing a piece on people such as himself but he shows no interest so I dont bother to ask him what drives him in his profession, or why he started it in the first place or what he thinks about the fan who cant get a ticket for a band they truly love. As we walk into the venue its deceptively quite and theres no band on stage, whats going on? Have we missed them? Rip off of the century Im thinking, but no were told by some friendly, fairly intoxicated fans from Sligo that the band havent even taken the stage yet.

Gift I think, two tickets for only 60 each and well get to see the whole show. Nobody likes touts, thats for sure, but when they provide a service like this then Ill probably be back. A friend of mine told me a few days ago that buying tickets off a tout is like sleeping with your second cousin; its not illegal, it can be fun but its still not quite right. I dont mind, I only paid an extra 10.50 for the ticket than the original price and the concert blew me away, for proof check out YouTube and enter Olympia and Arcade Fire into the search bar.

Look forward to reading this later spud after I go win a football match for thefreekick.com.

‘A friend of mine told me a few days ago that buying tickets off a tout is like sleeping with your second cousin; its not illegal, it can be fun but its still not quite right.’

Coming from where you do are you sure you didn’t say this yourself spud?

Good read there. I like the Glastonbury idea for this year with the ID at the gate. Would seem simple enough to enact it over here too.

I fooking detest touts. They are scum.