Clearwater and a clear fiasco!

Another ticket fiasco! Clearwater this time.

MeatLoaf.net announced that their tickets were going on sale today so I wandered over to the AOL presale page and they went on sale there yesterday! I received no notification and they certainly weren't on sale there when I looked early yesterday.

I couldn't get in touch with the friend I'm going to that concert with so I decided to go ahead and book it. The closest I could get was row H and then it wouldn't accept my debit card!! (TicketMaster is funny like that as they accept it on the phone but not always online although sometimes they do.) As I was going out to work I just e-mailed my friend and left it at that.

When I got in she rang to say that she's got us both a Gold Package. It's cost $150 (whereas the face vale of the tickets was about $70) but we have a $35 merchandise voucher included and are guaranteed seats between rows 2 and 15. As she booked it as soon as the link went live and hopefully there won't be too many fan club members going to that concert, I think we should get good seats!

US Tickets go on presale

Most of the US concerts went on presale today (not my 4 though).

This whole Internet presale thing today for the US tour tickets was surprising. To start with it was an AOL presale but anyone who knew the link could buy tickets - you didn't have to be on an AOL browser.

Out of interest, I went online as soon as the link became live and for one ticket I could get a seat in the following rows:
NYC - Row 5 for first night
NYC - Row 13 for the second night
NYC - Row 3 for the third night
Atlantic City - Row 20
Uncasville - Row 11
Darien Lake - Row 5
Boston - Row 6
Saratoga - Row 3
Cleveland - Row 3

Most of these were in the centre block but if I could have only got row 13 in NYC who has bought the front 12 rows?!! (Obviously at somewhere like Atlantic City which is a casino, their high rollers get the best seats.)

Meat Loaf held an online chat tonight - the most interesting (and disappointing) thing for me was that they will only be playing for an hour and 45 minutes at each show (this is despite people paying up to $250 for seats in Liverpool and $400 for platinum packages!).

The promoters are also holding a couple of really tacky promotions which will cut into the concert time at the US concerts. At each concert a fan will introduce Meat Loaf and then count the band into the first song and (even worse!) at some concerts, radio stations are holding "auditions" for a boy and a girl to go on stage and sing with Meat Loaf! Yeuck!

Kasim to play solo gig!

Kasim posted a message to his mailing list today where he mentions possibly playing "at least one" solo gig while he is in UK! Once that (or they) are confirmed then I can start making my tour travel plans! A friend of mine alraedy has all her flights and hotels booked.

Tour Tally

I've just had a count up and (other than if they add any more dates) I'm going to 22 of the Meat Loaf Summer 2005 Tour concerts so that's something I'm really looking forward to! I've also received a £300 unexpected bonus from a client I've just completed a contract for so that will help pay for my flight to US!

I'm glad to see that they are "pacing" the concerts in Europe (they are mainly playing at the weekends) but it concerns me rather about the pace of concerts in the US as, other than a week off, they are playing every other day. Considering the distances involved between the cities, this is not going to be an easy tour out there. If you scroll down to June to September on http://www.kasiminfo.com/2005.html you can see how the concerts pan out over each week as that page is in a calendar format.

I've still not had THE phone call from TicketMaster yet (but I'm sure it's coming). Certainly my friends seem to keep thinking it will as I've received a few phone calls and texts asking if I have yet!

Bad News about Tickets all round

Today two of my friends had phone calls from TicketMaster to say that their seats at Chatsworth have been moved from Row A to Row G - SEVEN rows back!! One of them has also been moved from Row A at Warwick Castle to Row C (but a block further along, closer to Kasim). I'm still waiting for my call, as I'm sure it will come.

"My" 4 US concerts haven't gone on sale yet but looking at the ML.net site, unless I want to pay for the $400 package, I may well end up with crappy seats, especially as two of "my" venues are casinos so their high-rollers will get the best seats anyway!

This is the blurb about tickets that I wrote on KI.com:
Tickets go on sale online today for some of the US Meat Loaf concerts that Kasim will be playing this summer. These tickets are presales through Meat Loaf's official fan club at MeatLoaf.net. Membership of the fan club is $40 for a year. Fan club members then have a choice of 3 ticket packages to purchase in addition. Each package is the price for one ticket per concert:
Bronze - $12 plus the ticket price (for example at the Beacon Theater in New York the total price is $90.50 which includes the ticket price of $78.50). This package guarantees being able to purchase a ticket somewhere in the venue and expires on 1st April. No indication is made about where the seat will be and it may be possible to buy a closer seat when tickets go on sale through ticketing agencies (although you save the ticket agency fees with this package).
Gold - $150. This package guarantees a seat within row 2 to 15 (plus extras which are geared towards fans of Meat Loaf including a chance to possibly meet him). This option at each venue expires on 7th July and fans will be told after that date where exactly their seat will be located.
Platinum - $400. This package guarantees a seat within the first or second row (plus extras which are geared towards fans of Meat Loaf including a meet and greet with him). This option at each venue expires on 7th July and fans will be told after that date where exactly their seat will be located.
Tickets for the Toronto, Mt. Pleasant, Robinsonville, Clearwater, Hollywood and Biloxi venues are not going on sale today but most of the other presales commence at noon and are being dealt with by a "first come, first served" process within each ticket package.

US Tour Dates Announced

The US tour schedule was announced today...or at least part of it! I'm just really glad that they announced a lot of the dates and it wasn't done piecemeal so I can decide where I want to see. Unfortunately the 3 areas of US that I still want to visit (Mount Rushmore, Texas and Memphis) aren't included but I think I know where I'm going! Now I just hope that it's easy enough to get decent tickets....

More tickets and Scandal Souvenir

Four of my German tickets arrived today! A friend bought them for me and now they're safely on my (ever-increasing!) pile of concert tickets! They are:

Hannover - 3rd June - with Juli, Melanie C and Lunik (14.45 Euros)

Munich - 22nd June - with "Special Guest" (38.95 Euros)

Rastatt - 24th June - with Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, plus "Special Guest" (42.70 Euros)

Mainz - 25th June (40.00 Euros)

Wouldn't it be great if this "Special Guest" was Kasim playing an opening set?!!

I also received today an amazing tour souvenir from the Patty Smyth and Scandal Tour! It's a lovely photo of Patty with her arm across Kasim's shoulder, facing him and them both singing together and it's been signed to me from them both!! I'm not a great autograph hunter so I don't have too much that's been signed by Kasim so this makes it even more special to me!

Liverpool Ticket arrives

My ticket for the second Liverpool concert arrived today - at least that's one that TicketMaster can't change now!!

Strange that we're still waiting for the first Liverpool concert that was booked 3 weeks earlier!

When is Row A not Row A?

Answer: When it's booked through TicketMaster!!!

We booked Row A seats for the Leeds Castle concert through TicketMaster on the day they went on sale and I have a confirmation e-mail from TicketMaster to say that we have Row A seats 21 to 23.

Now, 2 weeks later, TicketMaster ring to say that they never received an allocation of Row A seats so we have been moved to Row C!!

For me, I feel more comfortable in Row B or C anyway (providing that someone who is over 6 feet tall isn't standing in front of me) but it certainly makes a mockery of their confirmation e-mails and this "tickets can not be exchanged or refunded" policy.

I just hope that they don't change all my other front row seats too.....

2nd Liverpool Concert

Tickets went on sale for the second Liverpool gig today and it was more straight forward than for the first gig there! However at 8.00am a friend rang to say that she was being told by TicketMaster that the closest non-VIP seats to the front were the single letters again which we KNOW isn't the case as they are in the second block back. TicketMaster were again using a different seating plan which showed the VIP section as only being in the centre block!

I logged online at 9.00am and managed to get a seat on Kasim's side in row GG which is the first row directly (no walkway) behind the last row of the VIP section. So, for being about 3 foot further back than row FF, I've saved myself £130 ($200)! And I don't like being right at the front much anyway.

Chatsworth House seating plan

I'm in Block 3 row A!

Warwick Castle seating plan

I'm in Block 2 - Row A!!! It's not on Kasim's side of the stage but I'm sure that I'll be able to see him still okay!

Meat Loaf UK Tickets go on sale

What a nightmare / fiasco that was!

At 5.15am yesterday morning we were told that tickets would go on sale yesterday at 9.00am....they didn't!

We then received a letter to say that as we had used TicketLine to purchase tickets for the last tour, we could book a day in advance (today as opposed to Friday) but the telephone number they gave was just the general booking number!

I rang TicketLine at exactly 9.00am this morning and wasn't even asked for my details so obviously anybody could have rung at that time! As they didn't accept my debit card, I then rang TicketMaster and they just said that I could book tickets. Later someone posted that they booked using their priority booking number but in fact anyone could have booked! The tickets just don't go online until tomorrow.

By this time it was 9.01am and the guy told me that all the Gold Circle (reserved) seating for Leeds Castle had already been sold out!!! In a minute?!! This is Meat Loaf we're talking about! He said that he thought they may have gone on sale to "the fan club" yesterday. Other than if the Official Fan Club put all these aside (doubtful), I really wonder if some of the tout ticket agencies got first pickings?!!

I then asked about Warwick Castle and the best he could do for me was Row H! After one minute!!! I booked that as I was booking for 2 friends too but when he said that the best for Chatsworth House (all the others are General Admission) was Row S, I told him not to bother! I was not impressed.

Thankfully a friend sent me a link to somewhere online to buy tickets (at face value) and I managed to get front row seats for Leeds Castle, Warwick Castle and Chatsworth House so (eventually) I was quite happy!!

I now have 3 Row H seats available for Warwick Castle....!

The Beginning

For years I've kept a diary. This is my online diary about my trips to see Kasim.

At some point I may go back and add my "tour diaries" from previous tours but at the moment this is the start of my diary.

It's an exciting time coming up as there's a 4 month Meat Loaf tour later this year and rumours of a 30th Anniversary Utopia Tour next year.

Of course, my fingers are crossed that we'll have a Kasim solo tour sometime too!

I'm really writing this diary for (a) myself and (b) my friends but, as it's listed in the directory, I know that other people will hit it too so feel free to browse around! Just remember that this is the way that I choose to live part of my life - I don't make judgements on the way your live your life so kindly show me the same respect. After all, I'm out there doing it, you're only reading about it!