Rae Gee's Blog, page 11

My 2014

Or, how I can write about my year better than Facebook ever can!

January
Phew! Another year starts. New year, new me and all of that. At least one book due out this year.
February
Getting ready to release “The Eve of War”. On the downside, I had the first bout of a crippling ear infection.
March
First round of edits for “A Second Past Midnight” come in.
April
This happened:






May
“The Eve of War” is released! Yayyy!!
June
First draft of a new novel was finished.
July
Had a short story accepted for anti-love anthology “No Love Lost”.
August
This happened:




September
This happened:
https://www.facebook.com/foofamiluk

October
Started on the first draft of a screenplay and finished up the next round of edits on “A Second Past Midnight”.
November
“No More Touts” came to an end. While it didn’t have the ending that was expected, you never know what’s around the corner, nor what’s waiting in the wings. It did, however, bring about a lot of new friendships and exciting times!
December
“No Love Lost”published!
And Christmas! Time for a sit down and some time with friends and family. 
~~~ 
My Favourite  Blog Posts of 2014
Given to Live
No More Touts Master List
RIP Tom
Sound City Visit
Spirits of Las Vegas
~~~
Thank you all for an amazing year and I’m really looking forward to seeing some of you soon! Here’s to an incredible 2015 together!

Inspirational Interview - Given To Live

Christmas is a time of giving. Whether it's your time, your talents, or your money, Christmas is the season when we bless other people (although we should, admittedly, try and do it every day!). Given To Live are a project that embodies this spirit all year round by giving the gift of live music to those who may not ordinarily be able to experience it.

Recently I had the chance to chat to Given To Live's founder, Tom Pugh. Here's what he had to say. Hi Tom! Thanks for stopping by!



What was your background before you decided to start GTL?Prior to Given To Live I had been fundraising in various capacities direct for the charity or through fundraising organisations. I am also a qualified holistic massage therapist and am re-starting practising as it's both grounding and something that I enjoy on a soul level.

How long did it take to get from the initial idea to where you are now? Was anyone else involved in the initial set up? Do you have anyone working with you now or is it just you? What’s the process behind setting up a charity?It took five months from idea to start. I met someone who has a charity, Eudaimonia, that's purpose is to support projects to come into being. At the moment we are a project within a charity and have started taking the steps to become a charity in our own right. Currently I am alone with a few people who volunteer to help where they can and where necessary as they simply love the idea of what Given To Live is out to achieve.

How did Given To Live start and what inspired the idea? What’s the ethos behind the idea? And who’s eligible to take part?The idea came to me after a Pearl Jam show last November and initially I thought to help fellow PJ fans who couldn't make shows through illness and crisis, knowing if someone has invested to go to a show there can be significant financial loss. Then I thought if I'm going to do this it needs to be bigger. All live music and I use the term vulnerable and excluded as to who Given To Live support to give us the opportunity to help as many as possible. This can mean elderly with dementia, survivors of domestic abuse, young carers, disability, mental health issues and so much more. I think we, as a society, often overlook or forget about so many sections of our society and I want Given To Live to be inclusive.
Music is so powerful. So many people have their own stories of why a particular song or band means something to them. Often it's a band, an album, a song, that gets people through turbulent times. I know music has saved lives.
Going to a live show is a gift that I realised I took for granted when I could go. There have been times when I couldn't go when I have been struggling and it would have been just what I needed. I want Given To Live to make live music possible for everyone and it isn't. Whether the obstacle is mental health, physical disability or financial let's make this happen.

Given To Live have had some huge successes over the previous months. How did they come about and what are your thoughts on them?We have. The first step is receiving an application and then getting board approval. From there it comes down to sourcing tickets. The meet and greet aspect is a cherry on the top as our remit is to provide funding for tickets, transport and, if necessary, accommodation. To have meet and greets with both the Foo Fighters and Shane Filan was simply beyond my wildest expectations and I can't thank those who helped make these happen from the ground up enough. Fellow music fans with no investment other than wanting dreams to come true via social media through to management and the artists saying yes.


What inspires you to keep going?Easy question. The looks on the faces, the messages after saying how positive an impact has had. Scarlett's mum telling me her dream was to win the lottery so she could pay for Shane Filan to shake Scarlett's hand and knowing that evening we had made a mum's dream for her daughter come true as well as Scarlett's. The joy of those who helped make it happen. It's a very humbling and beautiful experience.

Recently you were involved in a campaign to help change the secondary ticketing market for live music. What are your thoughts on this and what changes would you like to see made to the live music industry? How can people on the street get involved?I'm 47 and remember buying tickets off touts in my younger days. I was brought up seeing my dad do this at football matches if we had no tickets so it was normal for me. And if someone wants to stand outside in the pouring rain, behaving shiftily with people mostly despising you and sell tickets I'm ok with that. There is always going to be someone who couldn't get a ticket for whatever reason and be willing to pay. It's a very old profession and it wouldn't surprise me if there were touts outside the Coliseum.
What really bothers me is now we have the internet touts are getting hold of so many tickets, bought by automated bots, that they can set the market and sell via the internet with no regulation. It means genuine fans have much less of a chance of getting tickets in a sale because up to 60% of tickets have been known to end up in the hands of touts and immediately the resale market becomes inflated. We know also some bands give tickets to touts to re-sell and that, for me, is simply fleecing your own fans.
A great campaign amongst Foo Fighters fans here in the UK happened on twitter #NoMoreTouts. This resulted in the Foo Fighters having their own #BeatTheBots where the initial onsale for their 2015 US tour was in person at the box office before there was an internet sale. This is something all bands could do. And this also bring in a sense of community that is also part of the live experience. The campaign can be found at www.foofightersuk.com
The government can also choose to regulate the secondary market. And it's as simple as that, a choice.

How can people get involved with Given To Live? And where can we find you online?We're at www.giventolive.com

There you can find out more, donate and make applications.
We're tiny right now. Not really known about so sharing us and liking us on facebook is great exposure, the same with twitter- the links are on our website. Talk about us, fundraise for us. Tell bands, managers, agents about us. If people want to be involved please contact us. I am grateful for all help and suggestions.

Finally, if you could change one thing to make the world a better place, what would it be?Due to my own personal experiences I truly believe if everyone went into weekly therapy and weekly bodywork for two years we would live in a much healthier and more conscious world. As a collective consciousness grew we would have less war, less greed, less environmental destruction. More compassion, more empathy, more joy.
So, two years weekly bodywork and therapy for everyone over the age of 14.
"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice -- determined to do the only thing you could do -- determined to save the only life you could save." Mary Oliver

Rae's Top 10 Christmas Videos 2014

And so it's that time of the year again when I post the Christmas videos that have made me smile, laugh, singalong, and cry. Expect songs, stories, adverts, and a couple of favourites that make the list every year. Enjoy!

















And the two that make it on to my list every year just for being awesome and/or cute!



This one doesn't need a video as it was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 1 so you can have it on Soundcloud! Night Before Christmas read by Dave Grohl.

No More Touts 6 - Music as Medicine

I promised I wouldn't write any more on this. But I'm going to because this really is something I'm passionate about because I'm a music lover first and a writer second.
On November 18th, the clock ran out on the Kickstarter No More Touts campaign. Many saw it as a failure. But, to many more, myself included, it wasn't the end but the beginning. Just moments after the campaign ended, the Foo Fighters came out with the name of their American tour: Beat The Bots. Going back to the old school, they had people queue at venues across the States to buy concert tickets. And it worked. Thousands upon thousands of tickets were snapped up by fans in an attempt to beat the computer programs that hoover up tickets.


Some people see music as a privilege and a luxury, something that should be restricted to those with money. It's one of the perceptions that symphony orchestras, ballets, and other musical events that are considered “high class” have been battling against for years. It may not be written into any constitution or human rights act, but music is a human right.
Why do I say that? Put your hand on your chest. Feel that? That's your heart beating. Music lives within all of us right from the moment we're conceived. It's not a privilege, nor is it a luxury. It's something that you live with right from the very first seconds of life. Music has the ability to heal, something that the Chinese have understood for many years. Their character for “Music” is incorporated into the one that means “Medicine”. The Chinese character for music also has a second meaning: delight and happiness. Music is being used the world over to help unlock the minds of dementia patients. Every human being has a “balance note”, a harmonic that they respond to and that helps to keep the body and mind healthy. When they feel happy, they listen to a lot of music with this frequency (which may explain why you listen to a song on repeat). When they feel sad, or ill, they'll search through their music until they find that frequency to help rebalance themselves. Many people, myself included, use music to help us get through tough times. Again, many of us can trace passages in our life through certain songs. Music is everywhere within ourselves and nature. Even the universe sings to us.
Yet, with all the evidence that's mounting, it's still believed that we should pay vast amounts of money for what was originally a reasonably priced concert ticket. Do I believe that music should be free? No, I just believe that it should be accessible to as many people as possible. The Foo Fighters have already done this with their latest album by releasing it on to You Tube, Spotify, and other easily accessible platforms. Even if someone couldn't afford the album they'd still be able to listen and get involved.
And bands are listening to fans voices and the No More Touts campaign. As well as the Foo Fighters, Slipknot have also looked into their tickets being on secondary sites. This isn't the end of a hard fought battle. It's just the beginning. And who knows what's going to be around the corner? Who knows what's going to happen tomorrow? Maybe, one day, music will be available on prescription just like books are. Do you have blind faith on something amazing still waiting to happen? Because I do. This is a battle that the fans and bands will win.
You can follow the campaign using the hashtag #nomoretouts.
Want to get involved? You can by signing the petition to get the government look at the secondary ticket market:http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70470
Keep in touch at:www.foofightersuk.com
Find the No More Touts master post here:http://veetu-industries.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/no-more-touts-master-list.html

No More Touts - The Master List

With just a few hours to go until we find out how effective the fan-funded No More Touts show has been, I thought it might be an idea to compile the five (yes, five!) blog posts I wrote on the subject into one large, master list post. Hopefully, with all of them on one page, it'll make it easier to read. Thank you so much to everyone who's shared these posts, emailed me, and invited me to be a part of their group. It's been an amazing few weeks and I can't wait to meet you all! You're all doing an amazing job and the awareness you've raised to not one, but several causes, is beyond measure. You have, undoubtedly, made history.  If you want to keep up with how the campaign is progressing, feel free to follow the hashtag #nomoretouts You can also find more information at:@foofamilyuk  www.foofightersuk.com   PART 1  Tickets go on sale for a high profile show only to sell out in minutes. Before you know it, those same tickets that, moments earlier, had probably been on sale for £50 are on resale websites for hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds more.Sound familiar? If you're a fan of music, theatre, sports, or anything else that requires ticketed entry then you may have had that experience of sitting online and waiting for tickets to go on sale only for there to be none when you finally manage to get to the site. That's if you get onto the site because, all too often, you'll be met with a blank page or a “403: Forbidden” page.The secondary ticket market is a huge problem in the UK. While other countries have regulations on resale of tickets, including how much the ticket can be marked up above the face value, the UK has little in the way of rules and laws. The only rule is that tickets to football matches and Olympic events can't be resold above their face value. Everything else is fair game for the secondary market, an industry that pulls in over £2,000,000,000 in profit every year.While most people probably wouldn't mind paying a little over the face value, in this day and age of austerity, being asked to pay upwards of £200 for a £50 ticket is ludicrous. Yet nothing is being done. Even a Channel 4 episode of Dispatches was ignored. The episode is viewable here:Until now.After seeing how well a fan-funded show worked in the States, a group in the UK decided to do something similar. The Foo Fighters have spoken in favour of fan-funded shows and against the secondary ticket market. They're not thinking of the money (of which little, if any, of the profit from the secondary market actually goes to the band). They're thinking of their own roots, of saving up for albums and tickets, of being stuck in the nosebleed seats. Their current TV series, Sonic Highways, highlights many of these points. However, the UK show would have a twist in that it would highlight the problems of the secondary ticketing market.And, for the second time in a few years, I found myself part of a perfect storm. Back in 2009/2010, I got involved in the “Rage For Christmas #1” campaign and was lucky enough to score tickets to their free show.In mid-September, I was sent the link to a fan-funded Foo Fighters show in Birmingham. After a couple of hours debating it, I pledged £300 for 6 tickets. Less than a week later, we watched as the total ticked over to the target of £150,000.So why did I do it? There's a number of reasons, one of them being that my mother regrets that they never took us to more concerts when we were younger. The reason? They were too expensive. So here was the perfect chance for my family and myself to see one of the world's biggest bands in a teeny-tiny venue.The other reasons? Like many people, I'm on a low wage so concert tickets are seen as a luxury. When you couple in travel, food, merchandise, and possibly accommodation, you're looking at hundreds of pounds.For some reason, despite being in the centre of the country, Birmingham is often overlooked by the bigger bands. Yes, we have some of the country's largest festivals all within driving distance but if you're not a festival person (like myself) then you often feel left out. Birmingham is also the closest city to me and I'd love to go and support their local economy instead of having to go to London or Manchester (Not that I don't like London and Manchester but Birmingham does have some redeeming qualities!).Often I'm at work and wind up missing out on tickets, leaving me at the mercy of the secondary ticket market. And I'd rather support the band than lining the pockets of the ticket touts. Foo Fighters fans in the US tragically got a taste of this when tickets to two shows (Wrigley Field for next year and a Nashville show last night) were sold in a record amount of time. Many of them, including non-transferable ones for the Nashville show, were being sold for astronomical amounts on secondary sites (ones for Nashville were originally on sale for $20 and wound up going for hundreds more). The band had the scalped tickets for the Nashville show cancelled and resold at their original value.And the most important reason I'm supporting this – the ticket touts. I know that people will talk about capitalism and supply and demand, but why should that come at the cost of the fans? Why should the fans have to pay hundreds and thousands of pounds over the odds for seats? Seats which sometimes turn out to be fake, even when they've come from one of the reputable secondary resellers? And why should the touts be allowed to hoover up the majority of the tickets for an event? Ticketmaster USA have admitted that 90% of their daily hits come through botnets hoovering up tickets for the secondary market. With those kinds of numbers, what chance do fans have of buying fairly priced tickets? Under UK law, the use of botnets is illegal.What I thought had started as a storm in a teacup has now become a perfect storm with foofightersuk.com and Birmingham at its eye. Radio stations are asking the band if they'll play the show. Fans across the Atlantic are approaching the band and flying banners in support of the fan-funded show at shows. It's a crazy idea and one that I'm so proud to be supporting. Knowing that there's others out there like myself makes me feel so much better. It's time for us to stand up for what we believe in and, while I don't think art should be free (Heck, part of my income comes from writing) I do think it should be fairly priced and affordable. And it most certainly shouldn't come at the cost of either the artists or the fans. 

Will this show happen? Well, we'll find out some time around November 17th.  PART 2 - THE VICTIMS
In the wake of the original No More Touts post, I had an email from one of my friends who bought tickets to the Foo Fighters Halloween show in Nashville from a secondary seller. She had the unfortunate experience of not knowing that the scalped tickets had been cancelled, leaving her out on the street after a 200+ mile journey. While some people received phone calls to say that their tickets had been cancelled, my friend wasn't so lucky. She agreed to talk to me for this blog.- How much were the original tickets and how much did you pay for them from Ticketnetwork? Originally, $20 plus fees, so maybe $30. I paid $221.40 through TicketNetwork- How far did you travel to the show?  3 1/2 hour drive, roughly 210 miles each way- When did you find out the tickets had been cancelled? I had heard rumors that they had been cancelled, and even called the Ryman, but didn't know for sure until the night of the show, when I saw on a sign that no tickets bought with gift cards would be honored.- How large of a group were left without tickets? Not sure. I know several of us who were in line had gotten "taken". - Did you try getting tickets through Ticketmaster? Yes, I tried for 35 minutes straight, using 2 computers and a cell phone when they went on sale. I had even pre-registered and had my info ready. I pulled up the Ticketmaster site at least an hour early, in case I got stuck in waiting room hell (like with Wrigley)- How do you feel in the wake of all of this? Like an idiot. Very disappointed. I wanted to see these guys SO BAD (have yet to see them live). Since I really do nothing else, going to the occasional concert would be awesome.- Anything else you want to add? Yes. #1 Originally, I was very happy when I found out that I could get tix online, because I don't have anyone in Nashville who could go get in line for me. I even considered driving to the box office myself but it wasn't feasible. #2 I think that those of us who got bad tickets should've been given preference to buy a real ticket. I don't have a smart phone so I didn't know that the invalid tickets had been resold. Somebody got into the Ryman and sat in the seat I bought on the 29th. #3 I don't know what the answer to this clusterfuck is but SOMETHING needs to be done! I appreciate the Foos (obviously) trying to do something about it, though. #4 I have learned my lesson - unless I can get tix through the "approved" vendor, I'm not going. I can't afford to pay outrageous prices. As much as I love these guys, rent has to be paid, electric needs to be kept on and the cats need food. ~~~Recent reports show that the Rugby World Cup has suffered the same fate as many other high profile events. Despite the tickets being allocated through a lottery, they’re still turning up on secondary ticketing sites, sometimes for more than 2500% above face value. On top of that, despite laws in many US states restricting ticket scalping, Missouri actually turned against the tide and repelled their anti-ticketscalping laws back in 2007. The US secondary ticket market is estimated to be worth $5,000,000,000 annually and is forecast to grow by 12 percent every year. Things in the UK aren't looking any better. In a House of Commons document dated January 2014, Parliament decided not to legislate the secondary ticket market, instead asking that it continues to self-regulate. (PDF download: www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04715.pdf)Which is why the No More Touts campaign needed to be done. When the original ticket sellers and MP's are calling for regulations, you know it's getting serious. 
How can you help? There's a petition running to get government to take another look at regulating the secondary ticket market. You can sign it here:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70470  PART 3 - THE MUSICIANS
I decided to write a follow on from the No More Touts post I wrote a few days ago. Thanks to everyone who's read and shared it! I never realised it would ever go that far!
In the last post, we were talking about ticket touts and the fan-funded show from the perspective of the fans. We also talked about those who'd been the victims of ticket scalpers. I come from a musical family. It's not unusual to find jam sessions happening in our house. We have a small home studio. Our garage is holds the legacy that my parents started so many years ago. Cases packed with coiled cables stand beside tool boxes. Beneath a desk is a crate filled drum stands. A book case has become a leaning post for a guitar. Packets of strings and drumsticks are piled in a corner. The studio is so small that we've recorded drummers in bathrooms, singers in wardrobes, and guitarists out in the garden.  We call it "organised chaos".I rounded up a few of the passing musicians for beer and a chat about the secondary ticket market.
As musicians who are often paid to play shows, what are your views on ticket touts?
Ticket touts are pushing out the fans that have less money, turning concerts into exclusive events that only those with a higher percentage of disposable income can afford. Besides, why should fans pay over the odds for tickets that were cheap enough in the first place? Cheaper tickets mean that there are more people at a show. This is good for smaller and newer bands, especially if they’re the opener for a larger band.
Bands are being locked out of the industry because of the secondary market. Some of us also believe that touts are killing the music industry in some areas. The touts tend to target popular bands (supply and demand). Some bands may only visit a few cities and part of their reasoning for that may be because of the secondary market. They know that the more shows they play equals more tickets going to the secondary market. And bands have costs too. We have travel, food, accommodation, crew that we have to pay. Our costs aren’t anywhere near that of some of the larger bands but, as you know, the bigger the band the more overheads they’ve got to cover. Yes, if a show sells out, the band will get paid. But what happens if a venue is only filled to a fraction of its capacity? A lot of a band’s wages comes from merchandise. And even if the venue is full what happens if the majority of those people have bought their tickets through secondary sellers at an inflated cost? They now have less money to spend on the artist they’ve come to support.
This may sound greedy on the part of musicians, but we think that many people would prefer to be supporting the artists rather than the ticket touts making hundreds of pounds more for a ticket that may have originally only cost £40. We also want to see as many of you as possible at the shows, something that won’t happen if you’re being held to ransom by ticket touts. As musicians and concert goers ourselves, we're just as angry as you are. At the end of the day, we’re here for you. Our job is to make you happy and give you a good night out. And if you’re happy, then we’re happy!
~~~
Ticketmaster has admitted that between a fifth and ninety percent of daily ticket sales come from botnets. While the use of botnets is banned in the UK under section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, there's nothing to stop the secondary ticket sellers from using human power to grab hundreds of tickets using multiple credit cards and addresses. This was highlighted in Channel 4's Dispatches from 2012 (The Great Ticket Scandal). Also highlighted in the documentary were a number of other ways that the secondary ticket sellers are able to get hold of tickets. This includes the promoters, venues, and others within the industry.
Secondary ticketing regulations by country can be found on Wikipedia (not the best source, I know!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_resale  PART 4 - THE GOVERNMENT
It seems quite fitting to be talking about the government the day after Bonfire Night. Why won’t the government legislate the secondary ticket market? There could be a number of reasons why the government won’t bring in regulations. The ones I’ve come up with are pure speculation and based on my own observations.It could be that the government doesn’t believe regulation of the secondary ticket market is important enough. The idea has been debated several times in parliament and, in 2006, legislation surrounding the reselling of football and Olympic tickets was put into place. However, the government didn’t see other ticketed events in the same light.They also may believe that it’s not that serious a crime to warrant legislation.Government may believe that the secondary market already regulates itself enough. STAR (Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers) is a body formed within the UK to provide self-regulation within the theatre and event ticketing sales industry. Their aim to ensure fairness and openness in the sale of event tickets. Members are required to comply with a code of practice. Along with the guarantees that websites provide, as well as making it illegal for street touts to operate without a license, government may believe that they’ve already done enough and that little more can be done.However, these ideas don’t target the illegal sellers, many of whom operate through legal channels (ebay, Stubhub etc) or who set up ticketing websites for single events (as was seen with recent Take That and One Direction concerts. Love Money offers advice on spotting fake ticket websites.). The technology is in place to be able to find and track these people.The legal secondary ticket market is worth an estimated £2,000,000,000 a year and growing, which means the government will see some of that in taxes.The government could also see it as not their responsibility to regulate the secondary market. It could be that the government want the market themselves to bring in the control measures that are needed (i.e. photo ID to be shown at entry to an event). However, unscrupulous sellers can easily bypass some of these control measures (There’s already been reports of people reselling multiple copies of a pair of PDF tickets to an ALT-J concert, meaning that once one pair had been scanned everyone else was left outside and out of pocket). There is a call for photos to be printed on tickets, something that has worked well for Glastonbury. Measures would have to be put in place for people who found themselves unable to attend. Again, the technology is in place to do this.BBC News on how ticket scams are costing fans millions every year.
PART 5 - MY FINAL WORDS

Okay, one last post before November 17th.* This is me talking. No more statistics, no more news stories, no more analysing. This is just you and me chatting over a beer.A few days ago, I wrote a post that I thought might interest some of the few people who pass by this site. Never in a million years did I think that those words would go as crazy as they did. For those not in the know, cycle back to November 1st and read a post titled No More Touts. You see, I wrote that original post out of anger. I'd seen some of the negativity that surrounded the whole No More Touts campaign. And it stung. Really, really stung. Heck, on September 19th 2014, I was an outsider looking in, a passing music lover who'd seen a good idea and decided to support it. The fact that the idea spoke to me on so many levels certainly helped. And here were people picking apart what was being done. To see so much spite and negativity levelled towards people who were doing something to change the industry really hurt me. Yet I know from experience that you can't reason with haters. On top of that, one of my pet hates is to see hatred thrown at people who are just trying to do some good in a world that's already ravaged by darkness (I'm also a firm believer in "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".).In the original post, I mentioned that I'd been a part of the “Rage for Christmas #1” campaign. Like the No More Touts one, it was a grass roots effort that took off. Even if the song hadn't reached number one and even if the band hadn't played the show (again, they were under no obligation to do so but did it out of the goodness of their hearts) the Rage campaign did something amazing.It raised over £162,000for Shelter, the UK's homeless charity. Even now people still donate in the Rage campaign's name.I noticed, while reading up on the No More Touts campaign, that the people behind it also support a charity (I've also noticed they've been writing about this too in the past few days. Hi, guys!). Given to Live makes it possible for people who are vulnerable or feel excluded to go to live music events. So far, they've had a lot of success, including the Invictus Games back in September.So, if you burrow a little deeper and don't take everything at face value, you discover a deeper, more beautiful meaning to this. Even if the band don't play, this campaign has taken the issue of ticket touts to some of the biggest powers in the music industry. People are sitting up and listening. It's making headline news again and again. People know that there's something going on and revolutions don't start overnight. Most of all it's doing something good by giving others the chance to experience what many of us take for granted.The music connects us, let's not forget that. We're all coming from nothing here and, through this, the world can be changed for the better.And I've met a bunch of awesome and very cool people through it!“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” -John Bingham *Maybe. There may be more.
 

No More Touts Part 5 - My Final Words

Okay, one last post before November 17th.* This is me talking. No more statistics, no more news stories, no more analysing. This is just you and me chatting over a beer.
A few days ago, I wrote a post that I thought might interest some of the few people who pass by this site. Never in a million years did I think that those words would go as crazy as they did. For those not in the know, cycle back to November 1st and read a post titled No More Touts.
You see, I wrote that original post out of anger. I'd seen some of the negativity that surrounded the whole No More Touts campaign. And it stung. Really, really stung. Heck, on September 19th 2014, I was an outsider looking in, a passing music lover who'd seen a good idea and decided to support it. The fact that the idea spoke to me on so many levels certainly helped. And here were people picking apart what was being done. To see so much spite and negativity levelled towards people who were doing something to change the industry really hurt me. Yet I know from experience that you can't reason with haters. On top of that, one of my pet hates is to see hatred thrown at people who are just trying to do some good in a world that's already ravaged by darkness (I'm also a firm believer in "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".).
In the original post, I mentioned that I'd been a part of the “Rage for Christmas #1” campaign. Like the No More Touts one, it was a grass roots effort that took off. Even if the song hadn't reached number one and even if the band hadn't played the show (again, they were under no obligation to do so but did it out of the goodness of their hearts) the Rage campaign did something amazing.
It raised over £162,000for Shelter, the UK's homeless charity. Even now people still donate in the Rage campaign's name.
I noticed, while reading up on the No More Touts campaign, that the people behind it also support a charity (I've also noticed they've been writing about this too in the past few days. Hi, guys!). Given to Live makes it possible for people who are vulnerable or feel excluded to go to live music events. So far, they've had a lot of success, including the Invictus Games back in September.
So, if you burrow a little deeper and don't take everything at face value, you discover a deeper, more beautiful meaning to this. Even if the band don't play, this campaign has taken the issue of ticket touts to some of the biggest powers in the music industry. People are sitting up and listening. It's making headline news again and again. People know that there's something going on and revolutions don't start overnight.
Most of all it's doing something good by giving others the chance to experience what many of us take for granted.
The music connects us, let's not forget that. We're all coming from nothing here and, through this, the world can be changed for the better.
And I've met a bunch of awesome and very cool people through it!
“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” -John Bingham


*Maybe. There may be more.

No More Touts 4 - The Government

It seems quite fitting to be talking about the government the day after Bonfire Night.
Why won’t the government legislate the secondary ticket market? There could be a number of reasons why the government won’t bring in regulations. The ones I’ve come up with are pure speculation and based on my own observations.
It could be that the government doesn’t believe regulation of the secondary ticket market is important enough. The idea has been debated several times in parliament and, in 2006, legislation surrounding the reselling of football and Olympic tickets was put into place. However, the government didn’t see other ticketed events in the same light.They also may believe that it’s not that serious a crime to warrant legislation.Government may believe that the secondary market already regulates itself enough. STAR (Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers) is a body formed within the UK to provide self-regulation within the theatre and event ticketing sales industry. Their aim to ensure fairness and openness in the sale of event tickets. Members are required to comply with a code of practice. Along with the guarantees that websites provide, as well as making it illegal for street touts to operate without a license, government may believe that they’ve already done enough and that little more can be done.However, these ideas don’t target the illegal sellers, many of whom operate through legal channels (ebay, Stubhub etc) or who set up ticketing websites for single events (as was seen with recent Take That and One Direction concerts. Love Money offers advice on spotting fake ticket websites.). The technology is in place to be able to find and track these people.The legal secondary ticket market is worth an estimated £2,000,000,000 a year and growing, which means the government will see some of that in taxes.The government could also see it as not their responsibility to regulate the secondary market. It could be that the government want the market themselves to bring in the control measures that are needed (i.e. photo ID to be shown at entry to an event). However, unscrupulous sellers can easily bypass some of these control measures (There’s already been reports of people reselling multiple copies of a pair of PDF tickets to an ALT-J concert, meaning that once one pair had been scanned everyone else was left outside and out of pocket). There is a call for photos to be printed on tickets, something that has worked well for Glastonbury. Measures would have to be put in place for people who found themselves unable to attend. Again, the technology is in place to do this.

BBC News on how ticket scams are costing fans millions every year.


Want to keep up with the campaign? Follow #nomoretouts, @foofamilyuk or visit the website at: www.foofightersuk.com Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

No More Touts Part 3 - The Musicians

I decided to write a follow on from the No More Touts post I wrote a few days ago. Thanks to everyone who's read and shared it! I never realised it would ever go that far!
In the last post, we were talking about ticket touts and the fan-funded show from the perspective of the fans. We also talked about those who'd been the victims of ticket scalpers. I come from a musical family. It's not unusual to find jam sessions happening in our house. We have a small home studio. Our garage is holds the legacy that my parents started so many years ago. Cases packed with coiled cables stand beside tool boxes. Beneath a desk is a crate filled drum stands. A book case has become a leaning post for a guitar. Packets of strings and drumsticks are piled in a corner. The studio is so small that we've recorded drummers in bathrooms, singers in wardrobes, and guitarists out in the garden. 
We call it "organised chaos".

I rounded up a few of the passing musicians for beer and a chat about the secondary ticket market.
As musicians who are often paid to play shows, what are your views on ticket touts?
Ticket touts are pushing out the fans that have less money, turning concerts into exclusive events that only those with a higher percentage of disposable income can afford. Besides, why should fans pay over the odds for tickets that were cheap enough in the first place? Cheaper tickets mean that there are more people at a show. This is good for smaller and newer bands, especially if they’re the opener for a larger band.
Bands are being locked out of the industry because of the secondary market. Some of us also believe that touts are killing the music industry in some areas. The touts tend to target popular bands (supply and demand). Some bands may only visit a few cities and part of their reasoning for that may be because of the secondary market. They know that the more shows they play equals more tickets going to the secondary market. And bands have costs too. We have travel, food, accommodation, crew that we have to pay. Our costs aren’t anywhere near that of some of the larger bands but, as you know, the bigger the band the more overheads they’ve got to cover. Yes, if a show sells out, the band will get paid. But what happens if a venue is only filled to a fraction of its capacity? A lot of a band’s wages comes from merchandise. And even if the venue is full what happens if the majority of those people have bought their tickets through secondary sellers at an inflated cost? They now have less money to spend on the artist they’ve come to support.
This may sound greedy on the part of musicians, but we think that many people would prefer to be supporting the artists rather than the ticket touts making hundreds of pounds more for a ticket that may have originally only cost £40. We also want to see as many of you as possible at the shows, something that won’t happen if you’re being held to ransom by ticket touts. As musicians and concert goers ourselves, we're just as angry as you are. At the end of the day, we’re here for you. Our job is to make you happy and give you a good night out. And if you’re happy, then we’re happy!
~~~
Ticketmaster has admitted that between a fifth and ninety percent of daily ticket sales come from botnets. While the use of botnets is banned in the UK under section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, there's nothing to stop the secondary ticket sellers from using human power to grab hundreds of tickets using multiple credit cards and addresses. This was highlighted in Channel 4's Dispatches from 2012 (The Great Ticket Scandal). Also highlighted in the documentary were a number of other ways that the secondary ticket sellers are able to get hold of tickets. This includes the promoters, venues, and others within the industry.
Secondary ticketing regulations by country can be found on Wikipedia (not the best source, I know!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_resale
There's also a petition to get the UK government to readdress the regulations for the secondary ticket market. If you're a fan of live events, you might be interested signing:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70470
Details on the campaign can be found by following the hashtag #nomoretouts or visiting www.foofightersuk.com
Twitter: @foofamilyuk
~~~
With thanks to Marcella from Nashville Blues, and the guys from OpenView.
Part 1 - No More Touts - from the fans perspective Part 2 - No More Touts - from the victims perspective

No More Touts 2 - The Victims

In the wake of the original No More Touts post, I had an email from one of my friends who bought tickets to the Foo Fighters Halloween show in Nashville from a secondary seller. She had the unfortunate experience of not knowing that the scalped tickets had been cancelled, leaving her out on the street after a 200+ mile journey. While some people received phone calls to say that their tickets had been cancelled, my friend wasn't so lucky. She agreed to talk to me for this blog.
- How much were the original tickets and how much did you pay for them from Ticketnetwork? Originally, $20 plus fees, so maybe $30. I paid $221.40 through TicketNetwork
- How far did you travel to the show?  3 1/2 hour drive, roughly 210 miles each way
- When did you find out the tickets had been cancelled? I had heard rumors that they had been cancelled, and even called the Ryman, but didn't know for sure until the night of the show, when I saw on a sign that no tickets bought with gift cards would be honored.
- How large of a group were left without tickets? Not sure. I know several of us who were in line had gotten "taken".
- Did you try getting tickets through Ticketmaster? Yes, I tried for 35 minutes straight, using 2 computers and a cell phone when they went on sale. I had even pre-registered and had my info ready. I pulled up the Ticketmaster site at least an hour early, in case I got stuck in waiting room hell (like with Wrigley)
- How do you feel in the wake of all of this? Like an idiot. Very disappointed. I wanted to see these guys SO BAD (have yet to see them live). Since I really do nothing else, going to the occasional concert would be awesome.
- Anything else you want to add? Yes.
#1 Originally, I was very happy when I found out that I could get tix online, because I don't have anyone in Nashville who could go get in line for me. I even considered driving to the box office myself but it wasn't feasible.
#2 I think that those of us who got bad tickets should've been given preference to buy a real ticket. I don't have a smart phone so I didn't know that the invalid tickets had been resold. Somebody got into the Ryman and sat in the seat I bought on the 29th.
#3 I don't know what the answer to this clusterfuck is but SOMETHING needs to be done! I appreciate the Foos (obviously) trying to do something about it, though.
#4 I have learned my lesson - unless I can get tix through the "approved" vendor, I'm not going. I can't afford to pay outrageous prices. As much as I love these guys, rent has to be paid, electric needs to be kept on and the cats need food.
~~~
Recent reports show that the Rugby World Cup has suffered the same fate as many other high profile events. Despite the tickets being allocated through a lottery, they’re still turning up on secondary ticketing sites, sometimes for more than 2500% above face value. On top of that, despite laws in many US states restricting ticket scalping, Missouri actually turned against the tide and repelled their anti-ticketscalping laws back in 2007. The US secondary ticket market is estimated to be worth $5,000,000,000 annually and is forecast to grow by 12 percent every year. Things in the UK aren't looking any better. In a House of Commons document dated January 2014, Parliament decided not to legislate the secondary ticket market, instead asking that it continues to self-regulate. (PDF download: www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04715.pdf)
Which is why the No More Touts campaign needed to be done. When the original ticket sellers and MP's are calling for regulations, you know it's getting serious. 
How can you help? There's a petition running to get government to take another look at regulating the secondary ticket market. You can sign it here:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70470

You can also keep up with the No More Touts campaign through the hashtag #nomoretouts and through the Twitter account @foofamilyuk.

More information is available at:
www.foofightersuk.com

If you've got a ticketing story you'd like to tell, please feel free to get in touch. My email is waking_the_dead@yahoo.co.uk
Or find me on Twitter and Facebook

No More Touts

Tickets go on sale for a high profile show only to sell out in minutes. Before you know it, those same tickets that, moments earlier, had probably been on sale for £50 are on resale websites for hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds more.
Sound familiar? If you're a fan of music, theatre, sports, or anything else that requires ticketed entry then you may have had that experience of sitting online and waiting for tickets to go on sale only for there to be none when you finally manage to get to the site. That's if you get onto the site because, all too often, you'll be met with a blank page or a “403: Forbidden” page.
The secondary ticket market is a huge problem in the UK. While other countries have regulations on resale of tickets, including how much the ticket can be marked up above the face value, the UK has little in the way of rules and laws. The only rule is that tickets to football matches and Olympic events can't be resold above their face value. Everything else is fair game for the secondary market, an industry that pulls in over £2,000,000,000 in profit every year.
While most people probably wouldn't mind paying a little over the face value, in this day and age of austerity, being asked to pay upwards of £200 for a £50 ticket is ludicrous. Yet nothing is being done. Even a Channel 4 episode of Dispatches was ignored. The episode is viewable here:



Until now.
After seeing how well a fan-funded show worked in the States, a group in the UK decided to do something similar. The Foo Fighters have spoken in favour of fan-funded shows and against the secondary ticket market. They're not thinking of the money (of which little, if any, of the profit from the secondary market actually goes to the band). They're thinking of their own roots, of saving up for albums and tickets, of being stuck in the nosebleed seats. Their current TV series, Sonic Highways, highlights many of these points. However, the UK show would have a twist in that it would highlight the problems of the secondary ticketing market.
And, for the second time in a few years, I found myself part of a perfect storm. Back in 2009/2010, I got involved in the “Rage For Christmas #1” campaign and was lucky enough to score tickets to their free show.
In mid-September, I was sent the link to a fan-funded Foo Fighters show in Birmingham. After a couple of hours debating it, I pledged £300 for 6 tickets. Less than a week later, we watched as the total ticked over to the target of £150,000.
So why did I do it? There's a number of reasons, one of them being that my mother regrets that they never took us to more concerts when we were younger. The reason? They were too expensive. So here was the perfect chance for my family and myself to see one of the world's biggest bands in a teeny-tiny venue.
The other reasons?
Like many people, I'm on a low wage so concert tickets are seen as a luxury. When you couple in travel, food, merchandise, and possibly accommodation, you're looking at hundreds of pounds.For some reason, despite being in the centre of the country, Birmingham is often overlooked by the bigger bands. Yes, we have some of the country's largest festivals all within driving distance but if you're not a festival person (like myself) then you often feel left out. Birmingham is also the closest city to me and I'd love to go and support their local economy instead of having to go to London or Manchester (Not that I don't like London and Manchester but Birmingham does have some redeeming qualities!).Often I'm at work and wind up missing out on tickets, leaving me at the mercy of the secondary ticket market. And I'd rather support the band than lining the pockets of the ticket touts. Foo Fighters fans in the US tragically got a taste of this when tickets to two shows (Wrigley Field for next year and a Nashville show last night) were sold in a record amount of time. Many of them, including non-transferable ones for the Nashville show, were being sold for astronomical amounts on secondary sites (ones for Nashville were originally on sale for $20 and wound up going for hundreds more). The band had the scalped tickets for the Nashville show cancelled and resold at their original value.And the most important reason I'm supporting this – the ticket touts. I know that people will talk about capitalism and supply and demand, but why should that come at the cost of the fans? Why should the fans have to pay hundreds and thousands of pounds over the odds for seats? Seats which sometimes turn out to be fake, even when they've come from one of the reputable secondary resellers? And why should the touts be allowed to hoover up the majority of the tickets for an event? Ticketmaster USA have admitted that 90% of their daily hits come through botnets hoovering up tickets for the secondary market. With those kinds of numbers, what chance do fans have of buying fairly priced tickets? Under UK law, the use of botnets is illegal.
What I thought had started as a storm in a teacup has now become a perfect storm with foofightersuk.com and Birmingham at its eye. Radio stations are asking the band if they'll play the show. Fans across the Atlantic are approaching the band and flying banners in support of the fan-funded show at shows. It's a crazy idea and one that I'm so proud to be supporting. Knowing that there's others out there like myself makes me feel so much better. It's time for us to stand up for what we believe in and, while I don't think art should be free (Heck, part of my income comes from writing) I do think it should be fairly priced and affordable. And it most certainly shouldn't come at the cost of either the artists or the fans.


Will this show happen? Well, we'll find out some time around November 17th.
You can keep in touch with the campaign by following the hashtag #nomoretouts
You can also follow at:
www.foofightersuk.com
Twitter:  @foofamilyuk
Campaign page.