ShadowMania 2012 - Now confirmed

[Iain Purdon]

I am really glad to hear that. I don't mean Lakeside any ill will and I'm sure they do their best. They have to host the darts after all, and we must be pussycats in comparison!

[gonzales]

Shame all the whingers have started complaining about the box office answering the phones, having to wait , the seating allocation etc (again!) How about a little bit of perspective here. Why cant they just appreciate that Shadowmania is on again, and that Bruce has made it happen. It may not be around for ever you know.

[MikeAB]

I get a little fed up with people who whinge about whingers. We still do not complain enough in this country.

I recently had a terrible experience at a Pink Floyd tribute show at the Liverpool Echo Arena - which I won't detail. Suffice to say I wrote to complain three times across three months before I got an apologetic answer, with two free tickets to a show of my choice. Doubt whether I will go to anything even resembling a rock concert there again though. The Manager claimed he had not received my first two letters - what rubbish.

I think it's fair enough Bruce has reserved his own seats, but my beef is simply that Lakeside should do what they say - if they say 10 am sales opening in big red letters, like they did, then they should do that. Had my seats been really awful I certainly would have formally complained about that.

And we must remember the comments on this site are absolute chicken feed compared to what occurs on other fan sites, which are often full of unbelievable bile and four letter words.

[Martin Page]

Iain

I fully agree that it's Bruce's gig, but when seats go on sale they should state that all of the tables closest to the stage are not bookable.

The odd thing is that this will be my fourth time, the earliest I've ever booked and the furthest I've been from the stage.

Geoff

My friend who lives in Frimley went down to the Lakeside box office and got us two tickets at the front of table 33. This is right in the front of the stage so Bruce doesn't take all the front tables...

Regards, Martin.

[geoff1711]

Hi Martin

you were lucky then, while I was there trying to book they took several calls all of which went in the box first.

I think that it's nothing to do with Bruce booking out loads of tables, I think it's more to do with them not being time allocated as far as first come first served, they just worked through a pile of booking slips which probably got mixed up, so time of booking had little to do with it.

I'm not really whinging just a little disappointed that constant phoning from 9 am and 100 mile round trip produced not very good seats.

The last few years I never knew in April if I'd be working on that date in Sept so always picked up tickets closer to the date, from people ( on this site ) who had to drop out and they've always been much better seats.

Geoff

[GillianG]

I went down to the booking office in person as well, got there at 8.50 as not having seen anything to the contrary, I took it for granted it would be a 9.00 opening as usual, which indeed was when the staff turned up for work.

All the ticket requests have a time of booking written on the top of the slip, including mine, so that they can tell what order to deal with them in. It's not just what order they happen to get put in the box, and they can't get muddled up or out of order. What the staff consider 'a good seat' or 'near the front' I don't know, but if you ask for 'near the front' you might get down the side of the stage. From past years experience, they will make a note of special requests and honour them if no one has already asked ahead of you. After the phones have been open for half an hour or so it must be pot luck, even if you go in person, because some people book whole tables in one phone call, so it can fill up pretty quick.

I left about 9.15, by which time they had served myself and two men who had traveled from further away - but still in Surrey - and we were the only ones there in person. At that time table 33 had not been requested, and the phone lines had not been opened. If you are there in person, you do get to see what has been prebooked by Bruce.

I guess if they said 10.00pm for phones, maybe it was to have time to deal with whoever came in person, but as it was there were not many of us, so they opened them when we left. The chap referred to above must have arrived just as I left. Other years they have had the phones going as well from 9.00, but maybe they wanted a slightly more peaceful start to the day.

Gillian

[neil2726]

I dont know about Bruce reserving front row seats - all Ive ever seen is that he has a couple of tables reseved centre stage on the raised section! If he cant reserve a couple of tables who can? I also book by post/cheque and have received seats on the front tables three times in recent years! This year I'm centre stage at the back in front of the servery but still a good view and should be a good sound! Stop moaning and just be glad you got tickets!

[dave robinson]

I don't think it is Bruce who reserves those front tables, as someone just pointed out Bruce's seats are first row centre raised area. It's another pair of clowns who disrupt the bookings, no names though.

[geoff1711]

Hi All

just to set the record straight, I've been advised by Lakeside that whilst my seats may not be right at the front, they are, never-the-less, very well placed, and it seems likely that the table plan I saw does not reflect the true picture as it were.

And that booking slips were indeed all timed and dealt with in strict time order

So there we are, apologies to Lakeside.

Enough said on the subject

Geoff

[Iain Purdon]

Well said Geoff!