Category Archives: Stupidity

Alternate Reality, Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Dream Theater – Why the silence on the Live At Luna Park DVD release?

–UPDATE: The DVD will be out by Christmas.  They delays are due to sound quality issues.

The Live At Luna Park DVD/CD package from Dream Theater was announced in February 2013, with a May 2013 release date.

It was available for Pre-Order from various sellers and now it is no longer there, with some like CD Japan saying that the release has been cancelled.

May is almost over. So what is happening?

Dream Theater has a very loyal fan base, however since Mike Portnoy exited, the public relations between Dream Theater and the fans, has all been one way traffic. There is nothing of substance posted by Dream Theater or the individual band members. I love Dream Theater. I am one of those people that fan funded the limited edition run of their authorised Biography.

However the silence is deafening from the DT camp.

What is the big deal?

All the fans want to know, is the DVD coming out or not.

Instead, we get updates about a Jordan Rudess fan funding campaign, updates about certain songs becoming available on Jammit.com, a few posts about the new Dream Theater album and a few YouTube interviews.

Look over at Mike Portnoy’s blog and Facebook and he is promoting all of his projects, plus offering updates on release windows and schedules for each release. There is no B.S from Portnoy when it comes to connecting with his fans.

Come on John Petrucci, instead of updating us, that you have finished writing lyrics and are about to start on the solos, how about updating us with what is happening with the DVD release.

Is there a legal matter with Mike Portnoy holding up the release?

Is it a label decision?

The rock star these days doesn’t have the same stiff middle finger attitude to the label bosses as the rock stars of old.

Dream Theater hasn’t released anything new since A Dramatic Turn of Events.

At least when Portnoy was in the band, we always got a DVD release after each album and tour cycle, then the Ytse Jam releases would come out and then the new album would come out.

All of these projects where co-ordinated and overseen by Mike Portnoy.

Now that he has gone, we don’t have nothing. No DVD was released after the Black Clouds tour and no Ytse Jam recordings. At the moment it looks like nothing will be released after the recent tour.

Someone in the band needs to take on Mike Portnoy’s work ethic.

I wonder how Dream Theater would have sounded today, if John Petrucci left instead of Mike Portnoy back in 2010.

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Copyright, Piracy, Stupidity

Copyright Stupidity

http://torrentfreak.com/five-undercover-police-cars-sent-to-arrest-single-alleged-movie-pirate-130525/

There is a story doing the rounds over at Torrent Freak. Refer to the link above.

The tone of the story is about the power that the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) funded Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) holds in the U.K. It looks like copyright infringement these days involves a lot of police resources and judicial resources all based on evidence that is gathered by FACT officers. Think about that for a minute. The Police Department is not doing any investigation of their own. They are taking the evidence of FACT officers as being true and correct. In addition, these are non-violent crimes, so for the police to invest large resources, is extreme to say the least.

FACT is funded by the MPAA. The MPAA is funded by the U.S movie studios. The Movie Studios have an agenda; to bring the distribution of movies back under their control. They want it to be like it was before the Internet came along.

That is why the Movie Studios get the MPAA to lobby hard to change legislation. The MPAA, tried to do this with SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act) and they failed.

In the meantime, MPAA funded FACT organisations have sprung up all over the world. The Australian FACT version took one of the medium size ISP players to Court, so that a judge can declare that ISP’s are responsible for copyright infringement. They failed. Negotiations then started with FACT and all the other ISP’s about a warning/strikes system. Even these have broken down.

Going back to the story, when the alleged “violent” copyright infringer was questioned/interviewed, it was done by FACT officers, while the Police sat back. Then when it came to charge the alleged copyright infringer, it was unclear as to what he has done wrong, and on his bail sheet, it is referred to a Miscellaneous Offense.

So let me get this straight.

1. An out of hours search warrant is issued. This would involve a Judge, Police Prosecutor and FACT officers.
2. Five Undercover cars, containing 10 Police Officers, plus FACT officers raid a house, where the alleged copyright infringer doesn’t live anymore. Put this down to the great investigation from the FACT officers. Put this down to Police incompetence for not investigating the matter as well.
3. Once they find out from the current residents of the property where the alleged copyright infringer lives, 3 police cars, containing 6 police officers plus FACT officers raid the current place of residence of the alleged copyright infringer.
4. The raid is due to the alleged copyright infringer recording and distributing Fast and Furious 6 and a few other titles. However, the items seized included three servers, a desktop computer, blank hard drives and blank media. NO movie recording equipment was seized.
5. Back at the Police Station the alleged copyright infringer is interviewed/questioned by FACT officers, while the Police Officer sits back and observes.
6. The alleged copyright infringer was then let out on bail, with the charge recorded as an Miscellaneous Offense.

So all of this time is invested just for a Miscellaneous Offense. This is Copyright Stupidity at its worst. This is what happens when the judicial process has been sold to whoever pays the most. If you look up conflict of interest in any dictionary, you will see the above debacle fitting in with the definition.

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Music, Piracy, Stupidity

Richie Sambora Finally Speaks and Bye Bye, What About Now?

Let’s scream piracy.  Let’s scream tougher laws.

The PR machine from the RIAA and Bon Jovi will be saying that this album didn’t sell as much as it should have, because people downloaded it for free.  What a load of B.S?

The album is a DUD.  It is a bunch of 50-year-old men, trying to appeal to a teen market.  The teens that like Bon Jovi, like Bon Jovi because of the classic songs they have written, not because they try to sound like One Direction.

What About Now is sitting at 197 on the Billboard Chart.  The album has done its run.  Bon Jovi (the band) spent over 5 months recording and writing this album, only to have it do a run of 10 weeks.

Richie left for “personal reasons” according to Jon.  Now Jon Bon Jovi doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.   Then Jon drums up some publicity (as the album surely isn’t) by calling Justin Beiber an asshole.  Richie then finally speaks out about his departure.  He is pissed that Jon is talking trash and making it hard for him to return.

On the other hand, the Because We Can World Tour, is still continuing with shows booked all the way into 2014.

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Music, Stupidity

System Of A Down – Calling For The Truth

http://loudwire.com/system-of-a-down-shavo-odadjian-calls-out-singer-serj-tankian/

So one band member speaks the truth, and then everyone goes into damage control.

Shavo Odadjian’s only creative outlet is System of a Down. He wants the band to make another album.  John Dolmayan and Daron Malakian also want to make a new album, however Serj Tankian doesn’t.

The fans want new music,  We want great music, we don’t care if it is one great song or ten great songs.

Has anyone ever been in a situation, where you are in a room with other individuals and they are complaining about the same thing, that really you didn’t care about.  After a while, it starts to get to you as well.  You start feeling the frustration the others are feeling and then you let loose.

This is what Shavo has done.  He has spoken out the words that others have put there.  There is always one in a group that has that explosive attitude.  I commend Shavo for having the balls to say it like it is .

Remember the words from Don Henley, it was a “horrible relief” when the Eagles broke up. That is the nature of the bands. Volatile and unpredictable.  “Bad Judgement” is what the System of A Down Facebook post said about Shavo’s outbursts.  They are placing the blame all on Shavo, however i am sure that Daron and John had a part to play in it as well.  Read Shavo’s part, he is convinced that the other guys are on his side.

The fact is, System of A Down became who they are because of Serj.  As the voice of the band, it was his unique vocal style that captured people’s imaginations, especially at a time where nu-metal was ruling the airwaves.

Daron’s, Scars on Broadway didn’t set my ears on fire and neither did Serj’s solo offerings.  On each, a few good songs existed, but that is not enough these days to keep people interested.  We want great songs.  Good doesn’t cut it anymore.    They are touring together, surely they can record songs together.

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Copyright, Music, Piracy, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Queensryche – Operation Mindcrime

A telephone rings twice.   Nikki walks over to the phone and picks it up.
“Hello,” answers Nikki.
“Mindcrime, Mindcrime,” is the reply from the other end.
The music behind it sounds sinister.  In a panic, Nikki hangs up.  He is disorientated.  The words are strange and yet familiar.  His hands are shaking.  The phone rings again.  Don’t pick it up he tells himself.  Don’t do it.  What he is thinking and what he is doing are two different things.  They are out of sync.  He picks up the phone…

I added the above, in an attempt to describe how Operation Mindcrime (the song) begins.  It is a song written by Chris DeGarmo, Geoff Tate and Michael Wilton.  To be fair to Wilton, he has had his share in co-writing some Queensryche classics (Empire is one song that comes to mind immediately), however compared to the quality output of DeGarmo, it pales. 

In order to explain where Operation Mindcrime (the song) fits into the story arc, I need to back track a little bit.  Nikki, is a heroin addict who is manipulated into joining an underground organization dedicated to revolution (this is the Revolution Calling song).  At the head of this organization is Dr. X, a man who manipulated Nikki by feeding his heroin addiction, while at the same time brainwashing him in the process.  Whenever Dr. X says the word “Mindcrime” Nikki becomes his servant, his puppet, a catatonic mental state which Dr. X uses to his advantage, by commanding Nikki to undertake any murder that the Doctor wishes.

It just takes a minute
And you’ll feel no pain
Gotta make something of your life boy
Give me one more vein
You’ve come to see the doctor
Cause I’ll show you the cure
I’m gonna take away the questions
Yeah I’m gonna make you sure

A hit man for the order
When you couldn’t go to school
Had a skin job for a hair-do
Yeah you looked pretty cool
Had a habit doing mainline
Watch the dragon burn
No regrets, you’ve got no goals
Nothing more to learn

Story telling in music.  This song came out in 1988.  How relevant does it sound today.  Just think of all the current Islamic terrorists.  They are normal kids, from poor backgrounds, that are all looking for a place where they can belong.  They are perfect prey for the religious demi gods looking to turn them into weapons, to turn them into puppets and servants, so that they carry out their bidding. 

Here’s a gun take it home
Wait by the phone
We’ll send someone over
To bring you what you need
You’re a one man death machine
Make this city bleed

How many cities have bled from the actions of a few individuals.  Operation Mindcrime deals with death by assassination, in real life, death by terror is what we are confronted with. 

As much as Operation Mindcrime is a story, you can go as far as to call it a prophecy.  A vision of a future where the democratic governments, become far from democratic.  Where our Government elected officials serve the Corporations, instead of the people that voted them in.  The lyrics in Speak state the same, “the rich control the government, the media the law”. 

These days, people do more jail time and pay more fines for Copyright infringements, then people smugglers, then drug smugglers, then murderers and rapists do.   How can that be so?  The answer is easy.  Copyright is controlled by the Corporations, and who do the Corporations control, the Government.  The Government even granted the Corporations a Government granted monopoly. 

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Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Jon Bon Jovi – The power is in his hands to change the way his fans buy tickets

Bon Jovi – Because We Can Telstra pre sales went on sale on Monday, 13 May, 2013 at 9am.  By 9.01am, the Bang Tango site crashed. Within an hour, Telstra and Bang Tango both posted an update. It was the clichéd “due to high demand or high volumes, you may experience delays in accessing this website”.

It wasn’t until 6.35pm that the Bon Jovi Facebook page posted an update;

Thank you to all the fans who have taken part in the Telstra Australian Pre-Sale so far! Due to the massive amount of traffic the BangTango Pre-Sale site was temporarily down but is now back up and running! Thank you for your patience. Get your Pre-Sale tickets now: http://bit.ly/13cryk3.

I can’t believe that in this day and age, Bon Jovi is using the “massive amount of traffic” phrase.  Seriously, what did they expect, a couple of hundred people to go online.  This is Bon Jovi we are talking about, the same band that released a box set called 100,000,000 Fans Cant Be Wrong.

Back in 2010, they played multiple stadium shows in Australia in each city and each show was sold out, so of course they would expect a “massive amount of traffic” this time around.

Furthermore, the Backstage JBJ fan club didn’t have any issue coping with the heavy amount of traffic, where fans coughed up a further $60 to join, just to spend more money on tickets.  Then there is the stupid limitations that Bon Jovi places.  A fan can only purchase 2 tickets.

How does that work for me, if I want to take my wife and my three kids to the concert?  From reading all the comments on the various Facebook pages, other fans are also in the same boat.

The mainstream press refuse to do any reporting on this.

Jon Bon Jovi has the power to change the way the ticketing is handled.  One thing I have noticed from today’s artists is that they always blame someone else.  They very rarely take responsibility for their actions.  Jon has Kid Rock opening up for him on the Australian tour.  What Jon should do is take a lesson from Kid Rock on transparency and responsibility.  

Kid Rock’s summer tour of the U.S. is all $20.  As he mentions, the artist has the power to change the ticket prices, the price of T-shirts and so on.  He also mentions that they he will be reselling some of his tickets or go paperless where it is legal in the U.S to do so, so that he can combat scalpers.  Furthermore, Kid Rock, has a special reserved section close to the stage, for his people to find audience members and put them there. Click on the Rolling Stone article. 

Another big call from Kid Rock was that he didn’t want a guaranteed fee.  He backed himself, that he was going to sell tickets.  That is exactly what he did.  Compared to his 2011 box office returns it is looking like he will double that in 2013.

Kid Rock is scaling back, however Jon Bon Jovi is not.

Will Jon Bon Jovi, ever do the same as Kid Rock?  Based on him partnering up with Telstra/Bang Tango, because they paid the most to secure the pre sales slot, my answer is NO.

GREED is what the great divide in income inequality has brought.  Jon Bon Jovi is pissed that sales of recorded music have dropped so on each tour he is raising the ticket prices.  Eventually, he will be doing business like the Rolling Stones current tour, where the public was giving the Stones a big stiff middle finger at the $650 price tag, and then a day before the gig, the prices dropped to $80 and everyone snapped them up.

Ticketek get their chance to shine on May 20.  They know that they will be hammered with fans trying to get tickets.  They are prepared for it, they have partnered up with innovative technologies.  Read the article. 

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Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Bon Jovi – Who Is To Blame Because We Can(t) purchase tickets?

This morning, at 9am, the Bon Jovi – Because We Can Telstra pre sales for the December 2013 Australian tour went on sale via ticketing website, Bang Tango. By 9.01am, the site crashed. Within an hour, Telstra and Bang Tango both posted an update. It was the clichéd “due to high demand or high volumes, you may experience delays in accessing this website”.

Fans went into a panic and then they became angry. The Bon Jovi Facebook page had thousands of comments about the disaster. Telstra’s page experienced the same rage, along with the Bang Tango Facebook page. Fans also vented their anger on Twitter.

A lot of the blame is directed at Telstra and Bang Tango. Both of these organisations have a lot to answer too, however the main blame stops with Jon Bon Jovi and his management team. They are the ones that signed these arrangements due to the monies offered to them.

What fans seem to forget is that Bon Jovi is guaranteed an upfront fee from the promoter for coming to Australia, regardless of ticket sales.

They (Bon Jovi and the promoter) then license out the sales of their tickets to different ticketing bodies within Australia, based on what those ticketing systems want to pay for having the privilege to sell Bon Jovi tickets. In most cases, Ticketek or Ticketmaster are the players, however in this instance, there was another player in Telstra/Bang Tango. The actual winner in all of this is Ticketek, as it seems to cement their reputation as the best seller for these kind of events. Bon Jovi then licenses out the manufacturing and sales of their merchandise to another organisation, and that is why we, the fans are slugged with the high prices we see. $50 for a T-shirt, $300 a concert ticket and so on.

Furthermore, from looking at all the comments, I started to see a trend. Fed up and frustrated fans then started taking out the $60 online Backstage JBJ fan club membership, just so that they can purchase tickets. Was this the intention of Jon Bon Jovi all along, to get people over to his fan club. As a Bon Jovi fan, I don’t believe that is so, however it makes you wonder. Throughout the whole debacle, the Backstage JBJ website was up and running and selling tickets, while Bang Tango was bleeding. However, being a Backstage JBJ member only limits you to two tickets, so if you need four or three, you are screwed.

Then within the hour, EBAY had tickets on sale for the Bon Jovi Australian concerts at a $1,000 each. Can someone please explain how fans got the middle finger, and scalpers or resellers got tickets to sell.

My view is that NO FAN should have to pay to join a website to purchase tickets. The purchase of the TICKETS is enough of a transaction to satisfy the band. Jon Bon Jovi is all about greed these days, and he should be ashamed for the way he disrespect his fans; the same fans that have allowed him to live a life of luxury through their devotion to his band and music.

Here are some more comments from the Bang Tango Facebook page (I actually feel very SORRY for the band Bang Tango);

· Trying to pay for mine and all it says processing your payment it has been on there for awhile

· I finally was able to purchase some tickets, we decided on a package (yippee) … my question is, during processing payment it said that my transaction had timed out and to try again – but first I checked online with my bank and the money had already gone out of my account … so do I have tickets or not? Will we be sent confirmation emails?

· What a joke you are. After sitting here for almost 3 hours refreshing my screen I then get through to find out that I have to sign up for an account (will look great for your numbers hey) only to progress to the screen where I select the tickets I want, wait 5 minutes for it to ‘reserve’ my tickets to get a message that says: sorry but computer says no: 0-…On a screen full of automated selections where I can’t input anything. What the hell is going on? Are you a real company that deals with this daily? And how the hell did YOU get the presale for Bon Jovi with this stupid set up? Annoyed much? Yeah to say the least. Are there any tickets left for the Adelaide show?

· I’m not bothering now, finally got on, and couldn’t get the tickets I wanted as I’m guessing they are nearly all gone, what a joke, nasty email sent to Telstra and I’m going to give my money to Ticketmaster, at least they are professional, I can’t believe you guys want to charge a $15 booking fee for this stuff up – RIPPED OFF, I have completely wasted my day, thanks guys Not!!!!!!!

· What a joke. Finally get through and could only buy 1 ticket! Was taking my daughter. What use is 1 ticket!

· How many tickets to Melbourne do they allocate to the pre-sale ? Whole lot of marketing and a whole lot of disgruntled fans. Great PR exercise Bang Tango !! I may not see Bon Jovi – “Because I Can’t ” book any tickets for Melbourne via Bang Tango.

· If you’re only after 2 tickets max, save yourself the hassle and get JBJ membership, then get tickets there. You end up paying a little more but at least the tickets are in the bag and you don’t have to put up with this shambles. Someone mentioned re the extra costs on members tickets too… It’s pre-sale, obviously there is a little on top. Wait till the lottery of general public sales is the other option.

· can’t get tickets but they can sell them on eBay for $1000 what a joke

· I can’t even get allocated 1 ticket, not that 1 ticket is any good to the group of people wanting to attend. Very bad organisation. Never EVER had a pre-sale hiccup, and I go to at least 2 concerts a year.

· hi, I still haven’t received my confirmation email…but my order is listed under my account….is there a problem with this???

· Been a fan since 85, the page finally loads and now can’t buy tickets wtf ?????????? I’m so angry!

· I want diamond section tickets to Brisbane but it keeps telling me that my code has been used too many times unless I choose the platinum ones!! I don’t want platinum ones I want the diamond ones!!!

· Accidentally only got 1 ticket through not being able to review purchase before preceding

· Might of taken all day and retry again that many times not fun but finally got tickets. Yeahhhhh

· BIG THUMBS DOWN!!

· I can’t understand how all tix are gone !! When no one could get through . I did get tix but took like 3 hrs. and didn’t get to see where I am sitting .

· Kira – I had the same problem and called Telstra who said to get another code by calling #820# on your mobile. (In the end I got tickets with my original code as but it might be worth trying)

· If you are after the bronze tickets you can only get 2 but if you try the others like silver the max is up to 10

· Frustrated!! Trying to get Adelaide tickets and can’t!!! One minute u can’t even get on the website and next they are sold out!! Not happy!!

· Just wasted more time trying to get tickets. Can only afford silver but looks like none are available. What is the point of a pre-sale if it is friggin harder to get tickets then when they go on sale to the general public.

· I got tickets. Wasn’t sure.. it crashed doing payment, but money has gone through credit card and it is listed in order details (Gold Sydney). This was probably 40 mins ago. Pretty sucky seats for a gold price, but the sound should be great!!

· What’s the go why won’t it process payment : ( disappointed

· My Mum selected 2 tickets and has only been sold 1- what use is that? What is the process for fixing all these single ticket transactions that seem to have occurred?

And from the Bon Jovi Facebook Page;

· And Telstra is supposed to be the best communications company in the country, What a JOKE!!!!

· Bang tango fb saying trying to fix it

· Bang Tango you suck!!!!

· This is so depressing. Has anyone even got tickets through bang tango? My computer got through to the tickets but still loading. Been a whole hour. Too scared to refresh

· waiting for an hour now…this sucks….absolute joke!

· Well of course they charge you to become a member that’s the point. There are many perks to being a member advance ticket sales being one

· I can barely afford the tickets little own membership broke full time uni student once I have money then I will become a member

· Well done Telstra, you did it again.

· Good to know I’m not the only one who couldn’t get on this morning as the server had crashed. NOT HAPPY JAN!!!

· I feel like such a failure, my poor friends putting their faith in me!!

· Yeah…. Got my tickets for Melb and Adelaide show through the JBJ fan club page! Amazing diamond seats!! Bring it on I’m so excited!!

· Ended up paying for JBJ membership to get my tickets, but got AMAZING seats so it was worth the extra $50!! If you have the spare cash just pay to join and get your tickets straight away!

· I need 3 tix so membership won’t help

· Another fine association Telstra… well done great when an ISP can’t offer better server capacity…

· Bang Tango website useless waste of two hours no tickets. Joke, get it sorted.

· They should have had different presale dates for each gig not all at once

· Wish it was presale through ticketek

· has anyone got tickets though bang tango? I have been trying to get them since 8:30am when the site crashed , starting to wonder if this stress is worth it

· Why can’t Bon Jovi, Telstra, bang tango or dainty group post some sort of announcement/apology so we can all get on with our lives?? This is f’ing ridiculous!!

· Been trying since 9.00 am also, don’t promote what can’t be provided! Poor service, just saying

· Yeah I tried to log on 11.09 and nothing… Typical Telstra.

· This is just a joke….l am stuck on the tickets screen…..has to be a better way to get tickets. Sorry but this is not good enough

· This is a joke, all I want is 2 tickets !!! , there better be some left

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Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Bon Jovi Telstra PreSales Meltdown – Australian Tour

It’s a meltdown of incompetence. Bon Jovi pre-sales went on sale today via Telstra and Bang Tango, the new player to rival Ticketek. Guess what, it is an epic fail. It’s as bad as John Carter. This is what happens when greed comes into the picture. The fans get treated like dirt.

Jon Bon Jovi is safe and tucked away in his ivory tower, certain that he will be getting his guaranteed fee for touring Australia. How the tickets are sold to his fans, doesn’t concern him at the least. So if you are a fan of Bon Jovi and you want to get tickets and if you paid monies to be a Backstage JBJ member, you had first dibs. Then Showbiz was next, selling VIP packages from a thousand plus bucks. Now it is Telstra’s turn to sell the next lot of pre sales. What a disaster? Facebook and Twitter is melting down with anger. Check out the comments below from Facebook.

· Typical Telstra and their fantastic service

· Keeps saying bad request – how funny! The biggest communications company in Australia and they can’t even get that right! Ha ha ha!

· Typical Telstra lets u down

· Well done Telstra, and Bang tango, web site crash 2 min in!!!

· Thanks Telstra you’re a freakin joke! You got everyone to register and can’t get the server to handle the traffic… You’re a joke. Absolute disgrace. I call for a waving of the proposed $15 fee for using your service. Thanks Telstra for wasting my time.

· Would love to get my tickets but the site has majorly crashed and apparently something has gone majorly wrong. Good on you Telstra. Artist should always stick with ticketek

· absolute joke bang tango…..could of told us we’d need an account with you before the morning. Thought I’d only need my Telstra stuff…no wonder it’s not coping. been waiting since I got on at 9am this morning.

· only getting a white screen via Telstra/Bang tango – frustrating

· Bon Jovi PLEASE take notice of these comments and allow us all to be able to buy tickets from a reliable ticket provider. ticketek in Australia is probably the best and although it is hard to get onto for peak ticket sales it doesn’t usually crash as it restricts the amount of people that can log in at once to avoid the site crashing. that would be a whole lot better than the site we have to get tickets from that crashed and still won’t load over 1.5 hours later

· I was on before the sale went on watched the countdown.. expected the buy button to load… and nothing. Beyond a joke. Had to reload and nothing now. Sometimes I get the page … then can’t do anything. Silly presale. Did they not realise the overload.

· Telstra you SUCK! The servers crashed and no one can get on

· I’ve got a code… 1 laptop 1 iPad and 1 iPhone and it says ” we are signing you up” please wait… Yep been waiting 18 mins already

· Telstra you are a joke how can you expect to compete for our business when you can’t even handle a large amount of people logging into the system.

· Sorry JBJ, poor choice pairing with Telstra Bang Tango. Massive pre-sale fail when you get your code early, but can’t register with the site til the sale starts; then server crashes.

· Why on earth run a pre-sale if your website can’t cope with the number of people who will be trying to purchase tickets!! This is crazy, an absolute joke and disappointment. I can’t get to the ticketing part and that’s it. Telstra… Will you be giving freebies away to all is fans who relied on your pre-sale and haven’t succeeded??

· You would think they could do each state on different days so at least all of Aus isn’t trying to get on at the same time!

· Extremely disappointed and annoyed! Pre-sale Telstra tickets for valued Telstra customers??? I’m not feeling valued at all after taking the morning off work to purchase 2 great tickets for the Adelaide concert and not being able to even log onto the page. Waited so long for you guys to come back to Adelaide too. Very disappointed

· TYPICAL TELSTRA! Couldn’t organise a thing! Site in meltdown since 9.00am! So annoyed!

· No use promoting this pre-sales. Thousands of people in Australia have not been able to access. Been trying for last hour when the pre-sale opened. Nothing. All from our biggest IT Internet provider in the country

· BANG TANGO and TELSTRA You SUCK!!! I don’t even know why I bothered. ALWAYS stick to the trustworthy companies like TICKETEK! Telstra can’t even handle phone and Internet. Should of known they wouldn’t be able to handle something big like this! SEE YOU MONDAY TICKETEK!

· Technology is a joke! Back to the old line up days I say ; )

· Maybe each state should have had a different day or time to log in!

· This is a joke. Surely you would be aware that Bon Jovi has a HUGE fan base here in Aus, and you would have been prepared for a massive amount of activity on your website. To be promoted by a telecommunications company and STILL not be able to handle the volume is shameful. SHAME TELSTRA, SHAME!!!!

· ok, so here’s the thing. I don’t know why I’m bothering. Etihad SUX, Telstra SUX, Bang Tango SUX, prices SUCK, no seating plan SUX, extra charges SUCK!!!

· typical internet ticketing site crash. Should go back to the old school over the counter style.

· I HATE YOU TICKET SITE, my daughter is late for school, my soon has missed his swimming lesson, I am about to have a heart failure and I’ve just thrown my phone at the wall. All for nothing. Why isn’t it loading, I hit the button on for different computers/phone at 9 am on the dot. I deserve these tickets!!! As do everyone else…

· And Bon Jovi you should tell your marketing mob to do more research next time and not partner with the likes of Telstra in future.

· Bang tango website sux

· yeah Telstra a great way of saying thanks by charging an extra $15 per ticket booking fee NO THANKS!!

· STUPID website crashed as soon as ticket sale opened!!!!!!!

· 13 mins trying on pc and phone, won’t even open the page!

· This is pathetic ….. Been trying to log on for over 20 minutes – why was Telstra not prepared for this ???? So annoying

· Seriously Telstra I re arranged my whole morning to get tickets. Not happy

· better off standing in line, at least then when you get frustrated you can punch some wanker in the head!!!

· The only ethical thing they can do is cancel the pre-sale until tomorrow.

· … tried both mobile and computer, nothing. If your site can’t handle heavy traffic, don’t advertise lies! We got left in the rain with nothing! Been trying to refresh browser and on mobile phone to bang tango for half an hr. now! That’s very bad PR!

· there was no problems when it was done with VISA presale through ticketek 4 years ago. why change. U SUX Telstra/Bang tango!

· So heart broken, my girlfriend is a die-hard fan I MEAN HUUUGE FAN she runs a small business & has 2 kids all I wanted was to surprise her, she works so hard & Telstra’s fail means I can’t do something simple like jump online to buy a ticket, even their instructions were pathetic. so disappointed

· I’ve now got the bang tango page to load but it still won’t let you get into the ticket section

· They should provide discount tickets due to the shocking delays!

· Good luck to everyone, I hope your able to secure tickets. The VIP backstage tickets sold out super-fast too. rumour has it Telstra website has the mapping .

· Still no seating plan available. I’d like to know what my money gets me.

· Terrible and didn’t load, jumped on to Bon jovi backstage and got great seats in no time!

· This ain’t no Bed of Roses grrrrrrr!!!

· Any official word on what they are going to do? Surely they can stop, fix and give us a new time – they can’t expect us to sit here and wait

· This is the biggest failure I have ever seen Bon Jovi Just leave it up to the professionals Ticketek in future

· Still having problems, had 3 devices going (phone, iPad, lap top) 10 mins prior to sale, and none could connect… Bang tango was a blank screen the whole time!

· Yup still crashed bang tango is saying on fb they r trying to fix it, it’s almost 10 here in brissy and I’ve been on since it started at 9 not loading

· You shouldn’t have to pay to join the fab club and purchase tickets!! Especially when they r the price they r!!

· Bang tango site fail, not impressed

· Bang tango I hate you!!!! I might just cry! It’s crashed!!!?

· just got 2 tickets thru bj backstage, but u need to be a member ($60) and get charged a conversion fee of $16 each ticket, and can only get 2 tickets. I got Sydney section 110-1, not great but OK. I hope you all get tickets soon guys. SEE YOU THERE

Even though I had my code, I didn’t even attempt to go on and purchase tickets. I understand the frustrations fans are feeling at this point in time. This is where Jon Bon Jovi should be stepping up and offering a solution. All of the above posts are from Bon Jovi’s Facebook page, without a single comment from Bon Jovi or the Facebook admin. It’s ridiculous.

Also here are the prices. Cheap tickets is what the media outlets report. I say yeah right. There is nothing cheap about this Bon Jovi experience. It’s a farce. The media doesn’t report with any integrity anymore. The cheapest tickets are $35 from Ticketek and $32 from Telstra Pre Sales, to sit on top of the stadium roof, with your view hindered. Then they have a limit of two Bronze tickets, so if you want to take a family of 4 or 5 you are stuck. Nice one.

Brisbane / Sydney*
Gold Reserve $155.00
Silver Reserve $99.00
Bronze Reserve $35.00
Platinum Reserve $199.00
Diamond Reserve $250.00
GA Standing – Rear Field $125.00 (Sydney Only)

Perth*
Gold Reserve $199.00
Silver Reserve $129.00
Bronze Reserve $35.00
Platinum Reserve $249.00
Diamond Reserve $299.00

Ticket limit: Bronze Reserved limited to 2 per transaction
*A one-off service/delivery fee from $5.85 per transaction applies. A credit/debit card processing fee from 1.95% will apply. Ticket orders are subject to credit/debit card approval and customer account verification.

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Copyright, Music, Piracy, Stupidity

Fans Rushing The Stage – Part 2 – Copyright As Censorship

It looks like the video I was linking too in this post, was taken down from YouTube, due to a copyright complaint filed by SME (Sony Music Entertainment).  This is wrong on so many levels.

For starters, there is no music playing on the footage.  So I am struggling to understand how this infringes on any copyright.

Next, Motley Crue is signed to their own label, Eleven Seven Music, and the distributors are Universal Music Group and RED Distribution, LLC which is a Sony Music Entertainment division that handles distribution for independent record labels.

Again, this is a very far reach from SME to say that they own the copyright to a fan filmed video, that first has no music in it and it is from a band that is on their own label and use a division of SME for distribution ONLY.

I see this as legacy industries using Copyright as Censorship.

What these legacy industries fail to understand is that the internet is a copy system.  Here it is again.

And again.

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Music, Stupidity, Uncategorized

Black Sabbath Debuting New Songs Live

If i was the Black Sabbath management team or marketing team, i would tell them one thing.  Just pick your best new song and play it.  The fans are not there for the new stuff.  They don’t even care about it.  They are there for the classics and if the new stuff is not on par with the classics, don’t play it.

Check out Loner, which is another new song from the greatest thing Ozzy has ever done department, the album 13.  It’s awful.  I know Ozzy is totally out of key and singing the song so bad, it makes the ears hurt.  Even if he did sing it in key, it still can’t help the song, because it is crap.  Watch the clip, every time Ozzy grabs the microphone to move around the stage, he takes one step, stops, realises something and moves back to the microphone stand.  WHY you ask?  That is where his teleprompter is.

So why play a new song if you don’t know the lyrics.  He was doing the same for the Sydney show I saw him.  The normal Sabbath songs that Ozzy performs on his solo tours, came easy to him and he was a different performer.  The other classic Sabbath songs, he had to read,  but not as much as the new ones.  You watch every live clip of the new songs, and Ozzy does the same movements.  His not singing, his reading, making it sound like he is attempting to sing.  It is karaoke in front of thousands, who paid up to $160 to watch them perform.

The irony of all this is that Ozzy went public with his version of Bill Ward’s ousting recently.  The thing is, it is clear that even Ozzy cant go on for a two and a half hour show.  Ozzy mentioned that Bill had post it notes on his drum kit, so that he can remember what to hit on certain songs.  So, how is that different from a teleprompter.

If these four songs are indicative of the album to come, it’s going to be a disappointment.

God Is Dead, is way too long for what it is.

End Of The Beginning is a dead set joke where they rip off their own Black Sabbath song.

Methademic has the best title i have seen in ages, but it is a shit song.

Loner = Methademic.

People have commented on the brilliant guitar riffs from Iommi.  I admit, those four songs have some cool riffs.  As a guitarist, I can appreciate that.  Cool riffs can’t make the song great, and to have a great song, you need more than just cool riffs.

To be honest, the song titles sound way better than what the songs sound at the moment.

I don’t know why Black Sabbath isn’t releasing the songs to be downloaded via iTunes or to be streamed.  It’s just a stupid business model that they are operating on.  The live versions out there, are pretty poorly recorded and Ozzy sounds completely out of tune, so get on the front foot and change peoples perception of the songs.  Release the auto tune, melodyne processed songs.

It looks Sharon cant compete with the Internet age, the best distribution system ever.

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