Restricted view from premium seat at concert (Hampton Court Palace)

itm2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82105654#Comment_82105654

I suppose the first point to make is that we bought tickets to see "Elvis Costello and the Imposters".

The second is that Elvis was sat with the keyboard player for a 3-song section of the set, at which point he was also completely invisible to us.

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82105652#Comment_82105652

Is that it?

I take it back, I wouldn't send a LBA to anybody. Half the band were hiding behind that speaker? It looks like it might be a vintage-dressed keyboard of some sort. That's no more obscuring than a drum kit is to the drummer.

The view more generally is pretty rubbish TBH, but that's more to do with the height of the stage and your proximity to it.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82105657#Comment_82105657

Yes, it doesn't surprise me that the show is advertised as including the band's name, but my point was that you didn't say that in your OP so I was just observing that if your case is as above then you need to express that clearly in your complaints (which you may already have done of course).

itm2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82105661#Comment_82105661

As it happens I play the drums a bit, so not being able to see any part of the drum kit, let alone the drummer, was a big deal. The other "missing person" was Steve Nieve, the only other original member of The Attractions, so to only be able to catch a glimpse of his torso, and only when he played the keyboard at the back of his area, was not great either.

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82105670#Comment_82105670

The trouble is, unless you knew the precise layout of the musicians, instruments and stage props at the time you bought your tickets, you could always be lucky or unlucky in terms of what can be seen and what might be obscured. You paid to watch, listen to and experience a band, paying a premium price to be near the stage. I think you got what you paid for (although I might argue that so-called premium seats were worse than being a block or two further back and paying less). I don't think it's reasonable to expect the contractual obligation of the venue to be to provide unobstructed views of each and every band member for the duration of the set. I've been to gigs where the artist wanders off stage and into the audience for a whole song, and it's either been behind me or below me, rendering them invisible.

When you first posted, I imagined an enormous block of speakers positioned on the stage by the venue or production team. What it appears to be is a relatively modest part of the artist's instrumentation and set, and it just happens to be in your eyeline.

There's no harm in seeing what you can get, but I can see why they might ignore you and I wouldn't spend more money taking this to court.

MyRealNameToo

Those arent monitors, monitors are for the players to hear whats going on and so face them not the audience plus they are the output from the mixing board whereas one of these speakers had a mic clipped to it so its the source of music not just playback of output from soundboard.

They look like a vintage organ, like a hammond or early Leslie model but could also be a later repo. Totally and purely on the musician that wants a big antique style piece of kit as part of their staging and certainly not on the venue or the ticket seller.

Usual problems of front rows, the stage is higher than the seating, so you get a poor view of anything further back on the stage but are close enough to be sweated on when and if the musicians move forward. Ok if you are a fan of the lead singer, really bad choice if you are a fan of the drummer. Personally prefer to be further back for a better view of the whole stage even if it means i wont be 6' from the singer for 2 minutes

Slinky

IMO it's a poor layout on the part of the event organisers. That front row should be further away from the stage in order that people don't spend their evening with cricked necks trying to look upwards. Very poor ergonomics.

MattMattMattUK

I agree with the others, it is not an ideal layout, I also agree that I do not see you have any route to successfully get a full refund here. You may get a gesture of goodwill if you play nice, but I suspect you have already burned that bridge by threatening them with things that do not matter. I cannot see a court siding with you if you make a claim, so it depends if you want to gamble on the £35 for the initial claim, and then the additional £27 if it goes to court.

Alderbank

I've played plenty of Hammonds and Leslies in my time, and they are neither keyboards nor tone cabinets.

I think they are a very special pair of limited edition Epiphone all-valve guitar amps, released to celebrate 75 years since Epiphone launched their 'Century' amp in 1939 to go with a new-fangled instrument which had just appeared called an 'electric guitar'.

They might, given who the band is, even be a pair of the originals!

Pity you couldn't swap seats. There would have been some in the audience who would have welcomed the chance to gaze on those rather than on Steve Nieve's torso.

Mr.Generous

Those speaker things definitely don't look like this years model, your view was compromised but not less than zero. Would the seat raise - pump it up or anything? If the band bopped it would be a mystery dance from those seats, but sometimes you just have to blame it on Cain.