New Zealand Shows
 

I knew it was going to be popular but I didn't think both shows were going to sell out in a matter of minutes :distress:

I really didn't want to fly to Australia, hopefully they'll announce subsequent dates.

Did anyone get tickets?

Hey "Shane"...;) I'll be at the first show with Alan (Dodfather). We're swankin' it up by staying the night at the SkyCity Hotel. I'm not sure on whether we'll both be wearing smoking jackets or not... ;)

TVNZ http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news...ickets-5463372

Anger as fans miss out on Fleetwood Mac tickets

Published: 12:37PM Thursday June 13, 2013

Tickets to legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac sold out in 15 minutes after they went on sale this morning.

When sales opened at 9am there was a "phenomenal demand" for tickets to the two shows on 6 and 7 December at Auckland's Vector Arena.

Including the three rounds of special presales, all of the estimated 24,000 tickets were sold out by 9.15am.

There were no surprises the tickets sold so fast.

"Judging by the demand within the three pre sales, we were thrilled," said Bridget De Launay, publicist for the concert.

But not everyone was as happy. The huge demand created issues for the Ticketmaster website, leaving Fleetwood fans without tickets.

"(We are) very disappointed that Ticketmaster's website is not robust enough to cope with the demand and we imagine there will be a lot of very disappointed fans out there," said ticketless fan Maria Lewis.

The reservation of expensive tickets for premier customers means the real fans miss out, she said.

"Ticket purchasing should be fair for everyone despite the purchasing power of the fan. Why should we be penalised because we want the cheaper tickets?" Lewis said.

^It's funny, that report is completely inaccurate. I was online at 9:45 chatting with Dodfather and still finding tickets on the floor.

PS... I just made my eight thousandth post after only 12 years... Wahoo! :D

Guys, Brandon is right. We were chatting online and both looking for tickets at the same time. We had no problems finding floor tickets - and these weren't the top premium prices either. I hope some people here did manage to get tickets because yes, it's terrible when big companies do huge block buying etc.

Well I will be! :nod:

So, we should watch out for two guys who look like Hugh Hefner then!:laugh:

Michele

Pretty much. Except my pipe will have bubbles coming out of it. ;)

Kathy 1 would be proud.

I expect you're going to find a way to be there... :nod:

Yeah, probably wait for tickets on trademe, or wait for a third show ;)

^I'm gonna p*ssed off if they add a Welly show after all the money Dodders and I've spent on the Auckland shindig... :laugh:

Well as I said before... a Wellington show is forbidden! :distress: Although even if they did add one I'm sure our swanky weekend would ease our troubled minds... :nod:

By Chris Morris on Thu, 26 Mar 2015 Otago Daily Times

Concert fans race to find a city bed

Dunedin accommodation is already bulging at the seams as the city prepares to be flooded by music fans for three major concerts at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The shows by Rod Stewart, Neil Diamond and Fleetwood Mac between April and November are poised to pull bumper crowds, and the race is on to secure the last few beds in the city, the Otago Daily Times has been told.

The demand has forced some Rod Stewart fans to take motel rooms as far away as Balclutha and Oamaru ahead of the singer's April 11 show.

It also meant virtually every available commercial bed in Dunedin was snapped up within hours of Fleetwood Mac's November 18 concert announcement last Friday, Otago Motel Association president Chris Roy said.

''It's the fastest I've seen anything shift - faster than an All Blacks test,'' he said.

''Every second call at the moment is for the 18th of November - Fleetwood Mac.''

The phone was continuing to ring, and he expected more fans seeking accommodation would be disappointed once tickets went on sale next week.

''We haven't got anything.''

I-Site manager Louise Van de Vlierd agreed, saying ''by Friday lunchtime, it looked like there wasn't a bed in town'' for Fleetwood Mac.

Despite that, staff were still being ''swamped'' by requests for accommodation - particularly for Fleetwood Mac's show - with interest coming from ''all over'' the South Island, and parts of the North Island.

''Certainly, there's very, very good New Zealand support for it - it's brilliant.''

Fleetwood Mac tickets would go on public sale next Wednesday, but demand for the Rod Stewart and Neil Diamond shows already appeared stronger than expected.

Stewart's promoters yesterday said more than 20,000 tickets had been sold, with more than 60% bought by people outside Dunedin.

The ODT understands ticket sales could be significantly higher, with suggestions 20,000 had been sold by Christmas, but promoters would not disclose exact figures yesterday.

A crowd of over 20,000 was also rumoured for Neil Diamond's October 24 show, and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd staff have predicted ''incredibly strong'' sales for Fleetwood Mac.

Ms van de Vlierd said, as a result, two University of Otago halls of residence would be available for Fleetwood Mac fans seeking a bed, once the last commercial offerings were gone.

However, the demand has also fuelled concerns about price-gouging and extended minimum stays by some operators.

One Fleetwood Mac fan, who did not want to be named, said he had baulked at paying the $1200 a night tariff advertised by one Dunedin accommodation provider.

Instead, he rented a private home at $495 a night - still nearly four times the normal rate advertised for the same property.

He found the ''price-gouging'' by some accommodation providers ''quite offensive'' but was left with little choice.

''There were no hotels left. It is a real shame.''

Mr Roy, of the Otago Motel Association, said he was not in favour of ''excessive overpricing'', but tariff hikes and minimum stays were ''common practice'' for big events.

Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said some price hikes and minimum stays were ''basic economics'' and ''generally accepted'', but some operators could ''push those boundaries''.

''I think operators have got to really be careful that they don't price themselves out of the market. What we certainly don't want to see is that detracting from the overall city offering, which is a concert that can bring significant benefit to all parties.

''I would like to think that they would be mature enough not to be gouging to the extent that it turns away people from visiting the city.''

But problems in Dunedin appeared to be Balclutha's gain, as Highway Lodge Motel owner Jean Austin said she already had ''four or five'' bookings by Rod Stewart fans.

She hoped for more from Fleetwood Mac fans, saying bookings associated with stadium events were picking up.

''We've had a few events there now that we've been able to benefit from. It's been good.''

Winging it with Fleetwood Mac in times of rumour

By Roy Colbert on Tue, 31 Mar 2015 Otago Daily News

http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion...c-times-rumour

Fleetwood Mac.

People with terribly young eyes are asking me if I am going to see them in November.

Is saying, with a sigh, that I saw them 36 years ago any kind of an answer?

Probably not.

Certainly not a reason for not going.

You can see people twice.

Three weeks ago, I saw Shayne Carter twice in one night.

You don't stop eating a pavlova halfway through.

It was 36 years and a couple of days ago.

Almost an anniversary.

Wellington.

Athletic Park, an inhumane, cold, windy venue.

But I was side of stage as part of a ludicrous media quango generously provided by the New Zealand promoter Darryl Sambell, a man who believed, quite rightly, the media were more important than God.

Sambell knew a newspaper piece was a free ad, and the marketing tricks he had mastered in Australia managing pop king Johnny Farnham, from where his nickname Sadie came, saw him quickly become New Zealand's most outrageous promoter.

He would later bewilder a very manly New Zealand cricket team dressing-room when managing Martin Crowe.

I was the Dunedin trough-slobberer in this worthless coterie of media men, and I remember wearing heinously high-heeled platform shoes so I might look like an Auckland trough-slobberer, unaware nobody wore platform shoes any more.

Which meant I made the most noise clomping up to order another free drink every 10 minutes.

Everything's free, just give them your room number, said Sambell. Nobody remembered their room number.

We just called out anything.

It was like Housie Night.

We were there five days.

Very occasionally it was work.

Being a man who liked swirling hippie dresses, an aesthete you might say, I naturally wanted to have an intense academic discussion with Stevie Nicks.

Sambell asked if an hour would be enough.

More or less, I replied, perspiring profusely.

We had a good chat in a one-sided sort of way, me gabbling, her talking wispily of goblins and witches at the bottom of the garden.

Silver Springs, their second-best song ever, was just a lost B-side then, not the hit it belatedly became in the '90s.

But being a music geek I had found this song already, and lavished praise thereon, a rare moment for Nicks to leave the goblins and witches and talk tearfully how this song had been removed from Rumours.

I got an autograph and message for our daughter's friend Jojo back in Dunedin, an embarrassed demeaning thing to ask for but I had promised.

Years later, Jojo told me she assumed I had just written the message myself.

She never brandished it in front of her 12-year-old friends.

After all, nobody would ever get to talk to Stevie Nicks.

The books that came out subsequently confirmed this was a terrible period for the band.

Christine and John McVie had split, and McVie was not in good shape.

One morning on the way to breakfast I walked into a lift and there he was on the floor, half asleep, half something else.

His wife was warmly happy - she was the only member to sit with us for hours through the night playing and singing in the lounge bar, the quintessential earth mother - but having just taken up with the doomed Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, her happiness was soon to end.

The stormy Buckingham-Nicks relationship had finally ended, and Mick Fleetwood had pounced on that vacant chair.

At the concert, Buckingham didn't sing Go Your Own Way, he sneered it through taunting teeth, and Nicks ran off crying.

Usually, I watched rock concerts from J16 or M34, it was weird watching this one side-stage, a metre from a sobbing superstar refusing to go back on.

Each band member had their own stretch limo.

It was both ludicrous and sad watching these long sleek cars pull slowly out of the half-lit underground car park with just one member of Fleetwood Mac sitting mournfully in the back of each one.

Their faces seemed so small. The things you see when you don't have a camera.

But they played great.

• Roy Colbert is a Dunedin writer.