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'A Celebration of John Williams in Concert' - Royal Albert Hall, October 26, 2018 (CONDUCTED BY DIRK BROSSÉ)


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29 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Why don't we all wear black turtlenecks?

 

That would actually be awesome. I'm going to go ahead and commit to that right now!

 

In all my years of going to JW concerts, I don't know how I never thought of that  :P

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On 2/24/2018 at 12:11 PM, Omen II said:

I am feeling strangely envious of those of you who will be experiencing a concert at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time.  By modern standards the building is too big for a concert hall, acousticians will tell you there are too many seats, some parts of the circle have restricted views, the sound of some sections of the orchestra can get lost depending on where you are sitting, the ladies usually have to queue for the toilets in the interval, etc. etc.

 

Yet despite all that, the place just has a sense of magic and a character that far outweigh its few shortcomings as a concert hall.  It is such a magnificent building, built by the Victorians who did things like this properly.  Although I have been there dozens of times, I never fail to feel a growing sense of excitement when I first glimpse the building as I walk through Kensington Gardens to a concert.  When you walk inside the building it is as if the music of all the great musicians who have performed there over the years has permeated its very walls, like the prayers of generations of the devout in our great cathedrals.  The hall's circular shape also makes it a surprisingly intimate venue - you can turn your head away from the stage and clearly see the faces of most of your fellow concertgoers as if you were all sitting round a table to celebrate some special family occasion.

 

There are other concert halls where the sound, the view and the facilities might be superior, but I can think of no better place than the Royal Albert Hall in which to see John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra perform.

So true and it's probably the one place I have seen orchestras more than anywhere else. Love that place no matter if the sound isn't quite as great as anywhere else

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I remember seeing a cartoon, years ago, of a line of men all with ponytails, and someone passing them saying, "Queue for the Goldsmith concert?"

Feels like a sequel to that is in the offing.

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On 3/1/2018 at 5:17 PM, E-Wan said:

Jay, do you know some magic spell how to get there?

 

 

What do you mean?

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13 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

 

What do you mean?

 

Tickets for Leavesden Studios tour in the week from 22th to 31th October are already sold out!

So how do you want to get there?

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On 4-3-2018 at 10:24 AM, Stefancos said:

I would be interested in the tour too, if it can be arranged. 

 

Same here.

 

I should probably note I'm bringing a +1, though.

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Well, I've received my e-ticket for the October JW concert, but oddly not yet for the July "Close Encounters with live orchestra" screening. I'd have expected to receive them in the same order that I ordered them and that the events are actually taking place in. Hey ho.

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3 hours ago, dtw42 said:

Well, I've received my e-ticket for the October JW concert, but oddly not yet for the July "Close Encounters with live orchestra" screening.

 

 

I was just about to ask. My friend who ordered our JW tickets got the e-tickets today, but I'm still waiting for my CE3K and SW tickets.

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Hello guys, i have a question to submit :

Like you guys I'm a deep fan of John, and i was devastated when i couldn't buy a ticket for the RAB concert (i wasn't aware of the queuing system)

For me it was the event of my life, I mean, before knewing he was giving a concert in London I had given up the idea of seeing him live one day, and now he's coming to Europe i couldn"t miss it. That's why, on the same day the concert was sold out, i bought a ticket on viagogo, knowing nothing about this website and its procedure. Then i realized reading articles about it that it wasn't a safe way of buying tickets and I wasn't sure I wouldn't even get one, and if I did, it might be fake. Nevertheless, in this case, i rather prefered take any chance I could.

So I was so happy when i received an e-ticket on march 14, but i still fear that i won't get in, cause there is a warning on the ticket that says " Tickets are not transferable. Reselling your ticket will make it void. ".

There is no name written on the ticket, so I think they wouldn't control everyone's ID....but what do you think guys ?

Thank you so much for your answers !!! (I've been running an emotional rollercoaster lately)

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You might want to get there as soon as you can though. The first people showing up with the ticket will get in (at least it is taht way in France). And if your ticket is being sold numerous times on different website, you better be the first to present it :)

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1 hour ago, toothless said:

You might want to get there as soon as you can though. The first people showing up with the ticket will get in (at least it is taht way in France). And if your ticket is being sold numerous times on different website, you better be the first to present it :)

 

That sounds rather stupid. If a seat has been double-booked through non-serious third party sellers, can't you just show the order history on your phone to the usher, proving that you are the first to purchase the tickets through the RAH directly?

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6 hours ago, E.T said:

 

There is no name written on the ticket, so I think they wouldn't control everyone's ID....but what do you think guys ?

Thank you so much for your answers !!! (I've been running an emotional rollercoaster lately)

 

As @rough cut observes, ticket holders are not usually asked for ID when entering the Royal Albert Hall (I have certainly never been asked on the numerous occasions I have visited).  If your ticket is genuine and not duplicated, I think all you would have to worry about is hoping that the ticket scans correctly when you enter the building.  On a small number of occasions my e-tickets have not scanned properly - through no fault of my own - in which case I have been directed to the ticket office at door 12 where the tickets have been reprinted on presentation of the credit card I used to make the booking and / or confirmation of my account details.

 

It is true that tickets for the Royal Albert Hall should not be transferred or resold and strictly speaking you are supposed to ok it with them even if you want to transfer the ticket to a friend or family member.  That said, last year I had tickets for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone live in concert and was unable to attend the performance I had bought tickets for when my football team unexpectedly reached the end-of-season play-offs and the first leg clashed with the concert.  I gave my concert tickets to a friend and she was admitted without any problems, despite her being of a different gender and ethnic background than I am.

 

On a general security-related point, following the terrorist attacks in London and Manchester last year, security at the Royal Albert Hall has been much tighter, so expect bag searches and to be asked to leave your bag at the cloakroom near door 9 after you go in.  It costs £1 per item so it would be worth having some change on you if you are bringing a bag.

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Thanks to you all, I didn't think about the ticket being sold numerous times, which I believe can happen,  cause I got it as a pdf file through viagogo so others could have bought the same one I guess on an other reseller website and like me receive the pdf. I hope, as it's a pdf, that if the printing doesn't scan well they'll be able to scan it from my phone. 

And I'll arrive as early as I can to improve my chances of getting in. 

Thanks again for all the information  details you gave me! 

Let's hope it'll work out and I won't be paying the flight to London to not getting in... 

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2 hours ago, Thor said:

 

That sounds rather stupid. If a seat has been double-booked through non-serious third party sellers, can't you just show the order history on your phone to the usher, proving that you are the first to purchase the tickets through the RAH directly?

 

The original buyers will not be present at the concert. They let the sellers fight that out for themselves. If it is a PDF, yes the change is certainly there to resell one ticket to multiple people. So be EARLY.

 

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There are legitimate sites that resell tickets as PDFs. No idea if Viagogo is legit though. It looks like they're UK based? Maybe there are JWFans in the UK who have used Viagogo before and can weigh in on this.

 

Stubhub, for example, doesn't sell the same ticket more than once. But there are some unscrupulous vendors who would.

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Yes it was them, and I kind of regret I didn't search for more information at the moment but I bought my ticket on an adrenaline rush, just after failing at getting one through RAB and reading forum posts here talking about buying reseller tickets, it's here I heard about viagogo for the first time actually

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4 hours ago, Caliburn said:

 

The original buyers will not be present at the concert. They let the sellers fight that out for themselves. If it is a PDF, yes the change is certainly there to resell one ticket to multiple people. So be EARLY.

 

 

What do you mean?

 

If you arrive at the venue, and someone is sitting in your seat -- and unwilling to move -- I'll just show the order info to the usher. That should sort it out.

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I understood that, but if he's bought a ticket to a seat that is already reserved by someone who bought it from RAH initially, it doesn't matter how early you show up. When the person with the 'legitimate' tickets show up, you'll have to vacate your seats.

 

But hopefully, his ticket is a legitimate one.

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The only way to obtain a legitimate ticket is by buying it from RAH. If more than one person has the same ticket, it means that the original buyer shared the ticket with someone else. Since that goes against RAH terms, it may invalidate both tickets, and the seat could remain empty.

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What? That doesn't make sense either. "Shared it" with someone else?

 

One person buys an original ticket from the RAH. A second person buys a false ticket from a third party seller. The documents are shown to the usher, and the person with the original ticket info from RAH gets the seats. No more complicated than that.

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Third-party sellers can only obtain the tickets through the original buyer. Original buyers are the people who put those tickets up for sale on sites like Stubhub or Viagogo. You cannot produce a false ticket, because only RAH knows the process of generating barcodes, which should be secret.

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2 hours ago, Thor said:

I understood that, but if he's bought a ticket to a seat that is already reserved by someone who bought it from RAH initially, it doesn't matter how early you show up. When the person with the 'legitimate' tickets show up, you'll have to vacate your seats.

 

It is a matter of showing up early if the Viagogo seller he got the ticket from sold several copies of the same ticket. :)

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1 hour ago, Biodome said:

Third-party sellers can only obtain the tickets through the original buyer. Original buyers are the people who put those tickets up for sale on sites like Stubhub or Viagogo. You cannot produce a false ticket, because only RAH knows the process of generating barcodes, which should be secret.

 

But then how do duplicate tickets come into play?

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14 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

But then how do duplicate tickets come into play?

The original buyer could potentially sell their ticket more than once. E.g. they could put one .pdf copy up on Stubhub, and the other on Viagogo. Also, the people who buy those tickets from those third-party sites, can also put them up for sale in the same way. Usually, these kinds of websites have safeguards against this (i.e. Stubhub, as far as I know, doesn't send the seller their money until two weeks after the actual event, which gives time for any buyer to claim for refund if the ticket was invalid), but it doesn't always work out well.

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OK, I think I understand.


Someone like me won't be affected by this, then, since I have original tickets? Nobody could sell my seat?

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