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Every Tuesday night you can join me at pANDAS Radio as I listen to a lot of music, watch a live gig or 2 and enjoy a few drinks. It’s all quite fun, with webcams and a chat room so you can make requests, give your opinions or just talk about the world in general. In case you’re not sure when 10pm GMT is, here is a handy little clock that will tell you – including the day, just in case you’re on the other side of the world and are unsure if I’m ahead of you or behind you. Don’t turn around, I’m always behind you.

Anyway, hope to see you there at some point. Please join the chat, you don’t even have to be a Stickam member.

Yer Maw covers

Yer Maw covers, a set on Flickr.

Trying something new, writing for a reason

I have just started submitting blogs to a new website called wowdewow.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a rather insecure person, so it’s still a bit odd to think that I’m putting articles up on a website where complete strangers will see them. I know, that’s exactly what I do on this site. So my insecurity about submitting things to wowdewow is entirely irrational. Anyway, here’s how it happened.

Last week, after me saying that I’d make a point of blogging more in 2011, Anne sent me a link on Twitter to a Gumtree ad. The ad was looking for bloggers to submit articles to a new blog magazine website, so I looked out a few links to my work and sent them in. On friday night I got an email from Nathan Goldberg, the CEO of wowdewow, asking me to call for a bit of a chat. After a short chat on the Saturday Nathan asked if I’d be free to meet him on the Sunday evening at the Radisson, that was perfect for me as I was going to see Tron Legacy at the IMAX anyway.

I was quite nervous about the meeting, so I turned up 15 minutes early so I could take advantage of their free Wi-fi and have a beer to calm my nerves. It didn’t work out quite like that. Firstly, the beer that I wanted is no longer on sale there, so I had to resort to Peroni. Secondly, the woman who was supposed to bring me my Wi-fi voucher never actually brought it to me. i felt like a bit of a tit sitting staring at my netbook with no way to even check my mail. I’d have gone and asked her for it, but I was feeling increasingly self-conscious and didn’t want to move.

The meeting was due to start at 5, but I was still sitting on my own at 5:05. I stared wondering whether I’d been the victim of an elaborate hoax, my natural paranoia racing overtime – like a hamster with a death wish. I’d sent a text at 4:50 to tell Nathan that I’d arrived and was in The Atrium, but hadn’t had a reply. I sat, getting increasingly tense, for a further 10 minutes. It was at this point that a guy from another table wandered over, it was Nathan. We’d been sitting 30 feet from each other the whole time, but I’d been too busy watching the door to consider the fact that Nathan might have arrived even earlier that I had.

My nerves and paranoia had got the better of me, and I’d nearly messed up. I was actually so relieved when Nathan introduced himself that most of my stress vanished. We had a very nice chat over the next 45 minutes and Nathan invited me to join their team of writers because they like my style. That was very flattering, I always feel embarrassed when someone gives me a compliment. It’s not paid employment, but it is experience.

Now I have to think up articles for their blog as well as this one, which will be interesting. I also have to slightly alter my style for them as they are looking for articles of 200-300 words. So far I have submitted 2 articles to them, you can read the first one here and hopefully the second one will be published at some point today.

Please let me know what you think of this news, and if you like my articles on their site then there are two buttons at the top of the pages – one for Facebook users to “Like” them and another for Twitter users to send out the link.

By the way, Tron Legacy was great.

[Band Experiences] United Artists

About 6 years ago there was a place where most of the bands from Glasgow would hang out, advertise their gigs and arrange to play gigs with each other, Alternative Nation. AltNation is a lot quieter these days, thanks to the new popularity of things like Facebook and Twitter.

AltNation was very important at the time, it helped create a scene within a scene – and the only thing you had to do to become part of that scene was get your band on AltNation and start talking to the other bands. It was really good, but it fell by the wayside when forums became the home of trolls and then fell from popularity. I’ve been thinking for a long time about how local bands can help each other, and it’s time to do something about it.

I want to set up a place where bands, old and new, can share their knowledge and advice or ask the things that they want to know. Somewhere that a bunch of 15 year olds in their first band can get help with picking a rehearsal studio, getting their first gig and advice on recording. But I want it to be just as useful a place for bands and artists that have been about for a long time.

At the moment the site is going to consist of 2 sections, so here’s what they’ll be.

1. Resources/articles: The resources will be the type of things that all musicians will want to know about. Venues, Rehearsal Rooms, Recording Studios, Promoters etc.. along with the relevant information on each (prices, reviews etc..). The articles will be information and advice for musicians, sometimes written from one persons experiences and sometimes compiled from the collective knowledge. These sections will also link to the forum so that people can discuss them in greater detail, submit ideas and propose changes.
2. The forum: Although forums aren’t as popular as they used to be, they’re still in use more often when they’re specific – a good example is Warbeats. As well as having discussions about the articles there would also be a section for proposing/requesting/discussing/compiling new articles, a section where members can arrange setting up gigs and a section where members can look to collaborate with each other in whatever way they want.

i think it’s time this type of place existed again, it’s something the scene has been missing. as well as musicians contributing, it would also be open to promoters, studios and venues. Who knows, if it does well then labels may be interested as well – there are quite a few local labels, this would be a good place for them to network with the talent available. Maybe touring bands could also use it to find help getting a gig or arranging support. The opportunities are limitless.

The only thing slowing down the idea is where to find a suitable and stable home for the site, I’ve been looking for a while. It’s not so easy since it’ll all be free, but when it comes together it’ll definitely be worth it. Let me know if you can be of assistance in any way. Don’t worry if you don’t think you could write an article, just supplying ideas is better than doing nothing.

The Glasgow music scene exists because of the wealth of musicians, this site could help make sure they get a fairer crack of the whip. It’s all about working together. Genre, experience and ability don’t matter, the desire to make the scene better is all you need. We can do this if we work together, and the more of us there are, the easier and better it will be.

Please leave comments or get in touch if you like the idea and/or want to join in. if you know a band or solo artist that think would have even a passing interest in this then send them the link.

Thanks for reading.

Gill

[Band Experiences] Getting your first gig.

I see discussions about gigs quite a lot these days, but rarely see people offering advice for new bands, so I thought I’d write up a few paragraphs of advice based on my own experiences in the hedonistic world of rock n’ roll.

So, when you’ve set up your band you’ll probably have spent quite a bit of money on rehearsals too. Let’s say there are 4 of you, it costs £20 to rehearse once a week, you do 10 rehearsals before you’re ready to gig. You’re already out £50 each, and that doesn’t include transportation, strings, drum sticks, beer for the band discussion times, cool looking shades to wear so you look cool as fuck while you walk about with your guitar bag over your shoulder. Let’s just round it up to £100 each that you’re already out of pocket, and you haven’t even had a sniff of a groupie or a free line of cocaine. Sound bad to you so far? Split your band up right now. Not sure how it could sound good? Well, if you’re doing it right, you’re spending £10 a week to get together with a couple of friends, play music louder than you can at home, have a couple of beers, write your own songs and you’ve got a new pair of sunglasses that make you look cool as fuck while you walk about with your guitar bag over your shoulder.

Now, you’re going to want a gig. There are several ways to do this.

1. Pay To Play: a very common way for venues to make some easy cash from new bands. They give you 50 of tickets and say “these cost £5. For the first 25 you sell, you keep £1. Any you sell after that, it’s an even split. Sell all 50 tickets and you’ll earn £87.50, the venue will earn £162.50. You’ve each earned £21.87.5 from the £250 your friends and family parted with. You spend more than that celebrating your first gig. Maybe you can sell those shades. What if you only sold 15 tickets? Well, remember when the venue said you could keep £1 from the first 25 tickets? They want their £100 from those tickets no matter what, your 15 tickets has only brought in £75. If the band doesn’t come up with the extra £25 then you might not get to play. Now you know why it’s referred to as Pay to Play. If you sell 30 tickets then the band earns £37.50 in total.
2. Play a free gig. Exactly what it says on the tin. Nobody pays to get in, so you might not get paid anything. You might get paid though, some venues will give you free beer, some will give you a bit of cash based on the bar take, some will give you a bit of cash based on the number of people you bring. One massive benefit to this style of gig is that it’s quite easy to get people to come and see a band they’ve never heard if the gig is free, and nobody will feel ripped off if your first gig isn’t quite the Arena worthy performance you imagine it’ll be. One thing to remember is, talk to the other bands. If you get on with them then you’ll want to keep in touch so you can maybe do other gigs with them in future.
3. Put on your own gig. This may seem a bit intimidating to a new band, it is easier than you’d imagine – in this example I’ll use the excellent 13th Note Cafe in Glasgow as the venue. First off, who else will be playing? You may well know other people in bands, ask them if they want to play a gig – offer them an equal door split of all profits. Let’s make it a 3 band bill, so let’s set a ticket price of £3. Firstly, pick a night that’s good for gigs. Thursday-Saturday = Good. Monday-Wednesday = Not so good. Now, email Brendan at the 13th Note and ask him what dates he has coming up when your chosen night is available – his details are on the website [here]. Let’s say you’ve now booked a Thursday night 6 weeks away, time to advertise. Make your own flyer with the 3 bands on it, price, venue and an eye catching image. You should be able to get 50 of these printed at a local shop for about £2.50, spend £1 on Blu-Tac and then wander around suitable places and ask if you can put a poster up. That’s about £5 on advertising, but you can reach a bigger audience for free by using the internet. Join local forums, Twitter, Facebook etc and post the details on there with your lovely flyer. This has the bonus of letting you make a colour flyer as opposed to black & white. You also have 2 other bands advertising, it’s in their interest. Gig night arrives, 80 people turn up, then you discover a hidden benefit of the 13th Note – if your audience spends enough at the bar then you won’t have to pay the £60 booking fee (£80 on Friday and Saturday). You’ve got £240 between the bands, so you get £80 for each band. Since the agreement was for an equal split of the money, it doesn’t matter what band brought the most or least people. Doing gigs for an equal split is good for the local band community, but it doesn’t mean you can be lazy. You’ll probably be able to tell if a band has brought very few people or the majority of the crowd, if you’re a band that consistently brings very few people then other bands may stop offering you gigs or accepting your gig offers. You’ve got to put the work in.

I’ve played each of these 3 types of gigs. The third type is definitely the best, and the 13th Note is the best venue for them. The staff are great and the venue has a lot of character.

I know some people will disagree with what I’ve said, but that’s what the comments section is for – so please leave one. I’ve enjoyed typing this up, so I’ll write more [Band Experiences] blogs at some point. If there is a particular aspect that you’d like me to write about, tell me in the comments section. Or, maybe you’d like me to expand my thoughts one one of the 3 gig types I mentioned, let me know.

Gill’s Twitter Film Club #gillsfilmclub

Here is an idea that I came up with last night, and I think it’ll be fun – a film club.

It’s quite easy, a load of people with the same film, a designated time to press play, a Twitter hashtag (#gillsfilmclub in this case) and a load of conversation.

In case you’re not sure how to use a hashtag, you just put it in each tweet you send, that way you can then search for, click on that hashtag and you’ll see all the posts with that hashtag in them – makes it easy to follow the conversation.

I was thinking that we’d start off with a classic, This Is Spinal Tap. That doesn’t mean we’d definitely start with that, it’s just an idea. If you’re interested in joining in, let me know in the comments section, and invite your friends. Also, leave suggestions of films to watch.

When we get a few people interested we can have a vote on all the suggestions and pick a date and time to have the first #gillsfilmclub.

A quick note about film suggestions:

• Try to pick a film that’s easy to get hold of, otherwise people might not have them. Something that people are likely to own, can buy cheap, can hire or can torrent.
• Name the edition: if the film has more than one cut available, state which one you have. Star Wars and Blade Runner are perfect examples, there are multiple edits of each. We should all watch the same one.

OK, who’s up for it? Leave a comment below, and add me on Twitter. If you send me a message with #gillsfilmclub in it then I can make a group on Twitter so we know how many members there are.

http://www.twitter.com/GillRockatansky

An award? That’d be nice.

Ever heard of The Shorty Awards? I hadn’t until today, now I’m higher up in the nominations for one than Justin Bieber, LeAnn Rimes, Britney Spears, Jason Mraz, Katy Perry, P!nk, Reba McEntire, Nickelback and Muse.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a screenshot of the current shortlist in the Shorty Awards music category, I’m number 15.

never thought I'd be sandwiched between these 2 ladies.

Problem is, I probably won’t stay in the running – unless you help me. Even if you’ve never heard of me, never heard my music or simply don’t like my music, that’s fine. The thing is, I’m pretty much a complete unknown – even I don’t have copies of all my own music. Just think, how good would it be for a complete unknown to win an award that Bieber, Gaga and Nickelback were nominated for. Little ol’ unknown me, beating all those pop and rock stars. And it’s not inconceivable, for several reasons.

1. The current leader of that award category only has 220 votes, Muse only have 1.
2. I am bothering to ask nicely for votes, and it takes hardly any time at all.

At the same time, there are several reasons why I could lose quite easily

1. Muse have over 450,000 followers, I have under 400.
2. Any of the artists I mentioned could send out 1 tweet and jump straight to the top of the votes.

I have to hope that the 2nd thing doesn’t happen, or the game is over straight away. That’s a worry for the future, so let’s play – shall we? If I can make it into the top 6 then I’ll be a finalist, voting goes on until the end of January. It’s very easy to do, you just need a Twitter account.

1. Go to http://shortyawards.com/GillRockatansky and fill in a reason after “because…”, otherwise votes don’t count, and click “Tweet your vote”.
2. Post the following message on Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs or by email. “Please take 30 seconds to vote for @GillRockatansky to win a Shorty Award @ http://bit.ly/fC4qbc Find out why @ http://bit.ly/e93TAp Plz RT.”. The last link is to this blog.
3. Leave comments here with any other ideas you have to pass the link about or increase votes.

If I win the award then I’ll be giving away an album of brand new material on my BandCamp page. Here is a free download of my latest track, I hope you like it. Click the “Buy” link and select 0.00 as the price, or you can pay if you really want –  You can also find more demo tracks on my SoundCloud page.

Finally, a big thanks to those who have voted for me already. Right now I am 13th, only 6 votes behind Hanson, please help me by passing the link to this blog to all your friends.

Gill

xx

New Year Revolutions

The clock went back to where it starts every day. The month changed, like it does ever few weeks. The year count went up by 1.

That’s all that really changed. But hey, we get to use that as an excuse for a big party. That’s all fine with me, I quite enjoyed it. What I always get fed up with is how people act like anything is different or how the world is going to change.

TV schedules through December were absolutely dire, save for the occasional highlight – like Dirk Gently. I think there is now a basic December schedule that all channels just start on the 1st, and it’s more predictable than the idea of me disliking a daily Mail columnist. Repeated ‘Christmas Specials’ of shows that ended in the 90′s are easy to find, and Soap Operas will come up with a big storyline that culminates on, guess when, Christmas Day.

I think the boredom of the nation was palpable this year, perhaps because the weather meant so many people had to stay in and actually see what dross the tellybox serves up during the festive period. Or maybe it was because TV shows are commonly discussed on Twitter, which I use quite a lot.

Anyway, this is a new year, a brave new world for the TV executives to explore. Channel 4 have just started their “Look how amazing our January line up is” schedule with the hideous Famous and Fearless. Chris Evans, one time Channel 4 golden boy, hosts the show where a bunch of celebrities perform dangerous tasks in front of a live audience. Well, that’s what it advertised itself as. What we actually got was a couple of proper celebrities like Jonah Lomu and Kelly Holmes, both sporting stars, bolstered by some Soap Opera folk (someone from Hollyoaks, Little Mo from Beastenders), an ex pop star (Jenny from Atomic Kitten, remember them?) and 2 people who are only famous because they were the fastest sperm to emerge from some actual celebrities penises (Charley ‘son of John’ Boorman and Sam ‘son of Richard’ Branson). The only entertaining one of the lot is comedian Rufus Hound.

As for the live audience, I felt quite sorry for them. They were probably expecting to see the contestants do something that was quite challenging, something that justified the use of ‘Fearless’ in the title. 38 minutes into the show, all they’d seen was Charley and Rufus do a 2 lap BMX race. when the show came back from an ad break there was something that looked genuinely exciting and challenging, wing walking. it wasn’t any of the contestants that did this task though, they got another celebrity in to do this. Special guest celebrity, who could they have gone for? Sean Maguire, that’s who. SEAN MAGUIRE.

What do you mean you don’t know who he is? He was in Grange Hill from ’88-’92, he had a brief pop career and he starred in comic masterpiece Meet The Spartans. Oh wait, Meet The Spartans was a massive pile of crap and his last appearance on UK TV was in Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire – a show so unpopular that there aren’t even rating figures for the final episode. Still, his wing walking was the highlight of the show, undermined by immediately cutting back to the studio where Jack ‘son of Sharon and Ozzy’ Osbourne revealed that he’d done the exact same thing in the exact same place on the exact same plane for series 4 of his Adrenaline Junkie series on ITV2 – getting a final “he held on, I waved my arms about” kick into the highlight of this 2 hour boredom-fest.

Next we got to watch another death defying act of fearlessness, Jonah and Sam doing the 2 lap BMX race – exciting. Then we got the final, Sam and Charley doing a 3 lap BMX race. I was on the edge of my seat, the edge at the back.

Fortunately the girls didn’t do the BMXing, they did Street Luge. Hang on, there isn’t a street in the arena, just that BMX course. The girls bit was all pre-recorded. So much for all the “live on Channel 4″ stuff, all we got to see live in the first 90 minutes of this 2 hour show were the 3 BMX races and a short BMX display from some professionals. The girls didn’t even race in the traditional sense, they took it in turns to do a timed trip down a hill that didn’t have a very steep incline. A Street luge race is usually a few people going at 60-80 miles per hour, sometimes up to 100mph, and is very exciting to watch. These girls were lucky to reach a maximum of 30mph on their runs, it was pretty boring.

Back in the studio it was time for some more live stuff. Wait? More live stuff? Yes, actual live stuff. As the 2 winners, Sam and Kelly were now going to flip a car off a stunt ramp to see who wins £10,000 for their charity of choice. the run up to the ramp wasn’t massive, so neither was the speed. Kelly Holmes won by getting her car to travel 9 meters through the air. Well, the furthest part of her car from the ramp landed 9 meters from the ramp – I reckon they used that form of measuring because measuring from the rear of the car would reveal just how disappointing the whole stunt was.

Still, it’s only January 2nd. Famous and Fearless has 8 more hours in the schedule this week (90 minute shows Mon-Thurs, 120 minutes on Friday). Then Channel 4 can show Iron Man next Saturday to show what good stunts look like, despite the fact they showed Iron Man this afternoon. Yup, next Saturday they’re showing the film they showed this afternoon.

Channel 4 seems to be messing up in horrendous ways. I remember when it was the exciting channel, engaged in a Friday night battle with BBC2 to see who could put out the best new comedy. Now we get The Morgana Show, a series so awful that I can only guess it was commissioned by a scorned lover of the titular Morgana – only someone that wanted her to look like an idiot would put that show out as comedy. My use of ‘titular’ there is funnier than the show, it’s main character is her pretending to be a kid with learning difficulties. We also got Frankie Boyle’s Tramadol Nights, a rather boring bunch of ‘honest, this pushes an envelope’ sketches and some stand-up segments that are mostly featured in his sketchless new live DVD anyway. I was at a preview show for the series, which was actually very funny. Sketches weren’t performed, they were just described in rough detail. That was funny, actuality wasn’t. Frankie should have taken a leaf out of Stewart Lee’s book and put out 6 shows that were themed and captured the feeling of a proper comedy club. Fortunately, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle will return to BBC2 this year. Apart from that I can’t think of any comedy show that I’m actually looking forward to.

Given how poor TV is today, let;’s start a New year Revolution – going to see live entertainment more often. It’s not always expensive, and there are plenty of gems out there for you to find. Local gigs can even be free, or as little as 2 or 3 pounds. Comedy nights are easy to find, art galleries are free. TV is on a downward slide thanks to the amount of channels. Old providers of quality programming now cater to lowest common denominator in the fight for ratings, forgetting that quality will always win out. Slow burning shows get snuffed out now, never being offered the opportunity to find their audience.

If people don’t tell the channels what they think, things will simply get worse. We’re all going digital in 2012, but will the big switch over’s fight for ratings just result in the big switch off?

Everyone’s a winner, baby. Part III

If you’ve read my blogs from December 14th and December 16th then you’ll know that I won 4 passes to the SFX Weekender, but that SFX want £240 for the accommodation – something which the initial competition didn’t specify wasn’t included.

Well, I’ve just heard back from the Advertising Standards Agency about the complaint I submitted to them on the 16th. Here is the complaint in full, so you can see exactly what I said to them.

I entered the competition believing it to be a chance to win full passes, with the event being held in a holiday camp I reasonably assumed that accommodation was included in the prize. The T&C’s stated ‘ Prize is event passes only – winners must make their own travel arrangements’, but made no mention of accommodation. The event website @ https://www.sfxweekender.com/tickets/ advertises 4 grades of package (Silver, Gold, Gold Plus and VIP), all of which include accommodation.

I was called on December 14th to tell me that I had won passes for myself and 3 friends “worth over £400″ to attend the event from February 3rd-6th 2011. The cheapest package available (Silver) which includes accommodation for 4 people is £396, so I naturally assumed that the prize included accommodation and would be Gold or Gold Plus. I was them informed that Pontin’s had no free rooms available, therefore we’d be required to pay £60 per person for a chalet, at a total of £240.

When I queried this by email I was told that accommodation was not part of the prize and that I could either accept their offer or find accommodation elsewhere, I was also informed that the prize was actually worth £384, not the “over £400″ that I had been told on the phone. Following an exchange of emails they said ” I’m getting the feeling that you feel a little misled, so if you do decide to take accommodation at £240, then I will be happy to upgrade you to the 2 bedroom goldplus. That will give you access to the Thursday night, and late checkout on the Sunday.”.

This appears, to me, to be an acceptance on their part of the misleading nature of the competition. Their offer supposedly gives me access to the event on Thursday night, but the Thursday is February 3rd, one of the dates I’d previously been informed was covered by the passes I’d won. With £60 for three nights being the cheapest accommodation in the area, that leaves the organisers offer as the one which winners are most likely to choose. With 100 sets of 4 passes, this means the organisers stand to gain as much as £24,000 from competition winners. The ‘Gold Plus (2 bedroom)’ package that they offered me costs £630, a mere £6 more than the combined value of the prize (£384) and the fee for accommodation (£240), but there was no option to simply pay the additional £12 that would bring the prize value to the £396 cost of the cheapest accommodation package.

I feel that the organisers are fully aware winners will have little option but to accept their accommodation deal, or would be unable to attend the event as Camber is a small town and accommodation is a reasonable requirement for an event which runs from Thursday to Sunday. Surely this constitutes a breach of CAP Code 8:21:1 which states “Promoters must not falsely claim or imply that the consumer has already won, will win or will on doing a particular act win a prize (or other equivalent benefit) if the consumer must incur a cost to claim the prize (or other equivalent benefit) or if the prize (or other equivalent benefit) does not exist.”

I’d also like to point out that the organisers claim £240 for a 4 person chalet is “cost price”, but Pontin’s website states that 3 nights accommodation for a family of 5 in February is £164.

I have also published 2 blogs which include copies of all my email correspondence with the organisers in full. These can be found at

http://gillrockatansky.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/everyones-a-winner-baby-cept-for-me/

http://gillrockatansky.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-free-sfx-weekender/

Now, I can’t disclose all of the ASA decision with you, due to confidentiality, but I can tell you three things…

1. SFX have to be clearer about the competition rules in future.
2. The ASA will not be launching a formal investigation.
3. Basic information about the case will appear on the ASA website from January 5th.

That’s good, it would seem the ASA agree that the competition rules were misleading. No formal investigation though, that’s disappointing. I feel that they should have at least investigated a little bit, given the fact that SFX stand to gain £24,000 from competition winners. It would have been simple to do, just ask them how many of the previous years competition winners accepted the offer of accommodation for £50 per person – it was cheaper last year. I’d also ask Pontin’s how much they charge SFX per 4 person chalet, then you’d know if SFX’s claim of £240 “cost price” was realistic.

So, SFX got a slap on the wrist and told to amend the Terms & Conditions for their competition, but they’re still allowed to charge myself and the other 99 winners if we want to stay at the Pontin’s – still the cheapest accommodation I can find in the Camber area. Hardly seems fair, but I guess that’s the way it goes.

Finally, when SFX asked me who’s names to put on the passes, I said “I don’t know”. They told me that they’d call me back “next Tuesday”, which is today. Still no word from them and it’s nearly 7pm. Maybe this isn’t over.

Anyone got any ideas? Leave a comment.

Everyone’s a winner, baby. Part II

Here is a follow up on the blog where I thought I’d won a good prize.

After the last email quoted in that blog I was just the teensiest, tiniest bit annoyed. I felt that I was being fobbed off with meaningless excuses so I decided that I really needed some clarification about what I’d actually won, since I was told ‘The tickets you have won are worth 96 pound each’ and whether my prize would be different if I paid them the £240. Here is the rather simple request I sent…

I see from your site that the only tickets valued at £96 are Friday/Saturday day passes when sold individually, with ones for a group of 4 being £360.

Can you please clarify exactly what the tickets I have won entitle me to and whether staying on site entitles me to anything extra, as the prize value plus the £240 for accommodation brings the total value to £6 below that of a Gold Plus (2 bedroom) package for 4 people.

Seems quite a simple question to me, what do you think? I should be getting an email that explains everything perfectly. Here’s what I got…

The figure you are quoting carries an additional £6 per person booking fee, meaning a final price of 384.

Erm, what? That didn’t really answer anything. All that incredibly short email did was confirm what I’d already managed to figure out for myself. In fact, he should have known that the Gold Plus (2 bedroom) package I mentioned costs £630. Subtract £6 from that, since I said ‘the prize value plus the £240 for accommodation brings the total value to £6 below that of a Gold Plus (2 bedroom) package for 4 people’, then subtract the £240 they want for accommodation. What have you got? £384, that’s what. Looks like I didn’t need his maths lesson after all.

Here is how I replied to that email…

I understand that the tickets are the £90 (+ £6 booking fee) ones, that’s why I said “the only tickets valued at £96 are Friday/Saturday day passes when sold individually”.

Could you please answer my main question which was “Can you please clarify exactly what the tickets I have won entitle me to and whether staying on site entitles me to anything extra, as the prize value plus the £240 for accommodation brings the total value to £6 below that of a Gold Plus (2 bedroom) package for 4 people.

Slightly snippy, I know, but I was getting a bit annoyed by their replies that were seeming to avoid the questions I was asking. Anyway, it seemed to work. I finally got a reasonable reply…

There is no direct link between the value of the apartment+tickets options and that of the prize tickets you have won. The price you will have been quoted of £60 person is for a silver chalet for 4 people, and this price is derived from the cost price we pay for each apartment. I.e. we’re happy to offer it to competition winners at zero profit for us.

Having said that, I’m getting the feeling that you feel a little misled, so if you do decide to take accommodation at £240, then I will be happy to upgrade you to the 2 bedroom goldplus as you said

That will give you access to the Thursday night, and late checkout on the Sunday.

Hope that’s a happy conclusion for you.

Getting the feeling that I feel a bit misled? i wonder why that is, could it be because the competition was misleading from the start? Well, that’s covered in my next reply to them (many thanks to Judy Olsen for sharing her knowledge, and for taking the time out to give me a hand with this). It’s a long one, but it sets out all the main points for the folks at SFX…

Thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately the competition that I entered was for 4 free passes to SFX, and I think a reasonable person would infer that accommodation was included. I was also told on the phone that the dates were February 3rd to February 5th, so offering to give me access to the Thursday night as a gesture of goodwill is not offering anything that I hadn’t already been promised.

As I am sure you know, all the passes bookable on your site include accommodation, from Silver upwards. There are also third party sites such as www.seetickets.com that offer passes, again including accommodation. In fact I was unable to find anywhere that I could buy passes without accommodation. In other words, the prize of free passes includes accommodation by definition.

Secondly, the person who contacted me by phone said the prize was worth more than £400. £96×4 is not more than £400, but the £420 four person Silver package as offered by third parties obviously is. Again, any reasonable person would infer that accommodation was included in the prize.

Thirdly, the competition rules make it clear that travel is not included but make no mention at all of accommodation. Specifically ‘Prize is event passes only – winners must make their own travel arrangements’. Since all the advertised packages (Silver, Gold, VIP) on the tickets section of your website include accommodation, if this was not included it should have been made absolutely clear. This point is perhaps the most serious. Any advertisement or promotion needs to be truthful and honest, but in the case of the prize this could be said to be seriously misleading.

Fourthly, there are several points on which this promotion seems to fail to meet the CAP code on prize promotions, but I would like you to consider specifically section 8.21.1:

“Promoters must not falsely claim or imply that the consumer has already won, will win or will on doing a particular act win a prize (or other equivalent benefit) if the consumer must incur a cost to claim the prize (or other equivalent benefit) or if the prize (or other equivalent benefit) does not exist.”

Clearly, the Pontins offer at £60 involves a cost as I would not be able to take up the prize without accommodation.

Whilst I accept that there was no intention to mislead, it has to be remembered that there is a deal involved here. Running promotions provides you with a valuable database of potential ticket buyers. For my part I have to decide if the prize and my chances of winning it justify handing over my details. In this case, I would not have given my details if I had not believed, with good reason, that accommodation was part of the prize.

I am sure that you will want to put these points right for future promotions. In the meantime, I hope that you will agree to offer myself and my guests free basic accommodation as a gesture of goodwill and that you will also consider upgrading this to the Gold or Gold Plus package in recognition of the embarrassment I have suffered in having to tell friends that their free treat might not be so free after all.

Basically, I was saying “No, I’m not paying £240 for something which your competition portrayed as being free. p.s. I think you intentionally misled competition entrants”. I think that is a fair assessment of the whole situation. So, what did they think of that? Well…

I’m sorry you feel this way. I’m afraid I will not be able to meet your requests, and from my point of view I believe we have been honest.

That’s rather disappointing, isn’t it? But, this isn’t the end of the story. I’ll let you know if they ever respond to this…

Unfortunately, although you may feel you have been honest, my view is that the promotion was misleading. I think the best way to test this would be for me to make a complaint to the ASA.

And yes, I have made that complaint. I’ll probably get onto Trading Standards as well.

Everyone’s a winner, baby. ‘cept for me.

I got a call this evening to tell me that I’d won a competition. What? Me? I’ve won something? Seriously?

Yes. I was told that I’d “won 4 corporate passes worth over £400 to the SFX Weekender at Pontin’s Holiday Camp at Camber Sands”. I was incredibly happy, I’m not the sort of person who ever wins stuff. All the great stuff was explained to me by a guy who sounded genuinely happy to be delivering the good news to me. Just imagine, being told just before Christmas that you have 3 spare passes to an event that you’re sure some of your friends would enjoy attending, and having friends there would make the event even better.

That’s when the bad news came. I was told that Pontin’s, due to not having an available chalet, would have to charge me £60 per person for accommodation. Oh, that doesn’t quite follow on from being told that I’d won 4 FREE passes. The guy agreed to call me back next Tuesday to get the names of the other 3 people, who I’ll probably not be able to find by then – especially since I myself have absolutely no spare cash for the foreseeable future.

I decided that it would be easier to find possible attendees if I got a note of all the exact details emailed to me, so I sent the following email to info@sfxweekender.com

Can you please send me the info on the “corporate passes” I have won to your event so I can pass it on to the people who would be interested in accompanying me.

I put the quotations round ‘corporate passes’ because the website made no mention of them, though did feature VIP Passes which are sold out.

I got a reply quite quickly, here it is…

Hi

Corporate passes? I’m not sure where you have heard this term from. Can you shed a bit more light on it for me?

Here’s my reply…

The term “corporate passes” was used when I was called about being a competition winner, perhaps they meant “VIP passes”. I was called this evening from 0203******* and told that I’d won 4 free tickets, then told that I’d have to pay £60 per person because Pontins didn’t have a chalet for us despite the weekend not being sold out. Given the time of year I don’t know anyone with a disposable £60, so I’m doubting that I’ll be able to afford to accept the free tickets.

I hope you’ll understand my disappointment, I was initially informed that I’d won 4 free weekend passes.

This next reply from SFX seems to set things straight, almost…

You have won 4 free passes.  They give you access to the event and all the entertainment that it involves.  It does not include accommodation, but you are under no obligation to purchase this from us.  You can simply visit the event for the weekend if you prefer.  The tickets you have won are worth 96 pound each.

We find that people generally enjoy the weekend more when they stay on site, which is why we pass on a limited amount of accommodation at cost price to competition winners if they wish it.

Hope that clears things up

I suppose that clears thing up somewhat, unless I think back to the initial wording of the phone call. I remember being taught that 4 x 96 = 384, I don’t remember 384 being more than 400. So, since I’d been told that the prize was worth “over £400″ I decided to check out their website to see all the details. I suppose that’s part of the problem, the guy didn’t really go into detail. I haven’t been sent anything to confirm the details, so they could easily change the deal and I’d be none the wiser.

Here are the £400+ deals they offer for parties of 4.

1. Thursday, Friday and Saturday Day Pass – £480
2. Gold (1 bedroom) – £520
3. Gold (2 bedroom) – £620
4. Gold Plus (1 bedroom) – £560
5. Gold Plus (2 bedroom) – £630
6. VIP – £640

So, since the accommodation is being offered to me “at cost price,” that would bring the total value to £624 when you combine my £384 “prize” and the £240 I was told would go to Pontin’s. Does that mean they’d give us Gold Plus (2 bedroom)? Does that give me the option to downgrade to the £396 Silver (1 bedroom) package and only need to pay the £12 difference?

The simple fact is that SFX will have booked all the chalets, so they have the ability to offer them for free. You can’t book this weekend through the Pontin’s site, it isn’t mentioned in their Themed Breaks section, you can’t even book any accommodation there before February 18th. That means the excuse about the £240 being for Pontin’s was very misleading, Pontin’s will still get paid for empty rooms if the event doesn’t sell out.

Here are the Terms & Conditions for the competition…

Prizes are strictly on a first come first serve basis. The first 100 people to supply the correct answer will be given a free pass for Friday and Saturday valid for up to four people. You must include your telephone number in your entry. Guests appear subject to work commitments. Check the website for up-to-date details of guests. Prize is event passes only – winners must make their own travel arrangements. No responsibility can be accepted for delayed, damaged or illegible entries or for web entries that are prevented from reaching our server. The winners will be drawn at random from the pool of correct entries after the closing date. The closing date for entries is midnight on 20th December 2010. Multiple entries will be deleted. Open to UK residents only. This competition is not open to the employees or their families of the Titan Entertainment Group, Forbidden Planet or Future Publishing. The judges’ decision is final; no correspondence will be entered into. Winner must agree to future publicity.

No mention of, or mention of lack of, accommodation there. That seems pretty misleading to me. I think I’d like to take them up on the offer of publicity, but I’m not sure I’d give their competition the sort of publicity they want. I reckon it’s more likely that ticket sales are slow, so they offer to give away 100 sets of tickets, knowing full well that their £60 per person chalet offer is the cheapest option. That’ll bring them in £24000 from competition winners alone. It’s probably not illegal, but I think it’s certainly immoral. Especially when you check the Pontin’s site and see that in February the accommodation costs £164 for a family of 5. Cost price eh? Perhaps SFX should ask Pontin’s why the “cost price” they’re paying is £76 more expensive than it is for members of the public.

I’ve been told that I’ve won a prize, but it doesn’t exactly feel that way.