According to Wales online, University student Andy Bellis and other people who wanted to attend a show at Venue Cymru, were denied entry because they didn’t know enough about the band which was about to play, The Vaccines. This is what he declared to the online paper:
‘We queued up for a good half hour and give our tickets at the door. It seemed pretty normal. So, we’re pulled aside to get searched and the security guy asks if I know the lead singer and could I name their two albums and some songs. I couldn’t think off the top of my head so they kicked us out, took the tickets off us and said we couldn’t watch the band because we didn’t know enough information about them.’
Isn’t it amazing? I wonder how many times I have been out to see bands I knew nothing about… what about hundreds of times? Especially when shows are free or very cheap, isn’t it a good way to discover bands you have vaguely heard about? He continued:
‘I’ve made a complaint to the venue asking for a refund as there was no other reason I wasn’t allowed in.’
Of course the venue Venue Cymru (how strange is this?) issued a statement to explain this oddity:
‘Venue Cymru was made aware that pickpockets may attempt to operate in the arena during The Vaccines gig. In order to ensure the safety and security of our customers we carried out random checks of those in the queue. As a result six people were refused admission and a further two people were ejected from the building. Security were working closely with the police and licensing officers throughout the evening.
‘Unfortunately one or two genuine visitors may have been refused admission and we apologize that they missed the event and full refunds are being given.’
So let’s me think, they had heard about pickpockets and because this guy didn’t know about the band they assumed he was one of them? That’s ridiculous, and of course Bellis wasn’t satisfied with this answer so he added:
‘The thing is I’m actually a big fan of the band. Just because I couldn’t name the singer or the songs or what underwear they we were wearing last September is irrelevant. How did people discover band before the internet and everything else?’
And that made me think, how much do you need to know about a band to be considered a fan? This guy is a true music lover, but he doesn’t care for personal details, he is not an obsessive fan, a memorabilia-collector fan, a paparazzo fan, a fan in a ridiculous sense of the term, and that’s totally alright to me. But since he is mentioning the internet, I actually think the digital age may have precisely encouraged this kind of fans. Who is still looking at the record jacket, at the CD cover these days? With our iPods and iPhones, we can totally ignore the album title and the face of the singer and still enjoy a song.
So I don’t know how this venue got this totally stunning idea for detecting pickpockets, but this story is full of surprises. Andy Bellis is also in a band, named…. The Uninvited! And I can’t help it, I smell the publicity stunt here…