Stage Times

[bluesparky]

There is also the fact that the artist / band are often quite arrogant and simply refuse to be rushed or do what they're told to do as THEY are the one in charge, it's their gig, they'll do what they want.

I won't name names as it's unprofessional of me to do so, but there is an A list artist who've I've worked for who will intentionally go on stage late e.g. because they've been told that the show needs to not overrun due to public transport issues etc.. and that's just one example.

Other times they simply can't be bothered and will have a sleep in their dressing room until they feel ready - Going on stage two hours late isn't unusual.
Slow hand claps and booing during the wait for the turn to go on stage is the norm and pretty much a daily thing on certain tours. Also, seeing people who are leaving before the artist has even been on stage because it's so late is pretty bad, especially with tickets costing £90 minimum.

The only time on the entire tour they did go exactly on time was at the O2 arena when they were told that the power would be pulled at 11.40pm regardless of what was happening on stage.

This is certainly not unusual in the industry and in my opinion is very annoying as it simply takes the P.1.55 out of the audience, crew and anyone working for the venue.

There are of course many bands and artists out there who do everything on time, to the minute and respect the fact people have paid a lot of money to
see them and people who work for them have been standing by ready in plenty of time for the advertised times.

Festivals are always a pain, the afternoon / early evening bands will often overrun as their set will take longer than they anticipate due to each band extended endings, squeezing in a longer solo, between song banter, squeezing in another song & simply not appreciating the time that gets taken up between song. It all adds up, leading to delayed stage times later on in the day.

Once the bigger named bands start coming on, the changeover between bands will get much longer to absorb the lost time & for any extra production.
Before the headliner comes on it'll be the biggest length of changeover of the day to ensure a decent line check, pull any set into position etc.
It's very rare for a headliner at a decent sized festival to be late thanks to the lengthing of the changeovers as the day progress and therefore and headliner who does come on late, it's all down to them and they have to accept the consequences e.g. Guns 'N Roses at Reading a few years ago.

I've always found it frustrating and annyoing when bands go on late, seeing the audience getting genuinely angry at being kept so late, but the second the intro music starts, a kabuki drops or the band walks on stage it's forgotten about and all smiles again.
I keep imagining that someone in the front row needs to pass a note to the stage saying "Yeah, we may be enjoying ourselves, but we're still miffed you're late".

[spectoremg]

Hmmmm, the bit about the power being pulled rings a bell...

[blue]

A lot of bands will not go on until they're paid. I don't blame them.

Blue

[bluesparky]

I thought I'd post this here too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35101721?SThisFB

I won't go into the boring details of the video equipment that crashed in the afternoon (a hippotiser, which was repaired with plenty of spare time, as opposed to how it was described in the new report), but I may add the fact that with the exception of two shows for this entire tour, she's been late on stage every night by on average 45 mins.
Over an hour late on stage is pretty usual / common.
She had to cut her set short by 3 songs that night as the venue were going to pull the power at 11.45pm, having already extended the curfew from 11.30pm mid-show (at who knows what cost).
Of course, it's nice that the crew get the blame. Not at all frustrating. It seems the backlash on Twitter etc before the show, about her being late on stage prompted the apology / shift of blame.

It seems that so far only the UK venues have the balls to follow through with the threat of pulling her power, literally everywhere else the tour has been to so far has ended up sailing through the advertised curfew.

Anyway, first world issues 'n all that. Soon be Christmas!

[acidbass]

[quote]Festivals are always a pain, the afternoon / early evening bands will often overrun as their set will take longer than they anticipate due to each band extended endings, squeezing in a longer solo, between song banter, squeezing in another song & simply not appreciating the time that gets taken up between song. It all adds up, leading to delayed stage times later on in the day.
[/quote]

To me that is the fault of bad stage management as much as it is the unprofessionalism of the bands.

[spectoremg]

[quote name='bluesparky' timestamp='1450269772' post='2931180']
I thought I'd post this here too.
[url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35101721?SThisFB"]http://www.bbc.co.uk...5101721?SThisFB[/url]

I won't go into the boring details of the video equipment that crashed in the afternoon (a hippotiser, which was repaired with plenty of spare time, as opposed to how it was described in the new report), but I may add the fact that with the exception of two shows for this entire tour, she's been late on stage every night by on average 45 mins.
Over an hour late on stage is pretty usual / common.
She had to cut her set short by 3 songs that night as the venue were going to pull the power at 11.45pm, having already extended the curfew from 11.30pm mid-show (at who knows what cost).
Of course, it's nice that the crew get the blame. Not at all frustrating. It seems the backlash on Twitter etc before the show, about her being late on stage prompted the apology / shift of blame.

It seems that so far only the UK venues have the balls to follow through with the threat of pulling her power, literally everywhere else the tour has been to so far has ended up sailing through the advertised curfew.

Anyway, first world issues 'n all that. Soon be Christmas!
[/quote]It may have been mentioned in this thread already, but when us yokels travel to the big cities to see shows we're on a tight schedule with public transport for our return journeys.
Lateness is lateness, it doesn't matter if it's an appointment with your dentist or an arena crowd.
ps. Stage crews must get really pissed off when they rush their arses around to get a show ready in time so that the act can be late.

[EliasMooseblaster]

Mrs Mooseblaster, not long ago, was dragged along by a friend to see an "up and coming" group (I've since seen their output advertised on the walls of tube stations, but I couldn't name any of their songs). Apparently it was a pretty miserable experience: they kept the crowd waiting for an hour and a half before they even let them into the venue, then played a short and spectacularly underwhelming set. Her theory was that they didn't have enough material for a longer set, and they didn't book a support band because that would probably have shown them up for how lousy they were!