Havergal Brian.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Where on earth did the demand come from? How did it sell out? Is it a crowd of gawkers who want to hear the "Guinness record music"? I simply don't understand why the first concert to sell out would be such obscure, obtuse music...

Luke, if you don't mind standing, I just managed to buy a "Weekend Promming Pass" to Proms 1-4, in the arena, for 17.50. Allegedly this means I've got a place for the Gothic, though I've never prommed before so the reality is I have no clue what will happen.

Mahler 8 was sold out in an hour last year, too. It's the 'blockbuster' quality, I'm afraid, that's drawing the crowds. I hope Luke will take you up on your very generous offer...

[Brian]

Mahler 8 was sold in an hour last year, too. It's the 'blockbuster' quality, I'm afraid, that's drawing the crowds. I hope Luke will take you up on your very generous offer...

Oops, sorry, I'm keeping my pass! I meant that Luke can try and get the identical article. That said, feeling slightly guilty about my phrasing now, so if there's no other way to access the concert, I'd give way to a confirmed Brianite, having never heard the music at all myself

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Oops, sorry, I'm keeping my pass! I meant that Luke can try and get the identical article. That said, feeling slightly guilty about my phrasing now, so if there's no other way to access the concert, I'd give way to a confirmed Brianite, having never heard the music at all myself

Poor you and poor Luke... I think Luke is so fed up he won't be accessing that site anytime soon.

[vandermolen]

V bad news about the Gothic - I would have been no 600+ in the queue, but will spare myself a 5 hour wait. I'll console myself with the fact that I did see The Gothic last time round (Ole Schmidt) and try and get tickets for Bax Symphony No 2 (Prom 43). I doubt whether this will be a sell out!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

V bad news about the Gothic - I would have been no 600+ in the queue, but will spare myself a 5 hour wait. I'll console myself with the fact that I did see The Gothic last time round (Ole Schmidt) and try and get tickets for Bax Symphony No 2 (Prom 43). I doubt whether this will be a sell out!

That's bad, Jeffrey.    Though hardly unexpected. It's a cruel day for Brianites.

[Luke]

Poor you and poor Luke... I think Luke is so fed up he won't be accessing that site anytime soon.

No, well, I wasn't going to, but I just checked here and read Brian's useful heads-up, so I've gone back. In the queue again, but it's much shorter now, went straight in at 581. Thanks, fellas, for the commiserations and advice. Let's see about the weekend pass. What confuses me is that I logged on at the very earliest time possible (I mean, to the second, I was sitting there with my fingers poised over the laptop), so I should have been at the front end of the queue, but still somehow entered the queue in the high 4000s. How on earth do these things work?

The other sell-outs are the Verdi Requiem and the Mahler 2 (for some reason the Brian sell-out isn't showing up on the front page). So clearly you are right - it is the blockbuster thing that draws them in.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

No, well, I wasn't going to, but I just checked here and read Brian's useful heads-up, so I've gone back. In the queue again, but it's much shorter now, went straight in at 581. Thanks, fellas, for the commiserations and advice. Let's see about the weekend pass. What confuses me is that I logged on at the very earliest time possible (I mean, to the second, I was sitting there with my fingers poised over the laptop), so I should have been at the front end of the queue, but still somehow entered the queue in the high 4000s. How on earth do these things work?

The other sell-outs are the Verdi Requiem and the Mahler 2 (for some reason the Brian sell-out isn't showing up on the front page). So clearly you are right - it is the blockbuster thing that draws them in.

GOOD LUCK!

[Brian]

Here's an idle thought: do you suppose the Havergal Brian Society have been allocated a number of tickets which they'll be advertising sooner or later on their site?

[Luke]

I got to the front of the queue and got the pass Brian mentioned, so now it's just a matter of - what - going to London on the 17th and hoping?

But oddly, on the BBC site, here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2010/booking/offers.shtml

it says that the pass only includes proms 1-3 (Brian is number 4) and is only 12.50


Scrub that last bit - that's last year's proms, I hadn't noticed that!

[Brian]

I got to the front of the queue and got the pass Brian mentioned, so now it's just a matter of - what - going to London on the 17th and hoping?

I hope someone with proms experience enlightens us soon, because if we've just spent money on little more than a chance to see the performance, I'll be irritated. 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Here's an idle thought: do you suppose the Havergal Brian Society have been allocated a number of tickets which they'll be advertising sooner or later on their site?

No. When I contacted John Grimshaw, Chairman of the HBS, about this - the moment the Gothic performance was official - he said the HBS wouldn't get any preferential treatment. Later I learned the HBS had bought a few tickets from the site I linked to a few posts ago. There are still 21 left, but they often come in twos. And they are expensive...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I hope someone with proms experience enlightens us soon, because if we've just spent money on little more than a chance to see the performance, I'll be irritated. 

Taken from here http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/features/special-offers/:


Beat the queues at the weekend and save money! Promming is an essential part of the character of the BBC Proms. In addition to discounted tickets, the Weekend Promming Pass offers guaranteed access up to 20 minutes before start-time to the Arena or Gallery standing areas for all concerts in the Royal Albert Hall on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (excluding Proms 12, 73 and 74). Passes can be purchased online, by phone or in person at the Royal Albert Hall Box Office from 9am on Saturday 7 May, and planned online via the Proms Planner from 12 noon on Thursday 14 April. Passes can only be purchased up to 6pm on the day they start (5.30pm on 12 & 19 August and 2 September). Prices vary for each weekend depending on the number of concerts covered - see box below.

Note that Weekend 2 excludes Prom 12 (the second Human Planet Prom), Weekend 3 includes Prom 20 (free 'Horrible Histories' Prom) and Weekend 7 (covering the August Bank Holiday) includes Prom 59. There is no pass covering Proms 73 and 74. Weekend Promming Passes are not valid for concerts at Cadogan Hall.

Passes are non-transferable and signature ID may be requested upon entry. Purchase of a Weekend Promming Pass does not guarantee entry to the Last Night, but tickets may be counted towards the Five-Concert Ballot in conjunction with further Passes or Day Ticket stubs.

[Brian]

See, even that blurb has ambiguities (for instance, "guaranteed access up to 20 minutes before start-time" - does that mean they open the doors between 1 and 20 minutes before or that we should arrive more than 20 minutes early?) but I am reassured that, if a pass does not guarantee entry to the Last Night, it must guarantee entry to earlier nights.

[vandermolen]

Having played my Boult CD of the Gothic through today I may just go up to the Albert Hall on 17th July early (I'm on holiday then) and join the prommers queue - we shall see. Sacrilegious though this sounds, I wonder if Brian (as he apparently contemplated doing) had completed the Gothic with an orchestral movement, rather than with the epic setting of the Te Deum (magnificent though that is), that it would have had many more performances and that he would be much better known (I know that he couldn't have cared less probably). It strikes me that the quality of invention in those first three orchestral movements is extraordinary.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

At the Brian Centenary Festival in 1976 Sir Charles Groves conducted Part 1 only. As the first three movements are a symphony in themselves, this is a very natural thing to do and hardly sacrilegious. I wish it would happen more regularly!

Hope to spot you in the prommers queue!

Dundonnell, Brian, Luke, Albion, Jeffrey (?) and myself will be present. Who else?...

[vandermolen]

At the Brian Centenary Festival in 1976 Sir Charles Groves conducted Part 1 only. As the first three movements are a symphony in themselves, this is a very natural thing to do and hardly sacrilegious. I wish it would happen more regularly!

Hope to spot you in the prommers queue!

Dundonnell, Brian, Luke, Albion, Jeffrey (?) and myself will be present. Who else?...

Not sure if I'll be there but might I suggest anyway that it would be nice for any GMGers to meet up in The Queen's Arms pub in Queen's Gate Mews (very near Albert Hall) after the concert?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Not sure if I'll be there but might I suggest anyway that it would be nice for any GMGers to meet up in The Queen's Arms pub in Queen's Gate Mews (very near Albert Hall) after the concert?

Good suggestion. After that shattering experience even I might be in need of a stiff drink... 

[vandermolen]

Good suggestion. After that shattering experience even I might be in need of a stiff drink... 

If I'm there I'l buy you one, with peasure, Johan - although after the overwhelming experience of hearing the Gothic Symphony live, I suspect that you may well need smelling salts to return to consciousness (I'll bring a medical kit with me) 

[Sergeant Rock]

Dundonnell, Brian, Luke, Albion, Jeffrey (?) and myself will be present. Who else?...

I'm afraid I won't make it. When the concert was initially announced (unofficially) my chronic condition had improved to the point I thought I could make the trip (and survive two hours sitting in one position). But it's worsened in recent months. I have no way to predict how I'll feel in July. Booking plane tickets, buying the concert tickets....too risky...at least Mrs. Rock doesn't want to risk it (we've already missed concerts, and lost money). It was almost a relief to read how quickly it sold out--at least I have that excuse to somewhat alleviate the pain of missing what would have been undoubtedly a once in a lifetime experience. Life sucks sometimes.

Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

If I'm there I'l buy you one, with peasure, Johan - although after the overwhelming experience of hearing the Gothic Symphony live, I suspect that you may well need smelling salts to return to consciousness (I'll bring a medical kit with me) 

What I'll certainly be needing is a stack of tissues - I think my emotions will flood the RAH... 

I'm afraid I won't make it. When the concert was initially announced (unofficially) my chronic condition had improved to the point I thought I could make the trip (and survive two hours sitting in one position). But it's worsened in recent months. I have no way to predict how I'll feel in July. Booking plane tickets, buying the concert tickets....too risky...at least Mrs. Rock doesn't want to risk it (we've already missed concerts, and lost money). It was almost a relief to read how quickly it sold out--at least I have that excuse to somewhat alleviate the pain of missing what would have been undoubtedly a once in a lifetime experience. Life sucks sometimes.

I feared as much. I feel for you, Sarge, and not only for being absent at the concert... Let's hope the 'Gothic' kickstarts another Brian Renaissance, and Part 1, e.g., will be performed more regularly, even outside Britain. Yes, I can dream...