Hi,
This might sound a little negative, but it's not directed at the band or anyone in particular. It's more an exploration of my current state of mind, as I find myself increasingly out of place in a world in which the words modern and better are not necessarily synonymous.
This story starts with me booking tickets to see New Model Army in Manchester. The O2 Ritz is a great venue, but it left a bad taste last time around when they wouldn't accept cash at the bar. Too inconvenient for them. Too cosy with the banks and the card companies to deal directly with real people and real money. So much for sticking it to the man...
Incidentally, they've started opening supermarkets now with no checkouts where you must pay by an app on your phone. An Orwellian story for another day.
For all the talk of simplicity in these modern means of payments, there is nothing as simple as a transaction taking place directly between two people. As soon as you add a card reader into the equation a third party quietly inserts himself between the two of you, decides whether or not to approve the deal, and helps himself to a cut. The technological back-end to this whole process is anything but simple. The hardware, network infrastructure, software and entire technology stack forms a formidable pantheon of systems (and potential points of failure) into which all parties are incorporated.
Back to the task at hand. There was no option for paper tickets, so my plan was to buy e-tickets and print them out. I'm not wedded to my phone and like the option of leaving it at home on a night out. I have toyed with the idea of going back to simpler times - maybe a Nokia 3210, if only for the two-week battery life.
After making the payment, a little innocuous message appeared on the screen to the effect that customers are required to download a proprietary app to their phones in order to gain access to the venue. Now to me, this is something of a liberty and an imposition. I'm generally quite selective about installing apps, but the price of seeing my favourite band now appears to be ceding control of my personal device to a third-party ticket agency. Is this progress? What happened to being welcoming to all, even those with antiquated Nokia 3210s? Are they cattle, or customers?
The past two years have provided a chilling insight into the dangerous potential technology has to control and coerce entire populations. And while I have no problem with bands, venues and ticket agencies making a living, this latest move seems antithetical to the whole punk ethos. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this brave new world, but I go to gigs to escape the scourge of being incorporated into the legion systems of occult technology which intrude into our modern lives. For just two hours, the music reconnects us with something primal, something that eschews control and conformity, instead affirming identity, community and freedom in the context of the wonders of creation.
So I'll post this here because I never did sign up for a Facebook account. The pernicious nature of social media is a discussion for another day.
Best wishes to all.
Hello fiddlesticks.
Genuinely appreciate your post and totally understand where you're coming from. I hate this rushed-up movement, push towards technology, especially where and when it takes over people's jobs (selfless checkouts at shops, etc.), invades people's privacy, and is made to be a necessary requirement -- tech gadgets needed in order to complete transactions and such, like paying via phones, gain entry / access to events, etc. I'm actually quite seriously screwed over by it all. I have never owned neither a printer nor a cell phone. embarrassed sad lol, I wouldn't even know how to turn one on for fcuk's sake!! I'm being serious.
I keep getting told by friends, family, general public, government agencies that I
must get myself a cellphone. What do they think cellphones and plans come cheap in Canada!! Have they not seen the size of this country? I never could afford one and am going to continue living without one for as long as I possibly can. Cellphones are more of a nuisance than anything else, it seems. Most calls are not urgent -- well mine aren't, that's for sure -- that they can't be held off 'til one gets home or whatever. But I won't harp on, or get into that here, right now.
As for needing a cellphone / app to gain entry to a venue or event, etc. that would be something that would be out of the artist's hands, domain, I think. I'm guessing that it'd be the event promoters, venues, and ticketing agents / companies that would bring forth those unwanted, non-inclusive limitations, requirements of apps / cell phones upon it's interested clientele. I feel that it's all gotten sped up and worse ever since the pandemic hit -- this rush towards gadgets / apps / tech. Personally, I haven't been to any kind of event since before the pandemic and fear that if I wish to go to a show, or something of the sort these days, I will be refused access to tickets as well as entry.
That is my biggest fear, for when NMA come back to play North America -- if and when they can -- I fear that I might not be able to get in simply because I have neither a cellphone nor computer printer. I suppose I can ask a family member etc. for a favour, but that would be out of character and awkward for me. I don't like to impose on people, if I can help it at all.
I'm sorry you had a crap experience in Manchester fiddlesticks, but please I hope you won't let it get into the way of your love for NMA and their music, etc. I honestly don't feel that NMA or their team are at fault. Who knows, hopefully -- and maybe -- someone from
the NMA front will happen upon this thread and be able work out or brainstorm a better way to accommodate and include
all interested NMA aficionados, supporters, at some point in the future, where NMA/JS concerts are concerned.
Well, fingers crossed
at any rate.
To paraphrase an old NMA lyric, you're not the only one. I work in IT but I refuse to play a lot of the stupid games modern tech tries to force you into, partly because I know about data mining, and partly because the anarchist in me will do things the way I deem most suitable, thank you very much. Looks like I won't be buying gig tickets from Ticketmaster in future, since my phone is a Nokia 808 - let's see your damned app install itself on that!
I think we will start to see a wider pushback against this sort of stuff in the coming years as people wake up to what the real price of "convenience" is.
Hello Winterwulf.
I certainly hope so, though I fear that governments, the corporate world, sheepish folk in general are going to let it get and go too far before making any of the necessary changes. And those changes will likely be fought tooth and nail, from all sides when that time comes, which will of course be after the bulk of damage has already been done, occurred.
