Eminem at Milton Keynes June 2003

The long awaited (and very much hyped by Radio 1) event of the year - how naive was I to be so excited to have got tickets to this event? Milton Keynes has been putting on events for years so you would think that they could get it right wouldn't you? But sadly no - the parking at this venue is appalling - whilst they are very quick to charge you money at the event for parking (on top of your ticket price) they are not so quick to be available when you leave, hence there is a free for all. Some go for it and enter the fray - other meeker souls get stuck in the car park for hours. It never gets any better.

However, you get used to this type of treatment and put up with it in the hope of seeing a good performance don't you? Of course Radio 1 madly hyping the event on the radio does raise ones expectations - so despite the venue limitations and the parking nightmare that we knew was to come we still expected to have a good time.

We arrived early and managed to get a reasonable view of the stage - this was a blistering hot day with a predominantly young and boisterous crowd, we were told we would be entertained by Westwood - but what quickly becomes apparent is that Westwood is most certainly not putting any effort into entertaining the crowd (could it be that he was too busy smoozing?) - so many Radio 1 DJ's there and yet none of them able to entertain a crowd that anyone can see is becoming bored and leery? No compare - no announcements - nothing, when a set finishes nothing is put on - no announcements made the crowd is just left to it. The sound cuts out in the Cypruss Hill set - still the crowd are not told what is going on - they bravely continue with an acoustic set but when they finish there is (yet again) silence.
Well what a surprise, now the crowd is getting really fed up and the bottle throwing begins, the crowd is turning nasty (make no mistake about it - plastic bottles HURT) - there were a number of injuries - full bottles were being hurled (you can imagine what was in them!!) Still nobody thought it significant to get on the stage and diffuse the situation.

At this point it was just too risky to stay where I was so I had to give up my place and get out of the arena, it was dangerous and I didn't go to the event to be placed at risk. Have you ever tried to complain at an event like this? No one, and I mean no-one will take responsibility. Security (who had been making themselves pretty scarce) eventually told me that all the managers were 'in a meeting' they could, of course, give me an address to write to at a later date. Not one to be easily daunted I then lurked around by the backstage entrance in an attempt to collar one of these people - I asked several people coming out of that area whether I could talk to someone from Radio 1 - they all denied responsibility and of course knew nothing!

So - in the end the mayhem continued until the next act came on - I could only watch from the periphery so the sound was poor and I couldn't see the stage (bear in mind I had made the effort to get there early to get a reasonable view). I left sorely disappointed to face the nightmare of the car park mayhem. Many other fans were deeply disappointed but Radio 1 continued to hype the event telling all and sundry what a brilliant success it all was. All I can add is yup - I suspect it was great for the Radio 1 crew with their backstage passes - I have no doubt they actually saw the gig (I bet they never paid for their tickets either). What a great pity that they were all so busy being important and being 'celebs' to understand that they actually had a responsibility to entertain the crowd that had paid to be at the event. How easy would it have been for them to have made it a great event for everybody?

I'm sure Eminem did a brilliant set - if you could see or hear it , but I would have been better off staying at home listening to my CD. I wonder how much profit was made out of so much disappointment?
I wonder why the concert promoter Mr Ray Rhodes from Metropolis Music failed to respond to my letter?
I wonder why fans getting hurt in these crowds is deemed acceptable?
I wonder why Radio 1 hyped it up as a huge success?

I mailed many of the DJ's about this concert Sarah HB had the grace to respond - none of the others did - another example of the apparent contempt in which the paying public is held?