Did my comment deserve ridicule?

[Gladness]

Have name changed as anyone in the group I posted in will know it’s me if they see this.

Basically a band I love have just reunited and the fans have been eagerly awaiting tour dates. One date has just been announced in London. I posted in the comments that I was excited for the gig but hoping they put on another show maybe in central London.

The comment received a mixture of laughing and angry faces and endless comments such as “Typical Londoner” and “What about people who live miles away from London!” Etc

I replied saying I was not suggesting that all dates should be in London, what I meant was if there was a gig in central London it would be easier for people from all over the UK to get to. I continued getting harassed over it so I deleted the comment but some arsehole screenshot it and reposted it so the comments and laughing continued.

Im so upset by the whole thing it’s put me off going to the gig at all and it’s ruined the reunion for me, I know it sounds daft but it has really got to me. I feel totally ridiculed.

I’ve just told DH about it and he laughed and said he’s not surprised I’m getting stick for it!? Was it really such a bad thing to say?!

As centres of population go, London outstrips all others -- Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, many times so if there was demand for another show (i.e. the first one was selling well) it would make lots of financial sense for a band to do two there.
I think many bands do actually play more than one date in London, the O2, Wembley Arena etc.
Bums on seats, innit.

Wouldn't somewhere like Bristol be better?

Personally I avoid London if at all possible!

The bit where you say "if there was a gig in central London it would be easier for people all over the UK to get to" is the bit that makes it seem like you haven't thought it through. London is a pain to drive in, congested and expensive. Some people who live more than a couple of hours from London are intimidated by the Tube (I moved North from London and was suprised but after a decade or 2 I understand their pov)
I recently stayed overnight in a hotel to go to a gig in Birmingham. We had a choice of driving with reasonably priced parking, or the train. Everything was well signed, cleaner and less crowded than London. And we weren't paying London prices - when we have been in London we have been in tiny hotel rooms at premium prices.
Honestly prefer Scottish borders, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham Sheffield, and Leeds to London. Haven't tried Cardiff but I suspect that would also be better.

You didn't deserve to be laughed at, but you know London is in the south, right? It's not easier for everyone in the UK to get there.

I live in the Midlands. Amazing how many bands don't bother with it.

But isn't the point the op made and caused ridicule that there are no concert venues in Central London that could hold a large crowd??? If this concert will attract a large crown, then the only places to have it would be on the outskirts of London, like the O2, the Olympic park, Wembley arena etc. The London Palladium, Brixton Academy and such like are tiny in comparison.

So, they're already performing in London but that's not good enough for you - it needs to be central London?

Yeah, I'm not surprised you got stick for it, tbh.

No, there's just a lot of people who don't live anywhere near London (heck, a lot of people in the UK don't even live in England) who don't agree that London is a handy location, when it might involve something like a 6 hour train journey.

Op, out of interest, what's the venue for the gig they've already announced?

Why does London have to be the center of the universe.
You've got one gig in London..go to that one and be grateful you don't have travel/ find accomodation

London centric stuff pisses me off too so I can see their point of view.

I reeeeeeally want to know what the gig is now.

OP, I understand why you're upset, but don't let it tarnish the gig for you.

If you don't go, you'll be the only person upset by that

The reason you’ve received ridicule is because the entire population of Scotland might get one date in either Glasgow or Edinburgh and be expected to travel there, but you’ve been seen as “complaining” that your London gig isn’t in the most convenient part of London for you.

It’s a bit 🙄 & fits the London stereotype but you shouldn’t have gotten a pounding for it. That’s really unpleasant.

OP, if the venue in question is the 02, I agree because it's a nightmare to get to (and back from) from pretty much anywhere.

If it's Brixton or Hammersmith or somewhere similar, YABU.

So you think OP deserves a pile on? Yeah. No.

Try being Scottish!

Band tours go like this:

Three nights in London
Cardiff
Manchester
Liverpool
Newcastle
Sheffield

...fine we'll do Glasgow if we have to.

YABVVU for thinking that London is easier for everyone else to get to. Why?
Not only are trains horrendously priced and never on time. Hotels in London are so expensive. Even a BnB with a cardboard bet costs 60+ a night.

And the best part is, the only date announced was already in London.

I don't know how bad the 'ridicule' was but you did deserve a gentle telling off :)

@Kalevala I'm the opposite - love a visit to London, Bristol doesn't really do it for me. Never really check for it when I'm looking at events.

Was it men taking the piss? What exactly does your husband think is ridicule worth about your comment?

I live near Newcastle- I can just imagine the reaction I'd get if I suggested a sell-out gig in London should have been in Newcastle . But if it's 'easy' for me to get to London, it's as easy for Londoners to get to Newcastle.

The point is, it's not about convenience, it's about the London-centric view that exists in the UK.

I can not tell you the number of times there are articles in national newspapers about 'national' issues which turn out to be south-east issues, or which show maps of the UK which stop at Leeds. There is 700+ miles of the UK north of Leeds and about 900+ miles north of London. London is not convenient at all for those of us who live north of Oxford. It costs us a fortune to visit London and it's increasingly grotty.

It's the sort of comment I'd roll my eyes at an scroll past. It's silly and a bit London-centric to not only complain that there should be extra London dates to be more central, but suggest it's doing everyone a favour by being in central London.
I'm not sure you deserved ridicule for it, but can understand why a bit of mild or good natured joking would be done.

I do get a bit fed up of everything being focused around London but it's not worth re-posting and ridiculing you for. Try and ignore it and move on. People on social media can be far meaner than they are in real life.

Central London for people in northern England and Scotland (cannot speak for south and west) is that, yes there are direct trains there but for many routes the cost is often so high. It's only 2 hours for us on the train but for a family of 4 it's about £400 return so taking our children on a trip to see their own capital city is unattainable. London doesn't seem like our capital at all, might as well be in a foreign country.

Our town was fairly well destroyed in last year's floods, the damage was huge and we are no where near back to normal, 5 months on our children have not made it back to their school. That day the national news only covered a shopping centre in London where stock was damaged by flood water. These are the things that cause the frustration to be un-fairly directed at you.

Central London is not easy for me to go to at all. As I live in Scotland. Your comment was laughable tbh.

A lot of Londoners seem to think that London is the centre of the universe and come across as hugely entitled and self absorbed - I think your post probably epitomised all that and that's why it was picked up. Especially as London is hideously expensive and actually very inconvenient for most people outside London. I'd rather travel into any city in the south than London.

Someone screenshotting your post and reposting it so they can laugh at it though is ridiculously juvenile and nasty. Just step away from the page for a week or two and it'll all be forgotten and they'll have moved onto something else.

And so it came to pass.