Villa Park 9th June 2013 - Official Thread
 

Right,

This one is my expertise. Being a big Aston Villa fan this is a dream for my favourite band to play at my favourite football club (soccer for all you Americanos). I have my gold circle ticket as diamond sold out in seconds. but im happy with my purchase. Villa Park is quite a small ground - holds 43,000 on match days so I'm expecting the same. So you're still going to be very very close in gold circle.

So anything you want to know about the area, location, amenities etc then I'm your man. Please feel free to PM me. Here is a bit of info for you people not from the area:

Villa Park is situated on the outskirts of Birmingham in a not-so-nice part of the city called Aston.

There are no decent bars/restaurants anywhere close so you're best off going to Birmingham city centre.

The nearest railway station is Witton which is a 5 minute walk, or Aston station is 10-15mins. These stations can be reached from Birmingam New Street station.

Car parking isn't great in the area. There is an official club car park behind the Holte End and North End stands but I don't know the availability of these. There are various car parks in the area - I usually park in the car park underneath the Flyover by Aston station. DO NOT park in the local streets & estates. It is a very rough area with high crime. Kids will bribe you with cash to "look after your car" and if you refuse chances are it will be done in.

You're best off staying in the centre and getting the train. It takes 10mins to Witton and they usually provide extra trains for football supporters. I'm confident they'll do the same for Bon Jovi

Meet ups are best off in the city centre - The Bull Ring is a massive shopping mall and has an array of restaurants in and around it, and is very close to Birmingham New Street station.

Broad St and the canals also has many bars and restaurants but is a bit further away from the station.

Any more info please ask.

Nick

Mod Edit:

Setlist-
1. That's What The Water Made Me
2. Bad Name
3. Born To Be My Baby
4. Raise Your Hands
5. Lost Highway
6. Runaway
7. It's My Life
8. Because We Can
9. What About Now
10. We Got It Goin' On
11. Keep The Faith
12. Amen
13. Bed Of Roses
14. Captain Crash
15. Born To Follow
16. Who Says You Can't Go Home
17. Rockin' All Over The World
18. Sleep
19. Bad Medicine w/ Old Time Rock n Roll

Encore I

20. Dry County
21. Wanted
22. In These Arms
23. Happy Now
24. Have A Nice Day
25. Prayer (with acoustic intro)

Encore II

26. Always
27. Blood On Blood

Aloha !

Despite this being your expertise (couldn't resist) you're wrong on this one. The Golden Circle is roughly the same size everywhere, it's got something to do with a certain amount of people allowed on a certain amount of square feet. There's always around 5.000 tickets sold but they can't make the area smaller because of safety regulations. Just figured I'd tell you. :)

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Thanks Seb,

But I was under the impression it's all done on ratio. I've seen the plan/layout and the area does look pretty small so it would have to be a huge area on the scale to fit 5000 onto the pitch.

Villa Park is a football stadium very tightly compacted with no pitch perimeter at all. I imagine the stage will be shrunk a bit to compensate. But I'm sure you'll tll me otherwise

Aloha !

Have you seen the official plan layout or just the one posted on ticketmaster and the likes? Those are always incorrect and just shown to indicate what a GC is like. You're right, the stage might be downscaled, but as for the rest it's all being regulated by very strict safety registrictions. It's got something to do with there just being 2 small exits on both sides while the field has several exits in case something happens. I've learned this from talking to several security guards over Europe.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Well if you're right, Seb then I'm getting there very early! Because the outer perimeter for GC will come to the half way line and there will be little room for general standing. Believe me, Villa Park pitch is tiny.

Maybe someone who went to Bristol a few years ago can tell us how big/small GC was

You paint a lovely picture of the area, I can't wait to go :lol:

Ahh good to see a thread which has been taken over, the above discussion could've been put into a separate thread :rolleyes:

I've been with Leeds away a couple of times, in a shit hole of an area but a proper football ground. Will hopefully be there on a cheap ticket, prob watching from the toilets :cool:

Well I hope you don't suffer from vertigo. The Holte End is very steep and very high and if you're on the back row your view of the screens may be impeded by the roof.

Well when Seb starts a discussion you feel obliged to discuss! That said, good point.

The whole GC was a complete joke on the Circle tour. I bought GC tickets for Munich (via Eventim, not FC) and when we arrived we were told that the GC is full and that only FC member were let in and that we will be in the section behind, so it was a third sector actually which ended somewhere in the middle of the stadium.
I had GA tickets to Mannheim and we got better spots (right at the barrier) in the same sector as I was in Munich. I was happy for having such luck but also pissed about the money wasted in Munich. I paid about 50€ more for worse place. Plus the show in Mannheim was better (Munich looked better on paper but not live)

Massive Villa fan, ecstatic to hear they were coming here! Sitting in the Holte End too =) =)

Can confirm what has already been said. Birmingham is a FANTASTIC city, but Aston is a shithole. It's a great old stadium, a proper football ground!
Look out for makeshift carparks near the venue, school playgrounds etc.as I imagine the very limited stadium parking will be closed to the public.

I'd personally drive to the city centre and take a look round there, then take a train from New Street to Witton Lane. As previously stated, there's nothing for food/drink in the area so take advantage of the masses of options in our great city before travelling through.

UTV!

I'm also a villa fan so this was great news for me! Booked the £25 tickets, in block A5, roped a mate in coming as well who is at Birmingham Uni so got a place to stay etc - Can't wait!

I'm interested in knowing about prices to travel from centre out to Villa Park on public transport (whether there is a daily pass etc).

I've already booked into the Ibis for that night (only £20 which seemed more than fair), so just need to get my head around travelling to and from the ground. I've got GC ticket via the FC so hoping that should mean I don't have to worry too much about getting there too early to join any queues, as I'm in Manchester DC the day before! :D:cool:

Im gonna be driving from Nottingham to this one, so just need to scout out car parks.

Found this link from the Take That concerts:

http://www.lovebirmingham.co.uk/inde...t-Parking1.jpg

I'll probably aim for the Aston Events Centre if it's not too busy and then have a quicker route out to the M6 and the joys of Spaghetti Junction

Can anyone confirm if the TM seating chart is correct regarding the fact that access to the Lower Tier of seats are available on an unreserved basis with a GA Standing ticket?

http://media.ticketmaster.co.uk/tm/e...3/14022s_a.gif

You will notice that the GA Floor and First Tier of seats are the same colour and are listed as 'Freeflow' in the key.

I have been to many stadium shows where this is the proceedure, although, most times, the GA tickets are listed as "Unreserved GA Standing And Seating", whereas these are only listed as "GA Standing". The seating chart changed sometime between late last night and this morning, as last night it said that all seats were reserved. I'm just hoping to confirm that the GA tickets I bought will also allow access to the unreserved Level 1 seats, as it now states.

I'm buying these tickets for my mother and she will want the option to sit.

And I really don't want to have to contact the ticketmaster retards! They probably know less than I do.

Thanks.

Thanks for all the great info. Thinking about getting tickets as the drive from N Herts to Brum is probably cheaper than the train into London. The cheapest seats will obviously be nosebleed, but how far away would that be? I sat in The O2 in nosebleed tickets and it was fine. I'm guessing with a stadium it would quite a way away from the stage?

Your train is the best bet. It takes 10mins to get to Witton and Aston stations from Birmingham New Street station. The cost about a year ago for that journey was about £3.50 return. Expect that to be 30-40p more now after the train fare hike. Chances are they will put a "special" train on at night after the concert as the last train would have probably gone. That's what they do at evening games at Villa Park.

Worth a look at Star City as well. Its an entertainment/cinema complex About a 20min walk from the ground with massive Car parks. They may have restrictions though. But I've parked there for match days and its been ok

Villa Park will be a Championship stadium by the time Bon Jovi play there, hopefully.

That yellow pic at the bottom puts me off a tad!

http://www.starcitycentre.co.uk/about-starcity

Don't go there dude, don't go there

I'm considering this one.... Cheap ticket only though!;)

Just checked hotels.... £20.00, very tempting!

Yeah true, but I genuinely reckon you'd be fine if you had seats and went straight there for the show. Turn up at 6:30, bite to eat, goto the ground. Before the car park security know you could be going to the cinema. With ads and trailers + movie that'll be the length of a Bon Jovi show. Guaranteed movies will finish past midnight and you have been a customer as you've eaten there. You could easily spend half a day at star city with bowling, drinks, restaurants, amusement arcades and the cinema

If you went for the whole day and got there at 9am then i agree you'd probably struggle!

Probably will go to this but I see it's a day after the Manchester show. A tired Jon doesn't make for a good show.

What happened to the 2-3 day break between shows? :confused:

But then, he has the day off after this whereas if he's playing manchester but knows he has this gig the day after, he may hold back at manchester. you just never know. lol

I'm another local to Villa Park.

Echo the concerns over parking.

An alternative which i think is better than Birmingham is


Tame Bridge Park Way
On the Walsall - Birmingham Line
Popular Park and Ride Station for Commuters in to Birmingham
Free Parking
Only 3 stops to Witton / Aston Station - 15 mins max
Quick Getaway to Junctions 9 & 7 of the M6
Its a no hassle journey because the queues to go to Walsall are always shorter than Birmingham.

That said - Walsall Town Centre isn't a bad bet to travel in from on Train. West Brom isn't a terrible journey on the bus.

But people driving in from elsewhere - Trust me on the Tambe Bridge Park Way - its the least hassle trip. No City centre rush hour etc

Ahhh, hotel booked :) ticket will sort when more cheapos go on sale next year!

Is that a given Yvonne? I tend to get my tickets ASAP so don't have to worry about it. Do you reckon they'll put more cheapos up for sale later then?

In previous years they've always released more tickets nearer the time including the "sold out" ones. Some venues that aren't selling well put offers on also.

Plus also having that £12.50 price bracket means they can always slip unsold tickets into that range at a later date if they are not selling well. They may start with a few sections and then see how it goes later to fill it up.

I can't get over how cheap you got that hotel for! The brummies obviously haven't cottoned on. I shall be driving back to Liverpool that night as I have work the next day. Gonna be exhausted me thinks!

They're advertising massively on Absolute Radio so chances are it hasn't (all venues) been a spectacular first 2 days on sale

Yep, its a bargain :) so it had to be done! I won't havemy car with me so will have to stay over.

My hotel for Manchester is £45.00 :)

I'm going to probably do Manchester too but it's a quick half hour on the M62 back for me. I think Manchester deserves a cracking gig after last time with that rain :(

Everywhere deserves a brilliant gig with these prices.

#expectedresponse

True - but we know Bon Jovi...

New Meadowlands 2010
Hull 2006
Manchester 2011

Manchester 2011 was my 6th show and I wasn't particularly disappointed when I left. The show may have been short (compared to others) but we still got to hear a cracking version of Bed of Roses - first time i'd heard that one! Plus any gig that has Dry County in it is far from a let down.

I understand the shit Hull gets but Manchester was still a cracking gig in my book!

It was cracking, you're right. But a lot of people on here didn't think so - even though they didnt go. There was almost a jovial (pun) and community spirit in the diamond circle. We were all in it together attitude and Jon was in quite good spirits despite the atrocious conditions

I left disappointed. Definitely. But upon reflection it was mainly down to the weather which was atrocious and a little bit by the setlist. The performance itself was great. I heard 'Bed Of Roses', 'Raise Your Hands' and 'Blood On Blood' too which were songs I was very pleased with.