Possibly the worst organised event I have ever been to...

So...we went to London on Friday. I bought The Boss tickets to see Russell Howard (of Mock The Week fame) at the Hammersmith Apollo for his birthday back in August. The show was on Friday night.

West London + Friday Night = Err...I'd give it a miss.

Really, it's less of "West London" and a Friday night, it's more "Hammersmith Apollo + Lack of Management = Err...I'd give it a miss". I am not joking when I say that I think it's the worst organised event that I have ever been to. RIAT was cool, and they had approximately 100,000 people, but then, it would have been organised with military precision. The Hammersmith Apollo was just appalling.

Take my advice here. If you want to see someone that is appearing at the Hammersmith Apollo, but you have the opportunity to go elsewhere to see them...definately go elsewhere.

The tickets that I got through Ticketmaster said that the doors open at 18:30. Cool, right? Well, we turned up at about 18:45. The tickets also said that the show started at 19:30. When did they start letting us in? 19:15. I kid ye not. Is 15 minutes enough time to get anything up to 5000 people seated? Is it bollocks. We were seated pretty quickly, probably by 19:20. We were sat for the next fourty minutes in sweltering heat and really oppressive noise waiting for something to happen. Yes, you read that correctly, the show didn't start at 19:30.

It got to 20:00 and the lights dimmed. Everyone seemed to think that Mr. Howard was coming on. We were all slightly disappointed to find that it wasn't. It was the warm up comedian, whose name I cannot remember, but who was rather amusing. He stayed for 20 minutes, maybe 25 at the most and then buggered off, at which point there was an 'interval'. An interval in a stand up comedy show? WTF?

We were sat for between 30 and 40 minutes, again is sweltering heat, and oppressive noise waiting for Mr. Howard to come on. He didn't come on until 21:00. We had been sat in those seats for an hour and a half waiting for it to start before he came on. It just smacks of piss poor management. If nothing is going to happen for two hours before the show starts, then don't open the fucking outside doors two hours early. Not exactly rocket science, is it? Don't allow 4000 - 5000 people to pack into a tiny little space and then leave them hanging around for two hours. I was amazed that I didn't pass out considering how hot it was.

FFS. It's not difficult. And another thing - don't print a start time of 19:30 on the tickets if the fucking thing doesn't start until 21:00. What's the point in that? Probably to get us in and drinking. Doesn't fool us. We sat through the heat without a drink because it didn't appear that they accepted cards. How is it sensible to have that many people loitering around for hours? FFS.

On another note, Mr. Howard was very good. I certainly enjoyed that part of it. I'd recommend people to go and see him...however, I would look for somewhere other than the Hammersmith Apollo if I were you.

The following morning we had decided to get some food somewhere and ended up walking about 1.5km further than we needed to. We stayed in Southwark, and took an exceptionally long route to Waterloo Station which took us about 20 minutes, when we could have walked for about 5. Heh...it was pissing it down with rain too. After a visit to CyberCandy on Garrick Street (yes, the same street as The Garrick Club), where we spent over £30 on sweets, we went for some lunch at Ed's Diner on Rupert Street, and then we made our way home. Wonderful. Lots of processed junk food, and a visit to Britain's capital of consumerism and capitalism - what a lovely way to spend 24 hours.