Concert Organiser Recalls Not Being Able to See Muse Perform
Adam Ashraf Kingsman apologized to Musers as they were frustrated with the hour and a half delay and the short duration of the concert.
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After months of waiting, fans were finally able to see Muse perform their Will Of The People (WOTP) World Tour in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday (29 July). Hardcore Musers have been waiting for 16 years for them to returrn to Malaysia and they finally got their wish, thanks to Hello Universe.
However, as a new concert organiser that just made their mark in January this year, and has just handled one concert (CAS) prior to Muse, hiccups are bound to happen.
Drawbacks at the concert
Previously, during the concert, many concertgoers expressed their dissatisfaction towards the organisers for some issues that they had to face, including:
- The concert started an hour late (The schedule said 8.30 pm but Muse started playing at 9.25 pm)
- The show felt short as they only performed 20 songs and it ended at 11 pm (Most WOTP tour has an average of 25 songs)
- The screens were too small
- People who paid for the premium tickets had restricted views
- The free-standing zone A was sold out but there were still a lot of spaces
- The opening act should’ve started later for Maghrib prayers
Kyoto Protocol, the opening act started their performance at 7.30 pm and wrapped by 8 pm. So, Muse should’ve started playing at 8.30 pm. In the end, the crowd had to wait a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Hello Universe admitted their fault for the delayed timing and made a proper apology on their social media. They explained that it was due to heavy traffic at the Bukit Jalil Stadium from 8.15 pm to 8.45 pm.
When everyone arrived at the scene, they needed to get ready behind the stage as their management told the organisers so.
However, Adam Ashraf Kingsman, the CEO of Hello Universe, shared his point of view yesterday (31 July) on Facebook as the one who spearheaded the concert.
How Muse came to mind
Kingsman said he had always wanted to organise a Muse concert as together with his brother, they were both big fans. He didn’t expect a relatively small and new company like his could even organise such a concert which seemed impossible at first. He has never organised a big concert all by himself but he did have some experience in handling smaller ones. With that, he met his friends who were great fans of Muse and that’s how they started the plan.
They had 5 months to properly handle the event and being a new organiser, they created a fresh team from scratch because they wanted to learn the ropes themselves.
When it was time for the concert (29 July), he did everything in his power to ensure the concert ran smoothly. He said there were a lot of problems they had to face before the concert started but they had to keep it to themselves in order to successfully organise the concert.
He was there the whole day and night, running back and forth to make sure every department he appointed did their job.
But at 8.30 pm, he received a lot of calls non-stop from multiple people asking what happened. He tried to resolve matters.
After the issues were settled, he said he was not able to make any announcements as the stage had been handed over to Muse’s management, 30 minutes before the concert should have started.
His anxiety even landed him in the medic room
Kingsman started to get anxious when they still weren’t performing at 9.10 pm and he even had to stay in the medical room there for his anxiety. At 9.20 pm, his crew informed him that they finally started and he finally felt a surge of relief.
And he told the public that he didn’t have the chance to go out of the medic room from the moment they started playing till the end. He was disappointed, sad and shed a few tears as he really wanted to see his favourite band perform right in front of him but couldn’t.
In fact, he didn’t even get to meet lead singer Matt Bellamy and the others despite organising the concert. He was also not able to take a photo with the band. He said that all of his efforts for 5 months felt like they were in vain for him as he didn’t get to see the results. Now, he even has to look for videos from TikTok, Twitter and Facebook to see the performance.
Kingsman apologised for the delay of the concert but he was actually proud and grateful for his team because a lot of people applauded their sound system and set up. He is also proud to be part of history and hoped to see Muse someday.
He also hoped that the public would not give up on them, give them room to fix their weaknesses and continue to give them support for future plans of bringing awesome international bands to Malaysia.
Baca luahan hati Adam kingsman, organiser yg bawak muse masuk malaysia. Sebak, sedih terharu, diri sdri yg organise tak dpt tgk Muse depan mata. pic.twitter.com/yIc4jQFS2L
— 🏴mustakim ismail 🏴 (@mustakim_ismail) July 31, 2023
Well, although the Muse concert didn’t go according to plan 100%, their performance was divine anyway. Since Muse formally started in 1994, plenty of millennials came to the concert, wishing to relive their emo-rock years back in the day. Plus, their music knows no bounds, so people of all ages and nationalities came together in black and it was such a heartwarming feeling to see the unity.
Besides, even organisers who had years of experience organising big events had plenty of issues, let alone a new one. But it’s how they manage the problems that show their professionalism.
Most fans just wish for Hello Universe to fix their mistakes accordingly and continue to organise more dope events in the future.
Let’s bring MCR now, shall we?
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