Edinburgh author Ian Rankin has hit out at Edinburgh Castle concert organisers on social media after his experience watching The Who on Saturday July 8.
Ranking took to Twitter to say that although the London rock band were fantastic, he expected more for his seat considering he had paid a whopping £105 for a ticket.
Best known for Inspector Rebus novels, the author said that his view was often obstructed and that the seats were not comfy.
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In a couple of pictures shared online, Rankin appears to have an awkward view of the stage that is often completely blocked by other concert goers heading for refreshments or relief.
Rankin tweeted: “No disrespect to The Who, who were great tonight, but can we agree that fans who’ve paid £100 to be at a gig deserve - hear me out - a comfy seat and a view of the stage. No?”
The tweet was liked almost 4,000 times with some concert goers backing Rankin’s claims of gig views being blocked by people going to the bathroom or bar.
“The thing that annoyed me was the number of people constantly wandering about - up and down to the toilet/bar - which I found very distracting.
Donald (Disco Pie) replied: “Can folk not just stay put?Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and I’m glad the rain stayed off.”
Rankin responded to the comment by saying: “Yeah, we had people near us leave after half an hour…”
Louise commented: “Esplanade is set up for the tattoo, which uses the whole length between the seating, concerts that stick a stage at one end are not going to work well - it seems to be about getting more £ to outweigh the seating costs than the audience experience.
“Murrayfield a better idea!”
Meanwhile Graeme added: “Sounds like you need to be more selective of seat/venue, although the days of seeing major bands for less than three figures may be long gone.
“The stage at the castle has always been at the wrong end in terms of the slope, but the stands offer a seat, and fairly decent view.”
But Brian said that he enjoyed the gig and had a great view: “Lot of complaining going on about the Who gig tonight on twitter.
“And that's fine BTW... but my experience was that the gig was amazing... seats were not uncomfortable, though I left out of it most of the time, and view was perfect…”
Edinburgh Castle Concerts were approached for comment.
