Walk out and you'll get refund, says Queen's Hall venue

A LEADING concert hall is to offer ticket-buyers a money-back guarantee for the first time.

The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh is launching a pilot project next month, which will give punters the chance to leave the venue and claim a refund within the first 15 minutes of a show.

The venue is testing out the "no questions asked" initiative in a string of shows before the end of the year in an effort to attract new audiences.

And managers at the hall - which hosts everything from classical, folk, jazz and blues events to rock and pop gigs -hope to make the venture a regular feature in its programme.

They say they are prepared to make the offer, as they are so confident in the quality of the music on offer at the venue.

The Queen's Hall, which is run by an independent trust, is one of the few venues to play host to concerts at the Fringe, the Edinburgh International Festival and the capital's jazz and blues festival.

Capercaillie, Dougie MacLean, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Armatrading, Francis Rossi, Diana Vickers, Steve Harley and Dr John are among the top acts to have played there in recent months.

The concerts chosen for the experiment include gypsy guitarist Lulo Reinhardt, traditional Shetland musicians Chris Stout and Catriona McKay and Quebec band Glenticorum. The venue's money-back guarantee states: "We're big fans of these musicians, and in these difficult financial times we're prepared to put our money where our mouth is. All we ask is that you come along and try it.

"Buy a ticket for the show, and if you hate it within the first 15 minutes, just go to our box office and ask for a refund, no questions asked."

Andy Catlin, marketing manager at the Queen's Hall, said: "As far as we know, we're the only venue in the country doing something like this.

"We decided earlier this year we wanted to trying some kind of initiative to generate new audiences," Mr Catlin said. "We're pretty convinced that people will love these concerts, but if somebody genuinely doesn't like a show, we are happy to give them a refund if they come out within the first 15 minutes.

"We're only able to do this with our own shows at the moment, as it's not something promoters would agree to, but if it works well we would hope to do it on a regular basis.

"We're not anticipating any more problems with people leaving concerts and disrupting other audience members," he said."That can obviously happen occasionally, but you can't legislate for something like that."

Music promoter John Barrow, who runs the Edinburgh-based agency Stoneyport, said: "I'm in two minds about this, as the venue could end up losing money, but it's a clever idea."

He added: "The Queen's Hall have obviously selected shows they don't think people will walk out of, so it's probably worth a gamble."

Dave Kerr, music editor at The Skinny magazine, said: "Purse-strings are obviously a bit tighter right at the minute, so punters are understandably looking for a guarantee of that quality before parting with their money.

"It's inspiring to hear that somebody has the confidence to try this out, and it will be interesting to see whether big-name promoters follow suit."

CRITIC'S VIEW

The last gig I actually walked out of was a Little Feat show at the Queen's Hall a few months ago, after they played a 20-minute version of Spanish Moon, even though I used to be a big fan, and I also left an Angie Stone concert early, as it just wasn't my thing, writes John Richardson.

People don't generally walk out of concerts, because they are there to see someone play a lot better than they can do themselves, particularly these days when the quality of musicianship is so high.

This is actually quite a novel idea by the Queen's Hall, although you just couldn't do it for the majority of shows, or in a lot of other venues.

You can imagine it leading to all sorts of problems, with big queues of people trying to get a refund.

It could be a bit disruptive, but there's more of a problem these days with people talking during concerts.

• John Richardson is manager of Ripping Records in Edinburgh.