Teignmouth Den 2009 - 4th (gig)

Poster

Wolstenholme outside Teignbridge council offices, 17th August

Warning on a local road

Ticket - Night 1 at The Den

Guest ticket - Night 1 at The Den

Setlist - Show 1

Muse show
Venue	The Den^[1] (A Seaside Rendezvous^[2])
Date	4th September 2009^[3]
Location	Teignmouth^[4]
Country	United Kingdom
Songs	16
Support	The Quails, Cosmo Jarvis
Start (UTC+1)	18:00 (doors)
Capacity	10,000
Price (GBP)	37.50^[5]
Sold out?	Yes^[6]

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A Seaside Rendezvous - 4th

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First show of The Resistance era and first show of 2009. First of the two Den shows. The gig also doubled being a promo gig for The Resistance.

Information

First rumoured in mid-July of 2009,^[7] the South Devon newspaper Herald Express lent credence to the possibility of two early-September Teignmouth gigs on the 4th of August, 2009. Permission was still being sought at that time, though anecdotes from locals suggested that the concerts were thought likely to go ahead.^[8] Support was gauged by the council through sending letters regarding the concerts to locals, culminating with a meeting inside Teignbridge council offices at 10AM on the 17th of July.^[9]

Chris Wolstenholme appealed for followers of Musewire to turn up to the offices in support of the gigs, and the council allowed the concerts to go ahead, under the condition that the sound level does not exceed 84.1 decibels.

The concerts were announced on the Muse website the following day, collectively dubbed "A Seaside Rendezvous", inspiration believed to be taken from Queen's song of the same name. Ticket price is the same as that of the rest of The Resistance tour, namely £37.50 without booking fee, through the Muse website, Ticketmaster, Gigs and Tours/Seetickets and an unspecified Teignmouth booking office. A limited number of tickets was sold with coach transport through "Gigs And Tours", from the following cities: Birmingham, Bristol, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and Southampton.

It has been speculated that these twin gigs are what DJ Zane Lowe meant by his "surprise" in store for Muse fans.^[10] This seems to have been the case, as he announced, on his Tuesday 18th of August programme, that he would be supporting Muse as a DJ, and that a partial recording of the concerts — along with "Muse at 10" (a pun on "News at 10") — would be broadcast on his Monday 7th of September programme. "Muse at 10" was a documentary celebrating the 10 years of Muse since the release of the debut album Showbiz was first released, on the 7th of September 1999 in France.

Multiple competitions for the event were held in various countries, including Austria^[11] and Switzerland^[12]. Competitions in Austria were held by FM4 and in Swizerland by 20 Minuten, 20 Minutes, Couleur 3 and DRS 3, all local radios. A bid for eight pairs of tickets was held by The Helen Foundation, with the proceeds going towards charitable purposes.^[13]

The gigs' technical preparations on site began on August 31st. The stage was built on the south side of the Den and attendees viewed the concert from the north side of the field. The design of the stage is inspired in the 'Punch and Judy' stage, a traditional or folk puppet show from the seaside region that dates from Victorian times, in where a set of dolls perform several comic acts.

The Show

Uprising (in it's extended version), Resistance, Interlude, United States of Eurasia, Popcorn, Undisclosed Desires, and Unnatural Selection were all given their live debuts. Cave was also played for the first time since 2001, albeit this time it was played on piano instead of guitar.

The two gigs marked the first time Muse performed at their hometown of Teignmouth in 14 years. The last time that Muse played in there was in 1995, during their early days.

Ticket sale

The first Muse pre-sale was from 9AM on the 19th of August, 2009. This pre-sale was enforced by unique codes given to each member of the official Muse website. Only one order could be made and tickets were limited to four per order. This system prevented the vendors' websites from buckling and people were able to buy tickets for a long period after the pre-sale started. A second Muse pre-sale took place the following day, that time limited to members of the mailing list. General sale caused Seetickets outage, which was still the case at 09:33,^[14] but had ended by 09:37, the same day.^[15]

General sale sale started on the 21st of August, 2009.

Price table

Description	Base price	Transport	Booking fee	Transaction fee	Total
Official price	£37.50	-			£37.50
Ticketmaster		-	?	?	?
Seetickets with Bristol coach		£22.95	£0	£4.80	£65.25
Seetickets with Birmingham coach		£32.95			£75.25
Seetickets with London coach		£33.95			£76.25
Seetickets with Southampton coach		£28.95			£71.25
Seetickets with Nottingham coach		£36.95			£79.25
Seetickets with Oxford coach		£29.95			£72.25