An article from the Sunday Times reports that American researchers have discovered that “line Nazis” run the queues of U2 concerts. Here is a brief snippet:
A study of almost 500 U2 fans queuing overnight for four concerts in Philadelphia and Atlanta discovered those seeking to gain entry to “the rail”, a sought-after area at the front of the concert, organise themselves in a remarkably systematic fashion without prompting from concert organisers.
The study’s authors, who have a background in anthropology and one of whom describes herself as a U2 fan, discovered that concert queues “are managed largely by fans themselves who organise a system in which the first fans in line keep a list with names and numbers assigned to people as they arrive”.
Venue staff support the system by telling newly arrived fans to get a number from the “line Nazi”, a fan at the top of the queue who invariably takes control at each event.
To test the strength of the system, researchers invented a series of scenarios in which people jumped the queue. Fans were then asked to fill in a questionnaire that assessed their reaction. The academics discovered that fans of the group, who had an average age of 30, got upset even when someone cut in behind them, not affecting their place in the queue. Hardcore fans were more incensed than more moderate devotees.
For those who may not have experienced a GA line at a U2 concert, I can confirm that this does indeed happen, and I’m pretty impressed that the researchers have even used the terminology that U2 fans who have experienced this phenomenon have dubbed the practice. While I can only speak of the American concert experience, my husband informs me that the GA queue experience is more of an understood social norm as opposed to someone overtaking a GA line to enforce the “rules.”
After U2 graduated from the clubs, general admission has only been available at US gigs since 2001’s Elevation tour. General admission is a relatively newish phenomenon because of venue rules enforced after fans died attending other concerts because of crushing or trampling. This is the reason why there are somewhat strict rules set by venues to capacities both inside the heart/bomb shelter/etc., and elsewhere on the floor.
From my experience with the “line Nazis” at various US shows in 2001 and 2005, the level of enforcement did change as U2 changed their policy of who got into the inner-circle of the venue and who didn’t. While it caused a great deal more disappointment among those who were first in line when they didn’t get scanned into the bomb shelter (as opposed to first-come, first-served in 2001), it did change who the band saw in front of them night after night. This only seemed to be an issue in arenas because of the smaller numbers in a more confined area. While there were the occasional few who did manage to get their same concert viewing position show-after-show, it was harder for them to do so. Fans who followed the tours know this story, so I’m not going to revisit that.
A couple of items the Sunday Times article did not point out was that the two big responsibilities of the “line Nazi” commander was to a) have a different colored sharpie for each show and to leave the show early to reform the line if the band had multiple shows in one city. The sharpie marker color changed based on the show to differentiate between the previous gig and the following night’s gig. The fine art of leaving the show early was for self-preservation so that the same group could enforce the rules of the line for the next show. The frustration of having to deal with the “line Nazi” was that you may be third in line, but they had already accounted for all of their group…which meant you were pushed back to 14th in line (give or take.) They took care of their own at the start of the line and sometimes changed the rules as they went along as long as they served their purpose.
From my 2005 experiences, there really was never a coup d’etat to overthrow the “line Nazis” - it was an understood norm where it was better to just put up with it than it would be to confront the same group of people night after night. Part of it was for the sake of keeping peace, and another part of it was personal satisfaction when they weren’t scanned into the bomb shelter…albeit at my own disappointment when I wasn’t scanned in either. It did create more stress to those in the GA line - “will I be scanned in, or not?” - but it was better than doing a head count and realizing they were only letting in 300 and you were number 303 in line.
It is interesting that this research is being publicized now - nothing like getting people all in a tizzy before the next tour is announced and months before tickets go on sale. I’m sure people on the @U2 Forum and beyond will have a lot to say about this topic!
This is a post from the @U2 blog.