One Direction; almost as few songs

One Direction - persistent X Factor run-off band - went to Oxford to play a gig. There was an air of excitement.

The excitement kind of vanished after they only played for four songs before going off to count their money.

Twenty minutes. Now, to you or I, twenty minutes of One Direction might seem like they'd delighted us for long enough. But if you actually like the band, and had handed over hard-earned pounds to see them, you might feel miffed.

Craig Pitson, who runs promoter Soundwave Live, can't see why people are upset:

But Craig Pitson, director of Soundwave Live, said the event was always billed as 'One Direction Plus Support Acts and Live DJ’.

Right. But, generally, all gigs have at least one support act and someone flinging on records during the changeovers. At most gigs, though, the headline band play more than an ep's worth of music.

He said: “The support acts are there to create a show, otherwise it would literally be the headline performance and that, I agree, would be a complete waste of money and source of disappointment to those attending."

Well, not really - if people were paying to see the headline act, they'd probably rather see the headline act play a set, rather than a few. I don't think anyone ever comes out of a gig saying "if only the band I'd paid to see had played a few fewer songs to allow the unbilled support a bit more time. And I could have heard the unnamed DJ play records all night."

“We didn't just randomly throw support acts on stage, we carefully selected Oxford's finest up and coming talent.

“We take great pride in supporting and showcasing young artists from Oxford and we will continue to do so.”

I'm sure you do, and that's great and a positive thing to do. But given you didn't even tell people who the support acts would be when promoting the gig it's fair to assume the audience weren't there to see them play. And nearly every gig I've paid to see has a support act. The presence of a support act doesn't mean you should expect a fun size headline set.

[H]e added: “The time, effort and work which goes into these shows is vast, and although we appreciate feedback from all attendees, the show at The Regal was one of the best atmospheres ever to hit Oxford."

The show was an atmosphere. It hit Oxford. Meteorologists have confirmed that the bestness of that atmosphere certainly put it in the top five atmospheres that Oxford has ever been hit by.

It is possible that One Direction only know four songs.