Hundreds made the pilgrimage for the Britain’s Got Talent duo’s CD signing at the Arndale Centre, but by the time they got there HMV had sold out of CDs – which were the ‘ticket’ to gain entrance.
Britain’s Got Talent stars Bars and Melody were stopped by their management from apologizing to hundreds of screaming fans who were denied the chance to meet the youngsters in Manchester.
Charlie Lenehan, 15, and Leondre Devries, 13, released ‘Hopeful’ via Simon Cowell’s Syco label this week, and the anti-bullying song sold out within minutes of the store opening.
The duo started filming a special message to fans for the M.E.N. website but had to stop when Sony Music officials intervened and took them away.
Police were called to the Arndale Centre yesterday after hundreds of screaming fans were denied the chance to meet their idols at an HMV CD signing event.
As security guards barred the entrance to ever-growing crowds outside HMV, bosses eventually resorted to pulling down the shutters.
But that didn’t stop the chorus of ‘we want BAM’ – nor did it dry the tears for many heartbroken fans.
Many had woken in the early hours to make the pilgrimage for the Britain’s Got Talent duo but by the time they got there HMV had sold out of CDs – which acted as a ‘ticket’ to gain entrance.
Caroline Harris, was queuing with daughter Megan, 13. She said; “We’ve come all the way from North Wales, My daughter and nieces have been looking forward to this for ages. it took us two hours to get here.
“It said on the website we could buy CDs here – but they had sold out and they wouldn’t let us in. My daughter and nieces have been up all night, lots of people have travelled a long way to be here. It’s terrible.”
Debbie McKearney, 42, who was with daughter Caitlin, 12, added: “This is not what was advertised on the website, they didn’t tell us about a limit. If we’d known we could have got the CDs of Amazon.”
Val Windsor, 54, from Liverpool, was with her granddaughter.
She added: “I’m absolutely fuming as we’ve been up since 5.30am to come especially.
“People have come from all over just to be told to go away. The manager has been incredibly rude too.”
The luckier fans formed a queue upstairs waiting for the pair’s appearance at 12.30pm.
Paul Heaton, 50, from Sale, was with his daughter Lucy, 12.
She sad: “We are so excited, we do feel sorry for the people downstairs – we can hear them chanting.”
Terry Doyle, store manager, told the M.E.N they could only allow a maximum of 600 in-store at anyone time – and they had purposely only had 800 CDs in stock – which sold out at around 8.50am this morning.
He said fans could have bought CDs from Monday, adding: “It works on numbers and how many people we are allowed inside the store. We have to work with the Arndale on their Health and safety guidelines for capacity.
“With signings like this we always get people who are disappointed. We do what we can. I wish we could get everyone in the store but we can’t. There are going to be 800 fans who are happy today and will get to meet Bars and Melody.”
The Bars and Melody stars, who found fame on the last series of Britain’s Got Talent with their anti-bullying song have been travelling round the country this week.
They have completed signings in HMV in Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol and were met by hundreds of adoring fans at each venue.
A spokesperson from HMV said: “We are obviously disappointed that some fans were unable to attend today’s signing session by Bars and Melody, this is due to the phenomenal popularity of this event.
“We have had to close the store as we have sold out of the single and can only allow fans with a copy of the single to join the queue as originally stated. Space and time restrictions mean we are unable accommodate more fans on this occasion.”
@BarsAndMelody Cant get in, all of the cds are sold out! absoloutley gutted! Travelled hours to see you!
— Al (@OhSnapItzAl) July 31, 2014
Bars and Melody signing has sold out. Sorry, if you haven’t got a cd you can’t get in.
— hmvManchester (@hmvmanchester) July 31, 2014
SOURCE:http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/
