P&J Live — Local services in Aberdeen City

I have seen some horror reviews of the P & J live and so wasn't sure what to expect, I was nervous for sure. Those nerves over the course of the night fell flat.

Parking: I paid the £15 extra for the VIP parking and it is worth it all day, you get to park right by the door and queues to get in. You are given disabled bays to park in and you even get to use the fast track priority queue to enter the venue once the doors open. Leaving the venue was also fast tracked as staff made sure VIP had first priority on leaving too. I did get lost a bit trying to find my way back to the main road and sat nav didn't properly pick the roads up on the way in but now that I have been there, should not be a problem and this is not the fault of the venue or staff.

Staff: Were very friendly, guiding me to where to park, guiding me leaving the parking lot, welcoming me in, friendly at all the food, drink and merchandise stalls, tending to the toilets and guiding me to my seat. Excellent staff

Show: The seats were quite comfy, however the floor is not tiered so if you are stuck behind someone tall I can see that being a problem. Thankfully Elf the Musical is mostly families and children so I never experienced this problem. The cast were awesome. Very interactive with the audience and had us in the palm of their hand, especially the kids. We had Santa make his way around the audience, police chases into the audience, buddy picking up some childrens march, buddy also talking to the kids, we got to throw "snowballs" at the mean policeman, the show had recruited 2 local children's quoirs to assist in the music. The acting was fantastic. The merchandise was on point, we got buddy the elf's, programmes, light up Minecraft swords, sweeties, Elf hats and all sorts of amazing things.

Overall an incredible experience that put all the horrible reviews I read previously of this venue to shame. This place is amazing and if not for the P&J us that live north in Scotland would be required to travel all the way down to Glasgow for many events. It is a true blessing to the local communities and as a disabled person with Multiple Sclerosis, I thoroughly enjoyed my time and look forward to going...

Queues, Queues , Queues

We arrived pretty early, to soak up some of the pre-gig atmosphere, peruse the snack options, browse the merch and perhaps have a drink or two.

We queued 5 minutes or so to get to a member of staff at the end of the queue at the main entrance. He directed us to the underground car park entrance saying the queues there were much less than upstairs. We then toddled along to the undergrounds car park entrance.

We queued downstairs for another 20 minutes to get to another member of staff who were directing folks with bags for security. But at least this queue was under cover and not under the elements.

We queued for another 10 minutes or so at security. Of course, at the Michael Bublé concert, the majority of the audience were lasses so there was quite a queue of folks with handbags. There were only 3 security stations and from what I saw, there was precious little actual security going on.

There was a very short queue after that to show our tickets.

Because of the time we took at the four queues above, we did not have time to join the long queues for snacks or the queues for drinks or browse the merch etc. so I’ve no idea if they were good, bad or indifferent. That was a sales opportunity lost!

Our seats were taken by folks who were directed to them as their seats were taken by others. Eventually, we were directed to alternative seats. I’m not sure if the replacement seats were as good as our originals, being a good bit further back, but more in the middle, but the show was good anyway.

The auditorium is vast. We were seated quite near the front and I think the stage could have been a little higher to give folks in the auditorium floor a better view.

It looks like P&J Live just haven’t quite got their act together. The queues to get in were far too long and nothing like what I’ve experienced in other similar venues and events. Security was slow and cursory at best. And the carry on with our seats, while handled by friendly but under pressure staff, just should not...

Edit: Since the awful first visit to this building, I have since returned to see Status Quo. It was pretty evident that someone took the complaints about the seating to heart. The tiered seats have been very clearly raised from ground level.

The disabled seating however is well off to the sides of the stage and is still pretty awful. These seats STILL don't face the stage. I'm sorry, but no one wants to sit with their heads turned for a 3/4 hr show.

The sound for Quo was pretty spot on. It was loud, there were no echoes and the band were very clear. Cannot complain that regard.

The P&J still feels like someone took the designs of the old conference centres of the 1980s and applied them to this new building. It's old fashioned, it's not practical and I honestly would have rather kept the good ol' AECC over this thing. Also consider the poor show for disabled folks. The seat layout, the lack of carer tickets etc. I'd still prefer to travel to Glasgow. It's actually cheaper in the long run.

Original Review: I went to the Alice Cooper show, my first and only time and the P&J Live (what happened to TECA?). My experience was fairly miserable. The seating is awful. The lack of help for disabled is shocking (unless you have a wheelchair). Car park is awful. The view is awful. It's not an upgrade to the AECC, it's just a longer version of the same building. A complete and utter disappointment.

Attached you will find my original review, now deleted from their Facebook page. They have since blocked me from their page due to my dissatisfaction with their venue and have removed the review feature to hide everyone's opinions. Your venue sucks, just accept it!

It really goes to show how good the SSE Hydro is in Glasgow. I attended one of the first shows in that building and everything went smoothly. The sound was great, the view was great, seats were great, staff were great etc. By comparison, P&J live is designed...