I think the message has sunk home now.... near the front ONLY!! lol!
As I've mentioned, been to loads of concerts over 35+ years from Slade, ELP, Led Zep, David Bowie to Soft Cell, ALL of them FANTASTIC sound quality! As you say Ian S, the sound for me on Sunday night was worse than rubbish!
Apparently, Glasgow & Newcastle had exactly the same problems.

As Joe C says, the sound at Liverpool Echo was brill when I saw OMD, and I was up in the Heavens then

There's no excuse for the sound to be bad in Glasgow. The Armadillo is a purpose-built music venue, unlike many of the arenas Roxy are playing on this tour, which were primarily designed for sporting events and exhibitions.

It's a good ten years since I've been in the Armadillo -- Neil Finn in the early '00s -- but I remember the sound being excellent. Hall 4 of the SECC, however, is a different story.

My husband was in row L on the floor and actually went to the sound engineers to complain about the sound as he could not distinguish the songs or hear Bryan's voice. I was at the front and it sounded just fantastic. However, I had to contend with two fat slags who scratched, stamped and stood on anyone around them. They thought they owned the place. Pair of them were straight from Viz (grey dress/ red top). Pity they spent so much energy trying to spoil things for others, obviously not real fans. Everyone else was trying to enjoy the show. It was fantastic, and luckily being so close, the darkness did not matter, but for those further back, the group was in silhouette due to the bright screen behind them.

The Clyde Auditorium was actually purpose built for conference facilities rather than music. I find it not so good for rock music concerts, fine if you are in the stalls but the upper levels suffer from a lack of atmosphere which has been highlighted in some comments of other Roxy fans who were at the shows. I agree that Hall 4 is a terrible venue but where most of the big Scottish concerts are held so not much choice but to suffer it!

Mea culpa.

But a purpose-built conference facility should, at least, share a couple of attributes with a decent concert hall -- mainly a clear line of sight from each seat to the stage and decent acoustics. Most of the major arenas in the U.K. were designed with other things in mind. In the MEN's case, it was built for the failed Manchester Olympic bids of 1996 and 2000. It is essentially a U.S.-style sports arena.

I think the sound difficulties are the nature of the venue. I have seen Roxy and others at MEN both on the floor and up the sides and the further up you go the worse the sound quality gets - particularly for a dense complex sound such as Roxy Music. The alternative is to moderate the volume but if I have to compromise, I prefer energy and volume rather than crystal clear accoustics. I do agree that more modern venues have better designed accoustics than the big tin sheds, I sat rigth at the back row of the Birmingham indoor arena for BF on the Frantic tour (last minute impulse purchse) and seem to recall the sound being good for a seat in the gods.

Thanks Vinny & Peanut for your honest opinions,

In a nutshell, the MEN is not suitable for Music UNLESS you are in the front rows or close to the action.

The sound was so bad, I couldnt distinguish most of the tracks!

Let me re-emphasise, ROXY MUSIC are one of the most iconic bands of MY time. I rate them amongst the greatest groups of the era. So, its not as though I thought "umm, I fancy seeing this group called Roxy Music to see what they were all about!"

Liverpool Arena is far superior to MEN using the OMD concert as a benchmark.

Quote from Peanut:
In the MEN's case, it was built for the failed Manchester Olympic bids of 1996 and 2000. It is essentially a U.S.-style sports arena.

Sports Arena definately doesnt equal sound accuracy!

I know some auditoriums suffer from visual disadvantages but...
audio inaccuracy/deteriorisation is inexcusible!

I'm sure by trading standards, if you bought a CD/DVD that sounded crap/distorted/inferior, you'd get your money refunded!
So... if the sound is distorted in block 109.. you should also get your money back.

On another note, people have mentioned a dissapiontment with the set-list.
Surely, an artist should indicate a set-list BEFORE selling tickets for that concert.
It's almost like saying "I'm releasing an album in Oct 2011... order advance copies NOW (but I dont know what tracks are going to be on it!)

Ummmmm. Not sure if this meant to be a serious comment or if it is tongue in cheek.
If serious, I don't agree at all. A tour will be arranged months in advance, long before a set list is decided and if one is to be fixed in advance as you suggest, then there is no flexibility to add in extra songs as has happened on this tour.
What are the chances of a performer like Bob Dylan publishing a set list in advance? He often appears to decide on the night...