Old gig tickets

I love live music. Since my first concert at the age of 15 (New Kids on the Block since you ask!) I’ve been hooked on listening out for announcements of my favourite bands going on tour and making sure I get hold of tickets. Back in the old days this meant ringing a ticket hotline repeatedly until I got through, or even going down to a ticket office in person. You usually had good warning before the tickets went on sale and a bit of time to get some money together by saving or scrounging off your mum and dad. It didn’t really matter if you weren’t on the phone as soon as the tickets were available you had a good chance hours, weeks or even months later with some acts – I remember going into Birmingham to buy Reading tickets in July just weeks before the festival took place.

Now in the days of social media gigs are often announced the day before tickets go on sale and you have to be poised at your pc or clutching your smartphone ready to refresh your screen at 9.00am on the dot if you wish to attend the gig. Festival tickets can be released nearly a year in advance. It can be a nerve wracking and dairy wrecking thing as you hope that the event doesn’t clash with anything else in your life you haven’t planned yet. You have hours to make the decision to spend up to £100 on a single gig or £200 and to consult friends on who wants to come. Often you can end up buying more tickets than you need just in case or regardless of whatever else might be going on that day.

Obviously it’s a great way of creating a buzz, making people panic and rush to buy tickets. Nothing grabs the news more for an artist than if their tickets sell out within minutes – they must be massive!

I miss being able to hear an announcement, chat with friends about it over a couple of weeks, casually call a ticket hotline and book tickets. The mad scramble of hearing your favourite group are out on the road, frantically texting and Facebooking your friends, getting organised for people to sit at the refresh  button and making sure there is space on your credit card for 6 tickets is just unpleasant. The nerves as you see that the website is unavailable, the elation of finally obtaining your prize, the bitterness at shelling out a fortune to see someone you love but not sure you do that much.

This year has been a big one for reunions particularly of ones who people in the 35 – 45 age group might like. Everyone from Guns N Roses, The Stone Roses, Blur, Pulp, Steps (!) and the best of Stock Aitken and Waterman can be found somewhere playing live.

Being a bit short on cash and time, juggling three small children and not working, it’s been a frustrating time for me. I have been lucky enough to bag Radiohead and Blur tickets. I will confess to New Kids on the Block (again!). However with more money and time I would have been buying Guns N Roses, Sonisphere, Stone Roses, Hyde Park Calling (Soundgarden) and many many more.  Tours are a way of groups to cash in and pump up those pension funds whilst their fans are still young and nostalgic enough to care. Even if I can’t make it to all of them I have been swept up in some of the excitement generated by the announcement; presale for mobile phone customenrs; second presale for credit card customers; third presale for ticket website users etc etc. As a music fan I can see that things are getting a little cynical and perhaps we’re being screwed over by the big music promoters but we keep on buying into it as we need a bit of excitement in our lives and we all love to feel young again even when our heroes are clearing showing wear and tear (Blur at the Brit awards!).

This summer’s biggest reunions – The Stone Roses and Black Sabbath will testify whether it’s really worth all the excitement and I wait with anticipation.