Buying tickets for big gigs - is it now impossible?

Posted by: Jonathan Gorse on 16 July 2018

As a lifelong Beatles fan I decided I'd better get on and see Paul McCartney at his recently announced tour in December this year. I set aside this morning - tickets were to go on sale at 10am. I was poised over my laptop before 10am on both the official ticket sales websites AXS and Ticketmaster. I clicked and clicked repeatedly at 10am to buy tickets and each website continuously told me no tickets were available (and this despite merely trying to get 3 tickets in any block at the O2 at any price including the top level Ł145 ones.

What a waste of half an hour!! I see that even before 10am tickets were on sale at Viagogo, Stubhub etc at 200%+ mark-up and I do wonder how people managed to buy tickets and list them on those sites before I was even able to buy anything!!

It makes me feel like trying to go to big gigs is simply a waste of time. My last experience at the O2 was awful anyway - terrible acoustics, nightmare parking, huge queues getting out and Roger Waters was a barely unrecognisable speck on the horizon!! I'm coming around to the view that I'd be far better off doing what I have increasingly been doing in recent years and that is seeing excellent cover bands like the Cavern Beatles in a nice venue/theatre with better sound, where you can get closer to the artist to see what they are doing, park right outside, have a nice dinner beforehand and pay 1/4 of the price.

Anybody else got any views/tips because it seems to me that it's becoming impossible to get into any really big shows unless you pay the premium through a reseller?

My Daughter wants to go and see Tom O'Dell and I'd be grateful for any tips on how to at least try and get her in!

Jon

Posted on: 16 July 2018 by Innocent Bystander

I have never liked huge venues, and also I’ve never understood why invariably tickets for the same band in larger venues have tended to be more expensive than in smaller venues - it is counter-intuitive, for that reason I abandoned even trying to go to stadia and similarly sized venues decades ago, and although I did look at Roger Waters tickets at a couple of locations in his recent tour, the price for anything half decent in terms of likely view and sound was ridiculous, and for me that added to the cost of the inevitable travel and overnight stay simply ruled it out: a three day trip to Florence a couple of years ago to see a performance of La Traviata was cheaper, when I got in some other enjoyable things as well!

Posted on: 16 July 2018 by Karl

Jonathan Gorse,

I agree getting tickets is a real pain these days but you could make sure you have accounts set up with the big sellers well before the show you want to attend, register with Ticketmaster, live nation and See tickets, you should then be able to buy buy tickets a day or so early in the presale, also if you have O2 as your mobile supplier you can get tickets at the O2 early ( this is how some touts have tickets before they go on sale to the public) another way is to get an American Express card as they have seats at big gigs just for their customers.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Karl

Posted on: 17 July 2018 by Mike Hughes

It’s not always possible but try and book the gig away from where you live. The algorithms and cookies used on such sites are designed to allocate to those who travel furthest as they spend the most.

Secondly, if one of your party is disabled, ill or impaired then contact the accessibility person for a venue. There is a dedicated area and there will usually be a supply of tickets. The general rule would be to let people be together if possible.

Oh, and try buying Tom Odell tickets rather than Tom O’Dell