Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

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runcible
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Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by runcible »

I'm still very sore at being unable to get to Bardo Pond in London last December due to the snow. It occurred to me that I've had a couple of occasions where I've bought tickets for a gig and been unable to go and chucked the tickets away. I still have my unused Bardo ticket for some reason but eventually it'll end up in the bin. That feels really horrible - I value my music so much it hurts to miss a special occasion when I've actually paid to go. How often does this happen? Not often I guess, but I'm assuming others have felt this pain too!

About 18 months ago The Aliens played in Leeds and I had tickets. I totally misjudged the date and it turned out to be smack in the middle of kids half-term and I couldn't go as I was unable to find a babysitter that particular night. Tickets went in the bin. I have still not seen The Aliens live, so this was pretty bad.

I bought a ticket to see legendary punk thrashers Discharge in Leeds last year at what used to be called Joseph's Well. When I rang to check stage times they were due on after my last bus had left town so I couldn't home very easily. Ticket binned.

Donkeys years ago (1983?) I bought a girl I was after a ticket to see Public Image Limited as she said she wanted to go. Then she went weird and said she didn't so I went on my own and... her ticket went into the bin as no one outside the venue wanted it.

Others?
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by spzretent »

Spiritualized in Sheffield in the mid to late 90's. Ate the ticket but still kept it.
Lemon Jelly in Manchester too. At least someone used those.
Sigur Ros a few days after 9-11. Every tour going on then screeched to a halt. I never even thought about it as my mind was elsewhere. I ran into a friend who said he was sure I would be there. Tix were still on my fridge.
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charles w
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by charles w »

Spz - Gateshead Sage 2009 LAGWAFIS - ......Snow........4 hours on motorway........never made the venue....still gutted about it.

Probably missed the best gig I was ever going to see.
mc
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by mc »

I missed Belle & Sebastian at the Barrowlands last month due to the snow. Still gutted :(
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by nickh »

Loop at the Powerhaus in 1989 (?) I found out they weren’t due on till some ridiculous hour and I would have had to have left after about 10 minutes. Never went.

Café Oto last year, the Spaceman, Coxon, Shipp thing. Got to Richmond, paid for a travel card and when I got downstairs I was then informed that there were no trains to the east end. It was bitterly cold and wet and I had no desire to be wandering around Dalston in the early hours trying to get all the way back out here. I was not pleased but took a grain of comfort in finding out later I wasn’t the only one who never made it due to travel logistics.
Sim
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by Sim »

Having a young child who was at the time prone to recurrent tonsilitis and ear infections, buying tickets for a gig in winter was always going to be a risk.

Sadly the Acoustic Mainlines Union Chapel gig (the first of the two on the 9th Dec) was not to be for me.
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olan
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by olan »

I had an extra ticket for the first night of LAGWAFIS at the RFH. I couldn't sell it, and couldn't even give it away on the night of the gig. This annoyed me as I had flown all the way from Australia for those gigs (and a Durutti Column gig). At the time I couldn't understand why people weren't as interested/passionate as I was....then I saw all the touts outside the gig taking an absolute bath on the show and cheered up about it. I seem to remember some tout trolling this board about how much he'd lost.

Years ago when I lived in Ireland, back in the bad old 1980s, I had a series of missed Martin Stephenson and the Daintees gigs. Every time I bought a ticket something would happen (broken ribs, family funeral at the other end of the country, etc). Eventually I gave up and finally paid on the door at the Baggot Inn at the last moment in an attempt to avoid tempting fate again. Tremendous gig, just MS and a bloke who played everything from bass guitar to French Horn.
purespace
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by purespace »

4th row for Brian Wilson.
I think I feel it coming on
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by James T »

Leonard Cohen was playing 4 nights at Manchester Opera House. I met him on the first night and turned up with my ticket for the show on the 2nd night. When I got there on the 2nd night, turned out I had them for the first all along, which was soul destroying as it cost £100 face value and a further £220 from a tout. Still, I will just pretend it cost so much cause I got to meet the guy.
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by bunnyben »

i had a spare ticket to see lou reed performing berlin in nottingham. the girl i was supposed to go with decided at the last minute that she would rather go to glastonbury a day early to set up her tent and sit in a field. i didn't sell the ticket 'cos i didn't want to have to sit next to the person i had sold it to (i get socially awkward) so it was an empty chair till some blonde girl asked if it was spare. my freind asked me for the money for her ticket and i said i refused to sell it and that was that
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by bunnyben »

oh ps my tickets were front row-centre. i got one of lou's picks! :D
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
One Asian Under A Groove
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by One Asian Under A Groove »

I got too drunk in a bar next to Aberdeen's Glow 303 venue and didn't bother going next door to see The Coral when they were touring their debut album. Still gutted about that. I also missed Belle & Sebastian in Glasgow last December because of the snow, but I watched the webcast of it and was pretty bored so that wasn't too painful. The worst one for me was having tickets for one of the 50 Michael Jackson shows planned for the O2 Arena. My show was a good 8 or 9 months after the tour started and I was unsure about whether he would be able to fulfil all the dates for the tour, but I only expected him to cancel due to fatigue or something. AEG were kind enough to offer me a souvenir tickets in lieu of a refund of £80. Such lovely souls, not cashing in at all. I took the refund.
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by gassjack »

I missed Band Of Horses in Bristol earlier this year coz I simply forgot... so did my friend who was driving... shaming!

I missed Curve back in the day coz I was too wasted to move and feeling agoraphobic.

I was supposed to see The National at ULU a few years back but I was going solo and got freaked out on the night ( yeah another 'social anxiety' sufferer).

I skipped on Bright Eyes coz I decided Conor Oberst is a cock.

Rocket From The Crypt cancelled and that ticket hung on my noticeboard for years until I moved house.

Dead Can Dance cancelled - and it would have been their last gig - utterly gutted.

Nick Cave at Brixton Academy on Murder Ballads tour - I missed one night coz I had a proper migraine and was throwing up and trying to rip my eyes out - didn't care so much about that one coz I did almost the whole of that tour so only missing one was a good hit rate.

And last night I was supposed to be in Munich to see The Chapman Family but the finances dried up - I'm a bit gutted about it but I've seen them so many times in the last two months I think I'll get over it...
and through wax seals and padlocks...a hand through my ribcage...past the choking I saw palms and fingers grasping shoulders...collarbone...crushing...I imagined myself hacking desperately at a sea of appendages...freeing myself like a butcher...
runcible
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by runcible »

Christ what a month. Some horrible bugs have ripped through the Runcible household and cost us dearly.

The missus picked some revolting glandular thing which confined her to bed for 2 days and we had to sacrifice 2 Lee Perry tickets for his York gig. Gutted. A few days later I took the kids to see chart-throb Conor Maynard - a scary experience for me - and Mrs. Runcible's ticket was chucked (but I suspect the cost was only financial as she wasn't too keen to be honest) as she was still in a mess.

This week has seen me flattened by a truly revolting sickness virus which meant our Moon Duo tickets for Leeds Brudenell went in the bin. I am so distraught about that as I was so looking forward to it, particularly as Ripley and co are normally very friendly and the Brudenell allows you to hang about after the show to have another beer and a chat with whoever is still around. Added to that I was hoping to meet our own KingHarry for a beer so that was a shame too.

Punchline is my eldest was sent home from school today full of the same sick bug so I had to drive her home with a bucket between her knees. Probably only a matter of time before the other kids and the missus pick it up too. Yuk.

Jesus wept. Winter bugs go away!
James T
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by James T »

Leonard Cohen. He played 4 nights in a row and I was CERTAIN I bought thickets for the last night. Anyway, first night I go down to try and meet him (and succeeded!) and then went home. Got up the day after, checkout out the setlist, got excited like a little kid and went to get my tickets to take back to the other place I was gonna be staying at. To my horror, they were for the first night. I had been there pissing about unaware that I was wasting my £100+ ticket by going home.

Had to buy one off a tout. About £250...
heisenberg
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by heisenberg »

Spiritualized L+G gig at Royal Albert Hall (?) in 2009. Girl I was seeing ended it with me a few weeks before, and I was too cut up to go. I had been excited about seeing the show with her for a while, given that I had gotten her into the band after she initially dismissed them as crap. Looking back, yup, shoulda went, given the spare to a hobo and had a good time in the capital. Bitch. Lesson learned there, big time.

Also, BRMC in Glasgow in Dec 2010. Epic freaky snowfall on the day of the gig brought the country to the biggest standstill I've ever known in my life. There was no way I was making it into town that night. Surreal. I secretly hoped it would happen again last year, if only to get me out of work. Maybe this year!
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by Laz69 »

Glasgow in Dec 2010. Epic freaky snowfall on the day of the gig brought the country to the biggest standstill I've ever known in my life.
Remember that time well... drove into Glasgow to see Godspeed play at The Barras around that time (might even have been same night)... NOTHING was stopping me from reaching that, although drive home was more about luck than anything!
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by shalloboi »

as the years go by the excuses for not showing up to gigs that i have tickets for get weaker and weaker. living in a big city has me very spoiled.

echo & the bunnymen- 1999 in chicago. was living in kansas and bought tickets to this fully intending to go, but it fell during the summer which ended up draining my savings.

the cure- 2000 in new york- final night of the 'dream tour.' i was never able to figure out a way to get to this show from new york city without a car. my friends from the area weren't much help either. i'd been to five other shows on this tour, and the trip to get to the show in chicago ended up costing me the rest of the money i'd saved.

grizzly bear in 2009 at the metro. i was waiting in line to get into this show and decided i didn't want to go because it was sold out and the people in the ridiculously long line were so obnoxious. beach house were opening and said line would prevent me from catching their opening set, so i sold the tickets to some people walking around looking to get in.

thee silver mt. zion in 2007. this is pretty sad, but i think i bought the tickets hoping it'd force me to get out of the house and actually go, but when the night of the show came i got home exhausted from work and decided i just didn't want to leave the house. i had to be up really early the next day, too, so i just skipped it.

deerhunter/dan deacon/no age and several other acts i can't recall in 2009. i think this was a lollapalooza aftershow or something, but it was at logan square auditorium, which would take about an hour for me to get to. it fell at the end of a marathon of shows that week- two nights of the warlocks, the raveonettes (all at the empty bottle- an hour and a half away from where i was living at the time) and then this show. after i bought the tickets for this one bands started getting added until there were seven or eight. it was also some kind of odd round-robin show where each band would be set up on an individual stage and would play one song at a time and then the next band and the next band. i'd just bought tickets because i wanted to see deerhunter and once a ridiculous number of opening bands were announced and i'd been to three other shows that week while getting up for work at 6am every day afterward i decided to sit this one out. i'm sure it would've been quite the spectacle, but oversaturated. plus the warlocks had been so great and the raveonettes had been so terrible i thought that it might be best to recognize a trend unfolding.
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by joseph »

Never showed up to Optimus Alive Festival in Portugal last year. It was just too too much of a rip off to go there. We really wanted to see The Kills and Mazzy Starr again. I had the tickets on Ebay, forgot about them and they went for £10..... at least somebody had a good time out of my stupidity.

My wife had tickets to see Bloc Party on their very first tour but read an interview in the NME and decided Kele was a crank and cancelled hastily.

Oh, and tickets to see Status Quo at Alnwick Castle as it clashed with Leeds Festival. (sorry.......guilty pleasure). I gave them to a guy who lives over the road from me who is a massive Quo fan. He has arranged letters on the rear of his vauxhall spelling out S-T-A-T-U-S Q-U-O. (Where do you buy letters from, in the same font as your car make/model to spell that out?) It made his day getting those tickets. I gained much more pleasure from making him happy that day than I would have had from going myself.
angelsighs
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by angelsighs »

woah shalloboi, I'm not having a go, but you must regret some of those?
recently I've had a policy of never skipping or rejecting a gig without good reason. I've got much better at going to gigs on my own too. I ALWAYS regret it more later if I don't go.

I do have a list myself too though:

BRMC (must have been 2007 or so?)- absolute torrential rain means a lot of people got rained in, including my lift.

A Place To Bury Strangers (2012), Twilight Sad (2009?)- both instances where I felt ill and last thing I wanted was to be blasted by very loud noise.

The Verve (2007) Manchester arena date. I'd already seen them twice in Blackpool, where they were good but only flashes of the old brilliance. the thought of seeing them in a bigger venue full of laddish fans wasn't that appealing. deliberated until the day of gig then decided against it.
olan
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by olan »

Moon Duo and Spiritualized in Leeds in the last month. Really annoyed me, but there was no way I could get to either for reasons to tedious and annoying to write down...... :(
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by flokie »

^
:(
heisenberg wrote:Spiritualized L+G gig at Royal Albert Hall (?) in 2009. Girl I was seeing ended it with me a few weeks before, and I was too cut up to go.
I couldn't really thinking of any looking at the topic, but your post reminded me that I ended up not going to see ...Trail of Dead in 2004, at King Tuts iirc, due to a break up days before. I was just feeling too shit, and also suspected I might bump into him or some of his mates and I just couldn't face it.

I had won guestlist for Odonis Odonis earlier this year but I was exhausted and coming down with a cold, and didn't make it, not sure that counts!

Gigs can be even better when you've had to go through shit weather conditions. OK I didn't have actually any problems making it to the venue last Dec. when Omar Souleyman played on the day of Hurricane Bawbag, but it had been a crazy day and dancing to his set was even more uplifting than it would have been in different conditions!
shalloboi
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by shalloboi »

angelsighs wrote:woah shalloboi, I'm not having a go, but you must regret some of those?
yeah, i regret a few of them. i'm pretty sure there are a bunch i'm still forgetting too. i'm mainly guilty of hating the way people behave at shows.
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by spzretent »

Spiritualized Sheffield Octagon 2001. Just couldn't make it over but had a ticket bought for me. Looking at it right now. In a frame.
Sigur Ros Detroit September 2001. Just after 9-11. Wasn't thinking about shows as most acts canceled anyway. Sigur Ros did not.
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shalloboi
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by shalloboi »

spzretent wrote: Sigur Ros Detroit September 2001. Just after 9-11. Wasn't thinking about shows as most acts canceled anyway. Sigur Ros did not.
i went to the chicago date for that tour. i was terrified they were going to cancel- i'd already gotten the time off from work and everything.
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by angelsighs »

shalloboi wrote:
angelsighs wrote:woah shalloboi, I'm not having a go, but you must regret some of those?
yeah, i regret a few of them. i'm pretty sure there are a bunch i'm still forgetting too. i'm mainly guilty of hating the way people behave at shows.
fair point. to be fair that's largely why I skipped that Verve show too... but usually I wouldn't say it bothers me enough to skip a gig. there's plenty of real cool people at gigs too! I find it good to be in a room full of people that share my music taste.
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Re: Gig tickets you ended up throwing away...

Post by Greeny »

Guess I've been fairly lucky over the years and have made almost every gig I had tickets for. An exception was a mixed bill at Fabric a few years ago that was supposed to include Death in Vegas launching Satan's Circus. However, DiV pulled out at the last minute, so I rolled up to the venue and found a couple of young kids towards the back of a very long queue to get in and they jumped at the chance to take the tickets at face value and jump the queue!

Nice to do a good deed occasionally!
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