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Original poster

How did people book tickets for concerts and so on before the internet?

133 replies

Headphonesin · 11/02/2023 10:33

I’m not even young, before I get a load of MNetters scorning my lack of knowledge, I just didn’t go to a concert until I was 35!

Even things like shows at the theatre, events on for kids - I hear about them all through social media and through websites, so wondering how people would go about it before good old google and Facebook?

OP posts:
YesitsBess · 11/02/2023 10:50

Time out magazine for gig listing. Luckily I worked in a record shop that did Ticketmaster so we could get first dibs on EVERYTHING and did 😁

LlynTegid · 11/02/2023 10:50

Sometimes phoned up, on occasions just turned up and paid on the door. For theatre just went to the box office usually (did this in Paris in 2019 and it seemed strangely nostalgic).

Occasionally just turn up at the cinema even now, if a daytime screening.

Windbeneathmybingowings · 11/02/2023 10:51

I’m old and i can’t remember either. I think I used to get theatre tickets by phone so I guess concert and festival tickets were the same.

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Events & celebrations
NancyJoan · 11/02/2023 10:52

Gigs would be advertised in newspapers, the NME, and on posters and flyers locally. We used buy tickets from record shops, or travel agents (who would also run coaches to gigs and sell that as a package)

For theatre, also ads in the paper, but I was on lots of mailing lists who would send flyers, and event programmes, then I would either go in person to buy tickets at the box office, or ring up to reserve then send a cheque.

FineThings · 11/02/2023 10:52

I remember buying my Glasto ticket from Andy’s Records in the 90s! It was £58.

gogohmm · 11/02/2023 10:53

Telephone, ticket offices (we had one in the mall and also in hmv) or direct from the venue often by cheque and you had to enclose a stamped addressed envelope! More things were pay on the door too, especially local gigs

SisterAgatha · 11/02/2023 10:53

A lot of it was “so and so’s dad has a credit card, do you wanna go? Give him the money after” type set up.

megletthesecond · 11/02/2023 10:53

Rang the phone lines, for ages. Always got tickets in the end.

AdventFridgeOfShame · 11/02/2023 10:54

You would phone the box office to reserve tickets. Then you would post them a check. A few weeks later after the check had cleared, they would post you the tickets.

Helenahandkart · 11/02/2023 10:56

I used to stroll down to my local record shop and buy a Glastonbury ticket. A few days beforehand, when you had a reasonable idea about what the weather would be like.
Gig tickets from record shops, or sometimes from the venue on the day they were released if it was likely to sell out.

Whatthetrolley · 11/02/2023 10:56

For Take That / Smash Hits Poll winners Party and a Smash Hits Tour we got our tickets from the local travel agency and included travel. You're parents would drop you off at some random bus stop and a bus would pull up where about 10 people got on, then drove to the next random place for the next group of people. Took about 3 hours to get to Wembley for a normal 90 minute journey!

gogohmm · 11/02/2023 10:57

Glastonbury tickets were sold at hmv, there wasn't any issues with availability then. We then walked down to the coach station and booked the coach there and back.

WinterFoxes · 11/02/2023 10:58

There used to be small ads in the papers and you sent away for them. Or you queued for hours and hours outside the concert hall. I remember queuing t see Rod Stewart for hours in the freezing cold and then security coming to cut off the line, saying the people just ahead of me would get the last tickets. Came home freezing cold and very sad only for my mum to grin at me and say she;d secretly sent off for tickets but wasn;t sure she'd get any so didn;t mention it, and they'd arrived that morning in the post. We had a box and Rod kicked a football up to it!

That was 1970s. Then in the 80s ticket booths sprang up. And phone lines. I was reading the other day that a show of Hamlet in London got so popular unexpectedly that the leading actors came in to work the box office along with staff, to sell tickets during the day. Imagine that now - Benedict Cumberbatch stuck in a booth selling tickets for his own Hamlet.

Harrysutton · 11/02/2023 10:58

i went to a lot of concerts as a teen in the 90s. I bought tickets from the local record store, got my mum to sit in the phone for hours trying and queues up overnight at the Box Office.

we knew what concerts were due via magazines and other fans.

Coraline353 · 11/02/2023 11:19

In Dublin there was a heavy metal/rock record store called Sound Cellar that used to sell tickets (as did HMV etc). Great thing about Sound Cellar was you could go in and put a deposit on tickets for gigs before they went on sale, then just go back and pay for them when they were in, as they'd be held for you. Never failed as they'd always get their allocation of tickets. It was the best!

Coraline353 · 11/02/2023 11:20

Should say Sound Cellar didn't just sell metal/rock tickets. They had all gigs, so you'd see these terrified young girls going down the stairs to put deposits on tickets for Take That or something. The guys who worked there were all lovely though.

Whitwhit · 11/02/2023 11:23

Yes, I remember the good old days (ha, I sound like my Dad) of going into the record shop at Uni in the late 90s and buying a Glasto ticket with cash.
Same for other gigs too.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 11/02/2023 11:25

When I first lived in London I used to go to the Leicester Square ticket booth in my lunch break and buy discounted tickets to whatever was available that day. I'd forgotten all about that until just now.

Original poster
Headphonesin · 11/02/2023 11:26

Andy’s Records - forgot all about that shop!

OP posts:
katseyes7 · 11/02/2023 11:26

When l was a teenager and dinosaurs roamed the earth (early 70s) on the day they were due to come out, we'd ring the venue to see if they had the tickets.
If they had, we'd either bunk off for the afternoon or go after school to get them.
This was back in the days when you could see Bowie at the Mayfair in Newcastle for 50p before it went stratospheric, though....

NerrSnerr · 11/02/2023 11:27

I went to see 5ive in about 1997 and I saw an advert in the paper and called up.

DRS1970 · 11/02/2023 11:27

Music shops and ticket agents.

Lozzybear · 11/02/2023 11:29

We’d be on the phone for hours trying to get through…praying we’d get tickets with a decent view for New Kids on the Block. Those were the days!!! Now you can see exactly where you’re going to sit when you book!

Motnight · 11/02/2023 11:31

Adverts in the newspaper, with details of where to send your cheque off to!

Lindy2 · 11/02/2023 11:32

You phoned up at a set time and just kept trying and trying until you got through. The redial button invention was a God send for ticket buying.

I also remember queuing for hours at Wembley Stadium to but U2 tickets from the box office there as I wanted to be certain of getting a ticket.