Buying concert tickets back in the day.

[CheeseCakeSunflowers]

I've been following some of the threads on buying Oasis tickets which has led to a chat with ds about buying tickets in pre internet days. Back in the 70's and 80's I went to a lot of local gigs where I either paid cash on the door or bought a paper ticket from the local record shop a few days before. I did go to some big events seeing Queen twice at Milton Keynes and Knebworth and The Who at Wembley but I've forgotten the procedure for getting tickets. Did we phone up or maybe post a cheque somewhere, anyone remember?

It's not the same having an email ticket either! I was a big gig goer late 80's to early 00s and have tickets of all sorts from simple printed for uni/local gigs up to beautiful complex tickets with holographic bits all purchased on the door, in advance at the venue box office, from record stores or over the phone. I must figure out a way to display them (and lament that all I get now is bar code/ qr code via email.
Engaged tone, hang up, redial, engaged tone, hang up, redial - the sound track of my youth!

I once got tickets for Leeds Festival from the box office at the Astoria in London.

Also queued from about 5am at the Wembley box office for tickets to see Muse one year.

At uni there was a local travel agent that did coach trips to see bands play the Metro arena in Newcastle, they’d just post the names of the bands on little cards in the window and you’d go in and book the tickets.

The local indie record shops also sold
tickets for gigs at the local indie rock venue.

So simple!

Phoning for Eric Clapton tickets at the RAH on a rotary phone convinced my dad to get a button one 😂

Micheal Jackson at Wembley on the coach phoning star green!

gladtonbury tickets bought 20 minutes before they went on sale because I called to ask a question and they let me buy them (early 00’s).

gig tickets via student unions in the 90’s and popping into the Leadmill to pick them up and paying with cash.

life was good!

Box office at the venue (in my school uniform on way home from school) or record shop. I think you could also buy tickets from the box office over the phone and collect on the night.
Then gigs in clubs and pubs just cash on the door. I remember it being much more affordable to see gigs. It’s really sad how UK property prices have fucked over live music.

I remember it went on my credit card, I turned 18 late 1998 so must have been late 90s or early 00s

I had knebworth tickets but I vaguely just remember a phone call being done by my dad!
I definitely remember getting reading tickets from our local hmv and they printed them out there and then. I'm sure I got other tickets that way.
I also remember using Stargreen who were by the Astoria. I definitely remember it all being quite relaxed!

I’m from Derby and there was Way Ahead records where people would queue for their concert tickets.

I think I phoned up for some tickets , but I can't remember tbh ( or my friends would buy them through Time out magazine ?)
We got them somehow , usually by post

Our local record shop sold concert tickets, and usually you bought them with coach travel included. It was great, return transport from the center of town!

But you had to go to Wembley on a Sunday to buy Wham! The Fnal tickets. I really wanted to go, but lived in the midlands, so my DM phoned my DSis and asked her to go and get them for me. The only problem with that was my DSis lived in Kent and couldn't be bothered (unsurprisingly) to go. I should have, at the grand old age of 13, gone off to get them by myself.

I had 2 landlines at work so had the venue number in each and kept trying until one started ringing but used the other to get another ringing tone. Hopefully 1 got picked up. All these agencies like Way Ahead and even theatre box offices were pushed out by Ticketmaster who wanted complete control

Tickets for gigs at Sheffield City Hall were bought at Wilson Pecks, a big music shop. The 'box office' was in the basement, you paid your money and chose your seats off the plan!I
Lucky enough to see most of the 70's big names, Bowie, Roxy Music, The Faces, ELO. Plus Stevie Wonder, Four Tops.
Glad I don't have to do all the ticket rigamarole fans have to do now, I haven't the patience or stamina.

Great thread!

I saw Kirsty Maccoll loads of times in the late 80s/early 90s, I think I bought tickets in person at the venue. Simpler times and ticket prices were reasonable.

Mid 80's I was redialing the phones for ages to get Prince tickets, I was NI, the gig was at Wembley, and the postman brought the tickets as we were getting in the car to go to the airport 😄.
Local gigs I bought tickets from the record shop in Belfast.

I am really scared of heights and this madness of people being able to buy loads of tickets in one go has stopped me going to concerts. Years ago could get on flat or say 5 rows up if rang or went to the box office or the Internet when it first came out but now I have got no chance. Can't even go with friends as they just have to get the best tickets they can and normally way too high.

Early 90s we’d go to the local record shop for Glasto and local gig tickets. I saw a lot of bands at Portsmouth and Southampton guildhalls and I have a feeling we had to buy those at the venue, but I don’t remember how we paid, as there were usually about 10 of us going - perhaps we pooled our money and asked a parent to buy them?

I went to see Oasis at Earls Court in 95. I still have the paper ticket which was £14. I got a package from a company that offered combined coach travel with the concert tickets - it was probably around £30 all together. I remember it being pretty easy to get the ticket package.

Life seemed easier without the internet for some things , which my children think is mad

Late 70s and early eighties boyfriend and I queued overnight a few times at a record shop in Birmingham city centre to buy tickets for Knebworth and Wembley.

I remember phoning box offices and you'd get the engaged tone for hours! I'm pretty sure you had to put a cheque in the post or a postal order. Those were the days.......

I have officially given up on concert tickets after the Taylor Swift and Oasis debacles. Hours wasted online, queues filled with scammers and bots who list them seconds after they've bought them. Artists don't give a shit who attends their concerts, it's just about the revenue. Happily at 53, I'm ready to hang up my concert shoes and went out on a high with Springsteen.

At Uni you would just go to the venue. I went to see The Men They Couldn't Hang and then we were so tired (my boyfriend had just been on an overnight coach) so we went home again. The Damned played a college ball though, I think we bought tickets at the book shop.

Life was easier without Ticket master and it's minions/spin offs. I wonder if the artists approve or are they in an uneasy alliance

Do the groups get a cut from ticket master or whoever is running the venue?

There was a ticket sales desk at hmv in Birmingham, bought my Glastonbury ticket there, no queue either!

I never queued or even turned up at the on sale time either, this includes Oasis, Blur, Pulp etc which you struggle to buy now. I blame the internet making it too easy for non music fans to buy, having to bother to go to hmv was key

I don’t remember how we used to get Wembley tickets but I have spent many hours queued at the back of the Brighton Centre! I sometimes wonder if I imagined some of the people I’ve seen there as nobody I like plays there much these days.