To buy very expensive concert tickets for DD12?

[ReadyPayerOne]

My DD12 has been obsessed for the last six months with a US band which announced at the weekend that they'll be playing in London next summer. Tickets go on sale in the next few days and will most likely sell out immediately.

It's her birthday in the summer and she's a keen musician and singer herself, so I'm thinking of buying tickets for me and her and taking her best friend (who'll buy her own ticket). They're great live so it will be a good night for me too.

These tickets are going to cost me £200 plus though and my worry is that by next summer she's going to be "Who?"

Should I wait until she's older and knows her tastes a bit better before I fork out such a large some of money for an event so far in the future? Has anyone done similar and it all worked out?

Ticketmaster is auto refresh, axs is the official sales partner for o2 so they will have tickets too, you also don’t refresh on there.

Thanks nancy75 - getting a bit more confident now!

I have a similar dilemma...my dd is 9 and we were at the front this year when she played at Glastonbury. I’ve heard rumours that she will be on the main stage next year at Glastonbury and looking at her tour dates that certainly seems possible. So don’t know whether to book tickets as we may well see her again there (i work at Glastonbury so will definitely be going). One of her tour dates is actually on dd’s Birthday and I’m sure she’d love it, but it seems a bit daft shelling out to go and see her if we only saw her (for free!) a month before!

With regards to the o2, I took dd to see Ariana there last month and we were about 4 rows away from the very back...I thought the seats would be rubbish but actually they were fine. If it wasn’t for the very enthusiastic row of gay men who were two rows in front and insisted on standing and dancing throughout we’d have been able to see fine . I did take our London eye binoculars with us but didn’t use them much. I’d say closer to the stage is obviously better but the o2 is designed well and you can see ok wherever you sit.

Two rows from the front - just wow!

I must say her music didn't really do much for me and I couldn't understand DDs obsession until I saw her at Glastonbury.

I had a strangely emotional reaction to it as it had been so long since I'd seen anyone that talented!

Ha, I'm doing the same for my 13 year old DD! I love Billie too so don't mind buying the tickets, just hope we get some!

DifficultSituation19 can you shell out for tickets on a credit card and then sell them if she's announced at Glastonbury??

With the o2 and an act as big as this you won't get a chance to choose seats. You click best available and just buy what you get given. Sometimes I've been lucky and sometimes not it's the luck of the draw but the atmosphere is amazing no matter where you sit and I've been lots of times :)

And my DD was at Glastonbury so has already seen her live too!

See you there WoollyFoolly (hopefully)!!

We're not going for a London one but will be with you in spirit! Good luck!

Good luck too!! 😃

@ReadyPayerOne that’s a very good idea! May well do that (if I manage to get them that is).

This thread is reminding me of the excitement I felt before the best concert I've ever seen - Prince's Love Sexy tour at Wembley Arena in 1988. Me and my BF just turned up as the reviews were outstanding and paid double to a ticket tout. Best money I ever spent.

@Aragog how do you know if a site is auto-refresh or not? As far as I know it's only Ticketmaster that's selling tickets.

Ticketmaster is usually auto refresh, but last few times I have used it it didn't have the proper virtual queue system which some sites deploy. I prefer the latter.

Ticket master, in my experience, does have a bit of an issue with sometimes kicking you out at different points and crashing when there is high depend - you'd think they'd be better as they are a big business! - but do keep trying.

Id also try to use the 02 official site as well if it is available - two tabs open - and see which does through first. Last time for me I found the AXS site MUCH faster and reliable than Ticketmaster.

@ReadyPayerOne, I've just remembered we have an o2 mobile contract and have checked the priority tickets they do - they go on sale on Wednesday on there so do have a look if you happen to be with o2.

Thanks WoollyFoolly but we're with BT 🙁 I've signed up to Live Nation though which sells on Thursday so fingers crossed.

I'd probably buy the tickets for me my niece if she doesn't want to go.

@Aragog just wanted to sneak this in before the thread disappears.

If I go on to a ticketing website before the time the tickets are released (like 20 minutes), will auto-refresh work then too? Meaning will the tickets suddenly become available without me having to refresh?

Sorry I missed this last night.

On some sites yes, some not necessarily. Ticketmaster normally does in my experience. Axs last week had a virtual queue which was also auto refresh

Thanks Aragog!

I got my tickets @ReadyPayerOne! £80 each. Good luck for yours tomorrow

@WoollyFoolly ooh well done!!

I kept being offered seats that were too high in the O2 each time I did a re-search today, so I'm going to try again tomorrow and then Friday, if I can't get the lower seats tomorrow.

In your experience, are the very first seats you get offered the best they've got left, so each time you re-search they get less good? If so, if I have to wait until the general sale on Friday I'll buy the first I'm offered!

Hi. Can I jump on the thread and ask some advice from the ticket booking experts?! I'm a complete novice trying to buy BE tickets for b'day present for DD12.

I've just been sat on the Ticketmaster website for an hour hoping for presale tickets. The whole time it was just the circle spinning, no option to click on anything or do anything at all. Now it's stopped so I assume that means those tickets are all sold. I will try Live Nation tomorrow and then general sales on Friday.

So my question is, what happens beyond the spinning circle thing? Does it come up with an option to click on something to wait in a virtual waiting room? Or does the spinning circle mean you are in the virtual waiting room? Or is it just a queue?

It's my day off today and I had an hour to spare but I'm working Thurs and Fri and although I'll be at my PC all day I can't keep Ticketmaster etc permanently open to keep checking if the bloody circle is still there! I had my mouse poised over it the whole time waiting for it to change to "buy tickets" or whatever but maybe that's not even what happens anyway. I'm already stressed by the whole procedure and I've not even got a sniff of a ticket yet!

@NeverPromisedYouARoseGarden this is the first time I've tried to book a sell-out gig, but when I got on I got the spinning circle for about one minute and then got offered seats.

But as per my last post, they weren't particularly good ones (I re-searched three times) so I'm trying again tomorrow and if those aren't great either then hang on until Friday when, I read upthread, the best seats are often released.

I'm wondering if the endless spinning circle you're getting means there's none left for today.

@WoollyFoolly have you more experience in this?

Thanks, ReadyPayerOne ! If you don't mind my asking, how much were the seats that you were offered that were too high? Someone on Twitter was selling 2 seats in 403 right at the back for £138.50 each which I thought was very expensive for not great seats. But, like I said, I'm a novice at this - not a fan of gigs in big arenas! - so maybe that's a standard price these days.