Sweet Baby Jesus!

Something incredible happened today.

Last week I had notification of a band playing a gig later this month at the Brixton Academy. Tickets were to go on sale Friday 1st June at 9am at a flat face value of £40. Now, this band is one which I've missed out seeing in the past while I've been living in the UK, and they're not ones for touring down NZ way very often. And they are firm placeholders in my "Bands I Must See Just Once" list, a desire attributable more to my youthful enthusiasm for them than any current appreciation. Though I didn't mind their last album.


Anyway, the chance to see them in a venue the size of Brixton Academy was irresistable, and I had advance notice! I could sit on the net at 9am, frantically hitting "refresh" until the tickets became available and so beat the scalpers. But it wasn't to be. At 9am on Friday I was on my way to work, and totally forgot about the tickets. Needless to say, by the time I did check they were all gone.

Oh calamity!


Anyway, I pulled myself together and checked ebay. Sure enough, dozens of scalped tickets up for sale, many at ridiculously hyped prices. But gritting my teeth I took a punt on one of the 99p starter bids. What the hell, the tickets near the end of their auction were going for reasonably close to face value.


And today I won! Two tickets for £52 (inc postage)! That's right, I managed to get concert tickets off ebay for less than face value! Maybe not all that groundbreaking, but it sure was for me, not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that some professional scalper has lost on the deal. It was like an angel of God had come to earth and whispered my destiny to the internet. Or something closely approximating that, I imagine.


Anyway, that's all. Thought I would share.

YESSSS! *

*Though it doesn't need saying to those who know me, I'd just like to say that there's no irritating hip irony to my love of Iron Maiden. It's a deep, ingrained thing that goes back to me at 11 discovering Number of the Beast through my mate Barry. A year later I bought a copy of Piece of Mind on cassette. We never had a tape deck in the house at the time, and I always fondly remember listening to it on the stereo in my sister's car on a hot summer day. Holy shit, I am so excited!