I've Got My Ticket, But I'm Not Exactly Happy.

So Tori Amos tour tickets on Pre-sale today. (By the way, not a great time. Just before Christmas when the Barclaycard is already taking a beating. But okay, I'll allow it because I love her and I have to see her every time she is in London and I always make exceptions for her.)

So I try to get a stalls ticket. Usually they are around £48.00, but this time they are £52.50 face value but you actually pay £60.00. Where the fuck did the other £7.50 come from? So already I'm not happy but at least I'll be on the floor and I'll get a good view. But when I look on the Royal Albert Hall Seating Plan the Arena is the floor and the stalls are around the sides. Hmmmmm. They didn't even have Arena tickets available and if they did they'd probably be £70.00. Fuck!

So I continue and try to buy my first one in Row G and by the time I've gone through forgetting my password twelve times and reverting to having to sign up AGAIN to gigsandbloodytours, then I've timed out. And I can't complete the transaction. Mother Fuckers!

So I go straight back on to do the whole rigmarole again and they give me H in the stalls. Boo! Though in the grand scheme of things only marginally further away. I'll get over it.

This time I race through it all and just before you buy the ticket they slap on another £2.31 because heavens knows I haven't paid enough already. So £62.31 and I have my ticket, but I'm not particularly happy about it. (I'm sure I will be closer to the time when I remember I'm seeing a Goddess, again, possibly for the 12th or 13th time.) Right now I'm wondering if I'll ever be able to pay off my credit card bill or if this will sit undigested like a piece of sweetcorn, in the bowel of my statement, forever and a day.

£50.00 was expensive enough to watch a solo artist in a nice venue and that was when I had an £18,000 a year (albeit shittily paid job) salary. When you are freelance and earn shit all, the £62.31 is literally three mornings looking after 2 kids and a music class. And I'm not sure if it's worth it. Not that Tori isn't, she totally is, but if this is the way live music is going, it will be middle classes only. How the hell is anyone else supposed to enjoy decent live music without fuckin' bankrupting themselves.

I know I could have not bought a ticket and made a stand or something, but then come May, I would have been really disappointed. Though I'm sure they could have put the tickets on sale in the New Year or something. I might have got some money for Christmas. Ha ha. And I'm taking on a new school for music classes and if that takes off I could be rolling in it. (When I say rolling in it, I mean still way below the tax threshold. I ain't gonna be paying any tax this year. No way.)

Oh, it just makes me angry. Why should it cost so much? And why is there £10 worth of fees lumped on top of an already expensive ticket?

I remember when I used to be ecstatic when I'd bought a gig ticket. Now I just feel guilty, as though I can't actually warrant that large cost. Food and travel and rent take up most of my earnings and the rest go on presents for other people. When I do treat myself it's a book on offer on Amazon, or a bar of chocolate. Not three days worth of work.

I should go, the grumpiness will only increase until I curb it with some food. Then I have an afternoon of constructive writing to attempt. Though I guess, technically this counts towards that.

Urgh! Annoyed and guilty and mildly giddy at the same time. Not a fun collection of feelings and definitely time for slippers, my toes are chilly.

Signing off
Rants