Tinkerbell's Pages

On going to see Radiohead in Hammersmith ...

The boyfriend and I went to see Radiohead at Hammersmith Apollo last night and usual they were fantastic! However, it is occasions like these which really make you realise how annoying it can be to be short! We had standing tickets and at just over 5ft 1, I couldn't see a thing when we first got in! Who needs to go to yoga when you can tone you calves by standing on tiptoe for the best part of 2 hours?! Anyway, they were came back for two encores and played loads of new stuff as well as plenty of old classics, so it was a really cool night. Can't wait til the new album comes out.

When we got there my boyfriend pointed out a bloke who he thought was Chris Evans' old friend Will MacDonald from TFI Friday to me (do you remember him from the show? Wiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllll!!!!) We were standing right next to him, so I spend the first half an hour of the gig preoccupied by subtley trying to see if it was really him or not (it was!) It was funny because I had said earlier to the boyfriend that I thought we might see someone famous there. We've got a bit of a history of spotting celebrities in the audience at shows. Here are some of our past spottings (going back about a decade now!): (a) we once saw Ewan Bremner (Spud from Trainspotting) at a Radiohead gig around the time when the film came out, (b) around the same time we saw 'Dame' Judi Dench at an Eddie Izzard show, and randomly enough, (c) my sister and I once saw Robbie Coltrane in the audience of a production of A Midsummers Night's Dream! Very strange.

On seeing Radiohead in Camden ...

I wasn't going to let the school inspection completely ruin my bank holiday weekend, although I did feel like I spent most of it either at school or working at home. On Monday night I escaped from it all by going to see Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead at Koko in Camden. Unfortunately the boyfriend couldn't come with me as planned, so my lovely friend Miss M stepped in to replace him at the last minute, bless her. We had a really good time and the boys were fantastic as usual. I've seen them live loads of times, but am forever amazed at their sheer brilliance! There were a surprising number of old men in the audience though (?!!) which as far as I'm aware, aren't your usual Radiohead crowd! Thom and Johnny played exclusives of some new singles which were cool and now I'm even more excited about seeing them in Hammersmith on May 19th. There was a really good atmosphere in the crowd and it was all in the name of charity - the concert was part of the Big Ask campaign which is sponsored by Friends of the Earth (see http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/big_ask/live/index.html for more details).

On not having to resort to ebay this time ...

I found out this week that Radiohead are touring this spring/ summer (yay!), but by the time I had received this knowledge, all the 'pre-sale' tickets available through the official fanclub website were sold. Not one to be put off by this, I did my research and found out that more tickets would be on sale to the general public this morning from 9am. However, many many naughty people were already attempting to sell their tickets on ebay at the usual over-inflated prices, claiming that all concerts in all cities were already completely sold out. WHY DIDN"T PEOPLE BOTHER TO CHECK IF THIS WAS ACTUALLY TRUE?!!! One person was bidding on a pair of tickets for over 400 pounds (!), when they were still available for 32.50 each from Ticketmaster and the like. Fair enough if you're desperate to go to the concert and there are no other tickets available, but why don't people try to buy their concert tickets through the usual channels first?! I don't get it.

Anyway, I somehow managed to bag myself a pair of tickets for the May 19th concert at Hammersmith Apollo (fantastic!) without having to resort to ebay this time. But alas, I couldn't get any more for my friends because there was a limit of two tickets per person (sorry to anyone who would have loved to have spent the evening at a Radiohead concert with me!) However, my victory was in no way thanks to my postman. After the 'Big Ask' tickets fiasco (when I spent almost an entire weekend obsessed with the acquisition of a pair of gig tickets - see weblog for details!), this time I was determined not to let the system beat me. I was poised at my computer keyboard at 8.59am to secure my tickets online. At 9.00am precisely, the doorbell rang and it was the postman with a special delivery for me. Granted, it was ironically the aforementioned 'Big Ask' tickets I had purchased from ebay (!!!), but I don't think Postie realised how he had almost become the cause of me losing yet another pair of tickets to the tickermaster-hounds!

PS. If you're a fan of Radiohead you can read the band's own special weblog which I've only just discovered at http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/. See, it just proves that having a weblog is a cool thing to do!

On attempting to buy concert tickets ...

I am not a happy bunny. Tickets went on sale at midday today for an exclusive 'Big Ask' gig in Camden featuring the amazingly-godlike Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead on May 1st. When I say 'exclusive' I mean there were just 1000 tickets available to mere mortals such as myself. I know that Radiohead are headlining at the V-Festival this summer but this is not the point because: (a) I will be holidaying in sunny Tenerife at the time (it's so inconvenient of them not to reschedule on my account), and (b) Who wants to be among hundreds of thousands of people, when you can be one of the beautiful people and share an initimate gig with only another 999 or so people around you?! And of course, the May Day gig is all in a good cause, with all ticket proceeds going to Friends of the Earth www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/big_ask/.

Anyway, the tickets have a face value of 55 quid each, making it a rather expensive purchase at 110 quid for a pair (liking the maths? I do teach numeracy to 7- and 8-year-olds after all!) Ah, but it gets worse. In despair at the tickets selling out in precisely one second (I was poised on both internet and phone, but by 12:00:01 I was already getting the message that all the tickets were gone!), I ventured onto ebay. The top auction bid for a pair of tickets is currently at 360 quid (at the time of writing) with an hour still to go! I can't afford such a luxury on my lowly teacher's salary - that's about the same as I'm paying for my much-needed week in the sun in August!

Anyway, I've put in my own much lower bid on another pair of tickets, but have luckily managed to resist the urge to sell my car, all my belongings, the flat I don't even own and various members of my family just to pay for one night out. Only time will tell if my bid is successful. I leave it in the hands of fate now. Rant over. And R-E-L-A-X-X-X-X-X. I think I need to go and lie down in a darkened room.