So with NO Propaganda, how to get early tix?

[BigCasino]

So, tell me fellow U2 fans, with a tour more thanlikely happening this year...how are we going to be guaranteed tickets?
Will it be through U2.com?
Any thoughts?

 

[beegee]

i don't know how i'll get tix.

i'll just charge them or something.

now please, bigcasino, your username.

what's that about?

 

[Bonochick]

I was never a member of Propaganda. I just went through Ticketmaster. Yeah, my seats weren't premo...but I would be ANYWHERE in the venue as long as I could be at the show.

 

[BigCasino]

I'll do whatever I need to do as well, but I liked that through Prop we were able to be assured we'd be there...I need that assurance...I loved that assurance...

the username...it's been so long i have trouble remembering how it came to be...
some sort of bastardization of my last name I guess...

 

[mikal]

ah. now that i had the chance to be as close as i was last tour, i don't really care where my tix are. as long as i'm in the building, and assuming the world doesn't end before we actually see a new album and tour.

 

[TheGenericPoet]

Sad thing is, with tix available electronically etc, its even easier these days for scalpers to snap them all up before us regular folk have a chance. Mostly if I'm going to be at a concert, I'm happy with whatever tix I get, but with U2 and Springsteen I want the best seats possible. Its going to be a scramble this year for decent tix unless some creative ideas are thought up by the organizers.

 

[Axver]

So how are we meant to get tickets? Line up for days? Sit on the phone or online and hope we're lucky? What?

 

[Chizip]

they should have a u2 quiz, and the people who get the best scores get tix the first

 

[LCK]

My extreme laziness is showing but I just go the scalper route. The fact that tickets are so easy for scalpers to get as GenericPoet points out, actually works in fans' favour. There are so *many* scalpers that they've glutted their own market and the same day of the concert many of them are selling at cost just so they don't lose money. I just go to the venue and buy tickets on my way in. Of course with Propaganda we could GA's in advance, but hey its not a perfect world.

 

[LCK]

they should have a u2 quiz, and the people who get the best scores get tix the first

I'm thinking that when tickets go on sale I'll go over to the "All I Want..." section here and offer to trade some dodgy bootlegs for tickets.

 

[gareth brown]

U2.com running a competition for tickets....hmmm

I entered the competition to win a pair of tickets for the special Slane Castle DVD screenings. (Entered for the Manchester as there would be the nearest place...staying at my Grandmother's..) and after coming back to Bath, I stayed at my Dad's and accessed my email account there and saw an email informing me I had won FOUR tickets which I never even knew about (entered twice, I'm SO sorry for those who didn't win and could have got the tickets I 'wasted...' )

But anyway...Not many people must have entered that competition if I managed to win two pairs of tickets! If they ran competitions to win tickets on the next tour...quite simply, there will be pandemonium.

 

[Axver]

What I want to know is how the scalpers manage to get so many tickets while ordinary fans have extreme trouble ... anyone care to enlighten me?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

they should just give me all the tickets and i'll distribute them accordingly

 

[ABEL]

i would think u2.com would have some sort of offer and/or pre sale?

if not, i guess i'll have to rely on ticket brokers or trying to get last minute tickets at the box office the day of the show if i'm stuck at work when they go on sale.

 

[TiaraGurl]

What I want to know is how the scalpers manage to get so many tickets while ordinary fans have extreme trouble ... anyone care to enlighten me?

I don't know what the major ticket company is in Australia but here it is ticketmaster. In the mid 90's there was a ray of hope that maybe some of their screwed up surcharges and anti-trust like behaviour would end when Pearl Jam brought a big fuss and testified but it fell by the way side.

I personally have long believed that TM is in cahoots with scalpers, Clear channel, promoters etc and that is how such a vast number of good seats get out of the pool when tickets go on sale to the public. I also believe that Ticketmaster is moving towards 100% online sales because here in NYC there used to be outlets at grocery stores, pharmacies, record stores, video stores and now there are only a few physical places you can go besides the venues (to avoid a service charge) but in the case of Madison Square Garden etc the tickets go on sale at their box office only if there are tickets left over after the onsale date (usually a sayurday for big events so the folowing monday) I used to have my secret place I would go to get tickets and one day the TM computers were no longer at the department store.

It sucks but that is how it has been as for my plans for the next U2 tour:

-probably once I will pay an insane amount of money to a scalper/broker for really good seats (ESP if it is a stadium tour)

-try and coordinate with other people and trade tickets so I can go to multiple
shows in multiple locations (like other people have said I just wanna be there)

Can anyone tell me what went on during the last tour? Did the propaganda subscribers get better seats? I guess we'll have to have some sort of plan.

*cue mission impossible music*

 

[wavesofregret]

Same thing I did last time. Sit with one hand on the computer and one on the phone, with my husband on the cell phone and my best friend on her computer, trying our best to score a good ticket as soon as they go on sale. We all lost out though, and were forced to pay online scalpers three times what the tickets were worth

 

[ABEL]

actually i did pretty good getting tickets last time...i managed to get a ticket when they went on sale (it wasn't floor seats tho but it was gold circle).

i decided to get tickets from one of the broker places about 3 days before the concert...the tickets had dropped in price from something like $130 to $85. if you wait till just the right time you can get a decent price...but then again you risk them being sold out too. i hate buying from those places tho. but i wanted to be in the heart at least once.

 

[TiaraGurl]

Also ticket "brokering" (What I like to call scalpers with a desk and phone) is legal in like 18 states I know it is in NJ.

Then there are those ebay rumors that send me into the street screaming.

 

[Axver]

Eeep, this now makes me scared I won't get tickets ...

 

[TiaraGurl]

Eeep, this now makes me scared I won't get tickets ...

It is daunting but there seem to be a lot of aussie interferencers and think about this: we still don't know when the damn album is coming out so we may have a loooooong time to plan a strategy.

 

[Axver]

Yeah ... I'd like the album to be out soon, but when I think about the tour, it'd probably be better if it came out later. Hopefully we can all work something out. I just would hate to miss seeing them live, and hopefully the means of getting tickets won't be too hard. Maybe I'll go queue for days while I leave other people on the phone and Internet ...

 

[alexvilagosh]

I'm scared!

 

[frenchie1970]

I'm scared!

just come to Buffalo, for some reason they don't sell out until the last minute here.

 

[anitram]

I've been close enough to touch Bono, and I ain't goin' further back.

I love a GA atmosphere, and I'd rather be 15 rows back on the floor than 1st row of the seats on the side, every day and twice on Sunday.

If there is no Prop, then the best thing I was able to do is in large cities with multiple shows (Toronto, Boston, Chicago, etc), if you keep refreshing the Ticketmaster page, the 2nd, 3rd, etc. shows will go on sale minutes after the first one is either sold out or very close to being sold out. Taht way I was able to snap up a ton of GA tickets. Then, you can trade them for 1st night shows you were unable to get.

If I could only see 1 or 2 shows this tour, I'd definitely pay a scalper. It's worth it, and you have your tickets in your hands in advance, without worrying about what transpires last minute.

You could always line up the day of and get last minute released tickets. They're usually fantastic (I got 3rd row R.E.M that way, about 2 hours prior to the show time).

 

[Axver]

See, I'm a very nervous person who likes to have everything planned. I'm so much more comfortable with knowing I can get tickets using Method X, that they'll be good and I won't be ripped off, and I can just rock up to the show, go in, take my spot, and enjoy the show. I've never been to ANYTHING live before (if you exclude those people who play at restaurants, heh), so I'm as new as you can be to this, and I just want to get into a show with a minimum of hassle and confusion.

If I were to line up for a couple of days outside the ticket office before tickets are put on sale, would that give me any better chance of getting tickets or am I just as better off sitting online with my landline in one hand and my mobile in the other?

 

[cass]

I've went along to the Zoo TV and Popmart concerts in Australia before I discovered Interference. I had no problems getting my tickets. I got a bit nervous in the lead up to the Elevation tour. I was reading here about people not being able to get tickets and it made me feel ill....well mixed feelings. I was delighted U2 were so incredibly popular and could just sell out in the blink of an eye, but the thought of me missing out on a place at the show made me feel ill. I think it is a new phenomenon in Australia maybe, people are going to more shows, scalpers are operating in a more organised manner. It's scary stuff indeed.
I'm pretty good at accepting I can't go to many things, but missing U2 would .....be indescribably horrible.
I just hope they bring the "humble jumbo" down here this time.
I'm pleased so many people love U2.

 

[dsmith2904]

U2.com did offer a pre-sale for Elevation. Everyone who was subsrcibed to U2.com's mailing list was sent out a password for a pre-sale like two or three days before the general onsale. Both of these onsales were through Ticketmaster. I got great tickets for the show but did not go the presale route, I bought mine like two or three days before the show.

Elvis Costello and Henry Rollins are currently offering fans a direct presale through their respective Web sites and not at all connected to Ticketmaster. Like with the U2 presale, you get a password through the mailing list and blocks of tickets are reserved for fans on a first come, first served basis. I think U2 could easily pull off something like that.

 

[TiaraGurl]

Oh and also even if something is sold out keep trying the TMpage because all the people who have bad credit cards get thrown back into the pool.

 

[KentK]

Might be a long shot, but I suppose it's possible that Prop could cease their magazine duties but still maintain the ticket sales portion of the organization. Especially with a major world tour coming up-- you can't just junk your long time fan base and turn them over to Ticketmaster or some first come first served scheme.

How many people are registered at u2.com? Half a million? A million? And probably all signed up in the last 2 years... that will be a mad house.

I'm hoping they play it smart here...

 

[anitram]

If I were to line up for a couple of days outside the ticket office before tickets are put on sale, would that give me any better chance of getting tickets or am I just as better off sitting online with my landline in one hand and my mobile in the other?

It depends on whether or not there is a wristband policy in effect. If so, then there is no use in lining up early, it's a matter of chance.