Elevation Goes International

By the time this occurence happened, I was ecstatic after landing two tickets to the hottest show in the world, but still bummed about how close I had come to completely missing out in America. The internet had been both a godsend and a total bust. I had been lucky to come away with ANY North American tickets at all.But I was riding high after riding tickets for Slane, so when London went on sale (not the presale, the regular sale) that next week, I was determined to try and score some tix.

I was planning on being in Europe in the summer anyway (a plan I had been nursing for two years). What better way to make it that much better then by going to a U2 concert? London was the ideal venue. Close to everything. I'm familiar with the city. I'd have people I knew available in case something went wrong (ie. someone to bail me out of jail if I was arrested while trying to kidnap Bono or something).

I was at work that night, but it was a reasonably good night so I had time to log on when the clock struck 1 AM. The LAN at that job was horribly slow, not like the one at the place where I used to work. Ticketmaster UK was *stuck*. The response must have been overwhelming. The poor server was doing all it could to just stay online. I tried to reload that page multiple times. Nothing worked and the minutes were slipping away. Call lights were going off. I couldn't just sit there and risk a manager finding me and asking what the hell did I think I was doing. (These administration types really have their priorites all messed up.)

But London and Birmingham and Manchester were all just selling out. I just KNEW I didn't have that much time until all the tickets were gone. My God, it was a CONSPIRACY that all the concerts I could make it to would go on sale on the same DAY. That has GOT to be a conspiracy or something. (I'm still not over it.) With a bleeding heart, I gave up on London :*(

Instead, I went to the other show also on sale on Ticketmaster. (Birmingham was supposed to have gone on sale on the same day but it must have been another dealer cuz there was no link on Ticketmaster.) Clicked on MANCHESTER and crossed my fingers. No British concerts just would NOT be cool. The pages loaded slowly, but slowly they came through... one by one. First the splash page for the venue. Then, the form to request tickets. Then the loading to the server page. Then.... the offer. It offered me two Manchester tickets. My Mastercard was out of my pocket and the number into the computer before you could say, "SCORE!"

i didn't notice which night it was for. I didn't notice the seats I had gotten. I didn't care. I have never been to Manchester in my life... Come to think of it, I have never been to Northern England in my whole entire earthly existence. It didn't matter. I was sure a train or plane or dump truck would get me there... or my own two feet would get me there from London if it came to that. It didn't matter. I was going.

When I checked on Earl's Court later that night, every ticket was gone. At least most of them. I couldn't get the website to offer me tickets to any of the recently added-on shows. It's all a damn conspiracy! :) When I checked again the next night, everything was gone. I still regret that, but at least I'll have Manchester...