Smile

Is what I’ve been doing for most of the day, after securing tickets to see David Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall in October.
I honestly thought he wouldn’t record anything after 2015’s “Rattle That Lock” so was quite surprised when he announced a new album, to be released this September. I was even more surprised that that this was followed by a further announcement of six concerts at the RAH in October.
I just had to get tickets. But there was a problem in that four of those six dates were not possible due to me being on stage myself. So I only had two dates I could try for. Pre-ordering the album gave me access to the pre-sale, which took place yesterday but, by the time I’d got through the queue and on to Ticketmaster, there were only a couple of box seats left at £250 plus fees and no guarantee they were next to each other!
So, no choice other than to try the general sale this morning. The difference was that, this time, I could also try the RAH website as well as Ticketmaster. As you can see there was a “waiting room” for both sites and - at the time I took the picture - TM were ahead, even though I joined at around number 1900. I joined RAH at around 1300, but their queue moved more slowly.
However, when I got on to TM there were no tickets of any description available for my chosen date, and if I wanted to try another date I would go to the back of the queue, which was now 4,000 plus.
It was all down to RAH now. And, amazingly, I had a choice of where I wanted to sit. I opted for mid price (still expensive!) seats and was allocated four straight away! I only wanted two, so gave the others up and proceeded to checkout straightaway before they changed their minds. I was so keen to complete the purchase I even let the “Restoration Levy” slip through!
And, as you can see, I’ve got the confirmation. Even better, I only realised after I’d read the confirmation that we’d got front row seats. That’s front row of the Rausing Circle rather than front row of the auditorium but, from past experience, I know it’s going to be great view.
A very happy chappy today.