Monday, June 2, 2008

Bo (dead) and Tom (expensive)

I just learned that Bo Diddley died today of heart failure. Diddley was a groundbreaking genius of rock & roll who had that exciting jungle beat down pat... I´ll miss him. "Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind, just 22 and I don´t mind dying..." Bo was 79. Find Who Do You Love, definitely my favorite Bo Diddley song, on the definitive Bo Diddley: The Chess Box (Chess records).

Unaware of Bo´s fate, I spent hours and hours on the phone earlier today trying to buy 2 tickets for Tom Waits´ Glitter And Doom tour. No online ticket sale here in the fair city of Barcelona, and the ticketing agency didn´t provide any pricing or floor plan details on their site either. Waits´ European tour will be subject to new anti-scalper plans, thus attempting to ensure that every fan will pay only face value (plus normal service and handling fees) for the tickets. Tickets are limited to two per person with the purchaser’s name – and name of their plus one – printed on the ticket. Ticket-holders need photo ID corresponding to the names on the tickets to gain access to the venues.

Good to see such an initiative Tom, but with prices being this high, who needs scalpers? When I finally got through to an employee I asked for the best available seats, as you don´t want to be up in the nosebleeds. I guess our seats are fine now, but we had to pay a whopping 276 Euro ($428) for the pair. To my knowledge, champagne, caviar and other delights are not included. Hey, I know nobody forced me, but still... Dude, that´s a lot of money. You better be good Tom my man...

The live MP3´s below were recorded in The Hague on July 21, 1999, the last time me and the missus saw Mr. Waits in concert. It was a truly great show. The price? 120 Euro for two tix. Got the inflation blues...

Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love MP3
Tom Waits - Cemetery Polka (live in The Hague 21-7-´99) MP3
Tom Waits - Invitation To The Blues (live in The Hague 21-7-´99) MP3

1 comment:

Patriq Allyn said...

I'm going seeing him in Edinburgh, we got the 'cheaper' tickets £75 each, which is what.. 95€ PLUS an additional £10's worth of extra fees! (Also, I'm in Manchester, the trip to Edinburgh and stay-over... gosh we must be mad!?)

I've never seen Tom before, and he's not so young and doesn't tour extensively. So I *had* to go and I'm really looking forward to it. But so dear! Lou Reed's prices have casually drifted up to the same level recently - I guess they are happy playing to a) die-hard fans & b) rich people with too much money.

The sad thing is that both these artists have quite a lot of a appeal to young people but they just can't afford to go and see them. Sad.