You shook me for a crisp and professional 120 minutes.

[davywavy]

I was jolly pleased to get tickets for one of ACDC's London shows. Given that they sold out in under 30 minutes, obviously my use of the internet was mighty compared to everyone else who tried to get hold of tickets and failed. As I spend a lot of time out of the office at the moment, I carefully plotted my diary for last week around the concert: Tuesday night, ACDC, Wednesday get the early train to Edinburgh, Thursday it's Leeds, then Friday, Manchester. I was going to be whizzing round the country, but everything was planned to the second.
Gosh, I'm so dynamic.
Tuesday night rolled around. My companion and I rolled up at the 02 (which was crammed with Kerrang-Outangs*), had a drink, randomly met an old friend who I last saw in 2003 when we were trying and failing to get tickets for ACDC's last London show, and then we joined the queue. As we queued, the line came to a halt with the person in front of us. Earwigging, I overheard what was going on.
"Sorry, mate", the usher was saying to the crestfallen rocker ahead. "These tickets are for Thursday. You've got the wrong night."
I gave my companion an amused glance. Got the wrong night! What a moron! What sort of oaf would do that? I stepped up and gave the doorman my ticket with a flourish. "Here, my good man", I didn't say. "Two tickets for Australia's finest export, as you please."
He looked at my tickets. "Sorry, mate", he said. "These tickets are for Thursday. You've got the wrong night."
I looked at the tickets. Stamped on them, in huge letters, it read: Now look here David, you moron, these are tickets for Thursday. Thursday. Not Tuesday. Eeeh. I have to admit I was surprised I hadn't noticed that bit before.
I looked at my companion. My heart sank. On Thursday, I was in Leeds and on Friday I was in Manchester. I had meetings all day. Arse.


So it was that on Thursday afternoon I found myself giving the most rushed and incoherent presentation of my working life before pegging it to the stations and leaping on the last possible (and, might I add, outrageously expensive) train back to London. From Kings Cross I had to get to the O2 which wasn't made any easier by my discovery, when I arrived at the Jubilee Line, of a sign reading Because of the vague possibility that David might actually enjoy himself this evening, it has been decided to close the railway to the O2. London Underground only supports joyless toil. Pip Pip, Monty.
I cursed Monty and instead went outside and hailed the first passing cab. It was fifty quid.
I finally arrived 5 minutes before they came on stage, and you know what? They were great. Really good. So good, in fact, that I'm tempted by the show at Wembley in June, if anyone might care to join me? So good, that all the way through the concert I barely even thought about the fact that what with trains, the worthless comedy toy railway that London underground claims to run and taxis, getting to see them had cost me the better part of three hundred quid.

And then in the morning I got up first thing and got on the train back to the North.

*^{Kerrang-Outang (n): A short, fat hairy man who listens to a lot of rock & heavy metal.}

Comments

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

At least you didn't show up for Thursday and find your tickets were for Tuesday.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Now that's dedication. Glad it was a good gig!

[rssefuirosu.livejournal.com]

Very good to see you sir :D

[ukmonty.livejournal.com]

be careful what you wish for Wade

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I wish for a railway that works. Should I be careful of that?

[ukmonty.livejournal.com]

it was working, you were late and hadnt been asked to read the copious signs telling you that it was closing early to make it work even better!

actually joking aside I can probably dig out a list of dates when work is taking place (which i believe is on teh TfL website - not that you wpould look!)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

It was shut on Thursday because of a signal failure - something I only discovered when I got to the sign at the bottom of the escalator, after scanning the Oyster card, naturally.

[(Anonymous)]

For what it's worth, I once went to see Rush on tour in the US. Fair enough, I made a holiday out of it, so I'm not going to claim the whole airfare as my cost of going to see them... However, once there I did discover that, given I didn't drive at the time, the only way to get from Indianapolis to the field near Indianapolis where they were playing was a taxi, and the return fare cost £150....

But hell, they were worth it.

V

[(Anonymous)]

I believe William Huskisson would suggest so....

V

[bringeroflight.livejournal.com]

That was the worst breakdown on the Jubilee this year so far. It wasn't just a signal failure - it was a signal failure right at the fricking junction at North Greenwich (the O2 stop, for those who don't know) where they take trains out of service when there's a problem. It was royally messed up.

My commute home that day took _hours_ - I'd left work early to pop one stop west to get some shopping and ended up stuck south of the river. I was lugging my shopping back and spent an age helping AC/DC fans get to the gig while I was at it - be glad you spent £50 on the taxi - people who'd tried to get the bus having been on the line when it went down will have missed the start due to the rush hour traffic...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I have to say that whislt I appreciate the joke of Spinal Tap, I've never actually enjoyed the music!

But, ACDC in June...do you feel like being delegated to rustle up tickets?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I was told to use the bus, but it is obvious to anyone who has ever used London transport that it's a physically impossibility to get from Waterloo to Greenwich in an hour by any means other than tube or taxi.
I gave the taxi driver a fat tip :)