Radiohead - Mandela Hall, 1997

Rigsy – ATL Presenter

I was listening to Across the Line, as I did every evening, when Mike Edgar casually announced to the nation that Radiohead were to do a last minute gig in the Mandela Hall and tickets would go on sale 'tomorrow morning' at 9am.



Myself and Andrew 'Kingo' King, my partner in crime back in the day were both listening and immediately agreed we'd no option but to catch the 6am bus from Newcastle to Belfast. We made the queue at Our Price in Royal Avenue for about 7.30am, eventually nabbing two tickets each. It was a great feeling, knowing we'd 'worked' a little for them. Kingo deserved most credit, he'd walked five miles from his house in Castlewellan to catch that bus!





Smashign Pumpkins - Olympia Theatre, Dublin 2000

Amy McGarrigle – ATL Producer

Not exactly a riveting story, but I got up good and early to position myself in front of the computer a good half hour before tickets went on sale for the Smashing Pumpkins "farewell" gig in Dublin. 

The all seated gig in the Olympia would sell out in moments, I knew this. I also knew my 56k modem wasn’t exactly the most reliable. Nervously I refreshed, refreshed, refreshed, and then GO! I got the third row! 

My 15 year old obsessed self was well and truly chuffed - and meant I was close enough to catch Billy Corgans plectrum when it spun into the air.





The Album Leaf – Somewhere in Barcelona, 2009

Cameron Mitchell – ATL Content Assistant



I’ve never really had to queue for a gig before or wait patiently online for tickets, probably due to the fact that most of the bands I like aren’t really popular.

But if we are talking about going the extra mile to get tickets, then I unashamedly emailed a band once and blagged tickets. The band in question is The Album Leaf from San Diego - who rarely tour Europe – so when they announced that they were gigging in Barcelona I bought the flights and hotel straight away – but I couldnt find the tickets anywhere. BTW.. The Album Leaf let people in free to gigs if you have their leaf logo tattooed on your persons, but I felt that was a bit extreme. So, here is the email I sent to Jimmy LaValle from the band, which I still have...

“I am trying to find tickets for the gig on Sunday in Barcelona, I am flying out from ireland, and cant speak a word of Spanish, been trying all day online to no avail. Do you know where I can purchase them? Im too scared off needles and my girlfriend would shout at me if I got a tattoo :(“



And it seemed to work as this popped up in my mail box a few hours later…



“sorry man! i have no info for that. the only thing i could recommend would be to buy them at the box office day of show. I doubt it will sell out.on second though, you say you're flying in from ireland? we'll put you on the list. i'll put you on plus one. see you saturday! Best Jimmy”



Best thing is, I met the whole band afterwards and we sat and had a few drinks in some random bar on Las Ramblas. Great guys!