Greetings and welcome to the first ever online issue of Rock Midgets.com Webzine!
Hope you're beginning to find your way around OK. So what do you think of our new
domicile? Pretty snazzy, eh? Personally we were a bit worried the decor was a bit
'Everything Must Go'-era Manics, but I think it came out quite well, myself...
Time for a little introduction, methinks - I'm your humble Editor Ruth (hence
this section being the EDITORial...), and welcome to my own little part of the
webzine, where I get to generally vent my spleen about anything that pisses me
off in any given month. And that's generally a lot of stuff.
Some of the more eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that this actually used
to be a paper zine called 'Seething Little Monsters', rather than a webzine (for
those of you who hadn't - surprise! You're on the web. I would have thought those
Swedish Porn adverts and your skyrocketing phone bill would've given it away, but
never mind...). Well, sadly 'Seething...' is no more - we're knocking the paper
thing on the head for the moment to concentrate on the webzine, though who knows?
Let us know what you think about our new format. Oh that's a point - any feedback
you've got about the zine should be directed to feedback@rockmidgets.com. Please
drop us a line with whatever's in your head. We thrive off your emails.
So anyway, there I was the other day picking up a couple of gig guides at my local SU,
and a ticket to Soft Cell (What? I like Soft Cell... *sucks thumb*). There was this
very shifty-looking bloke at the front of the queue at reception. Being a naturally
nosy person when it comes to people's musical taste, I strained my ears a bit and
managed to catch a couple of words of what he was saying...
"Yeah, erm... 17 tickets for Wheatus... 10 tickets for O.P.M... 10 for Rachel Stamp..."
By this point I'd pretty much tuned out of the conversation, but I really didn't need
to hear anymore. Most of you will have already guessed why. The guy was a Tout.
Now if there's one thing that's guaranteed to get my blood boiling, it's Ticket Touts.
For those put there who aren't aware of the phenomenon of Ticket Touts - hard to
believe, but there must be some of you - these guys turn up every few weeks to your
local ticket office and buy a bunch of tickets for high demand gigs. Then a couple of
weeks later, on the night of the gig, they hang around outside the venue (generally
in cheap dark bomber jackets, for some reason...) and offer passers-by tickets at higher
prices than what they originally paid for them. If the gig's sold out, then they can
usually get at least two times face value for the tickets. If it's a high profile gig
at, say, The Apollo in Manchester, they can make a small fortune. Tickets exchange hands
for over £100 just outside the venue for bands like Foo Fighters.
And if they run out of tickets? Well, there's plenty of people going to the gig with
spares who are willing to sell them to a Tout - most venues don't take returns. And in
these cases the Touts can make even more money - take for example a friend of mine who
sold his gig ticket (purchased for a tenner) for £3, then later found out the same tout
was selling them for £15-£20.
You see what I'm getting at? It's not just the fact that these guys buy up hundreds of
pounds worth of tickets (the aforementioned Tout at the start of this rant must have
spent about £400 in that one transaction - and he paid in cash!), but that fact that
they buy them with absolutely no intention of going to the gig themselves. The only
reason why they buy them is to sell them on at a profit on the night of the gig to fans
so desperate they'll pay anything to get in. And the reason why they're so desperate to
get in? Because the Touts know which gigs are going to sell out, and buy even more tickets
for these gigs, resulting in tickets selling out even faster than they normally would.
That leaves even more genuine fans out of pocket because some guy saw a way to make a
fast buck at someone else's expense.
So please, if you want to go and see some band playing your local dive tonight, and you
know the gig has sold out, whatever you do PLEASE don't buy from a tout. Beg, borrow or
steal (NB. Rock Midgets.com does not advocate stealing in any way. Unless it's stealing
a CD from a loved one who borrowed it months ago off you, and still refuses to give it
back, because they've lent it to their mates who can't be arsed to buy their own copy of
'Under The Pink' by Tori Amos SIMON), but don't go to a tout. While there is still a
market for these people they will keep buying your tickets and charging you ridiculous
prices for them. Don't let them take advantage of you.
See you in the pit
Ruth xxx
Rock Midgets.com Editor
This month's Editor's choice:
http://www.dc8p.com/html/moonhoax.html
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