Online is so fine
Rock Concert Tickets 1970s Style
Standing in line with Mister Jimmy
I have only been a ticket broker full time since 2008 but have known that in the 1970s to purchase good tickets for a concert required camping out overnight or for several days at the box office. Many ticket brokers would pay people to stand in line for days in order to maintain position.
The Ticket Line
I went to a big Midwestern state college that brought in some incredible shows to their arena in the 1970s. I saw the Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull, Chicago when they were good, and James Taylor among others.
About three months before the show an announcement went out:
Line for CSN and Y starts Friday in the Union Coffee Shop.
Around 11 PM everyone stood in line to register. Each group would eventually get 10 tickets. The group had to select a unique name, we were always the Amazing Lizards. You could count on a minimum of 100 marijuana references. Girls, a completely unknown species, had to stand in line for their own tickets. You might buy one a pitcher of Schlitz but Yes Tickets? No way.
Calling the Roll
Then about three times a day at announced times a very grungy stoned guy would read the whole list of maybe 500 names. Somebody from your group had to be there for roll call the whole three months. Or else.
Banging Bros? Here man
Smokin’ Frog Wizards? Totally man
Furry Freak Foghat? Furry Freak Foghat? Sorry man in a zone
Uriah Hemp? Uriah Hemp? Uriah Hemp? Sorry man, I saw Steve about ten minutes ago and he said he took some ‘ludes. He is gonzo. OK, they gone!
Mark off Uriah Hemp but there are still 499 names to read.
Finally, when the tickets went on sale there had to be a real line with one person for every two tickets. This meant you needed eight dollars and about four hours to stand in line because there was just one ticket window. It was all worth it though to see Jerry Garcia play an hour and a half guitar solo.
You’re a Thousand Light-Years from the Front of the Line
Now you probably do not “get” the Stones. Formaldehyde preserved ancient relics that have played the same songs for 200 years. But in the 1970s they were the voice of rebellion. During the riots in 1970, a guy had Street Fightin’ Man playing on his “record player” continuously for a week at head rattling volume from his dorm room window. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was our anthem:
And I went down to the demonstration To get my fair share of abuse
So the Stones couldn’t have a normal ticket line. They were the STONES that would be too easy for a street fightin’ man. So beginning in November for a January concert there was a real line and it was outside. Somebody from your group had to be there all the time. For months. In sub-zero conditions.
The frats took control right away. Each one pitched a tent and installed the pledges as line sitters. None of the pledges actually got tickets for their arctic experience of course.
They were lured into this frozen wasteland by promises of kegs and maybe seeing actual girls someday. Those deluded dweebs stuck it out. I would see them on my winter march to the Engineering campus. It kind of looked like the Great Depression with beer cans. I mean they were in the kind of “play tents” you might have put up for your second grader.
Nobody else could make it beyond a week. They had surprise roll calls at 4 AM and you had to be there. Came time for the real ticket line and the frats had an unbelievable scalping opportunity, You could get 20 bucks a ticket. They could afford new couches on the roof and flying in pizza from Chicago.
Now all tickets are online and you do not have to physically stand in line. Of course, you cannot actually get any tickets, the hackers get them all right away and in 2019 secondary market seats in Denver for a Rolling Stones Concert were $2238 for Premium seats and $838 standing room. The Smoking Frog Wizards were out of luck.
Steven Koprince wrote a great love story:
I wrote something else: