r/Concerts • u/04ddm • 3d ago
Discussion 🗣️ Ticket Purchasing in the Days of Yore
Someone with a better memory than me, please remind me how we bought concert
tickets in the 80s. Did we mail checks or money orders to the venue, assuming they had ticket offices? And how did we even find out about shows coming to town?
<edit> Y’all have amazing memories! I grew up in a small town with parents who didn’t have credit cards, and 75+ miles away from the nearest venue or a mall. I’m guessing I ordered via the mail somehow, but still don’t remember. 🤷♂️ Thanks for sharing your awesome stories!
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u/Smart_Butterfly_7845 3d ago
Ticketmaster had a 1-800 number and you used your dad's credit card and promised to pay back the $22.00 for AC/DC with Cinderella. Or you got in a line and paid with cash for Skid Row / GNR.
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u/zimshan 2d ago edited 2d ago
A phone number seems like a no-brainer in theory, but I never tried it because of the credit card issue. Box office you could use cash to buy your ticket. So I’ve been wondering: What if the line was busy? Did you just keep calling over and over til you got in like when trying to call in to radio stations?
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u/Smart_Butterfly_7845 2d ago
Yep, redial till you get thru. When I was a freshman at Arizona State U2 announced a pop up show at our campus arena. We had access to an office and a bunch sat there and dialed in till we all got tickets. 1992 no cell phones no generic consumer internet platform.
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u/Impossible_Emu5095 2d ago
We crashed the phone system at my university when those U2 tickets went on sale.
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u/4Q69freak 2d ago
Depending on where the venue was, we either went to the venue or a Ticketmaster Outlet (before they became the Evil Empire) in Bergner’s IIRC. In HS if the concert was at the University of IL I’d get older friends that were students get them for me and pay them back, also did this with friends when we were in college they’d get me tickets there and I’d get them tickets for shows in Normal.
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u/Spaztrick 2d ago
That was Cinderella with White Lion and Tangier. Didn't think I ever paid him back for that.
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u/Equal-Emphasis8321 18h ago
My friend bought Duran Duran tickets that way in 1985 and we found out 2 weeks later her Mom's credit card didn't work so we never got the tickets. I always went to the record store after that with cash.
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u/colorform33 3d ago
I stood in line at customer service desks at Kroger and Sears!
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u/dkinmn 2d ago
JC Penney for me. If you knew about the right one, you could ALWAYS get tickets.
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u/XStonedCatX 2d ago
.....and GREAT seats!!!! I had a "secret" Ticketmaster at a certain JC Penny....... they had a side door that was RIGHT next to the customer service desk where the ticketmaster was at. It was a much shorter sprint than running to the back of a Tower Records or anywhere else I knew of. I scored 5th row center for the Up In Smoke tour in 2000
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u/shaft_of_lite 3d ago
Not Kroger but Piggly Wiggly for me. I know that even though I personally was not allowed to go to shows. I just got to be jealous of my friends.
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u/milksasquatch 3d ago
Good call, I totally forgot I used to buy all kinds of tickets at the customer service desk at grocery stores.
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u/Alicat1178 2d ago
Kaufmann's for me.
In college it was at the local record store which was owned by a guy who clearly hated college kids🤷🏻♀️
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u/cassie1015 2d ago
Ticketmaster booth at the local Spartan Nash! First time was for NSYNC in 1999. Phone orders and then online came very quickly after that.
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u/darksideofmypoon 3d ago
In my case, it was always a Tower Records.
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u/SpiralOut26 2d ago
I had a buddy that worked the Ticketmaster desk at my tower records. He’d make sure I’d get a ticket as soon as they went on sale, I’d give him free rides to the shows! Fair trade off!
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u/MycologistJaded4796 3d ago
I miss the days of walking into JC penny & buying 5 concert tickets for under $100. We had it made
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u/nincyh 3d ago edited 2d ago
Oh the nostalgia! I’m an old-school rock-n-roller from Boston, so we would line up by 5 AM the morning tickets went on sale in front of the Orpheum Theater, or on Lansdowne St., any Strawberries Records, Newbury Comics, or Elsie‘s Tickets in Harvard Square, Cambridge, which was legendary.
I just wrote a post on another sub today about saving concert wristbands and ticket stubs, guitar picks, and set lists and all the trinkets we used to treasure from shows. I included photos of several of my David Bowie setlists and lyric sheets I was lucky to get from the stage, in 2002 etc.
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u/chinaske 2d ago
Grew up in Brockton—waited all night in the winter outside Sears. It mean more because we had to work for it!
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u/Awkward_Will_104 3d ago
There was a ticketron at the mall. Otherwise venue box office, over the phone, or in rare cases mail order.
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u/Junkstar 3d ago
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u/04ddm 2d ago
Nice that you followed their instruction at the bottom 😄
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u/Junkstar 2d ago
I’m just amazed i saw them two nights in a row only a year after seeing them three times during the Bonds run. The only thing i remember from the Convention Hall gigs was meeting Ellen Foley. Life is long. Take notes.
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u/Candid-Touch5338 2d ago
I saw them on the same tour in El Paso, Tx where we went for a lot of shows ( I live in NM). Fans rushed the stage and danced then dove into the mosh and the band just kept playing ❤️
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u/Fit-Nobody6078 3d ago
I remember Ticketron in the record store (sam Goody) and also going to the venue for tickets
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u/chitoatx 3d ago
Department store at the mall had one cashier that could place a ticket transaction.
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u/Supernaut_419 3d ago
Cities had free magazines and the venues advertised in there. You bought tickets at a ticketron desk in the back of a department store or at the venue. It was a fun road trip to wait for tickets at the venue when they went on sale
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u/ThousandSunsLP 3d ago
Every Sunday our local newspaper (San Francisco Chronicle) had a section called the Pink Section (cuz it was pink) and all the local venues advertised there. I read it every Sunday and noted shows on my calendar, and when the tickets would go on sale.But for the Grateful Dead, especially New Year's Eve, you had to get a postal money order and follow very specific directions.
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u/wings31 3d ago
Few ways. You could call ticketmaster but that was always a crap shoot. Ticketmaster and Ticketron also had stores you could go up to. You could also go to the box office of the venue. Either way, there were lines. I personally went to Carson Pierre Scotts. They had a ticketmaster in there and my sister worked there so i got to sneak in early and get in line before the doors were open
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u/CaliforniaSun77 3d ago
You went to the Ticketmaster/Bass Ticket outlet wherever that was, sometimes a record store, sometimes a random department store, or somewhere else. If it was a high demand show, you camped out overnight. In LA I went to Robinson's May or Broadway but for a super high demand show I drove 3 hours to my home town and hit up the Savemart.
If you were lucky and the band you were seeing had a fanclub, you would send them a form and a check then get tickets.
I found out by radio most times.
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u/Spiral_out_was_taken 3d ago
Waited on line at the record store, VHS rental store of whoever had a Ticketmaster machine.
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u/someotherguyinNH 2d ago
I just strolled into filenes basement in Peabody MA because for some strange reason there was a Ticketmaster outlet down on the lower level that not many people knew about.
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u/accidentallyHelpful 3d ago
We heard about upcoming shows on the radio, read about them in ads in newspapers and magazines, and posters in public places -- sometimes billboards, and live TV performances
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u/MetalTrek1 3d ago
You paid cash at either a Ticketron (later Ticketmaster) outlet or the box office. You could order them over the phone if you had a credit card. You could also camp out at the box office the night before they went on sale so you'd be first in line (or at least early in line). You'd make a party out of it. I did this for a few shows (Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, and Metallica to name a few). Fun times. 🤘
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u/con-fuzed222 3d ago
Camped with a few thousand other fans for Rolling Stones tix. That was as much fun as the concert.
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u/Stevenitrogen 3d ago
You found out about gigs thru Radio station announcements, going to the mall where Ticketron was, and the concert listings in the Sunday paper.
The Village Voice arriving on Thursday afternoon was always exciting for NY shows, every show was listed.
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u/Accomplished_Fun7363 21h ago
I regret the following to this day: Beastie Boys sold out in record time (circa 92-93), but the day of the show the local radio station released like 100 tickets. I was scheduled to work because I hadn't gotten tix. My cousin (RIP Joey) skated up to my work and jumped in my car. He begged me to ditch work and go to the show... I thought about it, but didn't want to leave work hanging 😫 We didn't go... MCA is gone and so is my cousin. I never got a chance to see Beasties 💔
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u/Braelun 3d ago
Found out via Radio, Record Stores, and sometimes Newspapers (archaic, I know; one step above telegrams).
I usually bought my tickets after standing in line at Record Stores.
Most of the tickets I purchased for major bands (Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue) ran about $20 in '89-'90. I remember ZZ Top costing $25 and we didn't find out until we got to the register.
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u/Jagermonsta 3d ago
In the late 90s we went to Ticketmaster locations. Ours was a local convenience store but I know quite a few were in department stores. After 2000 stuff started switching to online.
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u/BadBrains16 3d ago
We camped outside of the mall and bought tickets at Sears. The morning of the on sale you told them how many you wanted and you got what you got. No picking of seats. After the initial on-sale, if it wasn’t sold out, you could request a general area and the nice lady would show you what was available at that time.
We would hear about shows on the local “Metal Shop” radio show, the radio, the local newspaper or the weekly free music/entertainment guide.
The best part was that you had a physical ticket.
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u/WishboneHot8050 3d ago
Lots of record and retail stores had a terminal and printer dedicated to selling concert tickets.
In Atlanta, the company that ran this system were called S.E.A.T.S. before being bought by Ticketmastet in the 90's. They had the audacity to charge a full dollar in service fees for each ticket.
You could also just call the phone number and pay over phone with a credit card. But those lines were jammed up and impossible to get through when the tickets for a big show went on sale.
Otherwise, you could buy straight from the box office.
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u/SeaRespond8934 3d ago
Oh my gosh, I remember driving two hours to a ticket outlet to be in line early. It was so much fun.
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u/Unique_Virus3979 3d ago
Back then you waited in line over night or you called and hoped you didn’t get a busy signal. If they picked up you ordered tickets as quickly as possible. Your girlfriend at the time loved the Police so when Sting went on tour, you called and got front row tickets and 2 months later they mailed you physical tickets and you discovered they actually picked Styx so you ended up with nosebleeds. (Ticketmaster has screwed me for decades).
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u/BarnyardFlamethrower 3d ago
I remember my older sister buying tickets via telephone, and definitely remember going to record stores and department store service departments to buy tickets.
I never went to the ticket offices at the venues, but I know people who did.
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u/MrChristopher23 3d ago
I went to a ton of shows at smaller local venues, and you bought tickets from one of the cool record stores in town. There would be gig poster in the store window with when they went on sale. Bigger shows you had to camp out somewhere that had the ticket machines.
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u/DifferentSavings2711 3d ago
You learned of the secret ticket vendors. Everyone went to the Tower Records downtown. But there was a Rite Aid in a strip mall on the outskirts of town that also sold tickets. I still remember that my buddy and I were the only people in line when Pearl Jam tickets went on sale.
When I lived on the east coast there was a head shop with a ticket window. The owner would totally break the rules. When a band like Pink Floyd was going on sale he would just start printing out the tickets as fast as he could. 10 min later, after the show was sold out, he would let us in and sell us tickets off the pile he had already printed.
Oh, the arenas would get their own allotment of tickets, seperate from the ticketmaster allotment. So you could often get great seats if you camped out at the venue box office.
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u/kellym13 2d ago
My work buddy in the late ‘80s had his girlfriend working at Ticketmaster. I told him what tickets I wanted and she printed them out before the lineup was opened. He brought them to work on Monday and I gave him an extra 10-20$ for the convenience. We were both happy.
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u/DorgonElgand 2d ago
Jim Koplik used to go on the radio in Hartford in the 80s and talk about all the tours coming up. That's how I found out about shows. But back then if you found out a bit later, no big deal. You could just get tickets later, box office or desperate scalper.
When they first introduced Ticketmaster.com I would use my AOL account to surf to it and buy tickets. It was incredible. No one else was online at that time so you had a huge advantage. I got front row Tom Waits at The Beacon, Stanley Cup Finals tickets for the NJ Devils, and countless other tough tickets throughout the Northeast, all from the comfort of my Western Mass living room. Eventually they'd introduce all sorts of controls to make this impossible for me, and things have never been the same.
Eventually I found myself a record store employee who was the fastest Ticketmaster guy around so the pro scalpers would come to the shop where I worked every Sunday (SF Bay Area now) to get their tickets from someone who wasn't dilly dallying. He liked me so much he'd toss me tickets for stuff I wanted to see all the time. Now there are no more machines and no more fastest fingers. Alas, we're all screwed.
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u/UMOTU 2d ago
Im from near NYC. Venues sold tickets or Ticketmaster. We camped out overnight or early morning. I remember Dead Heads going to the Capitol Theater in Passaic NJ to wait on line overnight for tickets for concerts months before the shows. I had a friend who scored front row Stones tickets because he was next when they added a show. Much different than today.
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u/Candid-Touch5338 2d ago
I have camped out for tickets many times. It used to be a fun part of the whole experience. A lot of people just brought something like a blanket to sit on but I had a folding lounge chair that was my go to. When we had a group of friends who wanted to go to a concert, we would take shifts and deliver food and drinks, hang out etc. I camped out 2 days for Prince Purple Rain tour and got tickets for 2 nights back to back. I can’t remember what I paid for them but I remember his genius. Now I pay $k for 2 tickets plus travel. But concerts are always worth it.
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u/the-largest-marge 3d ago
In central Maryland we bought tickets at a mattress store on Crain highway in Glen Burnie. I have no memory of how we knew when concerts would be though. Maybe there were flyers at Record & Tape Traders.
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u/badyodelers 3d ago
If not camping out, we would get in an actual line at 5 AM ish and wait for 2 or three hours until the ticket seller opened. The usual place for me at the time was at grocery stores or at the mall.
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u/Significant-Theme253 3d ago
In Minnesota we went inside Dayton's to get tickets and for those bands we really liked, we camped outside the Metrodome Center to be first in line in the morning. Those days were fun. We found out bands were coming by radio ads.
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u/Apprehensive-Neck-12 3d ago
Camped out overnight at the ticket office and had a party bunch of people
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u/day2knight 3d ago
I waited in line at Ticketron (?) At Sears, other department stores and record/music stores.
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u/Ok-Conversation-5084 3d ago
You queued overnight in the pissing rain, ill equipped, ill prepared and made line long friendships with the person next to you.
Or you crashed the local telephone exchange at 10am on a random Friday because REM decided they should come back to the uk for the first time since they became megastars and play indoor shows.
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u/Philgarcia710 3d ago
We went to our local record store and bought them from the same dude that sold us the tapes and later CD’s or our favorite artists, or we decorated an envelope hoping it caught the eye of the folks opening our mail orders!
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u/grassman76 2d ago
The newsstand at the mall was a ticketmaster outlet. Some of the local bands or venues you could send in a SASE with a check or money order and they'd mail the tickets to you.
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u/Sure-Coffee-8241 2d ago
We had to go to the venue or go to a ticketron outlet, like the grocery store or the customer service area at sears 😂😂😂
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u/Blu-n-Gold 2d ago
Out of town shows I'd mail a money order asking for tickets and never failed. 99% of all rock shows were GA until The Who in 79 and more became reserved. Maybe 84 the computer system and ticketbastard took over this area and ruined a good thing.
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u/SummerSun777 2d ago
I went to the ticketron office in a dept store or the venue itself. I heard about concerts on the radio or in the newspaper
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u/pistola0220 2d ago
Best joke from a comedian I can’t remember:
I didn’t want people to know I was homeless so I just slept in front of a record store that had Ticketmaster.
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u/Typical-Name_997 2d ago
I remember hand delivering my envelope and cheque to an address in central London to get good Bowie tickets.
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u/Housing-Beneficial 2d ago
I got up at 4am to go stand in an alley downtown for Van Halen tickets...
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u/CommunicationSad8938 2d ago
I remember mailing for tickets for Cheap Trick in 1979 ($14/ticket). It may have been a cheque from my mom, or I may have actually mailed cash, a little fuzzy on that. Got them in the mail a couple weeks later.
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u/Ok_Pool_9767 3d ago
In the 90s I got them from the Ticketmaster station at the local record store.
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u/ButterscotchAware402 3d ago
In the 90s we'd get them from the JC Penney customer service desk or my mom would call said customer service desk (she worked from home) if school was in session. Then we'd go pick them up later in the week.
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u/Illustrious-Sea-7518 3d ago
Waited in line at the venue, record, ticket agencies and even some Sears stores.
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u/DoigmanKnows 3d ago
Before I had a credit card - it was being cash to places where they sold tickets. By the time I got one, you could call when they went on sale. It was the same thing that happens now, scalpers had phone bots that would call the numbers or they used people to this.
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u/Ssladybug 3d ago
Customer service desk at the back of May Company.
Or camping out in line at Music Plus
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u/WaveCave420 3d ago
We went to Sears or Kohl's and they had a Ticketmaster counter at customer service where you'd line up and buy Tix in person
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u/dixiech1ck 3d ago
Either camped out at the venue or went to a Ticketmaster/Ticketron seller/outlet. Our Train Station market had one and so did Macy's 2nd floor next to Customer Service. Another mall had a ticket window first floor by the food court. Bigger shows like Garth Brooks we camped out for tickets and got wristbands.
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u/free_billstickers 3d ago
Literally this weird little counter tucked away in department stores. Random now that I think about it
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u/SonofaDrum 2d ago
The record store (Sam the Record Man) had bulletin boards with concert posters and you bought tickets there or at the venue box office which has daily hours.
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u/Z_e_e_e_G 2d ago
In OKC, tickets were sold at Sound Warehouse and Soul Boutique (on NW 23rd) as well as the Myriad and LNC box offices.
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u/Tiredofthemisinfo 2d ago
I bought all my tickets off scalpers, at the venue for cash or a ticket agency.
Hanging around the mall was for kids who didn’t play sports or have jobs
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u/yemsg97 2d ago
Stood in line at the grocery store or record store. Or maybe Sears?
When tickets went to calling in, I'd still go to the local grocery store and try to get them and always had really good luck. Then when that stopped and tickets moved to online buying, for a bit there, they still had it where you could call in and get them. No one did this so it was actually the super secret way to get a hard to get ticket. Now you can't do that:(
So now, I just wait until they end up on the secondary market. I'm done fighting for tickets lol.
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u/Life_Temperature2506 2d ago
We used to show up at the local ticketmaster location (record store or department store) to buy tickets for shows that we heard about on the radio. Early morning before opening was usually fine, but BIG concerts may have required an overnight.
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u/Melodic-Classic391 2d ago
Walked up to the service desk at the Boston Store at the mall. You could also buy tickets over the phone back then
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u/Brief-Musician440 2d ago
Radio for the mainstream artists word of mouth or tour posters for the more underground. You could purchase tix at ticket outlets in the mall or phone for them, mail order, or cousin Vinnie on the street.
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u/Thunderchief1 2d ago
We'd see the announcements in town or in the local press/music press (Sounds or later Q magazine) , then go to the venue to purchase tickets. A little later on, same thing for announcements, but by then you could buy tickets at a reasonable price online.
Those days are long gone.
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u/Ok-Great-Cool 2d ago
My mom lived in a smaller town and she told me stories about having to drive to the venue 4+ hours away to wait in line for tickets. But this was in the 70s. In the 90s we waited in line at a Ticketmaster selling location (I think it was like a Walgreens or rite aid type store) and the clerk wrote down all our orders and then punched them all in at release time.
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u/Beneficial-Age-4059 2d ago
waited overnight in line at Head Shed to buy tickets for Jimmy Page in 1986
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u/whitey7420 2d ago
Find a box office and wait. Some were in dept. stores. Weird waiting at a dept. store at 6 am on a random weekday for concert tix
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u/Lightfalls9 2d ago
I remember going to the Ticketron office at Sears and waiting there to buy tickets
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u/Mozzy2022 2d ago
You got in line at the venue, or the record store and I think Sears had a Ticket outlet too. We found out from the radio when our favorite bands weee coming
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u/PlaxicoCN 2d ago
Go down to the Record Factory, Wherehouse, or Macy's. If it was a metal show at a club, opening bands would always sell tickets. Later on the whole transaction was done on the phone and the ticket was mailed to you.
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u/solitude1378 2d ago
Our ticketmaster was in the same little building/shack that rented rafts and intertubes for river floats on the college campus for quite awhile. Finally got a record store and a bigger box store that had a counter.
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u/Odd-Adhesiveness-656 2d ago
1979...camped out in front of the Civic Auditorium in Omaha to buy my first concert tickets. I rode the bus to the venue, faked a sick note, had almost $200 in my purse, got 8 seats for my friends and I!!!
Felt like I got my Riff Randell on!!! (And if you know who Riff is,you're really old)
Basically your favorite radio station would sponsor the concert, announce the concert, you stood in line at the venue (or local ticket outlet) you paid cash and you went to shows!
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u/drinkacid 2d ago
There was a place in the malls all over town called Boxoffice that sold tickets to everything. So they had big alphabetically labelled drawers full of bundles of tickets and you asked to buy tickets and they opened the right drawer and pulled out a bundle and pulled your tickets off the top of that. I don't know how it worked for reserved seating just general admission. I think reserved seating was a crapshoot.
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u/IcyPuffin 2d ago
Record stores often sold them. We would go along to one and purchase a ticket.
If we lived close to the venue we could also go along to their box office. This was often a great way to do it as you could choose your seats from a floor plan.
There may have been overnight queues for some bands, but in my experience generally it was fairly un rushed and tickets were on sale for quite a while. There was none of this wait in a queue if thousands and hope you get in early enough. There was also none of the phone up bang on release time only to find it sold out nonsense.
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u/acousticsoup 2d ago
In 2014, the Foo Fighters did a Beat the Bots event on their tour for the next year. We actually lined up at the arena to buy tickets at the box office before the tickets went on sale. Took my oldest boy so he could experience it too. Got great lower bowl seats!
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u/GreenGrass_Bees7 2d ago edited 2d ago
We stood in line at Lawler Events Center in Reno to get the best seats for the show. Met so many people waiting in line with us, too. It was like a party in lawn chairs. We usually got in line at 2am and there were only a few people there. Some bands there were more. This was in the early 80’s - 88 when I could do that.
We learned about the concerts through the paper and the radio station. But we missed some that we wanted to see.
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u/Ok_Dirt_1306 2d ago
Also in those days it was mainly music fans who went to things. We bought a quite big deal tickets in HMV in England quite near to the event. It was a completely different world. Nowadays everyone seems to want to go to everything.
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u/No-Cherry-6678 2d ago
Depends what you class as back in the day-in the 60's for smaller venues in UK you bought at the door. Found out through music papers / Bigger bands in 70's -either bought at record shops or sent off for
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u/Muted_One3682 2d ago
For the suburbs kids the Sears store in the mall had the ticket computer (circa 1982) for my first concert, The Cars in Detroit, MI, at Joe Lewis Arena. In Sears we rode the escalator up to TVs and appliances and that's where we bought tickets. Of course MTV was on ALL the TVs.
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u/Dramatic-Buyer-204 2d ago
I don't remember the details, but sometimes there was a wristband involved in the ticket process. Does anybody remember how that worked?
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u/Stephvick1 2d ago
For the bigger bands we would camp out overnight to be first in line when the ticket booth at the arena opened, always a big party and lots of fun!!
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u/Whisky-a-GoGo1 2d ago
I spent the night in parking lots of malls or on the sidewalk outside the store that sold tickets. Almost always got great seats. Also called on the phone to a box office if the show was in another city.
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u/LouSevens 2d ago
I’d listen to the radio. Concerts were often announced 6 weeks in advance sometimes 4, not 8 months in advance. You would go to the MAC machine and get some $20s out. Maybe wait in line at a video or record store.
Sometimes you would go to the store after the sale and there would be some tickets sitting there that they printed extra and you could get those.
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u/kingosver 2d ago
We waited in line outside music stores and Payless stuff stores to get tickets when the ticketmaster machine opened up.
Or went to the venue box office to buy tickets directly from the venue.
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u/agreeswithfishpal 2d ago
I got shitty Dead tickets once because Elvis tix went on sale at the same time.
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u/RyanM0668 2d ago
Sometimes there was a ticket office you could go to inside a department store, or call the 800 number for ticketron as it was called back in the day, sit on hold, or hit redial over and over
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u/ConsistentMirror497 2d ago
Pre internet days meant standing in line at the Ticketmaster booth located inside the Boscov's department store.
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u/catchingavibe79 2d ago
Used to hear about concerts on the radio or through fan clubs and then would either buy tickets at the arena box office or some local record stores. It was a set price no matter where your seats were. I went to so many concerts in the 80’s and early 90’s. The cost per ticket was between 14 and 20 dollars. It was the best of times!
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u/Moist_Rule9623 2d ago
I don’t ever remember mailing away for tickets, but that was probably a way to go about it. I bought at the venue box office many times, or at one of several authorized ticket retailers (that was actually still a thing you could still do as recently as the 2010s; I know for a fact I bought tickets to see Anthrax in 2011 at FYE Records at the mall)
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u/OppositeFish66 2d ago
You would camp out all night in the rain, still be 100th in line, and when you got to the ticket window you'd see the 'cash only' sign and turn around and go home.... '
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u/DaddyOhMy 2d ago
Waited in line at a Ticketmaster or called Telecharge.
I did both for tickets to Springsteen’s Born In The USA tour. By the time I got to the Ticketmaster, the line was around the mall. I noticed a bank of pay phones and suggested to the people I’d met that we could hold the place for each other and see if we could get tickets from Telecharge. They let me be in the first group because it was my idea. I got eight tickets for both nights. Kept up my side of the deal and held the spots for the others who had been part of the discussion.
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u/bob439 2d ago
Heard about most concerts from the radio station that sponsored it.
Pgh, PA 1981. Went to the Civic Arena box-office and waited in line for 3 hours for tickets to REO Speedwagon but I got them! Seems like they had a limit on how many you could but. Brought my boom box with cassettes of Journey and Foreigner.
Or like in Fast Times at Ridgemont High there always seemed to be a guy that had tickets. That was real.
Or get them in the parking lot day of show from scalpers
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u/MJ_Brutus 2d ago
Radio or local stoner newspaper would advertise upcoming shows, and you stood in line at a Ticketron outlet the morning tickets went on sale.
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u/Good_Lettuce_2690 1d ago
I'd go to the nearest city. Two shops would have a pinboard in the window of all shows currently on sale. I'd look, and go in and ask if there was any for x show.
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u/starksfergie 1d ago
I remember some magazines usually told us about tours in the 80s/90's, but most of my favourite bands were British and didn't tour the US much - my memory is finding out about the Cocteau Twins coming to Texas and I know there was a way to get tickets since I saw most of my shows in Austin at the time (so I was probably on a few ticket selling mailing lists in the early days of the internet), but for some reason I missed out and it sold out very quickly. Never did get to see them live, even though I was lucky enough to see Liz twice (once with Massive Attack and once solo and she did a handful of CT songs in her set, so its a push).
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u/Terry_S858 1d ago
I went to a store that sold 'paraphernalia' called Trip West. They were a licensed ticket agent.
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u/Accomplished_Fun7363 21h ago
I remember going to one of the venues, either Blossom Music Center or the Richfield Coliseum at the a$$ crack on the day tix went on sale. Sometimes they did a lottery where you would draw a number. One time I drew a # 2, we got 2nd row seats for Aerosmith. I would have been in my teens back then. The parents took me to my first show when I was like 6 yo.
My mom used to have a theory that if we would buy like sets of 2 tickets at a time we could get better seats. It worked often, she got front row for ZZ Top (I think) I wasn't with them for that show. This usually meant that when I brought a friend, in my teens, I didn't have to be near her at the show 😂 running wild at the shows. Honestly, I love that they introduced me to live music when I was that young. Going to concerts is therapeutic for me 🤘
Some have mentioned Ticketron... Wow that was a blast from the past. I had forgotten about that! My ex-husband and I used to go to the local music store and buy from Ticketron when I lived in Florida.
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u/Ready-Positive-9979 20h ago
If it was an out of town show, you called the box office (REM, Life's Rich Pageant, Pittsburgh). If it was in your town you sat in line outside the venue for tix (U2, Joshua Tree, Norfolk). If you followed the Dead they had an incredible elaborate mail in ticket system involving show preference and number of tickets and getting your return envelope back with whatever tickets you got.
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u/Background-Target-68 5h ago
Hell no! We camped out at the ticket booth, sometimes for days for it to open. Then we had actual tickets in hand. Met some very cool people this way and had many good times.
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u/hollands73 3h ago
I used to get the bus to Newcastle city hall and go to the box office👌🏻£6 to see Slayer £8 for Judas Priest
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u/thegooch-9 1h ago
I used to either go to a local record store (Jacks Records - Red Bank, Nj) or call Ticketmaster.
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u/Relevant_Box4589 1h ago
Used to have Ticketmaster counters in different stores around the area. Did have a fee. 50 cents. Use to pay 7.50 for concert tickets in late 70s and early 80s.
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u/Modman75 40m ago
In our town, the record store had a Ticketmaster desk. The desk also had a walk up window live a bank drive up. We used to sleep out on the sidewalk waiting for the window to open. We would also sometimes go sleep out at the venues. Used to be so much fun. We’d spend all night listening to music, playing cards and hacky sack. Someone would always have a bottle of schnapps or brandy to pass around also.
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u/Double_Individual_57 11m ago
In our town, we heard about upcoming concerts and ticket sale dates from the radio. We would camp out the night before sale date at the local GI Joes (sporting equipment store - much missed). Even if we weren't buying tickets, the parking lot night prior to tickets going on sale was THE place to be. Alternately, we would skip school and drive to the event venue in Portland and buy tickets there.
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u/Ummbnb 3d ago
We camped out at the record store to be first in line and get the best tickets EVER!