Never realy queued for anything, although the other half did spend a night queuing at the SECC in Glasgow for REM tickets for me - the tour which was then abandoned due to Bill Berry's brain aneurysm. I do appreciate being able to book online for gigs that are some distance away/likely to sell out quickly, but I will still go to a venue or music store in person for tickets if it means avoiding the booking fee and its not too far away.

Rather quaintly, we are just about to pick up tickets for a gig in a small town nearby, from the local hardware shop, and for another local venue you collect them from the leisure centre.

Also, tours were announced at the most a couple of months ahead of time. So, to be sure of a good frontish-stalls seat to see Rory Gallagher at the Free Trade Hall in early February, I'd see the ad just before Christmas, and as long as I went into Manchester to get the tickets at the box office one Saturday in January, I'd be in, no problem. And on the night it'd be full.

Now, I find it a bit baffling that people know where they'll be on 16 June next year - and a bit depressing, to be honest.

You're lucky that you lived near enough a venue to be able to get a bus to buy a ticket.
The nearest venue that major tours went to was in Hemel Hempstead which was 3 bus rides away (I used to cycle to the actual gig so that I could get home afterwards!)
Any gigs in London especially at smaller venues like the Mean Fiddler meant managing to phone them when the box office was actually open to find out availablity and price before sending off a cheque and SAE for the ticket. I would have been to loads more gigs if only it had been easier to get a ticket.

spotting the 1990 Reading billing in the NME I HAD to be there (Inspiral Carpets and The Cramps - together at last!).

So it meant working all summer on a garlic farm to earn the money, handing said cash over to mum who then wrote a cheque out. This cheque went off with an SAE to an address at the bottom of the advert and in a couple of weeks the ticket arrived. I went, it was ace.

It seems that you had a bit more time to make up your mind and buy a ticket, instead of Glastonbury selling out 10 months in advance within minutes of the tickets being announced.

The other alternative we had on the Isle Of Wight - should someone of note decide to play Portsmouth Guildhall on their tour, usually the Wedding Present - was to pop into Happy Daze records and hand over our tenner (plus 50p booking fee) to Rick behind the counter who'd put it in a special cash tin, write down what you wanted in a book and at the end of the week would ring the order through to Pompey.

I can't wait to tell my son about this.

to be near the front of the queue for Led Zeppelin Earls Court '75 tickets.

used to work in Glasgow city centre just down from the (famous) Apollo, she'd nip out at lunchtime and snap up two tickets for me and my mate Kenny. This way we had prime seats in row H for UFO (with Schenker), Nazareth (twice), Hawkwind (four times), Who and The Yes (as she called them) and many, many others, even Mott the Hoople (twice). I have most (if not all) of the stubs and someday I'll scan them.

Nightmoves and Splash#1 were pay on the door, Bobby Gillespie sold me a ticket one night, I think it was the TV Personalities gig.

King Tut's is buy from the bar, in my experience.

apologies for the excess in brackets (but thanks The Mum, yer one in a million+)

I've queued up to get tickets to see The Coral in Liverpool a few years back, but that was only because it was a "secret" gig.

I once waited up all night with a friend, whilst at university, in order to get some Radiohead tickets at 9am. We were ready, I'd logged in to Ticketmaster so all I had to do was click some buttons, and not worry about typing my card number or any of that in.

At 9am exactly, I did all I needed to do, only to be greeted with the inevitable "Tickets Sold Out" message.

Fuck!

Tried again, same message. Tried for another venue, same message. All this, and it was only 9.01, or 9.02am at the latest.

The most upsetting detail in this tale of woe, is that I soon discovered various Ebay memembers had suddenly found out they werent able to attend the gigs, and were having to sell their tickets for an inflated price in order to pay for, I assume, counselling.

Gigs for the Southampton Gaumont were announced on a Friday in the local paper. I'd nip over at lunchtime from my Saturday job at BHS to pick up whatever in the stalls. I'd always be staggered at how expensive the tickets were to go to the opera.

I queued for Roxy Music at the Empire Pool as it was known then, back in 1975. We slept overnight and got reasonable tickets. In 1980 when Genesis did their small venues tour we queued overnight again to see them at Drury Lane. The experience was excellent, being amongst like minded fans, meeting new people, arranging to meet up once again on the day of the gig - several months ahead. The whole thing led to a very special atmosphere on the night of the actual gig though, as most of the people in the venue felt special as they had all had to go through what you had done together. The internet in general is a great thing for tickets, the downs being the secondary market and those that wish to rip off punters, the sheer swiftness in which gigs can sell out etc'. The ups are how simple it is to do now, being able to actually pick your seats at some venues and such. All in all I wouldn't mind a return to having to queue for a gig that was special but I think those days have more or less gone now.