Not so innocent when you dream...

How delighted I was some two weeks ago when I'd heard that Tom Waits was to be touring Europe in the summer. A particular musical idol of mine, I found myself overwhelmed with glee at the thought of sitting comfortably in a theatre seat watching Waits do his thing on stage with all of his musical brik-a-brak and what-have-you. Admittedly I've not been listening to his music for very long, in fact the first album of his I'd heard was Blood Money which of course was released in 2002 so it cannot be any more than six years ago (And I'd doubt it was that long) that I first laid ears upon him. However, duration aside, I can only describe my feelings toward the man and his music as love. What started as a general awareness soon grew into interest, and interest made way for fascination, and once fascinated I made my way consuming any and all Tom-Waits-sustinance I could land my greedy mits on. From the beat-down ballads of Blue Valentines, through the rattle-and-clank of Raindogs and all the long way to the Orphans, I've heard it all and loved the majority of it. Hence it came with an almighty shock when on the day of ticket release I phoned Wizza, who is equally if not more so in love with Tom Waits than I am, and he informed me that he had not ordered the tickets. "Why on earth!?" I found myself asking, to which he simply answered "Do you know how much they are?". "How much?" I said "Ninety-five quid" was the answer. I didn't quite know where to put myself. I had fully expected to pay more than the usual tenner I shell out for the regular rock'n'roll show I treat myself to on the odd instance, but ninety-five leaves I couldn't quite grasp.

"But you said you love Tom Waits, surely that's not too much to pay."

It fucking is! And for many a reason. To start with, I have just finished university and find myself sturggling to scrape that many pence together, let alone pounds (Tom Waits obviously doesn't know or care about my situation, it is merely bad timing), and I already have as many post-uni events to attend as I do fingers and toes. Secondly, this is a man who stands as (Or at least stood as) an idol for the down-and-out, the not so rich, the beat, the broke; a man who carved his name in every whiskey bench across America and probably spent his last penny doing it; a man who could make the homeless hopeful with his music. And while music, like everything, inevitably changes I don't think he would ever have predicted charging £95 for a concert ticket. And before this gets out of hand I should really stress that this is not easy for me to say as he's influenced me massively in several aspects of my life since I started listening to his music. But, there has also been an 'interesting' policy introduced to purchasing Tom Waits tickets and that policy is this: Ticket purchases are limited to two tickets per order, and the buyer of said tickets must produce their card on arrival to the venue to prove validation etc. This genius new method is in place to prevent, nay eliminate touting Tom Waits tickets. And fair enough, touts are mostly cunts who overcharge you 200% over the retail price in your hour of need (A certain Motorhead incident springs to mind, but that's for another time), or rather wait until you've handed your money over to them and then do one. However, getting rid of the touts and then charging nearly a ton for the tickets I feel is somewhat of a pisstake. What's even more infuriating is that I can't even say that I chose not to go; as unless you buy a ticket on first release there is no fucking way of getting one, so they're not letting me go!

That's my first blog ladies and gentlemen, there may be more to come.

P.s If you're reading this Tom Waits, don't hate me, I'll still buy your records.