Kate Bush - Before The Dawn

If you've been living in a box on the far side of the Moon then you might not have heard that Kate Bush is returning to the stage for live shows at Hammersmith Apollo (or the Eventim Apollo as it now seems to be called) between August and October this year. Hammersmith was the site of Kate's last live gig in 1979 so it's fitting that she returns there for this residency of 22 shows.

Kate is doing what she can to ensure that tickets aren't simply hovered up by ticket agencies and touts by limiting the number of tickets anyone can buy to four, all of which will have the buyers name printed on them and the buyer will have to provide photo-ID to get into the venue. It'll be interesting to see if this works or if it just leads to huge queues getting in but well done to Kate for trying.

This morning there was a pre-sale for fans on the mailing list and, luckily, that included me so I managed to bag two excellent tickets near the front and centre of the stalls. Excited? I should co-co! Then I thought 'what if the show is even more fabulous than I expect it to be and need to see it again' so went searching again and found great tickets in the balcony for a different night... and sat on them.... for five minutes... until it timed out. By buying more tickets means that someone else probably won't see Kate at all whereas I'd already bought excellent tickets. Is that foolish? Does anyone actually care?

I care. I usually feel guilty getting into gigs and show in advance of a general sale - well, I do after I've bought tickets, obviously - but that's the way these things are done these days. That's why I maintain my Southbank membership for things like Meltdown that go on sale to members a few days before general sale, just like this pre-sale. But it can mean that lifelong fans don't get into shows because they weren't on the right mailing list or something. I'm not sure what else can be done and that's partly why it'll be interesting to see whether the ticket restrictions for Kate's gigs will work and whether others will follow her approach.

Tickets go on general sale on Friday morning at 9:30am and you just know the Internet will be burning with people chasing tickets. At least, after selling out the pre-sale in half an hour this morning, another seven shows were added so there's more of a chance for people getting tickets. I might throw my hat in the ring again in the general free-for-all.

Good luck people and thank you Kate.