Physical tickets are, of course, a dying medium. Across the 20 years of my gigography there are probably two gigs where I didn’t have ticket for every one that I did.
When it came to booking events after starting to write up my memories from past shows, I found myself even more keen to get a physical ticket as a memento, rather than an e-ticket, even if it meant paying more.
Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to see Ticketmaster offer the option of a ‘souvenir’ ticket. It would cost an additional £3, but this sounded great to me. What might it look like? Heavy stock card perhaps, with a band logo or image rather than the generic standard fare?
No. Of course not. It’s a wafer thin print out you have to separate yourself from the accompanying letter using the perforated line. You can imagine my disappointment when it turned up, and it was a double to disappointment to be fair, because this was the first of two I’d ordered and I certainly wouldn’t have had I known.*
That said, it perfectly encapsulates the last days of analogue.
*Edit: Four years later, I am in fact still buying these.
Liam Toms 