leonardcohenforum.com

Morning all.

I turned on to my usual breakfast radio show this morning here in the UK, and almost the first thing I heard was the presenter telling 12 million listeners that U2 are holding a fan site members' pre-sale for tickets to their upcoming Joshua Tree tour, with the sale opening in about 30 minutes' time.

And out of curiosity (sorry, Bono - not a fan...) I went to have a look to see if the DJ had blown it for thousands of long standing U2 fans who would now be scrambling alongside a million latecomers and ticket touts.

The facts are interesting. An initial presale, for "longtime subscribers" was conducted yesterday. A second presale opens a few minutes from now, for "new subscribers." And in each case, an annual sub costs a minimum of fifty dollars.

Those of of us who were around when Leonard's touring re-started in 2008 will recall, I know, the many anguished comments that appeared here when tickets (including presales) went on offer to the masses. The moderators (and, I assume, Mr C's management) resisted all calls for pre-qualification/paid subscriptions and although I'm sure some fans lost out along the way, one such as I successfully attended a number of those wonderful concerts, many of the tickets sourced via the work of Jarkko, Marie and team. It all worked out, and no-one was obliged to cough up $50 for the privilege of joining the clan.

Just sayin'...

J x

Ah I remember the presales so well too. Getting up at 2am to buy a ticket which was going on sale at 10am in Ireland or the ones here in North America. Waiting for the countdown and trying and trying. Getting a great ticket but putting it back and thinking you have an even better chance if you try again, which was not always the case. The hyper excitement and texting with others who were looking at the same time.
Alas this will never be again and that saddens me so much...but...
I am so grateful for this gift that was given us without having to pay anything by Leonard, Robert Kory, Jarkko, Marie, AEG, Goldenvoice and all the others.
What a ride it was my friends...Forever it will be a great memory for me.
Leslie PY

I also remember those stressful and challenging times! It was a great feeling, though, when everything worked as hoped. I think my son found my behaviour to be quite entertaining as he watched me try to navigate through several of the pre-sales, and so he sent me this link to 128 Thoughts Everyone Has While Trying To Buy Concert Tickets: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alessias4/126- ... uqVR6lQv8V.

Even though I had not attended any concert since Jethro Tull in the 1990's and never ordered tickets online, I found the Forum's pre-sales simple to use (although not without a little anguish each time). Since these concerts were a luxury for us, we always opted for the $250 tickets, and with one exception, always managed to get "center-ish" seats in the first eight rows or so (best was second row directly in front of Javier at L'Olympia). Only bad experience was in purchasing tickets for New York City, that pre-sale seemed to be inundated with professional scalpers.

Until November I always felt there would be one last concert hurrah, but we will always have many sweet concert memories.

4

Thank you, Jeremy, for the beautiful reminder.

It was so stressful at times and oh, there were issues. Fingers crossed that passwords worked. Fingers crossed that the sales opened on time. But most of the time, wow! Success. In the end Leonard made it all possible. In the end that great concert that you will remember all of your life was made possible by Leonard and his band. Leonard shared so much of himself on that stage. He truly did give us everything he had.

Yesss, he really did

Marie your words ring so true...
In the end Leonard made it all possible. In the end that great concert that you will remember all of your life was made possible by Leonard and his band. Leonard shared so much of himself on that stage. He truly did give us everything he had.
He really did give us everything he had in those concerts and I for one will remember for the rest of my life.
The thrill started with the presale anxiety and carried on with love and excitement after that...
Leslie PY

The last concert I went to was in Leeds In September 2013. I managed to get front row center stage thanks to the forum pre-sale!

How this differed from other artists who placed their best tickets directly on secondary sites
for example from a few days ago..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38131028

Leonard always respected his fans - something that seems sadly missing from a lot of artists who just look to extract as much money from them as possible!