This is a question that has been looming for some time in StonesFanLand and I am pleased to have the answer (well pleased in a disheartened way)!!!!

I had a rollingstones.com Membership that I did not wanna squander for a Stadium show.

The "stage" - www.ticketmaster.co.uk, Friday 2 December 2005.....

The mission - to hunt down great front-pitch (A or B blocks) Wembley Stadium tickets WITHOUT using a rollingstones.com Membership.

Managed to log-on into the Stones ticket pages twice, bang on 9.00am, when they went on sale. The fact that I managed to log-on twice was miraculous in itself!!! Usually for "big" tickets you can't even get the site to load.

Thereafter, selected £150 pitch-tickets on one window and did every permutation of seat and price options imaginable through the second window.

I was getting amazing strike-rates for selecting tickets, without getting booted-
out BUT, here comes the catch.......

The best tickets I could bet were Pitch Block C5 or C2, around Row 14.

So, this proved that the only way you can get good tickets for a Stones show is to:

1. Join rollingstones.com and buy at presale time.
2. Buy tickets for inflated prices on e-Bay.
3. Buy tickets for inflated prices from premiun price ticket agents or touts.

Incidentally, I used my rollingstones.com Membership to procure all my LICKS tour tickets and secured fantastic Block A seats for each show AND even scored two tickets for the London Astoria gig.

This further underlines that the ye olde method of being a footloose fan with the spirit of optimism, taking chances without being a member of something or a robbing bank to pay touts is consigned to the history books.

SD

people's fates vary. i got block-A seats i'm real happy with in the public sale.

> So, this proved that the only way you can get good
> tickets for a Stones show is to:
>
> 1. Join rollingstones.com and buy at presale
> time.
> 2. Buy tickets for inflated prices on e-Bay.
> 3. Buy tickets for inflated prices from premiun
> price ticket agents or touts.
>

I think withsssoul put it well (as usual).

Also consider

4. Trying to purchase tickets in the final days before the event*.
5. Contacting a friend or family member with an amex card, if you don't have one yourself. I know this is but one more hurdle in buying a ticket, but at least it doesn't have to cost anyone any more money.
6. Wait and watch on ebay for something you want that's in your price range, recently Gazza wrote, for example, about how hard it was to sell a pair of tix at face after he was able to get some better ones. I've found that ebay tixs can be a great value, but it's all about timing and determination, . . . but so is getting lucky on ticketb_stard.

*I've done that for "sold-out" shows and have been successful every time with great seats, at least in North America. It really demands being footloose and optimistic, because you're assuming that you can get the tickets and make last-minute plans at the same time.


Best of luck, and don't give up hope.

I had good seats this tour and Licks. The only membership tickets I ever bought were for the Wiltern. It IS absolutely possible. Then again I would never spend that kind of money on a stadium show 9 months in advance when the venue hasn't even been built yet.

Thanks for your advice ya all!

SD