Question about purchasing tickets for HIStory concerts in London in the 90s

[Fitz Blitz]

Hi

I wonder if someone might be able to assist with a couple of questions I have about Michael Jackson's HIStory tour in the UK. Most likely these questions would be for people that live in the UK.

I’m asking because I’m writing a TV drama, however please note that this is not commissioned or anything, it is something I’m doing in my spare time.

The drama is set in the 90s in London and one character is an 18 year old girl who is a massive Michael Jackson fan. She went to the Dangerous concert at Wembley Stadium with her mother in 1992 and now she is looking forward to the HIStory concert at the stadium which will be on 12, 15, 17 July 1997.

My questions are about obtaining the tickets. The HIStory world tour was announced 29 May 1996 and I’m wondering when the tickets would have become available to buy for the Wembley Stadium concerts in London?

I think the process for purchasing them would be at record shops that would sell the tickets. Would that be correct, or maybe there would be some mail order method?

Because I’m writing this I’ve been listening to Michael Jackson quite a lot actually, for the first time in many years. Really, the music is truly fabulous!

Thank you for any help you can give.

Fitz

 

[knigofpop]

It may not be of help but I purchased my tickets from a coach company. I live in Somerset. The tickets and coach travel were all in the same package. I clearly remember 4 coaches full of fans left from my small town!

 

[Fitz Blitz]

It may not be of help but I purchased my tickets from a coach company. I live in Somerset. The tickets and coach travel were all in the same package. I clearly remember 4 coaches full of fans left from my small town!

Hi knigofpop

Thank you for your reply. In fact you have been helpful because you have caused me to realise where I really need to look for answers to my question. I think I need to think more generally about how tickets for major events like this were sold in the 90s. I think I will take my question to a forum for people with a general interest in rock/pop. I would guess that the mechanism for sale would have been the same for Michael Jackson as for other major artists. I'm sure there were companies that organised the selling of these tickets actually and talking to someone that worked for one of those companies in the 90s would be very useful.

I'm sure it was great fun on one of those four coaches. I hope I have helped to bring back happy memories.

Fitz

 

[Hess]

In Denmark (if I remember correctly) tou had to buy tickets at the Post Office or a shop called FONA - which sold CD,s, and CD players, TV's etc.

My dad bought tickets at the Post Office I believe - I saw the birthday concert in Denmark in 1997 - it was great. I was only 10, but I remember the experience, the exitement and the atmosphere very well. It was magical. - And I was 10 back then, and my dad told me it was not live singing but playback and I really didn't believe him. So for me it did absolutely not ruin the live experience. I loved every second of it. - Watching the HIStory concerts now is a different story. - But lets not turn this into yet another play-back thread.

 

[Moonstreet]

I'm from Ireland, but back then concert ticket buying in The UK was the same. This was the process for general public concert ticket buying.

Fanclubs like MJNI and MJ World Network were also given tickets to sell for their members. These tickets were different to general public tickets and you had to be a member of the fanclub.

Radio stations, magazines, newspapers and tv companies were also given an allocation of tickets for competition prizes.

In the late 1990's Ticketmaster was the main ticket seller for most major concerts like History Tour.

Tickets had to be bought in person, so you went to your local ticket vendor.

1. Ticketmaster had ticket kiosks in shopping centres.
2. Music shops such as HMV were licensed ticket sellers.
3. There were also event companies who licensed ticket sellers.
4. Many venue box office would also sell tickets.

Each ticket selling outlet was connected to Ticketmaster database software. They would print out the tickets like airlines print out boarding passes. All of the ticket sellers would open their shop / office at the same time, usually 9am local time.

Depending on the demand people would queue up outside the shops and event company offices over night or longer.

The decision was always which place to buy tickets, do you go to the largest music shop and join the big queue or do you go to the small music shop and hope that the demand is less and queue is smaller.

In 1997 I lived in Dublin. HMV Grafton Street was the main place Dublin people bought tickets for the big concerts. In Dublin and other cities where there were multiple HMV shops, only the largest flagship store would sell tickets.

Tickets went on sale in Ireland on Friday May 2 1997. The date of the concert was Saturday 19 July 1997 at the RDS Showjumping Arena. This venue is a mulit purpose event venue and for concerts like History tour, it had a capacity of 20,000 people.

There were 2 sections, general admission standing and VIP Seating. The VIP seating section was usually reserved for media, celebs and corporate and this tickets were not usually sold to the general public. The seating section would be where the competition winners would be.

For the week or maybe the month before the tickets went onsale there would be a huge media campaign. There would be ads on national tv and radio, in the local and national newspapers and on billboards around the towns and cities.

People started queuing outside HMV Grafton street in the afternoon of Thursday May 1 1997. It was featured on the 6pm news, they usually did a segment about the fans queuing outside HMV when there was a big concert.

I had decided not to go into HMV Grafton Street but to go to the Ticketmaster Kiosk at my local shopping centre. I knew they would open at 9am, so I went there at about 6am. There were about 20 people in a queue outside the door of the shopping centre.

The shopping centre security opened the door at about 8.45am and we all went in and formed a queue at the kiosk while the staff finished their morning set up.

Then at 9am they opened the shutters on the kiosk and started selling the tickets. I still have the till receipt from my History Tour concert ticket. I also still have my History Tour Concert Ticket

All of the ticket sellers were logging on to the same system, so once the tickets were gone, that was it.

 

[Moonstreet]

The drama is set in the 90s in London and one character is an 18 year old girl who is a massive Michael Jackson fan. She went to the Dangerous concert at Wembley Stadium with her mother in 1992 and now she is looking forward to the HIStory concert at the stadium which will be on 12, 15, 17 July 1997.

My questions are about obtaining the tickets. The HIStory world tour was announced 29 May 1996 and I’m wondering when the tickets would have become available to buy for the Wembley Stadium concerts in London?

I think the process for purchasing them would be at record shops that would sell the tickets. Would that be correct, or maybe there would be some mail order method?

Where does this girl live?
If she lives in London then HMV Oxford Street would have been the big main ticket seller.
Would she have gone in to Oxford Street, and joined the queue and slept on the street overnight?
Would she have gone to Wembley box office?
Would she have gone to smaller more local ticket vender?
Would she have been a member of MJNI or MJ World Network?
Would she have gone to one concert or all the concerts. If one concert, which one would it have been? Would she have specified the concert she wanted to go to or would she have just accepted whichever concert the ticket agent would have given her?

If she didnt live in London, would she have gone to her local independent music shop or was there a HMV shop local to her or a Ticketmaster kiosk in her local shopping centre or would she have travelled to London to go either to HMV Oxford Street or Wembley?
Would she have bought a transport and concert ticket package from one of the event companies?

If she could only afford one concert, would she have entered competitions to win tickets to the other concerts? Would she be a competition winner or not?