Just on my way to bed last night and I saw that Morrissey had announced a tour... he's a wilfully obscure bugger though - the venues are:



Paisley Town Hall (September 2)

Perth City Hall (3)

Blackpool Empress Ballroom (4)

Bridlington Spa (6)



After some umming and ahhing I took the plunge and got a pair of tickets for the Blackpool gig - partly because it's a Saturday, but mainly because I have been kicking myself since about 1994 that I didn't go and see Moz on the "Vauxhall and I" tour and then thought I had missed my chance forever. I did see him at Glastonbury this year, but I really, really wanted to see him doing his own show in front of his own fans. We'll make a weekend of it - find a nice hotel, have some fish and chips and perhaps a spot of shopping in Manchester on the way home.



Sounds like a great venue - it's a proper ballroom with a sprung floor, crystal chandeliers and everything. Capacity is about 3000, so quite intimate too.



There's apparently a decent chance he will do a proper UK tour at the end of the year or the beginning of next year, but I guess I'll just go and see him again. He's business again this year - was apparently a bit unlucky with the Mercury Music Prize shortlist - but it's a cracking album.



The Blackpool gig sold out at about 5pm and out of idle curiosity, I popped over to Ebay, and I don't know why it shocks me that there are already so many tickets for these shows on there, but it does. There are some listings on there that have 7 days to go, and they are starting the bidding at £85 for a pair of tickets. That's at least £20 profit before any bidding has started. This is profiteering at the expense of the fan (and I would guess that it is in this case profiteering BY the fans, given that this was a presales link). I have a friend who just tried to buy a couple of tickets and can't - her only option now looks like going to one of these scum who deliberately bought more than they need just to make a bit of cash. I don't have a gripe with the mechanism per se, because it happens that you end up with tickets that you don't need. I just think it's awful that human nature seems to mean that we try and screw each other to the floor. You can cry market forces if you want, and you can say that people only pay what they think they are worth. I still say shame. There are genuine fans out there who will not be at this gig because of this.



(and ironically, I have been having just this argument with Ian at work - Ian just made £500 on front row tickets to an Elton John concert and has no qualms about queuing up for tickets just to sell them on. Pah. He collects bottles - what does he know?)



Boo!