Thanks, that is comparable for what we paid for better seats in Manchester. My London O2 tickets were much more reasonably priced but further away. However, knowing the layout in London, I know the view and sound will actually be very good - ie not up in the Gods!
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Blimey, we’ve got excellent Manchester seats at a little more than a third of that price. Still not sold out either, which is interesting.
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The cost is a bit of a sore subject with me as a) I am grateful to Snow Dog for getting the tickets when they were first released as I was in a critical meeting all day and b) Snow Dog is much less tolerant than me about getting a seat with a good view / position. Being very tall, I have an advantage! That’s why I am also going to the O2 which ironically will cost much less, ‘all in’.
Having seen every tour since ‘77, we decided we wanted to prioritise attending. I increasingly find myself thinking that we can’t take money with us so use it to enjoy the experience we are lucky enough to have in reach. We did consider going to Canada but decided against.
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Anyone any experience of downloading tickets to the UK Ticketmaster app to use in another country? I’m thinking that moving them to Apple Wallet for Canada is the safest bet before we go ?
TM web site says to just land, go to the uk website once in Canada and use the tickets visible there but if wifi is iffy at the venue…
A few people have told to me to prepare for the tickets to disappear from the app on landing as the TM app will connect to a local server rather than the uk one?
I bought my Rush tickets on Ticketmaster having first set the country to Canada. You can toggle the app between countries so if I have it set to the UK I cannot see the non UK tickets and if I have it set to Canada, I cannot see my UK tickets - currently just Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks.
The Ticketmaster app offers you the option of adding it to the Apple Wallet and I did that and used that to gain entry at the Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto.
When I was in Canada I had an eSIM from Saily and in the t/m app you could clearly see the active live ticket with Canada set as the location, so I could go either way. However I think the Wallet was less hassle and the stewards were very happy to scan that.
As I understand it that’s what we didn’t do. We bought Canadian tickets with the app set to UK.
Interesting because when I bought, I couldn’t see Rush as an event until I set the app to Canada.
That said, I could and did set the app to the UK while in the US and Canada so country location was up to me, but using the Wallet obviated any need to do so. Once it was in the wallet, the ticket stayed there.
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That’s my assumption.
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@mikehughescq you must be off to Montreal soon - show next week?
Hope you and family have a brilliant time - just watched a clip of ‘that’ riff from the start of Limelight - goosebumps! Enjoy.
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We are indeed. Fly tomorrow evening. Staying beyond the gig and spending some time in Quebec too.
Have just talked Mrs. H. through getting all 3 tickets into her Apple Wallet after it transpired she’d made a right dogs dinner of understanding the ticketing process. So, looks like we’re good to go.
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Some other thoughts if I may.
When I went the doors were opened 15 mins earlier than stated. That seemed to help with beer and merch sales.
We had a 25 minute comfort break about 90 minutes into the act. Age appropriate for the audience I’d say!
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Age appropriate for the performers too surely 
.
Three hour delay to our flights but quite chilled as a new edition of The Blizzard has just appeared in my Readly app and I’ve 2 books to work through as well.
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Have noted that, thus far, our tickets have stayed in Apple Wallet and appear to be alive.
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Was dragged by the offspring to see Iron Maiden, Megdeth and Anthrax in the park last night. Not my thing at all although I was surprised just how much Ma8den stuff I knew and kind of mesmerised by Anthrax having seen their inadvertently hilarious/sad documentary some years ago. Maiden fans swarming our hotel more than Rush fans so far although clearly some overlap.
Looks like we’re in for one of the Moving Pictures set lists tonight so the offspring is going to be disappointed by the absence of The Garden or at least as disappointed as you can be when seeing your favourite band having thought there was never going to be any possibility to do so.
Very messy set up with merch. If you pre order you can’t collect until doors open but if you buy on the day then it’s available from 3pm albeit with no
Sod’s law says we’ll get the same set in Manchester next year .
Anyways, the day has arrived.
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I have to say @mikehughescq that the Maiden gig is a bit of a throwback! Hope you all enjoyed so much ‘metal’. I read that Steve Harris of Maiden modelled himself on Geddy’s bass playing - can’t see it myself! Did see them several times in the pre-Dickinson days, once in Bath Pavillion which was an experience.
Hope you all have a great show tonight. I’ve heard them play The Garden before and it was wonderful. Now with The Professor gone, it has real ‘tears potential’. A personal favourite for me too.
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The 21 year old who never thought they’d see Rush announced that we had given them the best birthday present they’d ever had, which is all you can ask for as a parent really. I should think so too after adding in 2 weeks in Montreal and Quebec .
The offspring noted a few days pre gig that one of the lenses on my phone was smashed. Looking back at recent gig videos uploaded to my YouTube channel this may have been the case for some time. One of the perils of sight loss I guess. You never know how much is you and how much might be something else. Decided to not get it repaired at Apple in Montreal as we’d have to wait a few days to get a replacement unit in and if there were any issues with it then one could foresee the problem with being several thousand miles away. It does mean my photos and videos were out of focus and over exposed. However, the offspring got some phenomenal stuff and we’re overloaded with merch and memories.
I won’t spoil it for anyone planning to go but some takeaways.
- Anika Niles is a very good drummer but she had to work flat out to do just the basics of what Neil Peart did and, whilst everyone else on stage was plainly having fun at key points, she required a level of concentration which didn’t look fun. We got a smile and some relaxation near the end of the second set but I think we can be clear this is the last tour. She won’t ever do this again. It looked painful.
- The crowd cheering bog standard drum fills was very supportive but a bit sad. On the other hand she deserved every last clap for her performance on Tom Sawyer, which was absolutely breathtaking. Rest of the band rose up and it was an absolute highlight.
- Anyone who tells you Geddy’s voice is magnificent/better than ever etc. needs their hearing tested. His voice is very good given his age but it has hardened as you’d expect into an occasional unpleasantness and there are certain songs which expose this, notably Spirit Of Radio. He’s adapted it pretty well but adapted it he has. Certain notes ain’t coming back.
- I’m not a fan of showy shows but the show behind the music here was quite something and you may as well give up watching YouTube videos of the tour as literally none of them capture the huge variations, the scale and dynamics of it.
- If you want locally branded merch then pre order and collect on the day as the amount available on the day is limited and sells out in around 15 to 20 minutes of doors opening.
- Pay attention to the countdown clock during the break between sets. Be there for the cheer when it hits … 21:12
.
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To be fair, Mike, Neil Peart never looked like he was having fun either, and was always surprised by how serious he looked while playing on film.
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Fair comment for the earlier part of their career but in the latter years he tended to be far more relaxed and performed with something between a smile and a smirk when not outright laughing.
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That is simply not true. Check concert footage at random from any of their shows from the last 20 years. His somewhat grim demeanor while playing changed very little over the years. There may have been the odd smirk or smile, but very rarely. In general he was Mr. Serious while playing.
