One Weekend in Belfast

Belfast hosted two of rock's biggest names at the weekend yet Endlessly Rocking attended neither event - for very different reasons.....

The Boss was in town on Saturday night but like thousands of others I didn't get the opportunity to see him. Playing such a relatively small venue as The Odyssey Arena (capacity 10,000) was always going to lead to disappointment but the manner in which the sale was handled has left a sour taste in the mouth of many. I didn't make it down to the venue when the tickets went on sale but most of those who did make the effort to turn out before sunrise on a cold winter's morning left without tickets. I can only guess at their frustration when tickets appeared almost immediately on eBay - at vastly inflated prices. The efforts made to stop the touts at the recent Zep reunion concert are to be applauded, but the only truly effective way to combat this is for fans to stop buying tickets at anything other than face value and I'm sure hell well have frozen over long before that happens.

Tickets were anything but difficult to get for Thin Lizzy's show at The Waterfront Hall the following night but again I sat at home and watched a movie. I had thought long and hard about this one but in the end I just couldn't accept that the band on show was Thin Lizzy. Only two names remained constant throughout Lizzy's career; Brian Downey & Phil Lynott. Neither were on stage last in Belfast last night. However entertaining John Syke's tribute band may be - it isn't Thin Lizzy.