As a teenager in the 90s, Oasis had a big influence on me. Sure they were bigger “across the pond,” than they were in the States, but I fell in love with that band the minute I heard them. I grew in the rural Midwest, the music was limited. Lots of country music, arena rock, Oldies and Top 40 were the only options. MTV was the place to see new & different sounds, genres and bands and we didn’t have cable, so I had to go to friends’ house to watch it. Because my mother was a huge Beatles fan, i always loved the 60s Brit Pop scene. I swayed more Rolling Stones but those bands like The Hollies, Hermans’ Hermits, The Zombies, Dave Clark Five...I loved it all. So when the 90s decided to hit me in the face with another round of it, i was ecstatic! Oasis introduced me to The Stone Roses, The Verve, Pulp, Suede, Supergrass... and even though they were singing about Euro life, it all made so much more sense to me. I’ve been a devoted fan since. I’ve only seen them twice in concert. But even after the breakup, I followed the offshoots like High Flying Birds & Beady Eye (🤮) . Always thinking somehow sometime The Gallaghers will reunite. That day came true Summer of 2024. The brothers reached a truce and agreed to a handful of shows. Sadly for American me, all the shows were in the UK or Ireland. Lucky for me, my husband is British and a trip to England means free room and board. I had to get these tickets. I signed up for the Fan Ballot - and got my code. I was not fast enough to get my early access tickets. I was set for Saturday. I was up and hour early to log in. I’ve done this before, if there is one thing i can do, its buy concert tickets. I login into Ticketmaster only to find out I can’t log into Ticketmaster. I’m greeted with a message “Due to high volume, you are in queue.” How can I stand in line to a place I haven’t logged into yet? No big deal. I’ve waited maybe 10 minutes tops in the past to get tickets. While I’m “in queue,” I do my language course, enter my time sheet, write some blogs, edit two videos, find notes for future shifts...Still in line. It’s sitting at 10%. Now what? I decide to go on my trail run. I guess I’m just going to miss out on tickets but I leave the window open and running. An hour and a half later, back from my run, my window is up and now at 50%. Wow, okay I guess it didn’t kick me out. I guess I still have a chance. I take a shower, get dressed, comb my hair, brush my teeth, let the dog in and out. Checking between every task to make sure I haven’t timed out. Research some stories: 75%. I clean the kitchen, dust the furniture, sweep the floor, scrub the stove, rinse the sinks, take the trash out: 85% Finally after doing a load of laundry I’m sitting at 92%. Okay I’ll sit in front of my computer again and wait. 5 hours have elapsed since I first logged in. Finally “welcome to the Queue. Wasn’t I just in the Queue? No it’s Lobby, Waiting Room then Queue. So now there are 300k+ in front of me. No I’m worried. It chugs slowly and I decided to clean the bathrooms again checking every few minutes. I get down to 20K and i decided to sit in front of my screen again. Here it is! I can finally “Shop for Tickets!” I select my show, I go to hit purchase and am greeted with a pop up “due to inactivity, you’ve been logged out. please sign in and join the queue.” What the ?! Part of me is full hysterical tears the other part is full Hulk green smash. Back at the end of the line, thinking this must have happened to someone else too and they gave up. Maybe, just maybe. Chugging along I have time to get gas, donate blood and hit the grocery store before finally being let back in the Shop. By that time, every show i click on is Sold Out. My heart was broken. Worst weekend since the snowstorm of 99. Guess I’ll have to wait until 2026 or hopefully win the lottery and buy overpriced resale tickets. I’m totally jealous of anyone who got to camp out for tickets and first come first served actually mattered.