A Different View with Dave O’Connell

It wasn’t enough for Oasis to charge the price of a small car to see them in concert — i.e. standing on a football pitch to watch the sworn-enemy siblings sparking off each other on stage a hundred yards away from you.

They’ve now decided that there will even be hierarchy in terms of how close you can get to the stage, although this time at least it’s a lottery rather than the price of another of your small children.

Ticketmaster announced over the weekend fans attending the Gallagher brothers’ hometown gig in Manchester this July would have to enter a ballot to determine their proximity to the stage at Heaton Park.

In fairness, this was apparently a safety requirement to literally split the field into general admission and front standing, with distinct tickets, to ‘ensure fan safety and improve the fan experience while entering the site’.

But it threw up a variety of views as to where people like to stand at gigs — and just because you’re too old for the mosh pit doesn’t mean you don’t like to be up the front.

When you have a choice about where to stand, my brother-in-law Sam taught me a tactic many years ago; he didn’t invent it, but it was new to me back then.

When you arrive, you make your way up the blind side of the arena; that might the opposite site to the entrance, or it might the side further way from the bar. In either event it’s the side of the venue that takes slightly longer to walk to.

And you can invariably make your way to somewhere within five rows on the front without having to push too hard or block someone else’s view.

The diehards will be at the very front and they’ll have been there early and at the other end of the equation, there are those who are perfectly happy to watch from a distance and chat at the back — or position themselves very close to the bar.

It was an approach I took last summer when the Saw Doctors were in the Big Top for the Arts Festival, and I couldn’t believe the lovely space I found just to the left of the stage; a big patch of ground opened up in front of me as though someone had invisibly reserved it for us.