Last week I had seen that Suzi Quatro would be out on the road touring in 2026. For the past few years I have really wanted to go and see her. She was my very first musical hero, back when I was a wee wean. She hasn’t been to Scotland for her past couple of tours. I know because I thought about travelling to Manchester to see her for the last one, but if I was going to make the effort, I didn’t want a shit ticket and the idea of spending £55 for a ticket at the back of a venue was NOT going to cut it.
Anyway, I had seen an ad for the 2026 tour and saw to my delight that she’d be playing Glasgow at the Royal Concert Hall. I haven’t been to a show there since we moved here. I was meant to be seeing King Creosote the evening we got back from Copenhagen in 2020 but our flight back to Edinburgh was so badly delayed, I didn’t make it back to Glasgow in time for the gig. The rest is history. (Needless to say ‘Whackjob Kenny’ is not someone I’ll be busting a gut to go and see in future.) So, my last concert there was Trevor Horn’s ‘Re-imagines the 80s’ Tour in 2019 with Mick MacNeil showing up on the night to play accordion. What a great show that was!
On Thursday night I’d been out to dinner with Michelle and we were discussing gigs and Michelle mentioned a “bucket list” wish ticked off her list of wants and I’d mentioned wanting to see Suzi Quatro. When I got home later that evening I had a look to see exactly when tickets were going on sale for the shows. To my horror they’d already been on general sale since the previous Friday. I quickly scurried off to Ticketmaster (I know!) to see what the damage would be – ie: How much for a ticket, how well were they selling, and/or could I afford to wait until next pay day? The answers were: Reasonable (depending on where you’d be seated), EXTREMELY WELL, and NO! When I landed on the page for buying tickets, there were just TWO tickets left. One resale which was in the front rows of the centre stalls priced just under £140! No thank you! The other was right at the other end of the auditorium in the upper circle, but in the first few rows of the upper circle, priced at £37. It wasn’t ideal but from my memory of the RCH when I saw Simple Minds in 2017 and was up in the balcony…pretty much anywhere you’d sit at the RCH has pretty good stage views. Of these two ticket options for Suzi Q, I only really had a choice of one.
I had accidentally clicked on the Gateshead date when I got to Ticketmaster and there was more seating available for it (of the very quick glance I took of its seating plan). I wanted to get to the Glasgow date and see what was left. There was never a question in my mind of contemplating other venues and such like. It’s getting increasingly hard for me to justify travelling anywhere outside of Glasgow, or at least outside of the central belt of Scotland for a gig. As far as the rest of the year’s gigs will go, I have a ticket to see Ist Ist in Huddersfield near the end of July but with them now playing Glasgow in November, I don’t see myself using that Huddersfield ticket. So, my furthest travel for a gig for the rest of this year (at least at the moment) is travelling to North Berwick for Hamish Hawk/Billy Nomates in August. The only other gig I have that takes me out of Glasgow is Zoe Graham in Edinburgh in September.
So…that was my choice with Suzi and Glasgow, with time very much being of the essence. Insane that I a gig that had been on sale for barely one week – for a date TEN MONTHS AWAY was on the verge of selling out. This lone upper circle ticket felt like it was sitting there waiting for me to show up. So I grabbed it. I now have TEN WHOLE MONTHS to wait to see someone that I’ve pretty much waited 50 years to see. To say that I am excited to FINALLY get the chance to see Suzi Quatro play live is quite an understatement! I feel I’m probably going to experience a similar thing to when I went to see Stewart Copeland at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 2019. That felt like a true “pinch yourself” moment being there to see him. I expect to feel similar when it comes the turn of Suzi on Tuesday 7 April 2026. Only 303 days to go!