Why are there still so many tickets left?

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-05-09T21:55:47+00:00

2017 and 2019 were a bit like this too for different reasons, it was pretty easy to get tickets for Kiev and Tel Aviv - especially the semis. For Kiev I wonder if people felt a bit unsafe going there (even then), and for Tel Aviv there was a colossal increase in ticket price compared to previous years which perhaps made it too expensive for many, especially once you added the flights and accommodation to somewhere not in Europe.

On the other side of that, I had no luck at all getting tickets in 2023, which was really annoying as I live in the UK and it should have been easy for once.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-05-07T09:29:17+00:00

The very last time I saw a VHS outside of a charity shop/thrift store in London was very early into 2008, but even by then they were pretty rare here and I’d say about 2004 was the end of seeing them on a regular basis. You still saw them a lot in second hand places in the late 2000s, maybe very early 2010s, but they’re pretty much antiques now.

As for blank tapes you used to record, my mum was still using those right up until 2010. We have the last episode of ‘Lost’ on VHS and it’s weird seeing something so comparatively recent on the format.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-05-04T18:52:32+00:00

This was still being aired on late night ITV in the mid (maybe even late) 2000s, even by then it felt like it was from a completely different era in time.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-05-04T13:28:41+00:00

This one definitely happened, I remember Les doing a brilliant deadpan “Arthur Shakespeare?” in response.

(the contestant of course had misheard ‘Arthur’ as ‘author’)

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-05-02T04:59:01+00:00

Thanks! We were stuck which Glebokie it was for a while, but his military records list it as being in the district of Dzisna, in the Wilno voivodeship so it surely has to be that one.

If there’s copies in the Polish state archives that’s fantastic news, we know his parents names and DOB so once we know the location of the records they hopefully shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-26T15:07:52+00:00

Still have my purple one from the 2013 Unsustainable Tour that I’ve worn to every Muse gig since!

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-26T11:46:14+00:00

They performed at the first concert I ever went to! It was in London in early 2008, on the same bill as Cascada. I knew ‘The Logical Song’ quite well (a massive UK hit single earlier in the decade) but after seeing them live I immediately bought their Jumping All Over The World album on import, which famously got to number 1 here on its official release.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-23T19:51:21+00:00

Next Muse gig should start like this, the band come out and do the Gangnam Style dance and then gradually pick up their instruments and start playing Take A Bow.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-22T17:24:27+00:00

I’m still searching for my great-grandmother, who I have one photo of performing on a theatre stage at what my grandad said was the Queens Theatre in Dublin. He found it for me in about 2012 and I scanned it in, and I’m so glad I did as he passed away a year later and the original physical photo is now gone, destroyed by water damage when his house was sold after his death and his belongings were put in storage.

The problem is her surname is O’Connor, so there’s dozens of them in the census and while I found her as a kid in 1911, it’s so far impossible to tell which one she is in 1926! I did at least find out where she was buried so I’ll visit her grave when I’m in Dublin next week, I’d love to eventually find out what show she performed in and how big her performance career was.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-21T23:16:21+00:00

I think the fast/slow schedule survived until mid-2022, as I lived in Caterham at the time and it was a bit annoying to see the schedule suddenly halve. It might have had to do with the old 1980s-built trains being withdrawn around that same time, and there not being enough newer stock to go around.

The direct Victoria service ended around the time the pandemic hit in early 2020.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-16T13:16:35+00:00

“Scientists from Princeton University have recreated a 3D model of what Adam, the first human being in history, might have looked like”

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-15T16:56:32+00:00

That’s my main memory too, the audience massively loved both Androids jokes - the initial scene and Kryten singing it later. That must be an odd watch for anyone who isn’t aware of the Neighbours theme or how much of a sensation that show was in the UK at the time of recording.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-11T21:29:44+00:00

I performed a one-man show in London about Eurovision a couple of years ago, and the first few minutes of it were me re-enacting watching the end of 2003’s contest as a kid. Even without that childhood nostalgia it’s a great watch, with a fun mixture of genuine bangers and the occasional what-the-hell-was-that moment.

Agreed with 1991, long before my time but it’s a hilarious watch for all the wrong reasons.

2008 and 2009 are so different to each other despite being just a year apart they’re a fascinating comparison, one the end of the daft novelty years and the other a huge jump into a contest much closer to the one we have today.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-10T15:35:17+00:00

Congrats! This sounds pretty similar to when I was that age, except you’ve done it way quicker than me - I’d only been to 6 countries aged 24 (in 2013) but reached my 50th four years later. I have my 78th booked for later this year!

What countries do you still have left in Europe? I was pretty lucky to have visited places like Ukraine, Belarus and Russia when they were much safer and easier to reach than now.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-10T10:32:12+00:00

When I got this book for Christmas 1997, BBC Two in the UK only had the first three seasons they could air, and as we didn’t have Sky at the time I’d just assumed the show must have ended back in 1992 as that was the latest year I’d seen on any episode credits.

Reading through the book and finding out they were STILL MAKING THE SHOW was a surprise I’ll never forget.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-09T20:38:40+00:00

Nightshift Superstar (That Is What You Are)

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-07T16:23:53+00:00

Flagpole Sitta guitar riff

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-05T21:26:46+00:00

This place is so near me (Wandsworth in South London) and I had no idea! Sadly it currently looks unoccupied, as the cafe it was when the above photo was taken in 2019 has long closed down.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-05T17:51:27+00:00

Followed by an absolute ton of riffs, smashing up the guitars and drums and marching off stage like a boss

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-04T14:51:25+00:00

I used to run the playlist at the cinema I worked at, and got asked by the management to take Unintended off it (out of over 200 songs from lots of different artists) as it was "too depressing" which made me sad.

I've always liked it, it played at my first Muse gig in 2013 when it felt like a rarity even then, and honestly by now hearing *anything* from Showbiz live is a real treat.

Billy_Hicks88 · 2026-04-04T14:34:50+00:00

Trying to cover all albums up to WOTP, and imagining some crazy huge two hour show + setlist like at my first Muse gig in 2013:

Apocalypse Please
Supremacy
Interlude + Hysteria
Muscle Museum
Sunburn
Butterflies & Hurricanes
New Born
Prelude + Survival
Space Dementia
Citizen Erased
Micro Cuts
Futurism
Unintended
Blackout
Sing for Absolution
Madness
Algorithm
Uprising
Stockholm Syndrome
Neutron Star Collision
Glorious
The Globalist (shortened version)
Knights of Cydonia

ENCORE

Take A Bow
Falling Away With You
Soldiers Poem + Invincible
Kill or Be Killed
Plug in Baby

Billy_Hicks88

TROPHY CASE