My favourite trick at gigs was to turn up early for the soundcheck and then just hang around in the building; worked a treat for Gong at Leeds Irish Centre and with Cardiacs on so many occasions. At least with Cardiacs I used to do the decent thing of helping them with the gear in return for a spot on the guest list, although when the guest list was full I just used to have to hide in the building and avoid security (Hammersmith Clarendon Hotel Ballroom, Aylesbury Civic Centre, ULU). And of course, I once went over the fence for Glastonbury in 2000.
I've often wondered if there's any way of getting to a ground so early that you can get in through an open gate then hide in the toilets until kick-off, but by and large I've been very good and paid for most of my Blades matches, apart from Watford away once, and buying a very dodgy ticket for that Crewe game in 1998.
For the Watford game, it was that one when United laid on free travel so tickets sold out before I could get one, but as I was playing for the Internet Blades in the morning against Watford, I figured it might be worth a punt attempting entry. And so it fell to a very good friend who shall remain nameless who went into Watford's ticket office and said in most convincing fashion, "This idiot's forgotten his ticket!" They were so helpful that I almost felt guilty as they got the head steward to unlock the gates and walk me into the away end, and not once did they ask for evidence of card payments or the like. Serves me right that it was a dreadful 0-0.
For the Crewe game, a fellow ticket seeker had spied that their pre-paid ticket collecting service was a steward in an orange jacket with a pile of brown envelopes in his hand. People were just going up to him, saying a name, and he was handing over the tickets without asking for any form of ID. This Blade looked over the shoulder of the steward, saw the name on the top, then went for a five minute walk before coming back and saying he was so-and-so, and lo and behold, there was the envelope at the top of the stack.
Turned out there were three tickets in the envelope, so this scoundrel sold, yes SOLD, one to me, thus making a massive profit. As I sat in 'my' seat, awaiting the inevitable tap on the shoulder from the police, another Blade came and sat next to me and when we compared notes it was obvious we'd got tickets from the same chap, so we assumed that the empty seat beside us was where he would be sitting. Strange thing is, he never turned up. Stranger still, we never got asked to leave. Serves us all right that we lost 2-1.
Can I just say, I am thoroughly ashamed of such behaviour and would never do such a thing these days.
