So here we go again. A month without a post and all those half-written articles are staring back at the screen at me, reproachfully, asking me why I don’t love them more. Saying “Look, I’ve been busy” just gets them to stare at me even more. Amazing how some blazing pixels can induce such feelings of guilt in a lapsed Catholic¹ that I’m seriously considering going to confession.

The other site that’s taken a rather more serious hiatus is the fantastic Scarlet Mist. Why fantastic? Because the site was an easy, quick and painless way to sell tickets at face value to other music fans, rather than dealing with horrendous corporate rip-off merchants like Viagogo, TicketShyster and the like, or worse, dealing with touts outside the venue (“Nah mate, a fiver all it’s worth”). Back in September last year, they had to close their doors due to being targeted by criminals and have since reopened their doors with a new security model and a whizzy new messaging interface, and a new concept of finding likeminded people to go to gigs with.

Now I’m not too sure about that last one, but then I am a miserable old curmudgeon who finds being alone with 2000 other people once every few months a joyful experience (and weirdly I’ve met some nice folk at gigs when on my own, like the lot at Mastodon who were arguing whether they were Prog or not). Still, I’m sure some people will enjoy this kind of thing and who am I to complain?

In any case, it’s marvellous having Scarlet Mist back. I love it. Please, please use it when you’ve got a spare or when you just can’t face buying from a tout. There’s tickets for sale for all sorts of gigs now, all at face value, and every single person I have met whilst buying and selling has been an absolute delight. This is the truth.

¹ I’m safely Atheist now, don’t you worry.