Justin Hayward Solo Tour, 2013

I saw a post on Facebook a few days ago where my sister-in-law had commented on Justin Hayward coming to Wilmington this summer on a solo tour in support of his recently released new album Spirits of the Western Sky. I'm glad she did, because this was news to me, and tickets were scheduled to go on sale at noon today.

He is playing at the World Cafe Live at the Queen, which seems to be a very small theater/club. Judging from the seating chart, it seats maybe 350 people, and has bars, waitress service, food, etc... According to their web site, the Balcony area is considered the premium seating, at least in terms of amenities.

This is a "must-go at any cost" event for me, so I logged on, stalked the website until noon, and got amazing tickets at an amazing price ($118 total including all fees and surcharges for the pair). Amp and I will be sitting in the center two seats of the first row of the Balcony. If the seating diagram is to scale, this would put us right above the front of the tables on the floor level, making it about 10 rows from the stage. The website allowed you to click on what was currently available on a seating chart and select exactly what you wanted, much like registering for airline seating these days, and these were my first choice. In retrospect, I wonder what if anything would have been available in the very first row, but I am not going to second guess myself - I got in, staked my claim where I wanted to be, and got my first choice. Hard to argue with that. Looking at tickets now at about 1:00pm, most seats are gone...

I am excited beyond belief at the thought of seeing my musical hero in such a small and intimate setting. One of my favorite concert DVDs ever is of Hayward in San Juan Capistrano perhaps 15 years ago, where he does a mix of Moodies and solo music, acoustic and electric, sometimes with a band of 3 or 4, and sometimes alone on stage. I would imagine this will be at least somewhat like that. I can't wait!