Because I am a good friend and a solid person, I sometimes put together a quiz for my associates. Because I am a slapdash friend and a flake, the answers are often contestable – you could even say wrong – and I choose to see this as part of the unforgettable fun. Anyway, on Saturday, in the round called The Wonderful World of the Young, I asked the price of a ticket to Reading festival and, in The Wonderful World of the Old, the price of an Oasis ticket. These questions turned out to be so profoundly unanswerable that the whole thing disintegrated in rancour.
Even after you had added every caveat – early bird or regular, sitting or standing, official site or online tout – there was no true price. There were people round the table who had paid £291 for Reading tickets, yet the lowest price you could find on the whole of the internet was £327.75. (You’ve got to love that 75p: such strong “count the pennies and the astronomically large number of pounds we’ve just lifted off you will take care of themselves” energy.) One person claimed they were about to spend £74,000 on an Oasis ticket, but this turned out to be their position in the queue.
