Bob Dylan fan buys Dylan tickets by mistake, still goes and has great time
54-year-old Andy Day hailed the singer as an "electric performer" after mistakenly buying the tickets for Monday night's gig
By Nick Reilly
A Bob Dylan fan has revealed how he purchased tickets to see the music icon in London, only to realise he was actually off to see upcoming pop star Dylan.
Andy Day, 54, still went to the show at London’s KOKO on Monday night with his 76-year-old father-in-law Eric and wife. He hailed the hotly-tipped singer, who has supported the likes of Ed Sheeran and Bastille, as a “brilliant performer”.
Explaining the name-based mix-up, Andy told Rolling Stone UK: “My father-in-law is a massive Bob Dylan and owns nearly every album, bootleg and book he’s ever released, so it was a rite of passage that I had to go and see Bob Dylan before he accepted me into the family.
“Since then, he’s bought tickets every time he comes around on his Neverending Tour and we all go as a family. We do it every year, but he was on holiday and asked me if I could get them this time.”
After purchasing the tickets online, Andy only realised his mistake when Eric informed him that Bob Dylan was playing in Dublin on Monday night – the same date as the KOKO show.
“I had this sinking feeling that something had gone wrong. I downloaded the tickets and indeed realised that I had bought tickets to see this 23-year-old pop/rock star called Dylan. We had a debate about whether we should go, but thought ‘sod it, you can’t go far wrong with a bit of live music’.”
While pop star Dylan is known only by her first name, fans of music icon Bob often refer to him using just his surname – sparking the mistake when Andy purchased the tickets.
On Monday, the three drove two-and-a-half hours from their home in Hampshire to Camden Town, where the majority of the crowd was in their mid-to-late teens.
“We lifted the average age by about twenty years, but Dylan was great!,” said Andy.
“It was a good night and she said that if we go and see her at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, she’s going to play Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing In The Wind’.
Andy also praised the efforts of staff at KOKO, who went above and beyond to find seating for his father-in-law and celebrate his recent birthday.
“He’s 76 and not the most mobile of individuals, so he had a bit of a panic attack when he realised there wasn’t any seating. But when we got in, we explained the errors of our ways and fifteen minutes later a guy who worked at KOKO came up and said ‘I’ve found a couple of seats up there at the side, and as it’s your birthday I’ve got you some complimentary drinks’.
“They were great and if he hadn’t had a seat he probably would’ve lasted 20 minutes standing up. As it was, we stayed until the bitter end. He really enjoyed herself and liked her music.”
Praising Dylan’s show, he added: “I thought she held the crowd brilliantly and for her the maturity of her writing was really quite profound.”
Andy is the only person to reveal his mix-up, but a brief chat with security has led him to believe he wasn’t the only one to make the mistake.
“I don’t know whether the doormen were being kind, but they did say there was two or three middle-aged couples who had turned up and thought they were going to see *the* Bob Dylan.”
Now, Andy is planning on attending more of Dylan’s shows.
“We’re not every week gig goers, but going to see live music is one of the things we do enjoy and we thought she was just electric.”
The mix-up is even funnier for Dylan herself, who often remarks ‘sorry I’m not Bob’ at her live shows as a nod to the parents who accompany their children to her gigs.
“I laughed so hard when I read Andy’s tweet, and honestly I’m feeling a great sense of relief actually,” she told Rolling Stone UK.
“Imagine he didn’t enjoy it?! I’m just hoping his father in law did too, and that they don’t feel too cheated by what appeared before them that night. I’ll make sure to have a cover of ‘blowin’ in the wind’ in my back pocket in case it ever happens again!”
Hailing her semi-namesake, she added: “Bob Dylan’s songwriting is completely unmatched. One of the first songs I learnt all the words to was actually ‘Knocking On Heavens Door’.
“It was the only song my dad knew how to play well on guitar so naturally he used to attempt to sing it a lot, and hearing it so often I picked it up pretty quickly. It was definitely part of my childhood soundtrack along with many more of his songs.”