As THE TICKETS acoustic duo we’ve built up a loyal local audience who enjoy watching and listening to us perform at in- and outdoor community events, sports clubs, party venues, church halls, open air stages, bars and restaurants, beach clubs, libraries, film theatres and even the occasional living room party. Our digital presence is also growing our global audience, so a warm welcome to you if you’ve arrived here as a result of watching one of our videos on our YouTube channel.
The blog below reports on local live performances that were not private parties, and also keeps you up to date on upcoming events.
(November 2022) As the weather turns colder and the outdoor performance agenda goes into hibernation, we look back at a very successful summer with a great variety of gigs. We don’t know what happens to most of the video that is invariably taken of us by audience members, but fortunately some of it is shared with us, starting with the clip below:
(September 2022) What started off as rainy day turned into a very pleasant and well attended afternoon of live music on the 24th. Thank you so much to the local shopkeepers for looking after us with coffee and a selection of fish delicacies, and a huge thank you to our audience who showed their appreciation in so many ways – it means a lot to us and we love each and everyone of you!
(September 2022) Another busy month with six bookings across four weekends, playing at cricket and tennis tournaments, a private wedding, a wedding anniversary, and the Voorschoten cultural weekend, with two more to come on Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th. On the Saturday we’ll be playing from 14:00-17:00 outside restaurant Hudson, the same location as the one shown below of us tuning up ready for our performance in Voorschoten town centre on the 10th (photo Gerk Kooy).
And on Sunday the 25th we’ll be playing at a public BBQ at Hoeve Essesteijn from 14:00-17:00.
(August 2022) More outdoor performances in August – such a pleasure to be playing to appreciative audiences in idyllic surroundings. Do you recognise the top location from our July gig? Correct, we were asked back for a second performance!
July 2022 was a special month for us, not just because we played a number of memorable gigs, but also because our performance on the 3rd was exactly 40 years since we played our first official gig together, as evidenced by the photos taken on the 3rd of July 2022 and on the 3rd of July 1982!
(July 2022) Couldn’t have been playing at a more traditional Dutch location with this windmill-overlooked performance at a great combined birthday and retirement party. Thank you for inviting The Tickets to help make this such a special occasion!
(July 2022) Following a busy schedule in June performing at sports clubs and private parties, we started off July with a public event on Sunday the 3rd in Landgoed Voorlei. An appreciative audience listened to us perform two 50-minute sets with our usual variety of artists and instrumentation.
(May 2022) Newspaper article and poster advertising our performance on Saturday the 28th of May, where we played at Theehuis Jansland as a grand finale to their 10th anniversary celebrations. Our two-set public afternoon performance from 15:00-16:30 was followed by another three sets of our live music at a private party in the evening for all staff and volunteers.
(May 2022) On the 15th of May we kicked off the brand new CcCafé featuring live music and entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, as advertised by the great poster designed by Mo van der Werf and illustrated by the photos taken by Nico Fennes and Mo.
(March 2022) We’re seeing a gradual increase in the number of bookings, mainly private parties that people have had to put on hold during the pandemic and are now free to organise again. In this photo we’re just about to enter into our 4th set in a great new venue overlooking the marina at Vennemeer yachting lake. We hope to play there again in the not too distant future!
(January 2022) Following our 2021 Christmas performance – which was yet again plagued by the seemingly never-ending COVID restrictions – we focused on setting up a system for testing live-streaming platforms. A fair bit of time was dedicated to this, with technical hurdles to overcome and new software packages to learn, as we couldn’t simply use our usual recording studio setup. Below are the results of our stream tests. It’s interesting to note that they generated a lot of interest on our Facebook page (download can be slow on some devices)
(November 2021) After 18 months of lockdowns and restrictions, and on the eve of yet another one, we played four 45-minute sets to a full house of enthusiastic diners at restaurant Hudson Voorschoten on Friday 12 November. It was such a pleasure to share the experience of live music with our wonderful and enthusiastic audience, so we hope the tentative bookings that were planned for December can go ahead this year. We’ll keep you up to date!
(September 2020) With a view to restarting our monthly performances at local restaurant Hudson Voorschoten, we played a Stones-themed gig on Saturday 19 September, which saw a lot of our regulars attend, plus a good selection of new audience, all keeping to the re-emergence of tighter restrictions. Have a listen to our live performance of It’s All Over Now to an enthusiastic audience.
(July 2020) The temporary relaxation following last spring’s lockdown allowed our wiped agenda to regain some entries with private events as well as public performances at our favourite bars and restaurants. We kicked off with a highly successful Saturday evening at Hudson Voorschoten on Saturday 4 July, followed by a couple of outdoor performances at local tennis clubs. This Cliff hit is always popular with our fans, as you will see from the response we get. We’ve replaced the original guitar solo with a uke solo to give the number The Tickets treatment with a more acoustic feel.
(January 2020) What a great audience we had at Leidse Lente on the 26th of January! We were treated to a huge response, with the resulting encores adding an extra 30 minutes to an already packed set list, making a total of 35 numbers performed over 2.5 hours of solid fun.
(January 2020) A great start to 2020 with another full house at Hudson Voorschoten. This time we managed to put together a little montage from phone video that was taken during our performance. Some of our regular fans even managed to find a space for dancing!
(December 2019) What a weekend to complete our Christmas performances for 2019! We played four sets throughout Saturday afternoon in an outdoor tent as part of a day full of festive music and events in Voorschoten town centre, plus a great Sunday gig in Eetcafé de Poppekast. Although we felt some regret at having to park our popular Christmas numbers for another year, we did get to perform most of them at least six times over the past two weeks. Here’s another video clip for those who would like it to go on a bit longer… and a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!
(December 2019) Couldn’t have come up with a more appropriate moment for long-time fan and supporter Murielle to film us during our Christmas themed performance at Hudson Voorschoten on the 7th of December. Thanks also to our 100+ audience for joining in with such enthusiasm – we love it when our audiences share their enjoyment and appreciation with us!
(November 2019) A fantastic second evening in Hudson on the 12th of November, with 130 reservations filling just about every available table. As promised, we performed 20 Beatle numbers this time, plus another 30 out of our regular repertoire. Know any other bands who routinely play 50+ numbers in a single gig?
A big thank you to Afra, who not only came to see us again with a crowd of fans, but also took the trouble to share this photo and video with us.
(October 2019) The first of our monthly spots at restaurant Hudson Voorschoten saw us playing to a capacity audience on Saturday 12 October. Next one coming up on 9 November where we’ll be putting in lots of variety for those who want to come and enjoy a second evening with The Tickets.
(September 2019) Great review from Peter J. Visser’s Leiden music blogMuziekGezien
(September 2019) Cultuurmarkt/Weekend van Voorschoten
On Saturday the 14th of September The Tickets were invited to be the main act on stage 1 during the annual Voorschoten cultural festival. The audience showed their appreciation by occupying every available seat on restaurant Hudson’s terrace directly opposite the stage as well as by booking seven new dates in our agenda. Thanks to everyone who treated us to such a warm and enthusiastic reception and to Hudson for their enthusiastic response!
(June 2019) NUT van Voorschoten jubilee
(June 2019) Thor de Bataaf tennis tournament
A six-set gig to provide ongoing musical entertainment during the finals of this tennis tournament on the 23rd of June. We can just about fit ourselves plus all our instruments and equipment onto the provided 2×2 stage.
(June 2019) Herring Party on June 15th
On June 15th we provided the music for a party to celebrate the arrival of the first 2019 herring catch… delicious!
(June 2019) Brasserie OCK
Another outdoor performance to a fully occupied terrace at this popular outdoor venue on June 9th – less hot than last weekend but just as enjoyable.
(June 2019) Strandhuis De Golfslag
On the hottest June 2nd ever measured we were invited to entertain the many guests on the terrace of this fantastic beach club at Wassenaarseslag.
(May 2019) Café Rooie Cor on Sunday 5 May
This traditional Dutch bar, overlooking part of the Wassenaar marina, had us booked for one of their regular Sunday live music sessions. We entertained a nice mixture of expat and local guests with our acoustic versions of Sixties classics.
(February 2019) Cultuurcafé Noordwijk
It was an extremely Sunny Afternoon in Noordwijk on the 3rd of February, which fortunately didn’t stop the public from coming to enjoy our 75 minute set on this nicely laid out stage. Great atmosphere, great acoustics and most importantly a great audience made this a memorable gig.
(January 2019) Sixties exhibition in Museum Voorschoten
We closed this successful local exhibition with a weekend performance on 19 and 20 January, performing hits from 19 different artists, covering every year from 1960-1969. Visitors could have their photo taken on a Puch, one of the iconic mopeds of the era. As Nigel used to own one of these, he didn’t pass on that opportunity. Local press report below.
(March 2018) We decided it was time to publish a video recording of one of our performances, choosing our gig in the plush auditorium of the Wassenaar film theatre on the 3rd of March, because of its acoustics and tiered seating, leaving a convenient space for a stand with a camera on the front row without obscuring the audience line of view and without the risk of people walking in front of the camera. By combining this footage with the stage audio from our little Tascam recorder (can you spot it?), we were able to create a compilation of clips from this performance, making it the first video to get uploaded to our YouTube channel.