Fiona Duff: Bright Eyes on the prize for concert tickets

So a friend asked me if I wanted to go and see Simon & Garfunkel in a couple of weeks' time at the Festival Theatre. 'Of course,' was the reply. And then I thought that surely we were about 40 years too late.

Simon & Garfunkel performing together in 2003. Picture: AP

Forgive me if I have got this wrong, but didn’t those two incredible songwriters and performers not have an apocalyptic falling out several decades ago? Paul Simon went on to produce the amazing Graceland album and Art Garfunkel sang Bright Eyes and then crawled away in shame.

Ah, she said, it’s not actually them but a tribute act. There will be footage of some of the duo’s great performances and apparently they sound very like them. So we can pretend that we are in Madison Square Garden in the centre of New York. Apart from the fact that we will be in a theatre in Edinburgh.

Still, having recently heard Bridge Over Troubled Water on Radio 2 it reminded me that they were quite brilliant and I am sure that the place will be packed with others, like us, who never did have the chance to see them perform live.

The problem is that so often I only hear of concerts after they have taken place. There are friends who book up to see Adele or Paulo Nuttini as soon as the events are announced, whereas I sit in a little bubble wondering where everyone is on the night in question. Even if Simon & Garfunkel had reformed and were doing a tour I wouldn’t have actually got a ticket.

So relying on totally on other people inviting me I tend to see rather an eclectic bunch of performers. Last year I think it was Aha, Kris Kristofferson and Primal Scream. I bet that’s the only time you will see those three names in one sentence.

Perhaps this year I shall pay a little bit more attention to what is going on and by the end of the year I might have an even more interesting list of bands that I have seen in 2017.