I don't know about you guys, but it has been an exhausting Wednesday for me so far. I was up at nearly the crack of dawn judging a digital design contest for students of STI at the College of St. Benilde in Manila , after which I drove back to the office  in Makati for a grueling non-stop routine of meeting after meeting. (Then again, what else is new?)

But in the midst of the humdrum of everyday life,  like many of you, there was one persistent thought that lingered in my mind all day.

Asked the voice in my head, "When will the Eraserheads tickets finally go on sale?"

After all, for over a month, people had been wondering about the same thing. First there was that ridiculous "Red List" website put up by Marlboro that people signed up for, hoping for a free invitation to the concert. Patiently they waited for a sign, only to see the same old page with a photo of a certain Michael Buhay, the proud owner of a Ducati, courtesy of the Red Nation.

When Raymund Marasigan announced on Sunday that tobacco heavyweight Philip Morris had left the building but that the concert was pushing through and an announcement would be published in the papers, people furiously scanned Tuesday's broadsheets, looking for the news. But none came.

On the Internet, the mood was getting nasty. On message forums, blogs, and mailing lists people indicated they were getting tired of waiting. Plenty of rabid foaming at the mouth. Was the concert pushing through at all? A few cynics said the new producers could never pull it off , with just four days to go.

A rumor found its way on Pep.ph , claiming that tickets would sell for P1,500. But still, no official announcement.

Then around noon Wednesday, I got a text message from Jamie Hipe of Soupstar, the ever dependable road manager of Sandwich. "Here's some info to post on your site," she said.

Following that tantalizing introduction was the announcement that tickets were going on sale tomorrow at Ticketworld outlets, and that prices were P1,030 and P2,060.

I texted Karin Araneta - the last of the female eHeads managers, as far as I know - and asked her if that was all true.

She confirmed it. This was all real, not a wild rumor. So off I went and posted the info on comments section of PhilMusic and on the Eraserheads mailing list (which coincidentally, celebrated its tenth anniversary just yesterday, August 26). And that was that - or so I thought.

At around 5:53 pm, I got another text message from Jamie. Seems like there was a last minute change of plans. Ooops!

It was pretty long SMS:

Hi! There have been changes since my text this morning. Please be advised of the FINAL and OFFICIAL news re Eraserheads Reunion:

August 30, Saturday. Gates open at 3:00 pm at Bonifacio Global City Open Grounds.

Tickets are available at Ticketworld (Tel. 891-9999) starting August 28, Thursday.

General Admission: Php 800++
Patron: Php 1,300++

Brought to you by Radiohead Media Solutions Inc. In cooperation with SonyBMG Music Entertainment Phil. Inc.

Rock n' Roll!!!

As it happened, people didn't need to wait for Thursday. By early evening of Wednesday, some lucky fans were able to buy their tickets from various Ticketworld outlets, and even directly  from their head office at the Vicente Madrigal building in Ayala Avenue, Makati.

Quite a few fans tried the tech route, purchasing their tickets directly from the Ticketworld website . In fact, so many tried to do this that the website crashed, and fingers once again pointed to the eHeads. People logging were greeted with the following error message:

"HTTP/1.1 Too many concurrent users. Please try again later."

As Inquirer.net reported:

The website of Ticketworld suffered a temporary hiccup Wednesday morning due to "too many concurrent users."

While this was not directly attributed to traffic coming from queries for the August 30 Eraserheads reunion concert, the ticket seller said it is getting ready to sell concert tickets for the concert within the day.

Ticketworld Systems Administrator Brenda Abela said there has been a huge volume of traffic in the past few days but she would not attribute it to online queries for the Eraserheads.

"It may be small factor. We've been busy selling tickets for other shows," Abela said in an interview.

More developments piled up as the day went on.

I received a couple of statements in my inbox at around 5pm. The first was from the ol' smoke-belchin' Philip Morris:

27 August 2008

Philip Morris statement on Eraserheads concert

Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. confirms that Radiohead Media Solutions Inc. has agreed to take over as promoter of the Eraserheads reunion concert planned for 30 August 2008. We made the decision to withdraw as promoter and will have no involvement at all in this reunion concert. We wish the Eraserheads and Radiohead Media Solutions Inc. all the best.

Dave M. Gomez

Public Affairs and Communications Manager
Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc.

The second one, also from PMPI, was the official announcement of the handover to the new producer, something Raymund Marasigan already mentioned last Sunday.

RADIOHEAD MEDIA SOLUTIONS, INC. THE NEW PROMOTER OF ERASERHEADS: THE REUNION

Radiohead Media Solutions, Inc. announces the acquisition of the concert rights to the much awaited one-night-only Eraserheads reunion this coming Saturday, 30 August 2008. The Reunion is to be slated at the Bonifacio Global City Open Field.

And yes dear reader, like many of you, this the first I've ever heard of Radiohead Media Solutions.

And on that suspicious note, I leave you to enjoy what little remains of this action-packed Wednesday.