Gigs getting expensive?

[Condi]

Anyone else finding this? Seems a lot of the acts I like to see have been pushing up prices recently. Faithless in 2006 cost me £20 a ticket, now £40, plus booking fees - so more like £45 to me. Same with Above and Beyond, was £25 a show, now seem to be £45 again. A 1 day festival (where many acts play) only sets me back £60-£80, and for that you get 10 hours of music rather than just 3 - in many cases A+B or faithless are playing!

Getting to the point I begrudge spending the money now, seen them often enough already, but a shame they seem to have priced themselves out of being reasonable value.

[egor110]

Start hunting out new bands who charge less.

[interloper]

I think it's down to a lack of money coming in via recorded music, album sales etc don't make the money it used to. I suspect big gigs were almost part subsidised by this.

Do you really want your favourite artist/band having to down size their mansion and coke habbit?!

[egor110]

I find it refreshing that established bands are able to ditch record companies and record/tour when they want using crowd funding.

[gizlaroc]

Money doubles every 7 years shocker!!



It is just annoying that as you get older 10 years feels like fk all, that combination turns you into your Dad. No getting round it.

[Tom_C76]

But then how much do the big festivals charge now? I found my V96, V97 and V98 ticket stubs the other day, £50 for the weekend on the first two, £55 on the third.

[gizlaroc]

£130 for the Sat and Sunday.

[crofty1984]

Leeds was 80 quid back in the day. (2000)

[eric twinge]

Well I went to see Ricky Warwick (the almighty/thin lizzy/black star riders) and Damon Johnson (Brother Cane/alice cooper/thin lizzy/black star riders) in Bournemouth last night.
They played for over two hours of solo material, lizzy, cooper and BSR material. Venue was sold out and it was a great night.
For that I paid £8 a ticket! I don't know how they make any money out of it, mind you I did spend £20 on a t shirt!

[5pen]

I remember back in 1987 buying 'Substance' by New Order. It was a double CD and cost me £15. I saw them live that year too. My ticket was £7 (plus 50p booking fee for 4 tickets probably!).

Roll-forward 28 years and the price of CDs/downloads/streaming services are way below the old methods of consuming music, so gigs are where the money is I guess.

I still love going to gigs, it's just that I tend to go to smaller venues and generally pay less than £20. I went to a brilliant gig last week and it cost me £12 + £1.20 booking fee.

[malks222]

yep, musicians making less from albums/ singles sales these days, so now going out on the road is what makes the artist more cash, plus all the merch they now try and flog onto you.

but also these venues (and corporate sponsors) dont come cheap these days. i'm pretty sure o2 want a cut from all the academies across the country, and bigger venues like the new 'hydro' venue in glasgow dont come cheap! pretty sure thye'll be charging hefty fee's to book it out, then guys like ticket master wanting a bigger fee.............. the costs are only ever gonna go one way.

[speedyman]

All this was just £4:50 for four days in 1972, check out the names performing. It was very wet, but nobody cared.

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/Great-Westernlineup...

Speedyman

[Billsnemesis]

I daren't even ask how much four tickets to Muse at the O2 in April 2016 have just cost me. Mrs Bills just winced when I asked and apologised without saying how much. Somewhere north of £500 in total I believe and that is in the upper deck where the tickets come with a warning for those who suffer from vertigo.

Still looking forward to it though.

[JuniorD]

eric twinge said:

Well I went to see Ricky Warwick (the almighty/thin lizzy/black star riders) and Damon Johnson (Brother Cane/alice cooper/thin lizzy/black star riders) in Bournemouth last night.
They played for over two hours of solo material, lizzy, cooper and BSR material. Venue was sold out and it was a great night.
For that I paid £8 a ticket! I don't know how they make any money out of it, mind you I did spend £20 on a t shirt!

Now that sounds like a proper gig.

With only a few exceptions, in my experience the best gigs are max £20 or there abouts.

[malks222]

Billsnemesis said:

four tickets to Muse at the O2 in April 2016 ...... Somewhere north of £500 in total..... in the upper deck where the tickets come with a warning for those who suffer from vertigo.

Jesus!!!! I'd be wanting them to come and play in my house for that! I honestly dont think i could enjoy that gig, i really dont get the hype that surrounds muse, I hear they put on a greta show etc... but i just dont like them enough and certainly would not pay >£100 to go see them sitting up in the sky!

[5pen]

Further to my earlier post about New Order, I've just received a notification of tickets for a gig at Brixton Academy - price: £47.75 (+£2.50 postage). On that basis, their tickets are circa 600% more expensive than 1987 whilst a physical CD is about 20% cheaper. Gigs are where the money is, clearly.

^ Are those Muse tickets face value? As a Viz Top-Tip once said, "Save money on Muse tickets by humming Bohemian Rhapsody whilst playing LaserQuest".

[XL1000V]

What really winds me up about gig tickets is the ones that "sell out" within minutes of going on sale then appear mome ts later in their hundreds on the ticket re-selling sites at 3 or 4 times the face value!

[escargot]

I was thinking the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago. It's ridiculous.

Still just paid the best part of £200 for tickets to see 2 bands. Who's the mug?

[jmorgan]

Pretty much do not bother any more since the secondary market shysters got in on the act. A pox on the lot of em.

[egor110]

jmorgan said:

Pretty much do not bother any more since the secondary market shysters got in on the act. A pox on the lot of em.

You just have to get online right as the big name tickets go on sale.

I'll often take my meal break at work when the big name tickets go online to make sure I get them.