Gig plans - 2023
Discussion
snuffy said:
Last year I was looking at going to see Pablo Nutini at the Echo Arean in Liverpool.
187 quid for the cheapest ticket - f
k right off.
£187?? 187 quid for the cheapest ticket - f
k right off.
I thought that I was being a silly sod paying £160 for ELO a couple of years ago.... mind you I guess that £160 + inflation would get you to a similar level 
On the flip side I saw my current favourite band (Mono Inc) at Manchester Revolution for £16.50... not sure how they made that pay with only 2/300 people thereEdited by DodgyGeezer on Sunday 4th June 10:01
wal 45 said:
Hackney said:
Kraftwerk aren't playing in the UK on this tour, but they're playing Limerick and Dublin.
Would've loved to see them in Limerick and take the whole family over, but other hols / plans put paid to that but my wife suggested I go to Dublin. Bought two tickets... then booked a hotel. Nothing cheap available.
But I've since decided it's a expense I can do without, so cancelled the hotel. Didn't get round to booking flights.
Tickers up for sale on Ticketmaster.
That'll teach me to plan a gig in another country on impulse.
Seem them quite a few times over the years (and mainly abroad), last time being in Germany 2022 I looked at both of these gigs and decided not to bother as the set never changes and they were only doing minor tweaks to the 3D show, if you've not seen them before though I'd really recommend going at some time.Would've loved to see them in Limerick and take the whole family over, but other hols / plans put paid to that but my wife suggested I go to Dublin. Bought two tickets... then booked a hotel. Nothing cheap available.
But I've since decided it's a expense I can do without, so cancelled the hotel. Didn't get round to booking flights.
Tickers up for sale on Ticketmaster.
That'll teach me to plan a gig in another country on impulse.
The sound system in Bonn last year was off the scale good, they also sang everything in German which made a nice change.
Sheffield 1991
G-Mex Stop Sellafield 1992
Tribal Gathering 1997
Royal Festival Hall 2004
and Brixton Acadmey a couple of nights later
Krakow (at an actual power station) 2009
Manchester Festival (velodrome, Team GB cyclists included) 2009
Sonar, Barcelona 2013
Can’t believe it’s been ten years TBH.
Sonar, Barcelona
DodgyGeezer said:
snuffy said:
Last year I was looking at going to see Pablo Nutini at the Echo Arean in Liverpool.
187 quid for the cheapest ticket - fk right off.
£187?? 187 quid for the cheapest ticket - f
k right off. I thought that I was being a silly sod paying £160 for ELO a couple of years ago.... mind you I guess that £160 + inflation would get you to a similar level :'( On the flip side I saw my current favourite band (Mono Inc) at Manchester Revolution for £16.50... not sure how they made that pay with only 2/300 people theresnuffy said:
DodgyGeezer said:
snuffy said:
Last year I was looking at going to see Pablo Nutini at the Echo Arean in Liverpool.
187 quid for the cheapest ticket - fk right off.
£187?? 187 quid for the cheapest ticket - f
k right off. I thought that I was being a silly sod paying £160 for ELO a couple of years ago.... mind you I guess that £160 + inflation would get you to a similar level :'( On the flip side I saw my current favourite band (Mono Inc) at Manchester Revolution for £16.50... not sure how they made that pay with only 2/300 people thereGloverMart said:
Ruskie said:
Elton John last night was a £175. Crazy world we live in. Had to say no to beers/hotel as it would of been been the cost of a small holiday.
Jeez, at that price you'll have to make a sacrifice or two! the prices really are all over the place. I frequently see newish acts and pay £20 ish for tickets and then due to seeing a couple of big artists touring have now paid £200 pp for Beyonce and this week £150 odd for Elton john.
Neither acts that i was bothered about seeing but my PA was keen to see Elton having never seen him, so its her birthday pressie & niece loved Beyonce.
expect Elton to be a great show on Thursday and due to my age of 55, will probably have subliminal memory of all the lyrics as we grew up in a time with 3 stations and you knew all of the songs in the charts..... a tad less so these days!
the following week go to see a young soul singer called Sophie Faith in a small venue that cost £17pp
Neither acts that i was bothered about seeing but my PA was keen to see Elton having never seen him, so its her birthday pressie & niece loved Beyonce.
expect Elton to be a great show on Thursday and due to my age of 55, will probably have subliminal memory of all the lyrics as we grew up in a time with 3 stations and you knew all of the songs in the charts..... a tad less so these days!
the following week go to see a young soul singer called Sophie Faith in a small venue that cost £17pp
westberks said:
the prices really are all over the place. I frequently see newish acts and pay £20 ish for tickets and then due to seeing a couple of big artists touring have now paid £200 pp for Beyonce and this week £150 odd for Elton john.
Neither acts that i was bothered about seeing but my PA was keen to see Elton having never seen him, so its her birthday pressie & niece loved Beyonce.
expect Elton to be a great show on Thursday and due to my age of 55, will probably have subliminal memory of all the lyrics as we grew up in a time with 3 stations and you knew all of the songs in the charts..... a tad less so these days!
the following week go to see a young soul singer called Sophie Faith in a small venue that cost £17pp
I don't know if they're all over the place so much as some big artists have sussed they can charge what they like wheras smaller artists have to keep it real.Neither acts that i was bothered about seeing but my PA was keen to see Elton having never seen him, so its her birthday pressie & niece loved Beyonce.
expect Elton to be a great show on Thursday and due to my age of 55, will probably have subliminal memory of all the lyrics as we grew up in a time with 3 stations and you knew all of the songs in the charts..... a tad less so these days!
the following week go to see a young soul singer called Sophie Faith in a small venue that cost £17pp
There are some inflationary pressures and personnel shortages - particularly specialised - (who'd have thunk turning off the industry would do that
) but the increase was exponential even pre-scamdemic - I've got a box containing most of my ticket stubs going back to the mid 90s so can track it. We passed on metallica in 2019, tix were like £150 so with a few drinks and a cab etc it'd have been a £400+ night for the two of us to see them at sodding Twickenham and... nah. Then in '21 they announced Mera Luna festival in Portugal in summer '22 for something like €65 each. Bought with no idea of what the world would permit us to do, ended up being one of the best performances we've seen of theirs.Teddy Lop said:
I don't know if they're all over the place so much as some big artists have sussed they can charge what they like wheras smaller artists have to keep it real.
There are some inflationary pressures and personnel shortages - particularly specialised - (who'd have thunk turning off the industry would do that) but the increase was exponential even pre-scamdemic - I've got a box containing most of my ticket stubs going back to the mid 90s so can track it. We passed on metallica in 2019, tix were like £150 so with a few drinks and a cab etc it'd have been a £400+ night for the two of us to see them at sodding Twickenham and... nah. Then in '21 they announced Mera Luna festival in Portugal in summer '22 for something like €65 each. Bought with no idea of what the world would permit us to do, ended up being one of the best performances we've seen of theirs.
Thought M'era Luna was in Germany (only say that as it's a festival I really fancy at the moment with the various different musical styles)There are some inflationary pressures and personnel shortages - particularly specialised - (who'd have thunk turning off the industry would do that
) but the increase was exponential even pre-scamdemic - I've got a box containing most of my ticket stubs going back to the mid 90s so can track it. We passed on metallica in 2019, tix were like £150 so with a few drinks and a cab etc it'd have been a £400+ night for the two of us to see them at sodding Twickenham and... nah. Then in '21 they announced Mera Luna festival in Portugal in summer '22 for something like €65 each. Bought with no idea of what the world would permit us to do, ended up being one of the best performances we've seen of theirs.Hackney said:
Oh, I’ve seen them a few times over the years.
Sheffield 1991
G-Mex Stop Sellafield 1992
Tribal Gathering 1997
Royal Festival Hall 2004
and Brixton Acadmey a couple of nights later
Krakow (at an actual power station) 2009
Manchester Festival (velodrome, Team GB cyclists included) 2009
Sonar, Barcelona 2013
Can’t believe it’s been ten years TBH.
Sonar, Barcelona
That Velodrome gig was probably my favourite KW one I've been to (I've done quite a few too) but genuinely don't think I've been to a hotter gig anywhere, great seeing Team GB during TdF. I saw them in a old gasworks in Poland (Poznan) in 2013 so guess they like the old industrial places in Poland, really like the slightly different venues they often play.Sheffield 1991
G-Mex Stop Sellafield 1992
Tribal Gathering 1997
Royal Festival Hall 2004
and Brixton Acadmey a couple of nights later
Krakow (at an actual power station) 2009
Manchester Festival (velodrome, Team GB cyclists included) 2009
Sonar, Barcelona 2013
Can’t believe it’s been ten years TBH.
Sonar, Barcelona
Probably the strangest place I saw them was the Evoluon in Eindhoven, very cool and had the bonus of being relatively small.
Big names at big venues have always charged a lot.
My Mum is a huge David Bowie fan so after many rumour of him retiring in the early 80's she jumped at the chance to see him at Wembley arena on the Serious Moonlight tour. We could only afford 3 tickets, so my Dad stayed at home. From memory the tickets were hugely expensive, the merch was expensive (£25 for a t-shirt in 1983 and about £12 for a programme), we had train tickets from Swansea and back so the whole thing cost a fortune!
We used to go to loads of gigs in those days, all across South Wales and Bristol seeing many top bands of the time (mostly punk, new wave etc) and the average price for a ticket was £5 or £6 quid!
The local record shop that is still open to this day ( Derrick's in Swansea) used to do a great service of putting on coaches to gigs for an extra couple of quid a ticket. Used to quite a sight seeing a bus full of Punk types heading off to see Southern Death Cult or The Damned in Bridgend!
My Mum is a huge David Bowie fan so after many rumour of him retiring in the early 80's she jumped at the chance to see him at Wembley arena on the Serious Moonlight tour. We could only afford 3 tickets, so my Dad stayed at home. From memory the tickets were hugely expensive, the merch was expensive (£25 for a t-shirt in 1983 and about £12 for a programme), we had train tickets from Swansea and back so the whole thing cost a fortune!
We used to go to loads of gigs in those days, all across South Wales and Bristol seeing many top bands of the time (mostly punk, new wave etc) and the average price for a ticket was £5 or £6 quid!
The local record shop that is still open to this day ( Derrick's in Swansea) used to do a great service of putting on coaches to gigs for an extra couple of quid a ticket. Used to quite a sight seeing a bus full of Punk types heading off to see Southern Death Cult or The Damned in Bridgend!
I think the problem is the inflation in mid sized venue prices tbh. I baulk at paying £30+ for shows at the Barrowlands etc, then another £100 once you've had drinks and bought a t-shirt. I stick to small venues mostly.
I don't begrudge buying merch though, it's the only way that artists can make any money touring.
I don't begrudge buying merch though, it's the only way that artists can make any money touring.
ZedLeg said:
I think the problem is the inflation in mid sized venue prices tbh. I baulk at paying £30+ for shows at the Barrowlands etc, then another £100 once you've had drinks and bought a t-shirt. I stick to small venues mostly.
I don't begrudge buying merch though, it's the only way that artists can make any money touring.
I love the merch - however it has to have some thought put in. Went to see Midge Ure the other month and whilst the gig was wonderful the T's were (IMO) just bland and uninspired - if I'm going to spend £25/35 on a t-shirt I really don't want to see something I could knock-up on a Commodore 64I don't begrudge buying merch though, it's the only way that artists can make any money touring.
My 9yo is a big fan of Boy with uke, he's playing tonight here in SG. So I thought I'd surprise him with tickets, had to include daughter, and darling wife didn't want to miss out, so £240 for 4, plus taxi both ways and maybe some merch. Gonna be a touch over £300 for the night. (Which is actually quite reasonable for Singapore. ) Mrs Arfby just had a broken tooth pulled out this morning, so all in for the day.... £1100. Might need to do a bit of over time this week!
Edited by ARFBY on Monday 5th June 10:50
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