Gig ticket prices

Paid about a ton to see Springsteen at Villa Park. Ordinarily I reckon to spend £30 tops at places like The Cluny or The Georgian in Stockton. I'd rather catch bands in small venues and often have a chat afterwards

I think Glastonbury was about £300 this year but that's four days (inc one quiet day) I think festivals are the best way to get value for money.
 
Some of them £2:00 tickets at the Rock Garden for the likes of UB40 and OMD were a right right rip off in the 70's.
If you are willing to pay top dollar for these bands than bigger mug you.
 
There’s a band called Swim Deep playing NE Volume on Saturday for £16.50 a ticket. Supported by Michael Gallagher (lad from Hartlepool doing well for himself).

Swim Deep have had a top 20 record, but they’re struggling to shift tickets. I think interest in live music (unless it’s a cover band) is just generally low.
 
Scrug said:
There’s a band called Swim Deep playing NE Volume on Saturday for £16.50 a ticket. Supported by Michael Gallagher (lad from Hartlepool doing well for himself).

Swim Deep have had a top 20 record, but they’re struggling to shift tickets. I think interest in live music (unless it’s a cover band) is just generally low.
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A lot of people are struggling financially at the moment. Particularly those for who going to places like NE Volume is the only option for their live music.

There's people talking about shelling out hundreds to go to a gig abroad but for the majority that isn't an option.

Society is being well and truly prised apart. More so than ever.
 
Easterside Red - apologies for sounding a bit negative - I do understand special passions, I probably spent £300 on some of Boro's European trips in 2005/6

Enjoy the Prague gig :)
 
Scrug said:
There’s a band called Swim Deep playing NE Volume on Saturday for £16.50 a ticket. Supported by Michael Gallagher (lad from Hartlepool doing well for himself).

Swim Deep have had a top 20 record, but they’re struggling to shift tickets. I think interest in live music (unless it’s a cover band) is just generally low.
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Ah brilliant was wrecking my brain trying to think of the band and song I really loved from a while ago and it was To feel good by Swim Deep cracking tune quite uplifting, thanks for reminding me 😊
 
jam69 said:
People need to stop pay these silly prices otherwise the only way is up.
Theres good prices out there, kubix at the weekend was about 35 quid for 20 plus acts
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(I 100% agree)

But exactly the same could be said about football tickets (especially for away fans). Yet we all pay the prices because we are fools/ addicted to it.

UTB 👍
 
I'm glad I got all my gigging out of my system in my 20s when tickets for bands were still fairly reasonable.

Saw Fall Out Boy at the very first Slam Dunk Festival in Leeds where tickets were £20 and Hundred Reasons, Thursday and Capdown were all on the bill.

Then paid about £30 nearly a year later to see Fall Out Boy in Manchester. Cobra Starship and Shiny Toy Guns supported them, two of my favourite bands at the time. Good stuff.
 
Prices upwards of £100 for a gig is crazy but I suppose prices have soared as sales of ‘real’ albums has dropped with the introduction of streaming.

I am pleased that I have only paid £37.50 to watch the greatest band that have ever played, Shed Seven, at Boro later on this year. But if I remember correctly Sheds tickets were sub £30 pre Covid.
 
I managed to see The Who in Durham last week for £7.50. They must of been struggling to sell tickets and ended up releasing “seat filler” tickets. Original prices ranged from £60-£140.

Price it sensible and it wouldn’t get to giving tickets away.

Two good value gigs coming up…
James @ Darlo £40ish
This feeling by the sea £25ish per day 👍🏼
 
The Cult @ Piece Hall £50
Rival Sons @ Manchester £45
James Walsh @ The Georgian £25 (I think)
Four nights accommodation and 4 days of bands including Michael Schenker £250 @ Rock Stock, south Wales.
Happy with all that.
 
Over the years I've bought tickets for me and my wife to see some of her favourite artists and they were always expensive compared to who I'd normally listen to, but when you see some of the elaborate setups of people like Madonna, Kylie etc. you can see where a big chunk of the money gets eaten up in a huge stage production. I've seen pictures of 50+ trucks for the Taylor Swift tour in the US!

I understand that bands make little money from albums nowadays, but ticket inflation has been extraordinary over the last decade. I think I paid £150 for my wife to be within spitting distance of Madonna in 2015, but that same price would put you at Hubble telescope distance in the O2 on the next tour.

I would've loved to see Guns n Roses with Slash, but travel and accommodation to see them at Spurs will be pushing into the £300/400 range for a cheap ticket.
 
Chutney said:
No offense, but jesus, what a depressing sentence.

I'm 53, just got back from the swamp of BlueDot, loved seeing new bands and old favourites. Can't imagine regarding live music as some sort of toxin I wanted to purge.
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It's only depressing in the sense that now I have kids and a mortgage I don't really have the dispensable income I once had for travelling the country seeing my favourite bands.

The last concert I went to was The Killers in Newcastle with my wife, that cost nearly £100 for two tickets
 
Juninhoburger said:
It's only depressing in the sense that now I have kids and a mortgage I don't really have the dispensable income I once had for travelling the country seeing my favourite bands.

The last concert I went to was The Killers in Newcastle with my wife, that cost nearly £100 for two tickets
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Wait till they're old enough to want to start coming to gigs with you. It's invigorating, but even more expensive...
 
Scrug said:
There’s a band called Swim Deep playing NE Volume on Saturday for £16.50 a ticket. Supported by Michael Gallagher (lad from Hartlepool doing well for himself).

Swim Deep have had a top 20 record, but they’re struggling to shift tickets. I think interest in live music (unless it’s a cover band) is just generally low.
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Is this down to promotion though? They're playing plenty of shows around the UK that seem well attended. I saw the owner of that venue saying he has only Shifted 22 tickets, I nearly went to see them at the wardrobe in Leeds but something came up, it sold out though. Unfortunately at a wedding this Saturday so can't go to this one.

Lot of these bands are also heavily hitting the festivals so many fans will be seeing them at those

Swim deep even calling it a "warmup gig" in their socials before playing a festival the next day. Actually they're playing 2 festivals the next day - Y not in Derbyshire and Kendal Calling in the lakes
 
It's supply and demand. In the past tickets were much cheaper but they were hoovered up by bots and re-sold for £200 on ticket selling websites so you could argue that the price was way too low and the excess demand was seeing money going to touts instead of the artists. Of course, when I say touts I mostly mean the ticket selling websites themselves like Ticketmaster because they owned those re-selling sites.

I know I'm never going to pay those prices so I have resigned myself to the fact that I probably won't see many big bands playing anymore unless I decide to go to a festival. I just don't see the value.

That being said. I'm finding it difficult to find the value in anything these days. Everything has gone very expensive. There aren't many budget options anymore. Football is £30 a ticket, cinema is £12-£15, McDonalds is nearly £10 for a meal, a pint is £6 even in poor areas, a bog standard local restaurant will be £15-£20 for a main, a ticket for the golf at the weekend was £100, the local soft play is £15 for an hour for the kids, a night in a travelodge is £100, a train ticket to London can be £300, a 2nd hand car will be £20k for anything half decent and that's before we get to the cost of housing. Seems like if you want to do any activity these days you have to be fairly comfortable financially.
 
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