Gig tickets. Jeepers.

[binky_bass]

The last few bands I've seen were Haken, Vola, Caligula's Horse and Symphony X. Granted not household names, but each came with a ticket price of between £25 and £40 and where at venues that hold around 2.5k people. 20 years ago I'd be going to see Alkaline Trio, The Offspring, Funeral For A Friend etc. Similar prices and venue size. I suppose some bands we saw 20 odd years ago have gotten 'bigger' and now command higher price tags.

 

Also, to save money me and my mate usual go old skool and get the train up and have a few train beers on the way up to save dosh, then to the closest Spoons for a cheap eat and a few more cheap drinks - then to the venue. I NEVER buy a drink at the venue... ever. 

 

So, some 'lesser know' bands that still fill 2.5k venues are priced fairly, and the atmosphere is awesome AND you get to actually see the band and sometimes have a chat with them. Far better than being in the nose-bleed seats of an arena with zero atmosphere.

[Geek99]

19 hours ago, neepheid said:

Plus, at the local level, we find it hard to get people to get off their backsides and pay a fiver at the door to come see us.  Please, restrain yourselves from commenting on the quality of the fare on offer, you scamps - you know what I mean!

I’d pay a fiver to not see you play 

😝

[casapete]

36 minutes ago, AlexDelores said:

And when you’ve paid the money and arrive at the venue you have to queue at the bar for a pint of beer. But good news, if you buy a double pint it’s only £14 so you save a quid! 
 

And then if you’re lucky you’ll get to stand next to group of people exercising what seems to be the newest fashion at gigs… Talking loudly the whole way through 👌 

 

It’s not only the exorbitant ticket prices / fees that have slowed down my gig going, it’s also

the behaviour of crowds - talking all the way through ( even in the quiet bits ), constantly 

squeezing past to get more pints of dripping beer, phones being held aloft obscuring your

view etc etc. These days I choose which gigs to attend by trying to eliminate or at least

minimise the chances of this happening, but it’s not always feasible or predictable.

We’re lucky to have a few good smaller venues nearby where they do care about this 

stuff, so they primarily get our custom. As they’re often full, it seems like I’m not alone 

in this either. 

When I was in a touring theatre band, we always knew that the venues which kept their bars

open throughout the evening would be the ones where we expected grief. People in the middle

of long rows of seats who constantly got up to get pints and go to the loo used to often be

the start of confrontations where the theatre staff had to intervene, often leading to the rowdy

folk getting ejected. One time in Manchester the police were called to sort stuff out, as we watched

it unfold during our second set - pretty grim for a decent venue. All this because the theatre wanted

to make more money, very sad. 

 

 

[NancyJohnson]

22 minutes ago, casapete said:

It’s not only the exorbitant ticket prices / fees that have slowed down my gig going, it’s also

the behaviour of crowds - talking all the way through ( even in the quiet bits ), constantly 

squeezing past to get more pints of dripping beer, phones being held aloft obscuring your

view etc etc. These days I choose which gigs to attend by trying to eliminate or at least

minimise the chances of this happening, but it’s not always feasible or predictable.

We’re lucky to have a few good smaller venues nearby where they do care about this 

stuff, so they primarily get our custom. As they’re often full, it seems like I’m not alone 

in this either. 

When I was in a touring theatre band, we always knew that the venues which kept their bars

open throughout the evening would be the ones where we expected grief. People in the middle

of long rows of seats who constantly got up to get pints and go to the loo used to often be

the start of confrontations where the theatre staff had to intervene, often leading to the rowdy

folk getting ejected. One time in Manchester the police were called to sort stuff out, as we watched

it unfold during our second set - pretty grim for a decent venue. All this because the theatre wanted

to make more money, very sad. 

 

 

 

This post is hurting my eyes.  Just keep typing...the text will wrap automatically, no need to keep hitting enter after every few words!

[AlexDelores]

44 minutes ago, casapete said:

It’s not only the exorbitant ticket prices / fees that have slowed down my gig going, it’s also

the behaviour of crowds - talking all the way through ( even in the quiet bits ), constantly 

squeezing past to get more pints of dripping beer, phones being held aloft obscuring your

view etc etc. These days I choose which gigs to attend by trying to eliminate or at least

minimise the chances of this happening, but it’s not always feasible or predictable.

We’re lucky to have a few good smaller venues nearby where they do care about this 

stuff, so they primarily get our custom. As they’re often full, it seems like I’m not alone 

in this either. 

When I was in a touring theatre band, we always knew that the venues which kept their bars

open throughout the evening would be the ones where we expected grief. People in the middle

of long rows of seats who constantly got up to get pints and go to the loo used to often be

the start of confrontations where the theatre staff had to intervene, often leading to the rowdy

folk getting ejected. One time in Manchester the police were called to sort stuff out, as we watched

it unfold during our second set - pretty grim for a decent venue. All this because the theatre wanted

to make more money, very sad. 

 

 

After sitting in the van talking about the talking at gigs thing quite a bit (ironic). My theory is that, i think we’re seeing people talking a lot more and being rude to the artists more and more because gigs are so accessible to everyone now. 

 

People that go to gigs are no longer just people that love live music and enjoy the artist. People don’t have to go to the box office to buy tickets or find out where their favourite bands are playing or just pop down to music venues because they want to be entertained by live music. 

 

People can now like one song of a band, or can see a clip on the internet that they enjoy and will go to a gig purely as a ‘night out’, because they can get a few mates and buy the tickets online and not think anymore of it other than a night out on the brew… Going out for a night out is so expensive anyway, people don’t really think twice about paying whatever it costs for an ‘experience’ …

 

I genuinely think the only people concerned with the inflated prices of gigs are those that remember a time when gigs were affordable. 

 

For example, i grew up loving blink-182 but couldn’t bring myself to pay the prices when they recently reformed, much like a lot of my friends who also love the band. My ex-girlfriend however (Who grew up listening to R&B and absolutely hated anything with guitars in) went with a group of friends and plastered it across their instagram.

 

But, this is just my theory on it and is more than likely to be wrong. Also, i know i sound like an old man talking about the good old days but I’m only 34. I just remember a time where going to gigs was something you only really did if you liked live music, and you learned a bit of gig-etiquette. Now, families will go for trips to watch a band or mates will book a stag do and pop in to watch a bit of a show because of one single, or because there’s nothing else going on.

 

[cetera]

I would say the increase in people chatting throughout shows is more to do with a decline in manners and respect, enabled by social media. After all, people seem to feel like they can do or say anything these days and there will be little/no consequences..... despite always protesting "Cor, you can't say nuffink in this cuntry anymore.... you get locked up for freeze peach!"

[Muzz]

My other half and I go to gigs pretty regularly, but always at the bottom end of the price/venue market - luckily, there's some really good bands out there touring that you can see for £20 or less. She/we have a group of friends who are even keener on live music, and they loop us in on stuff we might've not noticed. Whenever a ping comes through to hershe'll ask 'Do you want to go to see xxxxx?', my first response (in order) is 'How much and where?'

 

We've found Twickets to be a great resource for cheaper tickets, too: for example, we went to see Larkin Poe last Friday for £20 each, when the cover price of the tickets was £38

 

I've moaned before about big stadium stuff and how much I don't like it (at one point we'd walked out of about five or six on the trot as it was a pointless exercise), but the smaller gigs are newer bands, they're hungrier and more enthusiastic (and generally not creaky old geezers) and the experience is just so much better. We'll look at a gig, then go listen to the band and decide if we'll give them a try, we've discovered some great new (and new to us) bands this way.

 

The Picturedrome in Holmfirth is my favourite venue; good sound, rarely too loud, free parking, you can find a bar that isn't four deep, and I don't think we've paid more than £25 to go see anyone there.

 

The price of tickets is what you pay for giving Spotify a tenner a month to listen to anything you want, while the artists get very very little of that. Then there's Ticketmaster/Live Nation, who have sewn up all the big venues and cranked up all the prices...again, the artists see a small percentage of that...

[Muzz]

7 minutes ago, cetera said:

I would say the increase in people chatting throughout shows is more to do with a decline in manners and respect, enabled by social media. After all, people seem to feel like they can do or say anything these days and there will be little/no consequences..... despite always protesting "Cor, you can't say nuffink in this cuntry anymore.... you get locked up for freeze peach!"

Completely agree - see my moan/rant about last Friday in the Who Did You See Live Last? thread...tho the main ars*holes were two blokes in their sixties...

[uncle psychosis]

I think what lots of you are forgetting is that one reason bands used to go on tour was as a loss leader to promote and sell a new record.

 

Now, you make a new record as an excuse to have a tour and make some money.

 

It's not a coincidence that gig ticket prices exploded at the same time as Spotify took off. 

Edited 12 hours ago by uncle psychosis

[gjones]

Gigs are the only revenue bands have these days. In the good old days tours would make a loss but the fans would buy the new album, which is where the money was made.

 

The good thing is that bands tour continuously, to pay the gas bill. So we can see them more often.

[Woodinblack]

45 minutes ago, AlexDelores said:

People that go to gigs are no longer just people that love live music and enjoy the artist. People don’t have to go to the box office to buy tickets or find out where their favourite bands are playing or just pop down to music venues because they want to be entertained by live music. 

 

Not sure - when we were young we would go past the guildhall and see that some group that was vaguely rocky was playing so we would just nip in and get tickets and go along, just because that is what we did - they didn't have to be favourite bands and it wasn't less convenient than going on line now, because at the time, you could absoultely guarantee that you would be down town at some point in the weekend as you would need to buy something and that is where you bought something from. 

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

32 minutes ago, gjones said:

Gigs are the only revenue bands have these days. In the good old days tours would make a loss but the fans would buy the new album, which is where the money was made.

 

The good thing is that bands tour continuously, to pay the gas bill. So we can see them more often.

I think it depends on the bands . You can buy Rush beer , Metallica Turntables , Box Set after box set , coffee table books , Iron maiden pinball machines etc. Plus purchasing live gig downloads  along with standard fare merchandise etc. Everyhing you say is true imho but all these things would also increase their revenue. The bands not in the same bracket as kiss, bon Jovi etc would struggle a lot more I’d say ..

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, uncle psychosis said:

gig ticket prices exploded

I suspect that middle-men are in some way to blame as well...

I've got a mate who works for a major artist agency - he has a number of bands he books tours for and stuff. One of them - a well known UK band - gets around £25k/gig. From that, he gets £5k! He's now in the process of retiring to a lovely villa by the sea just north of Biarritz.

 

[BigRedX]

26 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

I think it depends on the bands . You can buy Rush beer , Metallica Turntables , Box Set after box set , coffee table books , Iron maiden pinball machines etc. Plus purchasing live gig downloads  along with standard fare merchandise etc. Everyhing you say is true imho but all these things would also increase their revenue. The bands not in the same bracket as kiss, bon Jovi etc would struggle a lot more I’d say ..

 

It would be interesting to see how much merch and licensed items these bands sell generally on line compared with how much they sell when they are on tour.

 

Certainly for smaller bands it has been my experience that the vast majority of merch sales happen at gigs and what little gets sold on-line nearly all of it can be directly linked to recent gigging activity. 

[LukeFRC]

22 hours ago, SumOne said:

 

I think the economics of being in a professional band have changed a lot.

 

Gigs used to be a way of generating interest so people would buy your latest album, seems that has flipped around.

this

[Lozz196]

6 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

It would be interesting to see how much merch and licensed items these bands sell generally on line compared with how much they sell when they are on tour.

 

Certainly for smaller bands it has been my experience that the vast majority of merch sales happen at gigs and what little gets sold on-line nearly all of it can be directly linked to recent gigging activity. 

Returning from one of our trips to Germany, we got talking to a chap at Hamburg airport. He asked if we were a band, turned out he did band transport/tours. He was touting for business and swiftly established we weren’t in the league he worked in, but in chatting to him he said that his last act was making well over half a million in merch at some gigs. I won’t name them but we are talking a top act. I suppose with £50 t-shirts at large venues it’s possible.