[Closed] O2 gig venues - are they really that expensive?

Getting to be about average for larger venues. Several years ago Indigo Girls played the Colston Hall in Bristol and tickets were £35 then. Even smaller venues are up around £12-15. I can't afford to go to gigs as much as I used to; one year I managed 39 gigs, a fair number in London. I paid £30 to see Elbow at the O2 Arena, which I thought was fair, last time in Bristol I think I paid around £20. I paid £52 for Arcade Fire in Hyde Park, but there are four bands on, including Mumford & Son, and I reckon they'll be around £20 a gig now. There's a mini festival on near Devizes in April which is £35/ticket, but there are I think six acts on, and the two main acts are the Magic Numbers and Laura Marling, so again I think that's reasonable. When Tom Waits last played Hammersmith, tickets were £75, same as Leonard Cohen!

Bigger acts in bigger venues? How much do they get away with charging these days?
In fact, is the 'experience' really worth it?

It's because no-one really makes any money out of selling records any more.

Someone like Big Audio Dynamite are just doing it for their pension - they know enough people whom used to like them are now wealthy middle class middle management looking to relive their youth they will pay any price.

The music scene has always been about catching bands before they blow up - that way you get to see them when they are hungry & passionate instead of going through the motions.

The band don't set the prices - its done by the promoters who know what the market will support

Greed is a terrible thing and I refuse to support the current system of 'live' music

Nope they are cheap as chips.... Wait that's possibly because the only one I go to is our student union 🙂

grumm - Member

Bigger acts in bigger venues? How much do they get away with charging these days?
In fact, is the 'experience' really worth it?

It's because no-one really makes any money out of selling records any more.

This, I think. It is getting too expensive, I agree - I don't begrudge artists a reasonable income, but whilst mine is shrinking I'm being very choosy who I go to see. Bright Eyes tickets came up the other week, but by the time we'd driven to Manchester, had a beer and got into the gig it would have cost about £90 for the two of us - too much to be able to go regularly.

We go to a couple of gigs a month and tickets in the last year have ranged from 10 to 45 pounds a go. There's plenty of good bands who play at cheaper venues if you want to see good live music but you have to expect that big names attract the big prices. From the gigs I've been to in the last few years, large venues have no trouble filling up for big name groups; it's the small venues that need a hand.

Someone like Big Audio Dynamite are just doing it for their pension - they know enough people whom used to like them are now wealthy middle class middle management looking to relive their youth they will pay any price.

Funnily enough I know Greg from BAD/Dreadzone and I don't think he's exactly rolling in cash from the music biz - who can blame them for trying to make a living? I bet promoters/agents/booking fees are taking a hefty cut of that ticket price too.

And yeah you can still see loads of great bands for a few quid if you don't just go in for well known names (my band for instance 😉 )

I didn't think BAD were that well-known, Grumm. Few contemporaries of mine at the time liked them, but then my taste in music was a wee bit different from theirs - more broad, perhaps - and proves to be so even now.

I suppose there are different 'value for money' options out there, such as the multi-band gigs/mini-festivals. They'd appeal to me more than a single big name act in a soulless exhibition venue by a regenerated waterfront somewhere, with over-priced beer in plastic tumblers and all the associated restrictions. That's not an 'experience'. To me, that's a trial.

Compared to what some people are willing to pay, I'm fearful I'm coming across as a bit of a cheapskate by baulking at £31, but someone mentioned promoters and booking fees - in this case a booking fee amounting to almost the equivalent of VAT. That does smack of greed to me, and thus, like Plumber, I have to say NO! I'm not going to perpetuate this system. I'll just stay hame and listen to the CDs/tapes instead.

Thanks for the views.

wait til you buy a pint.......

On the flipside I saw A.F.I at the Manchester Academy for £25 and I could get as close as I wanted without being crushed 😀

£31 seems a fair bit

we paid £47 for two to see Editors at the Birmingham academy (the new one)

bit perturbed by the booking fees though [i]

Ticket face value: 40.00
Service fee: 7.25
Total charges: 47.25
[/i]

bit of a rip off if you ask me

that said it was an amazing gig

mind you we paid £7 per ticket to see Engineers in the smaller part of the academy and they were utter tosh, mainly because the sound engineer was useless.

I saw 3 bands in Brighton on Monday, tickets were [u]£4[/u] and it was one of the most memorable gigs of my life.

BAD would be a bunch of old geezers going through the motions. Give it a miss and see something in a smaller venue, would be my advice.

Like - http://www.lashark.com/la-shark-feb-mar-2011-uk-tour/

Simple Minds played the apollo Manchester not so long ago- I gave that amiss as I'd like to remember them when they were younger etc.

DezB - Member
I saw 3 bands in Brighton on Monday, tickets were £4 and it was one of the most memorable gigs of my life.

Don't suppose any of them were Little Ease?

Don't think so - unless they were the first band (debut gig)?

(My link shows the bands)

I might check these up-and-comers out next
http://www.ents24.com/TheMonkees?referer=newsletter2

mrmichaelwright - Member

wait til you buy a pint.......

+420, underfilled, in a plastic cup.

ticket prices aren't that bad generally, though 6 pounds of fees for the 16 pound ticket i bought the other week took the wee.

wait til you buy a pint..

Wait until you pay for dinner for a family of four @ the O2 a pint seems cheap!

on the plus side my tickets for Decemberists have just shipped and i can afford to buy approximately 3 beers 🙂

£4.45/pint for Tuborg at Shepherds Bush the other day, seems to have rocketed of late