Say how much? Taylor Swift ticket content..

It’s all relative to your age! It probably is the biggest event of her lifetime.

fair point! And for everyone that has paid to go, 100 quid or 700 quid I hope they have an amazing time.

More importantly, I have it on good authority that I’m getting some kind of Taylor swift bracelet!! Wtaf is that all about😂

Spending cash on bike or wheels that potentially lasts for years and possibly saves you money is very different than burning through lots of cash on an event that lasts a few hours and will probably be repeated a year later when the next gig turns up?

that’s my thinking, but then again i just paid out 2 grand to go on a weeks cycling holiday so I’m a bit of a hypocrite on that front..

Holidays have always been expensive.

Unless you went on a cycle touring trip and slept in ditches 😂

Spending cash on bike or wheels that potentially lasts for years and possibly saves you money is very different than burning through lots of cash on an event that lasts a few hours and will probably be repeated a year later when the next gig turns up?

If cycling isn’t your thing, but Taylor Swift is, then no point spending your Taylor ticket money on some wheels.

(Btw I’m not arguing it’s not expensive – just do what makes you happy).

Blimey. My one and only proper large scale gig was to see Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull (plus some other bands) at the old Wembley Stadium. Ticket price of £20. For context we were living in SW London and paying £120 a month each for rent.

I was there. I’m pretty sure we got our tickets half price (£10) because they weren’t selling. One of my housemates spent a while trying to boo Hall and Oates off the stage, but it’s so long ago that I can’t remember whether it was because they were crap or whether he was drunk. Tull went through the motions and Fleetwood Mac were memorably boring. Even the spontaneous jams were pre-prepared, as evidenced when the show a week later was broadcast on the radio and was exactly the same as the Wembley show.

If cycling isn’t your thing, but Taylor Swift is, then no point spending your Taylor ticket money on some wheels.

fair point, well made. 😄

just do what makes you happy

Pretty sure that’s what counts innit?

If you could bring Layne Staley back from the dead I’d pay silly money to see Alice in Chains.

“I would b curious to know how much these tours cost to put on”

I reckon the cost of this one is off the charts…

Two of my daughters are into Taylor, one is going to Cardiff next week, and my wife is taking the youngest up so she can here some muffled squawking from outside the stadium.  They were watching the Eras tour on the TV a few weeks ago, and it was decent enough – not my sort of thing but I wouldn’t expect that. However, there was quite a lot of obvious lip-syncing from Taylor, which I wouldn’t like if it was my money being spent. If one of the old punk bands I like started miming I think there’s be a bit of grumbling, even at £20 a ticket. 😀

so the argument that the very biggest artists need to charge sky-high ticket prices in order to “top up” their income is totally invalid.

Sure, but how much does it cost to stage one of her concerts? How much does the whole tour cost?

Sure, but how much does it cost to stage one of her concerts? How much does the whole tour cost?

Are you really arguing that point? She’s making lots of profit, as is everybody else involved in her massively overhyped music.

Yes, I literally made that point earlier, and said that actually I didn’t consider £200 per ticket excessive in her case. Do try to keep up 😉

I was at a festival in the summer watching Four-Tet and he dropped a bootleg of a Taylor Swift song and the crowd (notably younger than this aged raver) went ballistic.

Bootleg mashups and remixes used to be about subverting the mainstream. The counter culture appropriating it for itself. Remixes used to actively avoid legally identifying themselves.

I’m too old to know or care if that’s still the case.

More importantly, I have it on good authority that I’m getting some kind of Taylor swift bracelet!! Wtaf is that all about😂

I’m no expert – there’s no Swifties in this house, but a culture has emerged where fans make friendship bracelets and then swap them with complete strangers at the venue.  Now I don’t get excited about that, but I think it probably says something about the culture of the whole experience – your daughter probably started making bracelets a few weeks ago.

Spending cash on bike or wheels that potentially lasts for years and possibly saves you money is very different than burning through lots of cash on an event that lasts a few hours and will probably be repeated a year later when the next gig turns up?

I don’t think you’ll have to look too hard to find someone here who’s spent 700 on a bike/component thats been used for a few rides and sits at the back of the garage as a thoroughly unmemorable experience.  I think you are wrong to think of it as a “few hours”.  There’s the anticipation, the chat afterwards, the memories.  Also suspect that Taylor Swift concerts are not an annual event in the UK.  Once in a lifetime might be going too far.

that’s my thinking, but then again i just paid out 2 grand to go on a weeks cycling holiday so I’m a bit of a hypocrite on that front..

So yes you are hypocrite – you’ve just spend 1.5x the amound on one person’s trip!  You know you can ride your bike for free from the door!

If cycling isn’t your thing, but Taylor Swift is, then no point spending your Taylor ticket money on some wheels.

I like cycling because it is cheap.

I like music because I can listen to it in the radio which is cheap. I could max out and buy a cd for £10 which would last forever.

Spending several hundred quid on a concert is bonkers. Unless you are loaded.

That said I spent all my money that I earned as a kid on cycling stuff. Delivering papers and washing up. No parental contributions for hobbies.

Fair play to the kids that can earn that sort of cash and burn it in one evening. Hopefully their financial future will be ok.

Taylors future will be fine and she’ll be performing for many years.

I’m not sure why I’m even commenting on this thread 😂

Spending cash on bike or wheels that potentially lasts for years and possibly saves you money is very different than burning through lots of cash on an event that lasts a few hours and will probably be repeated a year later when the next gig turns up?

“saves you money” is doing some very heavy lifting there.

My commuter has saved me money because it cost £80 and has done about 6 years now an an absolute shoestring of maintenance.  Justifying £700 fancy wheels that avoid you having to replace “cheap” £200 hubs when swapping bikes when they go out of fashion on the other hand isn’t “saving money”.

And on the one hand, bikes are fun. But one Thursday evening club ride blurs into hundreds of others.  Even a short holiday will be great fun at the time but unlikely to be a lifelong memory.

Whereas doing new stuff that’s also fun will etch itself in your brain.  So in that sense £200 on some gig tickets is far better value than £200 on some new wheels that won’t actually even change my enjoyment of cycling.  On your deathbed are you going to remember a SRAM GX AXS derailleur or a really good gig?

I think you are wrong to think of it as a “few hours”.  There’s the anticipation, the chat afterwards, the memories.

I think most of us have been to gigs here and are aware of that being complete bobbins, even the old greybeards who last went to a gig before Freddie Mercury had pubes. The anticipation,  chat, memories are all present if you spend £25 on seeing Ginger Wildheart, for instance, in the local pub – you can’t use that as justification for £700 tickets.

Also suspect that Taylor Swift concerts are not an annual event in the UK.  Once in a lifetime might be going too far.

This will be the second TS gig for my daughters in the last few years, both fairly locally in Wales. I’ve seen fewer ospreys than they’ve seen Swifts! 😀 A quick tot up from wiki shows that she’s played the UK on 6 tours since 2009, not counting festivals. That’s definitely not a rare thing.

Taylors brainwashing tour 😵‍💫😵😬

I think most of us have been to gigs here and are aware of that being complete bobbins, even the old greybeards who last went to a gig before Freddie Mercury had pubes. The anticipation,  chat, memories are all present if you spend £25 on seeing Ginger Wildheart, for instance, in the local pub – you can’t use that as justification for £700 tickets.

OTOH most gigs are an hour and done, Eras is more like a day pass at a Festival, but every act is the headliner.

£700 is mad, but £200 doesn’t seem unreasonable in that context.

And even as someone who hates HeartFM with passion , I’ve watched it on Disney+ in the background and it’s a spectacular show.  The production is a bit more than “Taylor Swift” scrawled on a bedsheet at the back of the stage that you’d get at Reading/Leeds.

This whole thread is basically old men shouting at clouds, you do realise that?

Meanwhile there are a lot of young people who are going to have the time of their lives (at least up till now anyway!), have been talking and thinking about it for months and will be talking and thinking about it for months afterwards, no matter how many grumpy old people tell them they won’t!

See the secret is to get your kids into less mainstream stuff.

Last gig I went to with my son was at the Windmill in Brixton – 6 quid a ticket.  3 bands and a cracking night for £12 for the two of us (ok add in a couple of beers).

Gig before that was a rip off £16 but was in Banquet records to see English Teacher – it was amazing for the 50 or so of us there –

https://x.com/BanquetRecords/status/1779233350235943399/photo/2

On a serious note – there is a brilliant music scene out there at the moment but I do wonder how some of these bands survive with everything dominated by the few massive artists.

The Bobby Lees are a prime example.  I watched their KEXP performance and was gutted I missed their one small tour to the uk.  Looks like it will have been their last.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/2go7FAYpSGuWMQrj/

God those bands above are awful.. That’s abuse taking your children to see such dreary landfill indie.

It doesn’t have to be either/or

My kids go to plenty of small gigs in Brighton – £25 quid to see bands like Cavetown, Maisie Peters (before she blew up) etc.

I think the live music scene is still pretty healthy – maybe these big gigs even help to get more young people interested?

winston
This whole thread is basically old men shouting at clouds, you do realise that?

Yeah, I guess discussing the topic at hand is a lot worse than spouting some old forum cliché

See the secret is to get your kids into less mainstream stuff.

Is that like in the 70’s when your mum told you Rola Cola was as good as Coca Cola! 🤣

See the secret is to get your kids into less mainstream stuff.
Is that like in the 70’s when your mum told you Rola Cola was as good as Coca Cola! 🤣

She was telling him to stop playing those awful Max Bygrave records and listen to some Zeppelin instead.

Now aside from the fact I can’t see the appeal of her awful music in the slightest, I’m reliably informed that Taylor treats her fans amazingly well, but I’d argue those prices are taking the pee pee a bit. I remember seeing U2 back in the day for about 25 quid.

Wait till she breaks up with her current partner then expect 10 versions of a new album containing yet more whiny self indulgent songs, 20 T-shirt designs, 5 scarves, etc…etc.

Id say one thing for her, she can surely rinse her fans

In this political climate we need more gil scot heron but we get boyfriend breakup songs

See the secret is to get your kids into less mainstream stuff.

So they can be proper outcasts at school?

On a serious note – there is a brilliant music scene out there at the moment but I do wonder how some of these bands survive with everything dominated by the few massive artists.

I bet for most bands it’s a fun lifestyle they can lead while they are young and they will sack it off when life gets serious.

There will always be another band coming along who will change the world – and the odd one does – but they are few and far between.

“I bet for most bands it’s a fun lifestyle they can lead while they are young and they will sack it off when life gets serious.”

There is a forum member (Ok, there is someone I know in the real world who has an account and posts very very irregular) who was a household name back in his day. Not an indy “connoisseur fans only” band but a proper middle of the road popular band. They went into it very eyes wide open that they were in it for a good time, not a long time. Put enough aside for a house to make landing back in the real world easier and now does a very very normal job.

edit – are they messing around with the forum again – lost my quote tools etc….

, no matter how many grumpy old people tell them they won’t!

As a self confirmed grumpy old man and the OP, I can confirm I won’t be telling the daughter that it’s a waste of 700 quid and she’s been had!

the mother however, yes she gets reminded of this every day. Pay back for the many times she told me spending 400 quid on a ceramic speed bb/500 quid on a seatpost that goes and down a bit/ numerous tyres that cost more than the ones on her car etc etc etc were a complete waste of cash!!

im quite enjoying the payback tbh😂😂

So they can be proper outcasts at school?

Look, just do it if it makes you popular, not if you actually enjoy it.

The love on here for Taylor!  Like a fine…glass of coke, not that non brand sh1te.

My kids go to plenty of small gigs in Brighton – £25 quid to see bands like Cavetown, Maisie Peters (before she blew up) etc.

I think the live music scene is still pretty healthy – maybe these big gigs even help to get more young people interested?

Fair play, I’m all for kids getting out and doing whatever they like in this day and age when tech at home is such an attraction.   (Unless I missed it) I’m surprised people haven’t been having more of a go at Ticketmaster and their role in ticket pricing.  It even annoyed Taylor .

Pay back for the many times she told me spending 400 quid on a ceramic speed bb  were a complete waste of cash!!

Oh no, you deserve everything you get! 😀

I bet for most bands it’s a fun lifestyle they can lead while they are young and they will sack it off when life gets serious.

Yeah thats always been, but a fair few bands would have made a couple of quid in years gone by without making it too big.  Nowadays with streaming and the deline of physical sales, making much at all must be tough for 99.9% .

Gaming, YouTube and other tech seems to fill a gap with a lot of kids that music used to fill.

 400 quid on a ceramic speed bb

Oh mate.

You better back away from that debate sharpish.

I read somewhere that the tour staff get a $200k bonus each direct from TS, that’s gotta come from somewhere.

The show is 3+ hrs long too so £200 for what is supposed to be amazing doesn’t seem too bad, you’d be paying that for the Stones etc. £700 not so much unless VIP means meet and greet, catering etc

I can’t say anything really about the ticket costs.  Last year is paid €360 for an 8 minute ride round the Nurburgring in a 911 GT3 RS with a professional driver.  Add in all the other costs (getting there, hotel, obligatory single lap in my own car) and the three day trip came to just under £800.  Absolutely worth every penny (on multiple levels) so people spending similar amounts for a 2 hour concert by a big name with a massive show seems like a bit of a bargain compared to that.

Barclays did a report on it earlier this year to suggest UK spending would be boosted by almost £1bn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czd88lxe8p2o.amp

More or Less on R4 blew that apart. The average ticket’s about £200 and the analysis then loaded another £650 each on as average spend. £111 each average for travel. £121 on accommodation…. eating out, new outfits, etc. Seems massively inflated to me. But even if those estimates are right (OP have you set another £1000 aside for the event itself??) then is it really a £1bn boost?

Second hole they brought in, is where is this supposed £1bn coming from? Because reality is that we haven’t got £1bn to spend on Swift concerts and the ancillary stuff. It’ll be scaling back loads of other expenditure, holidays (admittedly, may have been overseas holidays and therefore money going out of the UK) eating out, new clothes, whatever. No new money spent, just repurposed.

Thirdly – TS is going to make a huge amount from this and while some gets ploughed back in for her own costs while here, for the tax paid as either VAT or her earnings, and so on, still a fair chunk is her own money and will be going abroad after.

So there might be £1bn spend but it’s not a £1bn ‘boost to the economy’ – net for net it’s probably taking money out.

Bottom line ALL live music is fab and while its not my cup of tea, I’d far rather see “dreary landfill indie” at an independent venue for under £20 including travel (I can usually walk to the Boileroom), outfit (yep these jeans will do another sweaty evening) and food (maybe some chips afterwards), I hope people have a brilliant time.

unless VIP means meet and greet

Yeah right LOL!!! Every single person going would pay £700 if they would get to meet her personally.