The Great Rock & Roll Swindle

Back in the mists of time (alright, 1993) yours truly saw what is to this day one of the best gigs I've ever attended. My future wife also unbeknown to me was there but that's another story for another time. Anyway, U2's Zooropa Outside Broadcast leg of their mammoth Zoo TV tour finally reached Britain and I had a ticket for the gig at Leeds Roundhay Park. The price of the ticket was a then whopping £22.00, which bearing in mind the average ticket price was around £12.00, was quite a price to pay. But worth every penny.

We spin on four years. A trek out to Roundhay Park again to see U2's follow up multimedia spectacular. Despite their album not really setting the world alight at the time, the tour was a success and the tickets sold very well indeed, and were priced at £28.50. Six quid increase in four years... fair enough. Another fabulous gig.

Forward to August 2001. U2 are now again the biggest band in the world. They'd reined in their experimental ways and with the "All You Can Leave Behind" had gone back to the traditional "classic" U2 sound and sold shedloads as a result. The tour wasn't visually spectacular as before, instead they concentrated on the "performance" with only the minimal of video screen trickery. This time there were no outdoor dates, only Arenas. The tour sold out almost immediately, being their first to really take advantage of Internet sales. But hey. Check the price. £40.00. And that was for the second tier of the Arena. Not a great view.

And then we get to 2005...

Outdoors, more elaborate staging than the last tour, extra £20 on top of the previous price. What's going on then? In just 12 years the ticket price has more than doubled.

This isn't isolated to U2 - across the board over the last 5 years ticket prices have risen alarmingly. Back in 2002 I saw Kylie at the MEN Arena, cost around £25.00. If I wanted to see her now at the same venue, i'm looking at £50. That's before booking fees (I'll get to that later). Even the right-on Radiohead are guilty of similar crimes.

A ticket to see them in Blackpool at their commercial peak on the "OK Computer" tour of 1997 cost £12.50. The price of a CD. Their 2000 series of Big Top dates doubled in price, but we let them off as they appeared to be taking a stance by not having any corporate advertising and subsidising it themselves. However two years ago, at Blackpool again, the ticket cost £32.50. Less than ten years and nearly three times the price. Their current tour is priced at £42.50. I'm not attending.

Festivals are as bad. Not only have they doubled in price over about 5 or 6 years but they now sell out within 2 hours... and this is before the full line-ups are known. It's maaaaaddd.

Let's face it, we know what's going on. CD sales have been dying on their arse ever since the internet was invented. Bands now can make more money from a successful tour than their latest album. Much like tickets for sports events are seen as premium product, artists have begun to see since the turn of the century that they can charge more for tickets, without seeing any appreciable downturn in demand. Funny really - Madonna can do two nights at Earl's Court and earn as much as she would have done doing a week there say 5 years ago. The likes of The Police can charge £60 upwards for tickets and they still sell out. Ticket sales and merchandise are where the moolah is.

That's if you can get hold of a ticket... as they're now a desirable lifestyle statement - "I've got a ticket for The White Stripes... look at me... what a twat I am" - there's now the horrible task of having to buy a ticket on the day they're released... or else you don't go. Once upon a time you'd send off a cheque to a PO Box and get the ticket back in a few weeks. Back in my day (old fart that I am) you'd go to the box office or ring them up and book over the phone, and very rarely would you be disappointed. Nowadays you sit huddled round a computer at 9am on a Friday morning, looged in to Ticketmaster or suchlike pressing refresh for half an hour until you manage to get a ticket usually at the back of the Arena. Oh and then paying a fiver upwards PER TICKET for "booking fees" & "admin", i.e. putting a ticket in an envelope, sticking a stamp on and shoving it in the post. Bastards.

I had so much bother booking a couple of tickets for Steve Coogan at Blackpool via Ticketmaster that I said sod this for a lark and went down in the car to the box office where I purchased a couple of front row seats with an admin charge of a quid. Oh happy day.

So what's the answer? Go to less gigs I guess. We voted with our feet a couple of years ago and refused to pay £32.50 a ticket for Blondie, played it cool and waited until the last minute before the gig started and got a pair from a tout for £20 all in. Alternatively there's e-Bay - Pet Shop Boys tickets at £35 each? Naaahh, we'll have a couple at £30 for the pair thanks. "The Man" has managed to price me out of seeing my beloved United at Old Trafford, and now is putting the kybosh on regular gig going. Having said all that, I'll probably still go to see U2 again though...