I too was taken aback by these prices. And is the entire venue seated for the night? I might have to forego seeing Neil on this occasion,

How much can Neil Young etc charge before people start complaining he doesn't play his hits and that he wants the bars shut while he's playing? £55 quid for his "challenging" "brave" new material.
Don't get me started on booking fees on tickets Grrr.

During my conversation with the Ticketmaster guy this morning i was taken aback by the £7 "service charge' for EACH of 4 tickets. He told me it was what the artist instructed Ticketmaster to add on to the ticket price for whatever reason to which i made a feeble joke about Neil being on his uppers! After i got off the phone almost £300 lighter of wallet i remembered the recent podcast tale about the "Tonight's the Night" gig and how i'd laughed out loud about contrary old Neil not giving his audience what they want. Well fuck that, i want Like A Hurricane, on guitar - not an old organ, or i won't be happy!

Or three home games at Portman Road. You never know who's going to be in the line up there either, although I understand Alan Lee breaks out the banjo occasionally too. Wouldn't it be nice if a roadie held up a board announcing how long there is to go after about an hour and a half?

It's obscene pricing, but I think his last UK tour was 2003? If it's five years between tours, I doubt there will be that many more chances to catch him in the UK.

Due to the price, I'm having to go on my own which I don't often do. I wouldn't mind this too much but unfortunately it's all seated, so all the advantages of going alone dissapear!

..none of them are making money on records any more.
..and somehow the "money men" have realised that people WILL pay these prices.

I don't know how these prices are arrived at but you have to face th fact that:
a) whatever the face value is, some people will pay nearly twice as much to a tout or on eBay
b) the artist should make it their business to know what the ticket price is and come to some view as to whether it's a price they're comfortable charging. It's no point blaming it on "the money men".
c) we, the audience, should stop acting like panic shoppers who've heard a rumour of a water shortage. (Mark Ellen and I both interviewed Bo Diddley during what was supposed to be his last tour of the UK. That was 30 years ago and he's still going strong.) And so what if you have never seen so-and-so? There's no point in making yourself feel indignant or poor about it?

... imagine you're a teenager whose father has introduced you to Dylan or Neil Young. You're now a big fan, and you'd like to see them play. That's just natural, isn't it?

And it's not really like Bo Diddley thirty years ago, as Bo was what, 40-something then?. Both Dylan and Neil Young are well into their 60s and both nearly died a few years ago, so without being morbid about it this really could be your last chance. But it's tough luck, unless you're a teenager who happens to have £85 to spare.

As you say, If Neil doesn't know about these prices then he really should. It's not like he needs the money. If he'd charged £50 for a good ticket, which is still a lot of money, then I'd never have started this thread as it wouldn't have seemed so abnormal these days, unfortunately. But £55-£75 plus fees is a lot.

Just pulled this from Ticketmaster's site:

Neil Young will perform two sets; the first an acoustic performance and the second an electric set backed by a full band consisting of Ben Keith (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums). The tour also has an exciting support artist in the shape of YoungÂ’s wife Pegi, who recently released her self-titled debut album, and will be performing with Anthony Crawford.

£10 for a gig is fine for a gig at a university, but when it mysteriously becomes £18 by the end of the checkout process you have to wonder just how much the cost of sticking a bit of paper into an envelope is - and how come it apparently costs more in service fees to put a £50 ticket in an envelope than a £10 one? Surely the process is the same?

I wish more would use wegottickets - they don't issue paper tickets, they just give the organiser a list. They also charge a minute booking fee. No touts because you need to give your name and show the card, and happier punters who haven't been brutally taken from behind by Ticketmaster.

It wasn't so bad when you had an option between Ticketmaster and either a)going to the venue or b) using their box office, but now most venues are of a characterless Beername YourTown Shed type formula (thanks, ClearChannel for your love of live music) but now either the tickets sell out in 0.2 seconds and then appear on Ebay as if by magic, or they simply don't have box offices at all (or get a pitiful allocation from the promoter). Count how many venues you go to regularly where you can still buy a ticket for face value for cash...

I respect what you're saying, David, but tickets don't have to be as expensive as they are, but the way they're being sold makes matters worse. Even in my comparatively limited 15 years of gig going, it's risen massively.

Or if we're going to accept all these service fees, let's start having them provide a service - a legitimate way for us to get our money back for shows we can't go to - phones that are answered quickly and politely, websites that don't melt when a few thousand people would rather like to see Take That - tickets that arrive on time.

Then there's the new gigging class system. Is there a pre-sale? Is there a fan-club pre-sale? Which ticket agency is most in with the promoter - is it SeeTickets? Is it Ticketmaster? Who's going to have a decent allocation? Will there be a golden circle? Is there a VIP package which allows the deranged to have a bit of a buffet and get into standing 20 minutes early for £150? The world's gone mad.

To London and charge £31.21 for a high quality gig. He has had a lot of shit thrown at him over recent years but deserves praise for this decent gesture. I am sure we would all be less inclined to carp about the prices of tickets if we could count on the quality but sadly that isnt always possible. Even the big name live acts fluctuate being brilliance and lamentable tosh - Bob Dylan being a chief culprit.

These enormous ticket prices are dictated by the market. If the amount of money sloshing around in the bottom right-hand corner of the UK was somehow redistributed, ticket prices for London shows would reflect this. But when you've got 30000 people in Canary Wharf and the City trousering an average £500K each per annum you can't blame promoters, ticket agents and artists for wanting to relieve them of some of it. And if you're a fan, not a commodities broker or hedge fund manager who fancies being seen at a prestige gig, that's tough, I'm afraid.

..but in my experience, these big artists tend to keep themselves at least one cool remove from dirty financial dealings. This of course frees their lawyers, managers and accountants to direct the proceedings, and there are a lot more of THEM about now.