Entertainment For Lively Minds
Old rock stars pushing their luck
A couple of days ago I was excited to see that Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe were due to play a couple of concerts together in London. Today I'm not so excited over finding that they're charging £85 a ticket (okay, a few at £50, but that's at the back of the stalls). Decided that much as I admire the body of work from both of them, they're not getting that much out of me for a couple of hours entertainment. That's more than Premier League football!
Am I missing something, or is this more outrageous than usual? I'm not a regular gig goer these days, but noticed that even Springsteen in Hyde Park, part of an all day bash, is only £45.
I suspect that Cooder in particular wants the money but doesn't actually want to tour, just play a few odd dates every now and then and test how much money his old fans are ready to cough up. It's a shame when he seems to have recovered his mojo in the recording studio at last.
- More from Rotherhithe Hack.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Cheeky sods
I would struggle these days to justify £85 to see just about anybody - is there anyone that the Word Massive feels are worth the "ton ticket"? Who would you pay £100 a ticket to see and NOT feel ripped off?
CSNY
Always wanted to see them together.
The remaining three members of The Band, although given the icey relationship between Helm and Robertson that's extremely unlikely to happen.
The Jam
The Stone Roses
and
The Smiths...
Sadly
it's becoming par for the course.
Actually, compared to Elton John at the RAH in September it seems quite cheap. A good seat for Elton from Seetickets is a staggering £175 plus the usual fees.
By the way, the Sunday Times referred to the Cooder/Lowe gig as by "two John Hiatt sidemen"!
"two John Hiatt sidemen" for £85...?
Bloody hell, Johan - what kind of price would John Hiatt himself charge, then?!?
Actually, I think the comment about Cooder's fee vs gig ratio is on the money (if you'll pardon the expression!). He played Belfast's Ulster Hall in the mid 90s, with one 'sideman', promoted by the Belfast Folk Festival's heroic/crazy Nigel Martyn. I was there - a great show - but I understand it more or less needed to sell out (1300-odd seats, I think) to break even and not bring the rest of the festival down with it. Luckily it more or less did. Supply/demand, I guess...
I got me a bargain then....
...as I saw John Hiatt last year....solo acoustic (apart from when he brought out his Gretch Country Gentleman for a couple of songs and said...this is when I pretend I'm George Harrison) in a 700 all seater old church in Edinburgh for about £25.
ps If Ry Cooder threatened to play anything from Chavez Ravine, I wouldn't go even if the tickets were free! Love his latest effort though.
The Specials
Paid £94 to see The Specials in Brixton a few weeks ago (in fairness, not the ticket face value), and, in retrospect, would happily have paid twice as much.
Check out
how much he's charging in Dublin. Makes the London show look like a bargain.
Not again!
Overpriced and yes it's a Sunday/monday night again in London. Why can't Billy Bragg write a song about this and sort it out!
Is he bringing Keltner over?
If so, it's worth every penny. The more Hiatt sidemen, the merrier.
We covered this before (and I don't mean that dismissively)
I think we established that Nick Lowe (plus Ron Sexsmith) was recently touring with an average price of about £26 (that's what I paid anyway). Does having Ry Cooder on the same bill equate to more than three times the entertainment of having Nick and Ron?
Tom Waits
I paid £95 to see Waits in Edinburgh last year. Before the gig I thought it was a rip off, now I'd happily pay it again (and will if he ever tours again). There's not many others I'd say that about though!
scarcity value
comes in 2 forms, both of which affect the equilibrium price
scarcity of seats and or scarcity performances - though the latter leads to the former
cooder doesn't like touring or even perfoprming live much it seems so if you want to see him live then you will pay up.
if he were to tour every year then I doubt he'd charge that and I suspect people would be less inclined to pay.
I saw a prince show a few years ago for 300 aussie - it was a one off show at short notice - it was superb and money well spent i thought.
If he were to tour australia regualrly then scarcity value would be diminished and I doubt I'd fork out the readies so errr readily.
so value is a relative thing
But if you shell out a "ton"
can you really judge if it's any good. Don't you feel beholden to enjoy it even if it wasn't up to snuff. The tom waits gig above for the money wouldn't you hand on heart like to hear him playing his hits rather than his latest experiments at bangng stuff?
He doesn't really have any
He doesn't really have any hits to play, and at any rate I thought the setlist was just about perfect though I do prefer his mid-to-late stuff anyway:
http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=12&p=895&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
fair enough
I worry myself that the high cost of tickets skews my critical faculties.
New Fleetwood Mac dates are the same price
I've still bought them though