You've got to be kidding me

[karohemd]

Concert ticket prices have been a joke for quite some time but this takes the biscuit. Tickets for Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck at the O2 start at a face value of 60 (+fees and shipping). Any reasonable seat would at least be 100, with top seats being 125. WHAT THE FUCK?
For the upcoming Eric Clapton/Stevie Winwood gig, tickets are between 60 and 90.

Comments

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Hah. Try looking at Bon Jovi (also at the O2). Starting price is 45 quid, top price is 200. The 65 quid seats are behind the stage (it's one of these semi-in-the-round ones). We suspect the 45 quid seats are actually under it...

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

One of the many, many reasons I prefer gigs at small venues!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

If only Eric Clapton played at them. :/ I guess the O2 are making up for the losses incurred due to the death Michael Jackson.

It makes no sense, though. Because of these high prices, there will be empty seats and surely, not selling any is a bigger loss than selling all at lower individual prices?

[oedipamaas49.livejournal.com]

maybe they can get rid of a chunk of the remaining ones cheaply through last-minute resellers?

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

There are very few people I'd pay that much to see. I only paid £90 to see Tom Waits because I was pretty sure it was the only chance I'd ever get.

Steve Earle was only £26.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I'd have paid that much for TW, too because as you say, that would have been a once in a lifetime opportunity.

*nods*. It wasn't that much more last time he played at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

Star Wars in Concert from £30 to £100!

Those must be some awesome £100 tickets, especially for a family show.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Saw it last year. It ain't worth £100, I'll tell you that right now.

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

problem is, supply is far less than demand, which means they can charge this, and people will pay it. As long as this is the case, there's nothing that can be done about it. :(

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I won't pay it despite being able to afford it because it's far too much for a one-off. The last Springsteen gig at the O2 had a surprising number of empty seats but that could have been due to lots of tickets being in the hands of touts.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

The real issue is that people stopped paying for recorded music some time ago, and so artists are making up the shortfall in back-catalogue sales by racking up the cost of live performance.

Twenty years ago, live performance was a loss-leader for album sales. Now it's the other way around.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Which is a sad affair. I still buy lots of music, although some of it not in physical form anymore and a gig would be the icing on the cake but not at these prices.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

This.

We have the following quote pinned up at work...

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
- Hunter S Thompson"

Those ticket prices actually sound about normal for the O2 (although the top priced ones may be VIP packages rather than merely being for seat location) - it's not a cheap venue. Even just hiring it runs into several ten of thousands, from memory, and that's before you pay all the staff etc, let alone tha artist! (Who, I can assure you, won't do at all badly out of it)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Nope, that's just face value. The VIP/Hospitality packages are 350odd.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

That is more than a little silly!

I guess their thinking is that a significant proportion of Clapton fans are in the 'paid off the mortgage, packed off the kids = disposable income' bracket... :/

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

I didn't even SEE the £45.... and decided not to go for the opening £90 level 4. The "Amex preferred" were £375.

[akonken.livejournal.com]

On the bright side, Ingrid Michaelson tickets at the O2 are £12.50. ;)

They charge what people will pay for.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

That's not the one in the Docklands which the above is. Looks like O2 bought the Shepherds Bush Empire, too (like Carling all the academies). :(
12.50 is good, even for the SBE, though.

[hrafen.livejournal.com]

About 100 quid for Clapton and Beck sounds about right. You should have tried getting AC/DC tickets, they were loads more, same goes for last Springsteen tour. Ultimately I guess tickets get priced at what the market thinks will sell.