Interesting piece from today’s Times about the slump in concert attendances for such hoary old dinasours as Elton John, George Michael, the Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand. It seems Irish concert-goers aren’t the only ones up in arms about high ticket prices. However, unlike Irish fans who simply shell out for the shows and then moan about it, fans elsewhere are actually going elsewhere with their cash.
You can still go and see gigs in the UK for the sum of £8-£10.
Not long ago I saw The Libertines play in Camden for a tenner.
I also saw Bloc Party (when they were called The Union) in the same venue for £7.
I pity the parents out there who actually pay-up to see Elton, George & Streisand perform the “classics” they’ve been doing for the past 20 years.
If you saw them back in the day for £20 when they were energetic and actually moved around a stage - why would anyone want to go see them decrepit, immobile and desolate for £300 on top of the £20 you once paid those many years ago?
Eric - I hear you. Many venues in Dublin house late night clubs hence the need to get bands offstage and out of the gaff really early. Of course, everyone involved in the venue knows this is the case and could easily take action to prevent this, but I have heard time and time again about band’s sets getting cut in order to empty the venue so it can be filled it again.
The fault for this rests largely with the promoter, be it the venue promoter or an outside promoter. The decision to have late-night clubs is never taken on the day so I don’t accept a promoter’s excuse that he/she didnt know about it until it was too late.
One way around it would be to put on bands earlier and to actively advertise this fact. It drives me scatty that while we can get running orders in advance for a huge two day multi-stage festival like Oxegen that we dont know the times bands are coming onstage in whelans or crawdaddy until they actually come onstage. Surely it would be easy to (a) post something on the door as people are coming in or (b) put the running orders on a website. If i added up the time i’ve spent watching dreadful support bands i didn’t want to see because people gave me the wrong stage times for the headline act, i’d be able to watch all four seasons of The Wire back to back.
Comment by Jim CarrollOh dear: Ted Leo had similar problems two nights before (Monday night) in Paris. Basically, their scheduled concert sold poorly and was cancelled, so they were moved to a band night (at a venue with no entry charge) where they were middle of the bill. So, they had to play a HALF HOUR set in front of a sparse Monday-night crowd, then get off for the final band to come on. Ted was displeased but apologised to us about it (and they ROCKED!!!). I’ll bet that by Wednesday in Dublin he was getting a bit sick of it…
Comment by aidanThis problem really frustrates me as well concerning bands getting sets cut short. More and more venues are now putting strict curfews in place in order that the dj after wards will have enough time to play a full set. One particular venue in Galway has put this curfew in place just recently- Redneck Manifesto played saturday night last- played for only 45mins,not the bands fault however majority of the fans were bad mouthing the band after! Venues need to make it clear that they have a curfew in place.For gigs i run, I always put up a piece of A4 with stage times up around a venue and on bulletins and sometimes posters, i cant see why more promoters cant follow suit!!
Comment by Nicolanicola - that TRM gig was in the Roisin Dubh, wasnt it? Who promoted the show? Was it the venue? If so, I wonder when they informed the band of that curfew?
i’m glad to see that i’m not the only one who gets REALLY annoyed at the lack of info about stage times!
Comment by Jim CarrollIt shouldn’t be difficult to post the set times at the door on the night. It would be better again if they were on the venue web site so you could plan ahead, but that would really be hoping for too much!
My favourite venue in New York, the Bowery Ballroom, always posts the set times at the door. They also seem to open the doors and start the show earlier if there are a lot of support acts, (since they will usually have a curfew), which means the headliner gets to play a full set. It all just makes it a more user-friendly place to go to a show.
Comment by EricI love the way a post about dinasour acts failing to sell tickets for shows has turned into a rabble-rousing call for fans rights!
eric - thats something that happens at tons of US and european venues. I think of something like SXSW or Eurosonic where they have ALL the set times available WEEKS before the shows. Sure, there are occasionally SNAFUs but by and large, the bands go on at the times theyre expected to go on and everyone is happy.
i also think earlier door times is a good idea provided the bands go on earlier of course!
Comment by Jim CarrollTo be fair to gigs staged in Crawdaddy - they generally do have an A4 piece of paper stuck on the main door saying stage times for main acts & supporting artists.
As for the Ted Leo scenario on Wednesday - The Antics Indie night is a big one for Crawdaddy & POD which is why they made sure he was out fairly sharpish. I don’t agree with it because people have paid good money to see a performance by Ted and don’t deserve a short set because a bunch of Indie kids want to dance to fucking Klaxons all night.
Comment by PedroI GO TO A FEW PLACES IN GRENWHICH VILLAGE IN NYC, AND THE ALWAYS POST THE TIME OF EACH BAND THAT IS PLAYING!!! SO YOU DON’YT MISS THE ACT YOU WANT TO SEE
Comment by UNCLE HWould I be wrong in saying that massive ticket prices are also to do with the increased VAT rate on concert tickets?
Comment by NeiloI was in Italy on holidays recently with my kids and Arcade Fire were playing in a beautiful town square. Tickets were only 25euro, 2000 people and they played a tremendous gig. We are being really ripped off here.
Comment by Ray
It's a fine soft-roader from Volvo, but its success will be a matter of timing
12:23 pm
Can I air an off-topic gripe /query about concert promoters/venues? Why is it that headliners only get to play short sets (particularly in smaller venues)?
I was at Ted Leo in Crawdaddy last night and as soon as he came on he told us that they had a tight deadline - there was another show after his. So, he only played for just under an hour. I don’t have a problem if the band only wants to play a short set. But there are bands like TL & the Pharmacists that don’t get to come to Ireland that often and that are happy to play longer sets but are scheduled to come on late and with a fixed stop time. This seems to happen in Whelan’s too… shows start late and then the act we came to see gets cut short. Some of these bands we only get to see every few years, after all.
Last night, doors opened at 8 but there were two support acts so Ted Leo didn’t come on until 10 and had to be gone by 11. Why? Is it the venue or the promoter that’s to blame?
Comment by Eric