Box Office Blues
A few days ago, the reliably irate Bob Lefsetz told us that the concert business was going the way of the recorded music industry. Frankly I thought he was overstating the story. How could rock and roll function without the two legs that have supported it so ably for so long?
Sure enough, the politics of live music have smelt rotten for some time now, and the huge hike in prices that compensated the biggest artists against poor CD sales has surely reached its limit. Leonard Cohen is quite the artist and I adored him at the Albert Hall a decade ago, but his recent asking price was so hard to justify.
Now they're selling Coldplay tickets for a dollar. That may be a freakish exception, or maybe it's another sign of the industry nemesis - that poor folk just can't sustain the big fees.
Coming your way soon: the wandering minstrel. Buy him a jug of mead and he'll do a killer version of 'Greensleeves'. In 360 degrees, man.
Comment number 1.
At 22:39 6th Aug 2009, norriemaclean wrote:Interesting blog Stuart. I saw Leonard at Glasgow it did not seem that steep at the time and certainly he was worth every penny. I baulked at the Ry Cooder prices - just too much in these Hard Times. Springsteen seemed to recognise the excessive costs and played for what he was worth for three hours and made reference to the Hard Times.
I swore several months ago I was sticking to an upper limit of £15. I have failed miserably in this.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)