Springsteen and U2 for Hampden…Neil Young for Aberdeen, CSN for Embra…Cooder, AC/DC…squeeze those ageing rock fans until the pips squeak!

According to Norrie (cheers!) and The Sunday Mail (Billy Sloan) Springsteen is to play Hampden on July 14th. Which means a potential expenditure for the dedicated live music fan of, oh, lots. Because you could very possibly go to Ry Cooder/Nick Lowe/Flaco Jimenez (9/10 July)T in the Park (10/11/12 July) and then Springsteen the same week. Looks like £47.50/£55 for the Boss tickets. And then there’s U2, just announced for August, and Coldplay/Jay Z. AC/DC. And Neil Young at the AECC. Good grief.

There’s clearly been a bit of shoogling of dates to make sure clashes are kept to a minimum, but really, can anyone afford these levels of ticket price? One special gig, maybe, but in a row?

Stones tickets in 1973 for the Apollo, were, if I mind correctly, around two and a half quid, the same as an LP. When CDs were brought in during the 1980s, we were outraged at the cost – around three times a vinyl album and maybe double the cost of a gig. Now a CD is priced at an eighth of a stadium ticket. A stadium, where you’ll face the elements, the awful toilets, rubbish sound and possibly a terrible view.

House concerts: the way ahead…

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7 responses to “Springsteen and U2 for Hampden…Neil Young for Aberdeen, CSN for Embra…Cooder, AC/DC…squeeze those ageing rock fans until the pips squeak!”

  1. mercer1979 Avatar
    mercer1979

    Check out http://www.terracetees.co.uk/whitelabel/for some quality t-shirts with prints of original tickets from yesteryear. Mine has Bruce Springsteen Wembley arena ’81 £6.00This year i have Metallica, Skynyrd, Elbow, ACDC, Neil Young, The Boss and U2. We are expecting our first child this year so going out on a high… for a few years.

  2. CBQ Avatar
    CBQ

    Although I saw Fabian Kallerdahl last Sunday at The Lot and am heading to Glasgow Sunday coming for It Bites, I think Glenn Gould was right and I much prefer listening to CDs on headphones to hear the painstaking love and affection of an artist’s true work, to standing amongst a bunch of ignorant, beerswilling, incessantly chatting, morons who make up the majority of live gig audiences these days…The Kallerdahl audience, in true jazz fashion, listened in awe and with respect…I suspect much of the Springsteen audience will be drunk and have very little understanding of music…The old ticket site has a scan of one from my first ever gig – Wizzard at the edinburgh Odeaon Feb 8 1974…Yours opinionatedly…

  3. Malky Avatar
    Malky

    Tom,I listened with interest yesterday as i painted my eighty two year old mother in law’s bathroom.My cheapest ever gig was the princely sum of three shillings to see The Beatles at The Beach Ballroom,Aberdeen January 1963.Love Me Do was in the charts and i believe they were paid £40 to appear.Ken McNab has used my anecdotes in his book The Beatles In Scotland.Another good experience was The Bath Festival Of Blues 1969,eighteen and sixpence for an allday ticket -on the bill-Fleetwood Mac,Led Zeppelin.Ten Years After,John Mayall,The Nice,Chicken Shack,Colosseum,Keef Hartley,Blodwin Pig and more and mc’d by John Peel.Those were the days.I have just bought two tickets for Neil Young in Aberdeen at £50 each-£112 total including booking fee and postage.OK i would say.This summer though we are going to The O2 in London to see James Taylor,two excellent seats a few rows from the stage £55 face value but cost me £300 including booking fee,vat and delivery from the dreaded Ticketmaster Organisation.We are in London anyway around that time and really wrestled with my conscience but thought f— it you only live once.

  4. Norrie Maclean Avatar
    Norrie Maclean

    £82.50 for Ry cooder once you had the booking fees and charges. Simply too much I am afraid.I agree with Single Tack – King Tuits and Oran Mor for the rest of the years!

  5. Single Track Avatar
    Single Track

    Jings, whit a price…I remember being taken abackby the 65quid for the Stones at Hampden in 2006 but it was brilliant and I’ll never see them again. King Tut’s has to be the way to go, best venue, great atmosphere and ticket about the same as a CD. Magic.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    Tom£2.20 for the stalls; £1.10 for the balcony (would that be right?) – according to scans of the ticket stubs at the Glasgow Apollo Memories website 'Who Played When?' sectionhttp://snipurl.com/cvbj7 [www_inthewilderness_com] Check their 'F*** Bingo, Long Live Rock' T-shirts …. :-)'I Was There' a bit later, going on the 12th May 1976 and inflation (& Harvey Goldsmith no doubt) upped the prices to a massive £3.50 – a lot when still in school!There is even a set list – it was the 'Black And Blue' tour – for that concert there too.That night Glasgow was jumpin' – with German and French footie fans in for the European Cup Final, Bayern Munich defeating Saint-Étienne, 1 – 0.Me being a country bumpkin/part teuchter thought Glasgow was like that all the time …

  7. Norrie Maclean Avatar
    Norrie Maclean

    Tom – wholeheardetly agree. Assuming I get Hampden tickets, and having just secured Neil Young this years running total is something like….crikey I am not even posting that total. Something will have to give to be honest and it is a shame as if all gigs had been announced at once I could have saved 2 x foreign trips to Springsteen, 1 trip to Manchester for AC/DC and one for Mozz with all the travel and accomodation thrown in.

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