Post by will on Apr 22, 2024 15:39:25 GMT
On Facebook last week I saw a reproduction of a poster advertising tickets for a gig that I went to in 1974 at the Empire Pool Wembley. The more astute among you will already have worked out that this was one of a handful of gigs that ELP played in the UK that year (they didn't play another for nearly 20 years!).
BLIMEY, I'VE JUST REALISED THAT IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO LAST SATURDAY!
Anyway the thing that stood out for me was that the tickets were priced at £2.30 and £1.80. Now, of course I'm aware of the effect of 50 years of inflation, but £2.30 was less than what I paid for their album Brain Salad Surgery some six months previously!
Monsieur anglais will be aware that my latest prog rock fad is a band called Dream Theater (they're American, so you have to excuse the spelling) who this year will be celebrating 40 years in the business with a world tour, starting at the O2 in London. Bearing in mind that currently I wouldn't dream of forking out cash on something that's happening tomorrow, yet alone in October, I had a look to see how much the tickets were, and was astonished that they varied between £138 and £350 each. Now, rather than comparing that to the ELP tickets from 50 years ago (less than the price of an LP remember!), I thought I'd compare this price to the cost of their last album, A View From The Top Of The World. This double vinyl LP is available on Amazon for less than £27, so around a fifth of the price of the cheapest tickets for the gig.
I suppose that large scale production of vinyl and CDs, plus the availability of downloads etc., makes buying music cheaper. Plus, in the grand tradition of prog rock, no doubt the cost of putting on the show with extra concerns over Health and Safety and so on contributes to the ticket prices.
But even so, I can't help feeling that prices like that ought to make live music prohibitive. Nevertheless, six months before that gig there are only 20 tickets left, so clearly folk can afford prices like that.
I wonder what would happen to the election hopes of any political party which had a promise in their maifesto to increase taxes by £138 per annum as a way of rescuing the NHS that many of us all clapped for four years ago.
BLIMEY, I'VE JUST REALISED THAT IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO LAST SATURDAY!
Anyway the thing that stood out for me was that the tickets were priced at £2.30 and £1.80. Now, of course I'm aware of the effect of 50 years of inflation, but £2.30 was less than what I paid for their album Brain Salad Surgery some six months previously!
Monsieur anglais will be aware that my latest prog rock fad is a band called Dream Theater (they're American, so you have to excuse the spelling) who this year will be celebrating 40 years in the business with a world tour, starting at the O2 in London. Bearing in mind that currently I wouldn't dream of forking out cash on something that's happening tomorrow, yet alone in October, I had a look to see how much the tickets were, and was astonished that they varied between £138 and £350 each. Now, rather than comparing that to the ELP tickets from 50 years ago (less than the price of an LP remember!), I thought I'd compare this price to the cost of their last album, A View From The Top Of The World. This double vinyl LP is available on Amazon for less than £27, so around a fifth of the price of the cheapest tickets for the gig.
I suppose that large scale production of vinyl and CDs, plus the availability of downloads etc., makes buying music cheaper. Plus, in the grand tradition of prog rock, no doubt the cost of putting on the show with extra concerns over Health and Safety and so on contributes to the ticket prices.
But even so, I can't help feeling that prices like that ought to make live music prohibitive. Nevertheless, six months before that gig there are only 20 tickets left, so clearly folk can afford prices like that.
I wonder what would happen to the election hopes of any political party which had a promise in their maifesto to increase taxes by £138 per annum as a way of rescuing the NHS that many of us all clapped for four years ago.
