no more live Joe for us.... (Page 1 of 2)

It's a bit tough to pay $80 a seat but..
but .. if I went to a hockey game.. the upper bowl is $95 a seat and the front row glass $450 per game.

Be happy your family wants to go.
If I want to see Joe I have to do it alone.
I can't seem to convert friends let alone family to go.

I agree that the marketplace will determine what's an acceptable ticket price for a particular artist. Joe's star is rising and ticket prices are doing the same. Personally I have adjusted by limiting ticket purchases to myself and my wife. My adult daughters (26 & 28) have seen Joe at least 7 or 8 times each at my expense. That was when ticket prices ranged between $10 and $30. I told both my daughters that I could no longer afford to spring for their tickets anymore. Unfortunately for them, they have more pressing financial issues and haven't been to a show in the last two years. In the meantime, they are still fans and have been to shows where they sat within arms reach of Joe.
As far as kids seeing live music, I don't think you'll ever see discounted tickets when the venues can sell them for full price. The best you can do is find the smaller venues and next tier artists (read less popular, not less talented).
I'll be seeing Sonny Landreth next month and ticket prices were about $25 each. At that price, my older daughter and her husband decided to join us.

Well I did think like Ian only last week. Joe is here (in North Germany, Bremen)tonight, and I won't be going.

OK so Bremen isn't around the corner as such, as it is about a 300Km round trip, but if the artist is worth seeing I've done it before. When I checked out the prices I saw they were at over 60 Euros. Probably reasonable compared to what some of you have and are paying in different parts of the world. But its all relative.

For my girlfriend and I plus the transport costs for the first time I found I couldn't justify it. Doesn't mean Joe is expensive, market forces will dictate. His price is rising and will continue to do so while demand exists. Others will take my place and be glad to do so.

I've seen Joe a number of times already and right now 120 Euros + travel costs doesn't work for me/us.

I continue to wish him all the success he deserves and am grateful to have seen him earlier in his career.

On the general theme of the industry doing something about it, I just don't see it. Agents are screwing us for a margin and the only way is for the artist themselves to take control and sell more tickets direct to fans  preferentially through their websites and mailings, maybe even with some fan club issue only recorded material. I would have thought this would be a no-brainer as it would get fans on board even earlier.

Classic Rock magazine' in house label funded a limited tour of free entry concerts featuring several of their newer bands specifically aimed at attracting new and younger fans. This is good news, but I don't see any incentive for established acts to do it especially if the they are filling venues and ticket sales are holding up.

That said I think some artists and their management are going to have to take a reality check. I was in Hamburg a couple of weeks ago and noticed Jools Holland was playing that night at the Fabrik. I spontaneously decided to go only to see that the ticket price was over 45 Euros.

The girl at the desk told me ticket sales were not good and at that price I wouldn't wonder so I decided to pass. Now Jools has a big band so there are a lot of costs involved, but if the price isn't right he won't cover them anyway.

As a comparison Wishbone Ash play there in February for 30 Euros, Kenny Wayne Shepherd is there in November at 29 Euros and so on.

As you can tell I am needing to be more selective about the live music I see and it will be cost based and I'm not going to be alone in that. For now then Joe, unless he is with BCC is out of my reach, but hopefully that won't be forever.

Good sensible views being expressed here, much i would agree with.

I can't remember my parents taking us to any musical event ... EVER!!
In a way, i'm thankful, knowing the music my dad liked. My mother was better... she loved/loves Elvis.

I suppose to some extent  there was a time when album prices were high and tickets for live shows were more affordable as artists used the tour to promote album sales. Nowadays, due to downloads etc album prices are low and as a result ticket prices are up - the album is now used to promote the tour to some degree.

Either way all I know is this; money is extremely tight in this household along with thousands of others and I simply can't afford to pay some of the current ticket prices whether I want to or not. I have to chuckle when I hear financial 'experts' on talk shows stating that the public aren't spending because they're saving. I haven't got any money to save if I wanted to, it all goes on keeping a roof over our heads and putting food on the table. The company I work for have asked all employees to work for a certain amount of time without pay this year to help with running costs and there is no choice but to agree to it. But don't think I'm moaning about it - I'm not. It's ok, we'll survive.....#&%# happens.

So, as much as I admire Joe's success and wish him well I won't be able to pay to see him on this tour, which is a shame because I've followed him since I saw him at the Borderline gig in London back in 2006.  Likewise I haven't been to see Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck or Crosby & Nash because the tickets are too expensive for me to buy right now. This recession has had a huge effect on some more than others it seems. We're certainly feeling it's effect in this home right now so I'll sit indoors and watch the DVD

Geoff

I'm going to play on the opposing team on this one - at least partly.

I have been at a number of concerts over the last 2 years where it has really concerned me that parents have taken young children  of 10 or 11 along to what I would consider adult rock music gigs. For instance Black Stone Cherry in an all standing bar was just not appropriate for some of the children I saw there and there have been a run of these that I have seen.

Now I'm not putting Joe playing in an all seated auditorium in this catagory and I think that in this case taken an 11 year old is fine if they really want to go themselves - not taken along for parental convinience which I'm sure I've witnessed.

But I do think that some parents should be much more diserning about where they take their kids and that venues shouldn't neccessarily be encouraging young children at lots of live music shows and maybe shouldn't admit under a certain age at all for some venues / shows.

I don't see anyone here whining Spider. Just a few saying that the current world economic climate is having a noticeable effect on day to day lives and as a result, as you so rightly state, some of us are in fact choosing to live within our means, The end result of this prioritising of expendable income is that Joe won't be getting a visit from all of us on his current tour. I haven't seen anyone asking for you to 'help dig us out of any hole'!! I find your statement very offensive indeed, particularly given that you're not in a position to know individual forum members personal financial commitments or circumstances.

some really good points here, I think you are right Greenose Oli Brown would be a great idea.

Chrisuk no problem from me with your opposing view, not sure I agree with it as it perhaps implies that a crowd cannot behave itself at certain gigs, - but would agree that there should be some parental responsibility around not putting your kids into a vulnerable situation. However taking this as just about seeing Joe live there should be no issue whatsoever, - we have been lucky enough to see Joe at 2 standing gigs and those around us have been extremely courteous, - at Guilfest making sure my daughter could see at the front, - and again at recent Warren Haynes gig the JB friends who we met for the first time made way so my son could be right at the front. - And again the Shepherds Bush venue staff were excellent.

Interesting that there was a comment FROM devan about seeing U2 in Australia and the cost of that, - we saw U2 at Wembley Stadium at the start of the recent 360 tour and the ticket price was less than Joe playing next march in Brighton.... - Something is not right there, - U2 playing in a Stadium where the stage set alone cost between £15 and £20 million....

Handling fees need dealing with, - 10% plus per ticket is ridiculous, - on each ticket.

It would be easy to plonk the cost of tickets on a credit card, - but we stopped spending on cards a year or so back, - if the money is not in the account now then we don't buy it. In the UK we have a Government that nobody voted for (warning political) and look to be out of their depth when getting us out of these difficult times, - I was made redundant earlier this year as a direct result of Government cuts/restriction on the public sector, - in my case Education. - I am lucky in that I got a job straight away, although earning less, - but I am not moaning I am a lot luckier than some.

The wider issue of opening up opportunity for kids into quality live music is either something you get the importance of or you don't. I have worked in the education sector for over 10 years and am married to a teacher. - In the UK there is a lot of money put into music education as an extra to regular lessons, - but parents do have to spend a fortune themselves supporting this. That pot of money from Government may well disappear next April. The problem in my opinion as it relates to this issue is that this funding stream is controlled by the "classical" types, - nothing wrong with classical music but sadly a lot of the people involved look down their noses at kids playing rock/blues, - we see the clash and lack of engagement between my daughter learning violin/viola and son learning guitar...being taught by a wonderful young (ish) tattoo'ed Paul Gilbert fan - She asked to learn a beautiful song on Viola by a great UK group called Elbow "One Day like this" http://youtu.be/hk2xaeXnxlM and was dismissed without the teacher even knowing what the song was....back to the Mozart then....!

..in saying al of this I see an opportunity for Street Team to focus on the younger listener via the education sector, - I know a few years back Joe did play to a lot of school kids in the UK and got one up to play his guitar, - perhaps some thought needs to be given to this?