jenko

I remember reading an NME article from the late 90s/ early 2000s signalling the death of festivals with many of the cited reasons being still applicable today. There are a few recent trends that are also not condusive: 1.) General gig prices - if people are paying £100++ to go to a few arena/stadium shows each year, are you going to be able to afford to attend a festival in a time when many are skint 2.) Competition of overseas festials with often better lineups and tickets/drinks are half-price 3.) Exclusivity deals dilutes lineup quality - look at how stacked lineups where 10-20 years ago

I'm with you about feeling unconfortable watching them but I'm not sure if it would necessarily put them off being booked. Most people would have known James Brown was a notorious wifebeater, yet still tuned up to watch him in 2004. Jackson Browne has had a good slot on the Pyramid Stage after similar allegations have been made against him. Axl Rose is alleged to have done some awful things towards women yet still headlined a couple of years ago. Bez played last year despite being convicted of assaulting an ex, and then breaching a follow-up restraining order. I'm not sure where the organisers would draw the line? Chris Brown? Apologies for going a bit off-topic in the tour annoiuncements thread but I suppose it shows how much Arcade Fire's stock has dropped in the UK. Until a couple of years ago, they'd have been a shoe-in for APE, Finsbury Par, Crystal Palce or even BST.

They were absolutely tremendous in Brighton a few months ago. The new album is listenable and playing it early doors meant there was a tremendous finale. Last 4 songs were Come On Eileen, Geno, Jackie Wilson Said (with Jockey Wilson backdrop) and Tell Me When My Light Turns Green. Soon, Plan B and Until I Believe In My Soul were also performed - some of the greatest music ever written. I've seen Kev change the arrangements of songs quite a bit in the past but that night they sounded pretty faithful.

Indeed. Fees used to be about 10% and that included postage. Now it's 20% plus, of much highrer face value. Also hardly ever any option to buy at face value from box oiffices nowadays.

I briefly worked in a Ticketmaster callcentre in 2003 and people used to go beserk about booking fees which were usually about 10% of a ticket price then. Now they're more like 20% and there's not usually postage costs coming out of that neither. Also until fairly recently you could buy tickets for face-value at box offices.

At £80-£100 loads of tickets would have been hoovered up by tout looking to sell for £150. PJ are essentially selling at touts prices straight from the off. Not surprised about Barcelona tickets not shifting. You could essentially buy a day ticket at Mad Cool for not far off half the price.

Plus an extra £10 each if you want a paper copy of the ticket.......

Genuinely couldn't believe these prices. I'm paying about that for 3 days at NOS Alive to see them there. I couldn't find any £125 seats. The £157.50 being offered were at the back of 505, really high up and miles away from the stage. People seem to be buying them though. Front standing has already sold out. At £125 for the cheapest seats, surely this has got to be the most expensive stadium show ever in the UK?

I thought stacked lineups at these day festivals were a thing of the past. This is the best one I've seen in years

Looks like Air are doing a Moon Safari show at the Albert Hall in May. Was very interested until I saw the prices - £86.40 for the cheapest seats according to Seetickets. They may sell standing at the top for a bit less but even so, not for me Clive.

In no particular order: Pulp - Lattitude Half Man Half Biscuit - Camden Electric Ballroom Father John Misty - Hammersmith Apollo Billy Joel - Hyde Park The Black Keys - o2 Belle and Sebastain - Liverpool Olympia Depeche Mode - Primavera Barcelona Eels - Hammersmith Apollo Dexys - Brighton Dome Sparks - Primavera Barcelona

Not great for a festival charging almost £300 for a ticket.

Me too. Was thinking of going to Reading for the day on the Friday so got a decision to make.

Same here. From what I can see he's never had a Top 100 single, only released a demo album and has hardly set YouTube alight. Not sure if I'm missing something......

I can only see Tier 2 avavilable on presale now - £69

I love JA but find it hard to get excited about them after two previous pull-outs. By far the worst one was at Reading 2011. I came down for the day on my own, essentially to see them, only for Dave to come out at the start time to say they wouldn't be playing as Perry had a sore throat. I got in that much of a huff that I refused to watch the Strokes who were headlining the main stage (and I who I quite like), ending up falling down a ditch while leaving the site and sat on the night bus back to Liverpool with a ridiculous amount of pain from cracked ribs.

Also a over a fiver more to sit next to an isle, WTF! I've noticed this scam being used at a few venues recently. Surely you're going to get interupted more by people going to the bar/bog?

Wow, I thought push a ton for GA last year at BST was steep and that had a full-day lineup - presumably the 7pm start at Wembley means no support?

Smashing Pumpkins/Weezer UK/Ireland tour announced for next summer. I'll be having some of that.

Just checked and it looks like I paid Price Level 1 with Barclaycard discount according to the confirmation email, so sounds like that was as cheap as it got. Slightly odd that this was still going after the headliners had been annouced.

Wow just seen next year's prices. £589 for two standard tickets. Just checked this year's email confirmation and paid £422 for the same. They were bought in Novemeber after initial lineup release so they weren't some sort of pre-sale although it looks like we got a !0% Barclaycard discount. I really like the festivalot but sure that a near 40% hike can be justified.

That Barclaycard stage is basically a stall on a strip of eateries and welfare places - would get really busy with any more than about 100 people outside. I think the secret set was James Acaster DJing. He was there when I walked past in the afternoon. Slightly more underwhelming than Blur.

New Order tour: September Thursday 21st Copenhagen, Royal Arena Saturday 23rd Amsterdam, Ziggo Dome Tuesday 26th Paris, Zénith Friday 29th London, The O2 October Sunday 1st Dublin, 3Arena Thursday 5th Glasgow, OVO Hydro Saturday 7th Leeds, First Direct Arena

Bold move, selling tickets for a full performance of an album, 3 1/2 months prior to its release date. The album will only be out for just over a month before the start of the tour!

Went to see Eels last night at the Roundhouse and not entirely sure what to make of it. Good set length (2 hours/25 or so songs). The new stuff sounds decent live. It was very much lacking many well-known songs. Also played a few covers that didn't hit the mark. Previously I've enjoyed a lot of their live covers - Raspberry Beret and and Love and Mercy have been great. The crowd seemed pretty flat, probably due to the lack of recognisable songs. E was on good form and the band sounded great but the show just seemed to be lacking something, falling a bit short of their usual high live standards.