The most you’ve ever paid for a gig?

[sheerin_lfc]

£125 to see Fleetwood Mac in Leeds in 2015 after Christine McVie returned. Worth it.

[Jose Pose]

I honestly couldn’t say, I must’ve paid around the £100 mark for a number of things on several different occasions, but I don’t recall paying much more then that.

Over time I’ve learnt that big stadium gigs are mostly shit though, so I’ve actively avoided anything in that price bracket for a while. I really can’t think of an act that would tempt me to spend more than £100 to see them in a big stadium now, because I’ve already seen all the ones I want to over the years and now prices have got so silly the experience is extremely poor value.

The only acts I actually want to see nowadays cost between £25 - £50 because they’re in smaller venues.

[gigpusher]

I think looking at Setlist.fm it was 2015 and U2 at the O2 arena. I can't remember the amount but it was over £100 and I was disgusted and said it would be the last time I'd be seeing them at those prices. Ever since around that time I do mostly just go to smaller gigs and spend less on individual tickets but hopefully go to more gigs. 

This year I have paid a fair bit for the one day ticket for the Neighbourhood festival to see Pulp but that is at least a full day festival and the savings on dog care and hotels by not going to Sheffield actually mean it's comparatively good value. 

[Greenelk]

Just for the ticket @Hugh Jass II?  Or would you include cost of booking a hotel and flying to a different country just for a gig.

If the former, I would think it was for Madonna at the o2 back in 2015, where we paid £110 + fees for lower tier tickets, and that was bloody painful

[Padjeq]

15 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Yes, I paid a whole quid to see Led Zeppelin 

Did you have to buy these in advance or did people just turn up and pay on the door?

[Quark]

As a joint gig / gift to Mrs Q it'd be Kylie or Dua at the O2.  Think both came in around £70.

For me personally I think it would have been Iron Maiden at the O2, which I think was about £50ish.

If it's just for me I'm done with gigs that size these days tbh. Caveat remains an REM reunion of course.

[Zoo Music Girl]

I paid about £100 for the Nick Cave Carnage tour in 2021. Was looking at around £75-80ish for much worse seats so I forked out £100 to be front row at Royal Albert Hall, spitting distance from Nick and Warren. Worth every penny but was also something of a special treat as my first big gig post Covid.

I forked out the £75 for Pulp this year, but drew the line at £100 for Blur.

[Ayrshire Chris]

Just now, Padjeq said:

Did you have to buy these in advance or did people just turn up and pay on the door?

Queued up at the venue box office for hours when they went on sale, Someone from my group was chosen to truant school and get to Glasgow to buy them. A bit like forming a six now to buy Glasto tickets! 

[balti-pie]

£90 for ac/dc in about 2015ish is the most i've paid - im not too keen on stadium gigs and there's not really a band i'd shell that out for these days. I've got tickets for Blur at wembley this year but that's only because of the NHS half price tickets - without that there's no (other) way i'd fork out a hundred quid for a gig. Prefer smaller things and smaller venues in particular! 

[gigpusher]

10 minutes ago, Quark said:

As a joint gig / gift to Mrs Q it'd be Kylie or Dua at the O2.  Think both came in around £70.

For me personally I think it would have been Iron Maiden at the O2, which I think was about £50ish.

If it's just for me I'm done with gigs that size these days tbh. Caveat remains an REM reunion of course.

I say I'm done with them but every so often something crops up that makes me change my mind. An REM reunion would probably be one of those things. 

I also factor in the overall cost. I'd be happier to pay an overall higher ticket price in Manchester than a cheaper one somewhere that I'd have to travel to as you then have to factor in cost of travel, hotels, food and for me petsitters. 

[Hugh Jass II]

18 minutes ago, Greenelk said:

Just for the ticket @Hugh Jass II?  Or would you include cost of booking a hotel and flying to a different country just for a gig.

If the former, I would think it was for Madonna at the o2 back in 2015, where we paid £110 + fees for lower tier tickets, and that was bloody painful

For the purposes of this conversation just the ticket.

Obviously if people are travelling to Poland to see The National for instance that will work out more expensive than most gigs, but then you wouldn't just be going to the gig, you'd be making a weekend or few days of it presumably.

[Meerkat]

Around £80 for Arctic Monkeys in the summer I think. Although looking at costs this year that’s not too bad!

[Hugh Jass II]

13 minutes ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

I paid about £100 for the Nick Cave Carnage tour in 2021. Was looking at around £75-80ish for much worse seats so I forked out £100 to be front row at Royal Albert Hall, spitting distance from Nick and Warren

I should hope you didn't spit at them.

[gooner1990]

£100 for Blur at Wembley this summer.

[parkerpenguin]

I’ve been to hundreds of gigs but never actually been to a stadium show until later this year were I paid £90 for Springsteen and £116 for The Weeknd. I guess that’s a pretty standard price for most stadium shows these days.

[Franco Baresi]

Most i've paid is £110 to get into to see Ashcroft's come back gig at Manchester Albert Hall May 2016, it was a sold out gig, and he hadn't surfaced for about 6 years previous so I stumped up, and it was superb in fairness! a fantastic venue, and a great gig.

[EamerRed]

£360 for RHCP... far and away the most I/we've ever spent on a single ticket.

They're a band as a couple we've wanted to see for years, whether they're good or not the songs are strong, and they'd all sold out except for golden circle, plus add on the premium you pay in Australia. I don't regret it, it will be great, and is only a one off.

2nd place would be less than a third of that price.

Edited January 19, 2023 by EamerRed

[brettredmayne]

The foo fighters gig that didn’t happen last year, think it was around £85 in total .

I have yet to break 3 figures for a gig but think that will change with Taylor 

[Quark]

12 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

I say I'm done with them but every so often something crops up that makes me change my mind. An REM reunion would probably be one of those things. 

I also factor in the overall cost. I'd be happier to pay an overall higher ticket price in Manchester than a cheaper one somewhere that I'd have to travel to as you then have to factor in cost of travel, hotels, food and for me petsitters. 

I really can't see anyone other than REM that would get me to do that these days.  I enjoy the gig sizes I go to so much that I can't justify the additional cost vs additional enjoyment of a large gig anymore! Brighton Centre is pretty much my venue size cap at 4,500. Brighton Dome and GLive in Guildford are both about 1,700 and everything else I go to is prob 600 max.

The whole travel thing isn't an issue for me, as I really tend to limit mine to about a 45 min drive tops.  Any exceptions to that would be a bit more of an event like meeting up with a wider group, but then I'd probably be doing that as a way to see people rather than going to a gig if that makes sense? 

[chuckles07]

£115 or thereabouts to Bob Dylan a couple of months ago. Worth it - just. It was at the Manchester Apollo so relatively intimate. It would take something equally special to spend similar, and i can’t see me doing stadium gigs either save some mega reunion - REM, Talking Heads, and no, not OASIS.

[gfa]

About £80 for AM, Killers, Muse and The Strokes (that was APE though, but went mostly for them).

Couldn't stomach much more than that

[Neil]

Fifty quid for a ticket from a tout for a David Byrne show in London. 

[Neil]

Just now, Neil said:

Fifty quid for a ticket from a tout for a David Byrne show in London. 

I I'd driven from Devon for it so wasn't going to miss it would have paid a hundred if I had to 

[Hugh Jass II]

Should add that I also paid £250 for a ticket to the Euros Final in 2021 (and about £180 for the semi final against Denmark).

Also paid about £200 for a stadium ticket to the London Olympics to see (amongst other things) Usain Bolt win 200m gold.

I regard these as proper once in a lifetime events though, realistically I'm never going to get to go to the Olympics again or see my country in a major tournament final, so I don't begrudge paying them.

[BenG92]

Funny several people are mentioning an REM reunion, I was JUST thinking that. I'd pay a lot. Can't see it ever happening. I was 19 when they broke up and just not into them at the time and it's probably my #1 music-related regret.