Gig plans - 2024

[C4ME]

This one is way less PH than most. North of the border this weekend for the cultural phenomenon that is Taylor Swift. Can see (and hear) Murryfield from where I am staying so a good warm up tonight before attending in person tomorrow. It certainly feels like I have entering a sequin covered parallel universe.

[bodhi]

Just back from Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins at the Utilita in Birmingham - very enjoyable evening. We did miss the first couple of tunes from Weezer as they started at 7.15 and we were still making our way to the venue, but no complaints.

Both bands played all the hits with some more obscure stuff as well, with a couple of excellent covers in there - Weezer did Celebrity Skin and SP did U2 - Zoo Station, which I wasn't expecting.

Only negative I'd say was the venue itself - the steps up to the seats were pretty bloody steep and the lack of big screen meant us oldies who had to sit down for the gig couldn't see too much detail.

Really good value though, seeing two fairly legendary bands in one night for £60 - although they did try to make their money back on merch, with £40 for a T Shirt and £70 for a hoodie.

Great gig though - if anyone has tickets for the rest of the tour you should be in for a good night.

[mikeiow]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

As there is no 2025 thread yet I will have to add this here.

James Blunt, 16th Feb 2025

My partner really wanted to go, I didn't. I didn't pay much attention as I have never managed to buy tickets legitimately for years, so I assumed they would be sold out in 5 minutes and she would give up.

No, she only bloody managed to get some on release day.

Heh heh!
He was pretty good on the Radio 2 in the Park Leicester gig last year. Music was decent, but at the end he did the most astonishing crowd surf on his rubber dingy: half way out, it looked like he wanted to turn back to the stage. The crowd kept him going forward, & he ended up heading for the sound desk - hilarious!
Can probably find it on BBC iPlayer somewhere….

But yes…last autumn we booked for Simply Red in 2025 - crazy advance planning

IOW festival coming up, followed by Latitude for us. Quite different festivals, but we don’t have to camp at the IOW, so all good….line-ups not too shabby & not too much overlap: looking forward to them both.

[Gompo]

Pet Shop Boys tonight, my first gig of the year.

Not my typical fare, and probably the biggest gig I've ever been too. Definitely looking forward to it; although a bit disappointing there's no proper support, just Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems which I'm not expecting much from. We'll see.

[epom]

bodhi said:

Just back from Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins at the Utilita in Birmingham - very enjoyable evening. We did miss the first couple of tunes from Weezer as they started at 7.15 and we were still making our way to the venue, but no complaints.

Both bands played all the hits with some more obscure stuff as well, with a couple of excellent covers in there - Weezer did Celebrity Skin and SP did U2 - Zoo Station, which I wasn't expecting.

Only negative I'd say was the venue itself - the steps up to the seats were pretty bloody steep and the lack of big screen meant us oldies who had to sit down for the gig couldn't see too much detail.

Really good value though, seeing two fairly legendary bands in one night for £60 - although they did try to make their money back on merch, with £40 for a T Shirt and £70 for a hoodie.

Great gig though - if anyone has tickets for the rest of the tour you should be in for a good night.

Good to hear, heading on Monday night
T Shirts prices are gone insane.

[TCEvo]

epom said:

Good to hear, heading on Monday night
T Shirts prices are gone insane.

£15 - £35 for a t-shirt @ smaller gigs, I paid £30 for one at a gig in Camden a couple of weeks ago.

Too expensive, but as I rarely buy physical music anymore t-shirts (and tickets) are my band-spend.

[Yertis]

Mazinbrum said:

wal 45 said:

Gary Numan last night in Bournemouth...came away disappointed to be honest. Seen him many many times over the last 25 years or so and he's usually brilliant but I came away thinking that's my last one.

The set should have been great (especially the Pleasure Principle element, not so keen on Replicas) but I honestly think he puts in a lot more effort when playing the newer stuff and just interspersing it with "classics". Vocals sounded pretty poor for him too, may have been the mix.

Lights are great though as are his band and the Pleasure Principle synth parts are still after all these years utterly sublime but didn't do it for me.

Maybe I've just been spoilt with some great gigs recently (Orbital, Leftfield and Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan) or maybe the atmosphere wasn't usual Numan..don't know.

Saw him on Friday in Brum, thought it was brilliant, took my son and wasn’t sure what he’d make of it but he loved it too. Enjoyed it more than the last time I saw him 45 years ago though I was a bit worried his hair might fall off.

Weird isn’t it? I too saw Numan in Bournemouth (not been to the Academy since I was at art college up the road) and thought it was a great gig, far better than expected. We’d been instructed by a sound-engineer mate of my brother’s to stand in a very specific place, because the acoustics are dodgy elsewhere.

Quiet summer for me now before Godspeed You! Black Emperor this autumn.

[AnhBanhBao]

For anyone who may have been to the new Manchester Co-Op Arena, how’s the parking been?

I’m usually a fan of the Q-Parks, but there isn’t one within walking distance really. Looking to get into town for about 6pm for Pearl Jam on 25th June, and the Co-Op’s own parking is £25, plus we’d be getting there fairly last-minute.

Has anyone found anywhere else that’s reasonable and relatively nearby?

[Animal]

TCEvo said:

epom said:

Good to hear, heading on Monday night
T Shirts prices are gone insane.

£15 - £35 for a t-shirt @ smaller gigs, I paid £30 for one at a gig in Camden a couple of weeks ago.

Too expensive, but as I rarely buy physical music anymore t-shirts (and tickets) are my band-spend.

I think I read an article somewhere that unless you're a major international act (e.g. Taylor Swift), the earnings from live performances haven't increased in line with ticket prices: the venues are retaining a lot more of the revenue. Merch is a huge factor in band/artist earnings and apparently can sometimes mean the difference between them making a profit or a loss.

[Gompo]

Paid £35 for a t-shirt at Pet Shop Boys last night. The most I've spent on a t-shirt, but decided I wanted to get some sort of memento, I regret not getting a few other tour/festival shirts in the past. Not always ticket stub to save these days.

[bodhi]

Turns out I shouldn't have been quite so apprehensive about 30 Seconds to Mars - just back from the Utilita and it was an absolute belter of a show. Leto was working the audience from the very beginning and got a few up on stage on a couple of occasions, including one guy who offered to play guitar for them. It certainly looked like he did but I'm still not convinced the guitar was plugged in

Even though they have a new album out - which is closer to OneRepublic than 30 Seconds - they played a lot more of the old stuff and kept the crowd going the entire way through. There were clearly a lot of unsold tickets with a LOT of space in the back standing area but that didn't seem to get in the way too much, and even though I don't know too many of their songs, still had a brilliant night.

Jared can also pronounce Birmingham properly, which is rare for American bands playing there

With that and SP/Weezer on Friday, it's been a properly good weekend

[GloverMart]

Gompo said:

Paid £35 for a t-shirt at Pet Shop Boys last night. The most I've spent on a t-shirt, but decided I wanted to get some sort of memento, I regret not getting a few other tour/festival shirts in the past. Not always ticket stub to save these days.

What were PSB like, Gompo?

[westberks]

Adam. said:

wal 45 said:

Our Daughter who works in the music media industry was only saying the other day how many panicky emails and calls she gets from Promoters/Agents trying to get publicity for poor selling tours/festivals. I'll start holding off buying for stuff like this in the future I think......

I may be entering grumpy old man mode, but a) gigs are a lot more expensive and b) they seem to book much further in advance.

Its harder to get excited about coughin up £100 for a gig in Autumn 2025

likewise; I attend 50ish gigs per year and the expensive ones are getting less appealing by the month. Avoiding the bigger venues or postponing buying until last minute and then chancing it on twickets or similar.

[egor110]

Animal said:

TCEvo said:

epom said:

Good to hear, heading on Monday night
T Shirts prices are gone insane.

£15 - £35 for a t-shirt @ smaller gigs, I paid £30 for one at a gig in Camden a couple of weeks ago.

Too expensive, but as I rarely buy physical music anymore t-shirts (and tickets) are my band-spend.

I think I read an article somewhere that unless you're a major international act (e.g. Taylor Swift), the earnings from live performances haven't increased in line with ticket prices: the venues are retaining a lot more of the revenue. Merch is a huge factor in band/artist earnings and apparently can sometimes mean the difference between them making a profit or a loss.

Venues also take a % of all merch sales as well.

Some bands have it written into the contract of support bands that they give a % of merch sales to the headline band.

[BEP]

It's been a quiet year for me really...March saw us at Judas Priest/ Uriah Heep/ Saxon, which was a cracking night in Leeds with my 16 year old son.
Then nothing until week before last when same son and I say the Eagles and The Doobie Brothers (the latter were mega and what a treat to see Michael McDonald)..quick word on the new co-Op live venue, we got tickets to the AMP club, greeted by lovely staff, joint owner of the venue came for a chat randomly and then experienced the most mind blowing fan experience ever, the place is stunning inside with really great acoustics.

Should have seen Pet Shop Boys last night and Bryan Adams next Sunday but i'm in for a Cancer operation this week so thought avoiding potential lurgy may be best!

Next one due is Stevie Nicks in mid July at Co-Op Live and then Journey in November playing in Liverpool. Can't complain really outside of the ticket costs which have become utterly ridiculous.

[Adam.]

BEP said:

Should have seen Pet Shop Boys last night and Bryan Adams next Sunday but i'm in for a Cancer operation this week so thought avoiding potential lurgy may be best!

hope that goes well, PSB were my biggest positive surprise at Glasto 2022

[Gompo]

GloverMart said:

Gompo said:

Paid £35 for a t-shirt at Pet Shop Boys last night. The most I've spent on a t-shirt, but decided I wanted to get some sort of memento, I regret not getting a few other tour/festival shirts in the past. Not always ticket stub to save these days.

What were PSB like, Gompo?

They were great, thanks. I knew not to expect anything energetic from them, but apart from that I went in quite blind. I was reminded how many tracks of theirs I like; and how much of an impact they'd had on me in the late 1980s. They're not a typical act for me, and it was the largest concert I've been too so a little out of my comfort zone.

..The worst thing is I'm not sure anything can top it now, particularly of those who are still active. We'll see. My wife is keen on booking something to look forward to and tick off, but there's nothing right now.

[popeyewhite]

popeyewhite said:

The Scorpions at Wembley Saturday. Only 44 years since I last saw them.

An excellent gig and very entertaining night from one of the last bastions of proper heavy metal. Giving ACDC a miss.

[GloverMart]

Gompo said:

GloverMart said:

Gompo said:

Paid £35 for a t-shirt at Pet Shop Boys last night. The most I've spent on a t-shirt, but decided I wanted to get some sort of memento, I regret not getting a few other tour/festival shirts in the past. Not always ticket stub to save these days.

What were PSB like, Gompo?

They were great, thanks. I knew not to expect anything energetic from them, but apart from that I went in quite blind. I was reminded how many tracks of theirs I like; and how much of an impact they'd had on me in the late 1980s. They're not a typical act for me, and it was the largest concert I've been too so a little out of my comfort zone.

..The worst thing is I'm not sure anything can top it now, particularly of those who are still active. We'll see. My wife is keen on booking something to look forward to and tick off, but there's nothing right now.

Excellent, glad you enjoyed them. Always fancied seeing them, grew up with their stuff in my twenties and saw them on TV with the Killers a few years back which was an odd match up but seemed to work.

[Heathwood]

P!nk tonight at the Principality Stadium.