...to feel like I don't want the hassle of going to concerts any more?

[TempestTost]

I am not a huge concert goer, I've always tended to go to pubs more often. Mainly just because of the cost. But there are a few artists I've been willing to go out and get concert tickets for from time to time, especially if the venue is one I like (not too big, seats reasonably comfortable.)

I've been hearing more and more people over the last few years complain about the difficulty of getting tickets, and just recently experienced it myself. I heard tickets would go on sale for a musician I like, someone i've seen three or four times before.

I knew I wouldn't be able to get online until about an hour after they went on sale, but I wasn't too worried. Last time I saw him, it was a smaller venue, and I got ok tickets a few days after they were available - this was 4 years ago. He hasn't blown up in popularity since then, he's an established guy with a following but not Taylor Swift by any means.

Anyway - I went online an hour after the sale opened, and absolutely nothing was available. But they were available for resale all over the internet. Clearly a huge number were immediately snapped up for resale. I managed to find some for about double the price, though the better seats were far more than that. (Though I am still not sure they will be legitimate once I get to the door, and there isn't any good way to find out.)

In hindsight, I'm almost wishing I hadn't bought them - I was in a bit of a panic because I'd told my daughter that I could get tickets. But I feel like, until venues get some kind of handle on this, it's almost better not to bother at all. There is something really nasty about the whole thing. I also can't decide if I think the venues and artists are somehow complicit, or are also victims.

My local record shop puts on a couple of hundred gigs a year in a pretty small nightclub. If an artist has an album out and they’re not huge there’s a good chance they will play there to promote it… tickets are £12 or £14. Last band I saw was Gossip recently but they’ve had some absolute classic bands go through there ( all manner of music genre…. Stormzy, Shania Twain, Michael Buble, The Libertines). It means you can take a punt on someone new to you …. I saw Raye a year ago for example and I’d only heard one song. Gabriel’s were also awesome. I think the key is signing up for emails from the artists you like and keeping on top of social media. I checked out an American duet I like called War & Treaty and ended up seeing them in a tiny London venue and paid £20 a ticket so it is possible.

The Bristol Beacon? Fair sized venue. Also The Forum in Bath. Arenas are horrible places to see bands.

My first concert was Queen at Bristol Hippodrome in 1977, for £4.50, I think. I've been to hundreds since then. Smaller gigs are absolutely better.
Ticket prices are definitely ridiculous now. I know no-one buys records any more but £3-400 is definitely taking the piss.
Elbow, bless 'em, are charging £50 for their arena dates and if they can do it...

Some of the smaller venues are absolutely gorgeous too. There are loads in small theatres with fantastic architecture. The City Varieties in Leeds, for example, is beautiful.

Some are sweaty pits, but I'm affectionate about those too.

I think this is something that needs consumer rights intervention. The best way I can think of is the ballot system used for test cricket at Lords and I think the Oval. You all apply within a time period (it's about a month) and then are advised of the outcome. It seems to be a reasonably legit allocation.

Councils could make it a condition of venue licences.

I've been caught out a few times because tickets pretty much always go on sale at something like 10am on a weekday, and I can't get on to buy until my lunchbreak. I point blank won't buy from the overpriced resellers though, would rather not go. Also won't bother when it's something like a seated ticket at the back of the O2, it's just pointless when you're miles away from the stage.

I do think things like the ticketmaster resell option is overall a really good thing, life happens and there should be legitimate options to buy/sell at face value. I've used that system from both sides and it's been great. It's the stupid inflated prices on resale that are the issue, not resale itself.

Op I wanted to take my teenage sons to see my favourite band from the 80's.....it would have been £200 just for the tickets 😔😔 its just a big rip off now unfortunately

We've taken to going to see tribute bands instead. The music is good, the venues are smaller, more local and more comfortable and they are a fraction of the price of the real thing.

I refuse to buy resale tickets at inflated prices ….I log on as soon as a sale goes live and if I don’t get tickets then it wasn’t meant to be…..I’ve got take that tickets for June that were a Christmas present as I wouldn’t spend that myself on a night out…..Im happy to spend on festivals though….think they are value for money

My 12 year old daughter's favourite artist is Melanie Martinez. I thought it'd be nice to take her to her first gig, tickets came up for Melanie... £250 per person in the back seats at the new arena in Manchester. Not a chance. We're about an hour's drive away so money for fuel/parking or trains would be factored in, no doubt she'd want the 'merch' whilst there, it all adds up. This artist seems to be aimed at younger audience (but I could be wrong), I just can't fathom out how the unaffordable ticket price (for the target demographic) is justified! We'd be at the back, and as a PP has rightly pointed out, we'd be watching her on a screen so might as well watch it on a screen at home.

There's concerts of all sizes, we tend to mostly go to smaller local ones or at pubs. We also do festivals just not the huge ones

I retired from concert-going at the age of 65. I might nip out to something smallish if I really like the music or if I am totally in love with the fiddle player. No more festivals (always hated them - they're about the 'event' not the music) or massive venues for me. Nick Cave is playing in Manchester, tickets £70ish. I'll regret not going but it will pass. Covid did it for me, really. I don't want to be with crowds of people.

I recently bought tickets at Blenheim Palace to see Crowded House, Sheryl Crow etc. I then read reviews of the venue saying you can't take your own food & drink in (it's a late afternoon gates opening) and the prices are ridiculous & the food is rubbish, plus it being a nightmare to get out of the car park after. I decided, much as I love Crowded House, I couldn't be bothered with the hassle & would rather not go. So I resold my tickets via a website connected to where I bought the tickets, for near to face value. They wouldn't let me sell for any more, not that I would want to. I was just glad to get my money back

We won't get into the name of the place, but only what 2000 seats...some of which were dreadful. They have done it up since I was last there but no. It is way too small for a city the size of Bristol.
to explain why I'm saying this, the last time I went was to see Jerry Lee Lewis. Support band I couldn't even name but they were dreadful. Jerry was on tour with Chuck Berry and a host of other is stars..he was the only one playing Bristol that night.

Omg this!!!!
YANBU OP. And don't get me started on music festivals! Originally started by hippies. Not a group concerned about money, more with accessible public gatherings, freedom, etc.

Look at the monstrosity Glastonbury has turned into now. £££ tickets, big names, big crowds. Of course it's good for the economy but (slightly tongue-in-cheek) it's hard for me to believe that there's a cost of living crisis when so many people are willing to pay extortionate ticket prices, and then even more for 'festival' food and drink. Oh, and sleep in tents.

Even 'cheap' festivals are at least £50.

I love going to gigs.
This year I’m seeing Green Day @ £76 per ticket, Foo Fighters @ £82.50 a ticket and Slipknot @£67.50 a ticket.

I saw Green Day in 1998 and I paid £9.50 and bought my ticket on the door.

Sometimes I manage to get tickets from the venue website, I was able to get Corey Taylor tickets that way even though ticketmaster were sold out. Another way to get tickets is via registering for pre sales or pre saving an album.

I live in Manchester so we have loads of music venues but I do prefer the smaller ones to the big stadiums. You can get much closer to the stage and actually see the band rather than watching on a giant screen.

It's not the artists that are really the issue I was getting at. The tickets I wanted were selling for about $55, so something equivalent to about 25 or 30 pounds. Very reasonable, and an established mid level artist. Not a stadium or anything like it. About 1000 seats, which is a big venue for the artist who in the past has played 200 seat venues a lot of the time.

They were sold out in a very short time, but huge numbers were available for resale - it's obvious that the vast majority of the seats were snapped up by people who were just looking to resell.

It seems that the whole phenomena that has affected the huge acts is now moving down to the more mid-level acts.

99.9% of the time I see local musicians playing in local pubs or occasionally small local festivals. So I was shocked to see the resellers are now targeting smaller venues and acts.

Simple way round this is ID and it can only be resold for what it was originally on sale for, then resellers wouldnt bother

Totally agree with this. We were at an arena show recently where the band literally stepped on stage, played the opening bars to the first song then had to stop, to alert security to someone in the front who was injured.

We were in a stadium where there wasn’t enough organisation for the inevitable queues to go to the loo/bars between acts. Far too many mostly middle aged blokes in a football stadium tunnel not designed for that amount of people, yelling at youngsters from security to let them into the stands. The pitch area was rammed too.

It doesn’t help that so many people get so pissed either. We spent the whole of one seated gig constantly standing to let people past to buy yet more of those mega-pint things and then they were back and forth to the loo. How they afford it or why they bothered going if they spent half the gig at the bar, I don’t know.

This sounds amazing and I really want to know where it is!

Many artists have presales, I rarely buy tickets if I haven't sorted out a presale ticket. Although they can also be chaos, looking at you Taylor.
But I agree public sale is usually a scalper's paradise.
You have to be logged on at the exact opening time presale or general sale.

YANBU.
I am disabled and only go to venues that allow a carer. I find Birmingham arena (not the exhibition centre) is the best for keeping me safe. I can't do standing any more because I can't dance. I also prefer certain audiences-"for example I saw The Chicks last year and Depeche Mode this year and the former was my favourite in terms of audience.

I have tickets for Taylor Swift at Wembley and I'm nervous as there were no disabled tickets left (I'm ambulant disabled). After that I'm going to give up big concert gigs.

I've happily given up going to Glastonbury this year too, started working for my ticket in 2014, easy job, but I just cba any more, and am not well enough either. I wasn't upset though, happy to gracefully bow out and let someone else have a turn!

My favourite thing now is an acoustic open mic night or an acoustic set. Folk artists with respectful audiences like Kate Rusby. I'm done with druggy beery folk being in my face!

Your post surprised me because I lived in Cardiff - family still does - and for years and years I had to go to London or Birmingham because so many bands/artists didn’t play in Cardiff.

Was looking at arena tickets for a comedian, £70. Now I understand the venue costs the same to run and staff whoever’s on stage. But a band is bringing crew, musicians, dancers, possibly a big stage set, special effects etc.

How is £70 reasonable compared to that?! Supply and demand I guess.

I don’t think you’re unreasonable. I’ve paid over the odds to see some of my favourite artists/bands and had very good seats. That’s been face value too!
I consequently don’t go to as many gigs now.

A thing that has started putting me off going to certain gigs is the faff of getting there and getting out. I could have gone to see Blur last year at Wembley. I passed and let someone else go. No regrets. I saw them in Hyde Park in 2009 and they were great. I’d seen Fleetwood Mac at Wembley in 2018 and the sound was atrocious. There was a delay with the feed and you were hearing one lot of monitors “live” and others live+5 seconds. It lasted for ages, sounded dire and the reviews of the concert were consequently not that great. Weirdly when Chrissie Hyde/The Pretenders had been on the sound was fine (for Wembley standards).
Getting out of Wembley at that Mac gig was a ball ache. Luckily I was going in the opposite direction to most people but the queuing to get out of Wembley was just… shit basically. Vowed to never do a Wembley gig again.

I could go and see Billy Joel in my home town this year. Never seen him live, been a fan of his music for over 30 years but again the venue, getting out of it, getting to it etc. are all putting me off. Years ago I wouldn’t have given this a second thought but …I think the cost of tickets is starting to have an effect on me without me realising it!