Disappointed about Billy joel tickets

[LushLemonTart]

I got in presale queue. Got to pick tickets and they were extortionate. I'd have paid as dh is a fan but he said no way. I'd already booked airbnb in Edinburgh. It was for his birthday. But with tickets airbnb and travel we could have a holiday.

I've cancelled airbnb and will get full refund. Someone will be happy a room has become available right next to Murrayfield.

Anyone here going? I know it'll be amazing.

Awwww so sorry to hear that you and your DH are missing out on the piano man. I used to work at the NEC and was lucky enough to not only work at the concert itself, but hear him practice before hand, so a security guard and I had a private ordinance for free. It was like he was singing "Always a woman to me" just to me! That would have been worth a fortune.
However if you can't justify the price, and I can imagine how much it could be, enjoy your holiday and download Billy Joel and other "yacht rock" to be the soundtrack to your holiday. X

I went this year in Cardiff. Pricey for sure, but I live nearby so they were the only expense.

Fantastic that you've both seen him. And he sand to you @HangryTurtle . Wow!!

We saw him at Hyde Park last year. It was amazing but we did make a trip of it with a hotel. There were loads of people picnicking in Hyde Park outside the venue where you could obviously hear everything.

We got tickets but I'm a life long fan so was happy to pay. Ive seen him in Glasgow, Manchester and London so my thoughts were the money I spent going down south and accomodation costs meant I was spending less this year in Edinburgh. Tickets were extortionate though but I think that's just a given with concert's now.

Idk, you may be wrong, but you may be right 🤷‍♀️

How extortionate?

I paid £181 but saw ones going for £236!

I’m trying to book now and best I can get is £300 each!

As in, best deal I can find not best seats. I haven’t seen anything for less than that.

I went last year, amazing night, I made a trip of it and spent the week in London

Got two tickets (trying hard not to look at the price... but £181 looks about right). Luckily, I live walking distance to Murrayfield though!

It's all getting out of hand isn't it? I've set my concert ticket limit at £100, but almost everything is well over that now. When you've got to buy two tickets, plus travel plus a hotel it makes it unaffordable.
A friend of ours is in Kylie's band and I've just looked at the O2. VIP ticket packages are £600-odd, and they're sold out! So somebody is buying them.

The Rest is Entertainment podcast did a section on ticket pricing (it’s probably got Oasis in the episode title). It was really interesting about why prices have risen so much. Can’t remember the details, but it was to do with reduction 8n other streams of income for artists. It’s worth listening to (as are all the other episodes - fascinating podcast. Richard Osman and Marina Hyde).

I've decided at an upper level of pricing for tickets, and even for Billy Joel (luckily have seen him before) will not break it.

I did just fork a few Euros over my limit for a gig, but it is for next summer in a place i have ALWAYS wanted to go to, for a band i love. So that is it. Otherwise I'm pretty good at sticking to that.

Agree that the recent TRIE about ticket pricing was good.

Normal tickets are selling at £180 each, last time I saw her just before Covid I paid £60! Concert prices have got ridiculous

Nothing against Kylie but I can't think of anybody still touring I'd pay £180 for. They're taking the piss now.
If Paul Heaton cam do it for £35 and make a profit they all can.

I'm lucky the people I like aren't so popular 😂 so I never go over about £30 for a gig ticket. Often much less. That said, I was big into formula 1 back in the 90s and tickets for that were over £100 then. God knows how much they are now.

All these things are just becoming so unaffordable for the average person. But then there are always people who will pay it so it's only going to continue.

Oh he's amazing though. Best concert ever (followed by Bon Jovi in the 90s and Paul Heaton more recently) awesome

I've just had a look, are they extortionate?

Front row standing is £250 a ticket. Seated starting around £145.

It's a one off thing and he's awesome live

I got to the front of the queue and they’d sold out. I was really disappointed because I’m a huge fan and we live close by. But we saw him in Cardiff recently and on a couple of occasions before that. I’d already made my mind up that I wouldn’t go over £200 anyway.

The cost of concert tickets is insane these days. We used to go to a couple of gigs a month, but now it’s more like twice a year. There’s no way I’m paying £90 to see some band that had three top ten hits in 1986!

I was in the queue this morning for tickets for both Edinburgh and Liverpool (different logins, different computers, differnt people going apart from me) Got Edinburgh tickets no problem after 10 mins in the queue, 5 mins in the queue for Liverpool and there was already nothing left but single seats with hotel packages attached. Very disappointed as I was going with different people to the two gigs and had to let one of those people down. I'm hoping he might put on another date considering how well the ticket sales have gone?

I did go to the Cardiff gig and it was amazing, I think I'm still buzzing months later!

I feel your pain, I got to the front of the queue for Paul Mccartney, but they had sold out....and now they are about £400. I cried.

I’m amazed at people spending £100+ to see an artist soon after paying it to see them somewhere else. When tickets are this expensive there’s no way I’d do repeats. Luckily the artist I mostly want to repeat is Frank Turner, tickets in the £40ish range. I went to Billy Joel in Cardiff this year and it was fab, but I won’t go and see him again. I tend to prefer smaller venues anyway 🤷‍♀️

Stadium gigs are largely horrible experiences anyway, arenas are bad enough.
I still average 30-40 gigs a year but luckily I like smaller bands/places so I rarely pay more than £50. Paid £50 for Elbow this year.