Are you going to less gigs this year?

honru

Was just counting the amount of gigs I've been to this year, and to my surprise I've only been to four. Went to Lamb of God and Judas Priest in February and Wire and Def Leppard in June. Maybe the odd Whelans gig here or there, and two European festivals.

To think of the last few years where we had an unprecendented (and arguably oversaturated) selection of music to choose from. The two smaller juggernauts from that period, POD Concerts and Forever, have noticeably cut back hard on bookings, the latter having no concerts at all in the pipeline. POD Concerts are likely caught up in the legal wrangling with IMRO, I can only imagine they're counting the days until EP revenue comes piling in.

To me it appears business as usual for MCD, though there appears to be quite drop in the amount of outdoor summer gigs this season. Same goes for Aiken.

So with the times we're in and all that, has this effected the amount of concerts you typically go to? Is it moreso due to a cut back on spending, or is it down to there not being as varied a selection at the moment?

Toast

Definetly gone to less but that is more because less new stuff is interesting me and alot of the old reliables are priced way too high.

AnonoBoy

I've actually gone to way more. But my credit card is starting to feel the pinch.

NIBBS

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

Was just counting the amount of gigs I've been to this year, and to my surprise I've only been to four. Went to Lamb of God and Judas Priest in February and Wire and Def Leppard in June. Maybe the odd Whelans gig here or there, and two European festivals.

To think of the last few years where we had an unprecendented (and arguably oversaturated) selection of music to choose from. The two smaller juggernauts from that period, POD Concerts and Forever, have noticeably cut back hard on bookings, the latter having no concerts at all in the pipeline. POD Concerts are likely caught up in the legal wrangling with IMRO, I can only imagine they're counting the days until EP revenue comes piling in.

To me it appears business as usual for MCD, though there appears to be quite drop in the amount of outdoor summer gigs this season. Same goes for Aiken.

So with the times we're in and all that, has this effected the amount of concerts you typically go to? Is it moreso due to a cut back on spending, or is it down to there not being as varied a selection at the moment?

Think it's been the last 18 mths really that I've been going to less gigs, and I've mainly missed out on smaller gigs which doesn't help the local scene too much, I used to go to a lot though - couple of years back the number of gigs per year was in the mid 20's, this yeara (fuzzy memory and all) :-

Feb - Priest Feast
Mar - Metallica (London)
Apr - Ac/Dc, Saxon
June - Def Leppard, Chris Cornell

damn, only 6 gigs this year todate andit's July - and all I've got lined up for the rest of the year is Metallica next Month, Y&T in Southampton in November, and now W.A.S.P in December........I'll be suffering from withdrawal symptoms soon.....

think for me it's been a combination of not being well a lot, tired all the bloody time, and not having as much disposable cash.....................

But seriously there are a couple of reasons for the reduction of tours hitting here, its just that there aren't as many tours out there, bands are now touring Festivals in the Summer, easier logistically, they probably get better money from them too............but also I'm sure the recession has bands thinking twice about tours now, as with Promoters I'm sure they aren't gambling on as many bands, going more for sure bets.......

are Forever not gone completely ?????? could be wrong, but thought I heard that somewhere......................

niallon

I seem to have hit the recession early, just going by ticket stubs I have:
2003 x 5
2004 x 6
2005 x 6
2006 x 12

And suddenly, financial woe come 2007 x 5
2008 x 6
2009 x 6

Though I see a bit of a pattern. By 2006 I'd seen many of my favourite artists twice and to be honest, there's only a handful I'd go to more than that. Rather than it being a financial issue, on my part anyway, for me I've dropped the number of gigs I'm attending simply because I've started being more picky i.e venue now plays a part regardless of artist, obviously new album or greatest hits makes a difference too. etc.

markcellardoor

Yeah, 2006 was the peak for me. Seemed to be a lot of quality bands about that year.

This year i have gone to less but i think it's down to maybe not as many big events on due to the economic blahdy blah.

I have been going to more smaller gigs though which i'm happy about but there hasn't been always a ful house at them.

It's also the first year in a few that i haven't hit a foreign festival which was dissapointing as i've always enjoyed the more relaxed atmos at these at times. I am still killing myself for not doing Glasto this year.