[Warning - severely pissed off language ahead] If you want to be a fan of music and support it then there is only one solution. Be rich, realllly fucking rich.
There is no other way.
Touts and promoters are ripping the heart out of the live scene and turning gigs into a battle of who can afford it. Going to see any band that has a national following is now like Chelsea and Man City battling to sign an overpriced British midfielder.
Ticket prices appear to have rocketed over the last 2 years. I am pretty sure that attending a small to mid sizd gig has crept up between £6 and £15 for about 10 years. Suddenly I am paying £25 a ticket, plus £3 booking fee and £5 delivery charge, and £3 credit card fee and quite frankly gig going has been forced into the realms of theatre going and holidays where you have to plan months in advance and can only afford to go once a month.
That isn't helped by bands who decide a UK tour is London and Birmingham. Not only does it mean we have to pay for trains and hotels in order to go, it means the touts smell an opportunity, and in the UK its oh so easy to screw real fans out of money.
Lets take today. I ordered a cd from HMV in order to take part in a pre-sale for tickets.
- 9am tickets go on sale at £40 each.
- I load the page at 9.00, choose tickets, and it won't let me buy them.
- I try again at 9.04 and it says four left, and it won't let me buy them.
- 9.05 - sold out.
- 9.50 - Listing for two tickets on ebay at £400.
Mother shit eating worse than Hitler slimy evil greedy fuckers...
Touts are now an unlawful tax on gig going. Not only do they make a fortune ripping off real fans, they take the tickets we were going to buy in the first place.
It's not just eBay. Seatwave is a 'fan to fan' ticket selling service. Well, no matter what the intentions, when a £30 ticket is going for £130; that's touting, regardless of whether it was a genuine purchase.
I propose a new law:
It should be legal to strangle touts with guitar strings until they give you tickets at list price.
I would even vote for David Wormface Cameron if he agreed to pass that one.
