As someone who owns pretty well the entire Bruce Springsteen catalogue, you might have expected me to be among the hordes of fans packing his stadium gigs around Britain. The same with the Arctic Monkeys, who on Monday played the Bristol Bears stadium at Ashton Gate. But in truth, the thought of attending either, or both, never particularly crossed my mind. Much as I love my music, that doesn’t extend to stadium gigs or, apart from on specific occasions, arenas. The thought of being at a gig where you can only see the artist via a giant screen holds no appeal whatever.
I have been to three stadium gigs in my entire life. The first was at Wembley Stadium in 1975 where Elton John was blown off stage by the Beach Boys, not least because he played his brand new album in its entirety to start with and many of us, including me, decided to leave. It was a boiling hot afternoon and my abiding memories are the dismal sound system and the fact for much of the afternoon we were standing next to a stunningly beautiful topless woman. This was long before the days of big screens so not only could we not hear the acts properly, we could barely see them. But a fiver was probably a reasonable price to hear Elton, the Beach Boys, the Eagles, Joe Walsh, Rufus ft Chaka Khan and Stackridge.
The next two stadium gigs were Take That, both at the greatest stadium of them all, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The Circus tour was the better of the two because Robbie Williams wasn’t there. At least when he was the next time, his dreary solo dirges – Angels, for example – gave us the opportunity to visit the toilets. I thought at the time, if all stadium shows were like this then maybe I might attend a few more but it didn’t take long to conclude there would be no more stadium shows for me.
In any event, in my very humble opinion Springsteen has trashed his hard-earned reputation as a blue collar hero by embracing the concept of dynamic pricing. And none of the bullshit spouted by the self-styled ‘Boss’ subsequent to the event can change that. He didn’t have to do that, but he did and I know a good few Springsteen obsessives who will never forgive him for being party to ripping off some of his fans. He’s not the only one, to be fair, and both John Fogerty and Daryl Hall who played recent shows in Britain did the same thing. Initially, I tried to get tickets for both shows – one an arena, the other a standard sized venue – and there was dynamic pricing ripping me off. Much as I love both artists, I’m not getting into dynamic pricing.
In Bristol, we’ve got one stadium show this year, as I mentioned at the Bristol Bears home ground and we have no arena at all. The absence of the latter is a major bone of contention for many folk but I couldn’t care less. I look at what’s on at the Birmingham NEC, or whatever it’s called this week, and I don’t feel like I’m really missing out on anything. Kiss, Maroon 5 (who I used to like until they turned into a generic hits machine), 50 Cent, Donny Fucking Osmond? Really? I wouldn’t open the curtains if they were playing in my back garden for free. If you love Kiss so much – and I am very sorry for you if you do – then isn’t a drive up the M5 a small price to pay?
Maybe The Boss will tour packed out stadia next year or the year after and maybe he, like other major artists, will stop using dynamic pricing but maybe when he sees the cash rolling in – like he needs it – he might just stick with it and charge a few quid less than other artists who are more than happy to rip their fans off.
I’ll stick with the Fleece, SWX, the Trinity, the Marble Factory, the Thekla, even the ghastly 02 and definitely the shortly reopening Bristol Beacon, still known to the elderly as the Colston Hall. But if artists are using dynamic pricing at these venues, I’ll just buy the albums.
Sure there’s a living to be made for artists at all levels which is one reason why I support them by buying their music and going to their shows but I’m not going to let them take the piss. Sorry, Bruce.
