With the decline in the sales of music, artists are making their money through playing concerts. There’s no money in making records. In the old days, bands made their money by touring to support their new album. Now they make an album to support the tour. It means that the live music scene is bigger and more varied than ever, but it seems to be costing more, too.
Looking at our local concert venue, the Bristol Colston Hall, I see a tired array of artists coming to play at the main hall. 10cc play soon, featuring just Graham Gouldman from the original line up and, incredibly, the show has sold out. What’s left of the band no longer makes new music, just a retread of songs that were first popular 40 years ago. Me? I’d rather listen to Eric Stewart, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley do the real thing on VD and vinyl, actually.
We also have the great Paul Rodgers performing a nostalgia show. I was thinking about going to this since he has lost none of his vocal brilliance, as I discovered at a recent Bad Company show, but then I saw the ticket prices. The cheapest – restricted view – tickets come in at £59 whilst the most expensive will set you back an eye-watering £91, all this with no new music to play. The same with 1960s legend Steve Winwood who is knocking out tickets starting at £48 and topping out at £80, to perform a greatest hits set. If I want to hear the Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, I’ll play the record at home, thank you, and anyway Winwood doesn’t play all the hits.
I realise that people do like to hear the hits. I didn’t go to see Crosby, Stills and Nash to hear them not do, say, Marrakesh Express and Deja Vu, but their shows are always livened, freshened by brand new tunes. As Crosby says, new music, new life. I have made exceptions and gone along just for the memories – Brian Wilson, Steely Dan to name but two – but gigs become more valid and meaningful to me when there is new music. I loved seeing Toto in 2015 but I was thrilled that it wasn’t just about Hold The Line, Africa and Rosanna. Give me a mixture of the hits, deep cuts and new music and I’m satisfied.
I saw the original 10cc at the same venue when they were at the peak of their fame back in the 1970s and I wouldn’t call the latest version of the band 10cc. It plainly isn’t. It’s a bunch of talented but jobbing musicians performing a live jukebox. Now people like hearing the old tunes and nothing but the old tunes, which is why nostalgia festivals like “Let’s Rock Bristol” are so popular with the in-betweeners, those who aren’t young anymore but aren’t quite old. I am not knocking that, but seeing half an hour from a Thompson twin is not my idea of fun! I would need to consume quite a lot of cider to enjoy three days of old music and I think that’s the general idea.
Good luck if you enjoy the increasingly ram-packed world of oldie music. But I always remember Rick Nelson’s words from Garden Party where he sings “If memories were all I had, I’d rather drive a truck”.
Hopefully there will be room for old and new music in the future. I happen to like both, but usually as part of the same show.
