666 : Power Trip

Aside from humanity finding new depths to its innate ability to be horrendous to each other, the other thing that captured our imagination last weekend was Power Trip. It may have happened thousands of miles away, but we still felt compelled to talk about Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Guns n’ Roses, Tool and Metallica sharing the same billing. However, the conversation wasn't about what they played, it was about how much it cost to witness the whole thing.

General admission set you back $295. Now for six gargantuan musical legends that's not actually bad until you realise general admission didn’t even put you in the same postcode as the main stage. To have any chance of seeing anything you had to be in one of the standing areas and that's where the big money came in. If you wanted to stand near the front, we were talking $1000 and above.

Opinions were divided about the sheer fiscal weight of the event. There were those who thought it was exorbitant and questioned how a bunch of male millionaires (not a single woman graced the stage over the three days) could legitimately demand that much money to witness them regurgitate their greatest hits. On the other hand, there were those who stated it was a one-of-a-kind, once-a-generation event and that it was well worth the financial investment to see, what probably was, the final performances from some of these bands.

My perspective sits somewhere in the middle. I may be a die-in-the-wool Northern socialist, but we are in a capitalistic society and capitalism is based on supply and demand. Its mantra is “If the supply of a good or service outstrips the demand for it, prices will fall but If demand exceeds supply, prices will rise”. The reason why AC/DC in a desert in California costs one hell of a lot more than Tailgunner at the Outpost in Liverpool (next week) is that no matter how good Tailgunner are, more people want to see AC/DC. Couple that with the inconvenient truth that we no longer purchase our music directly from the artist and you start to have a legitimate reason for sky-high concert costs.

However, I did say I sat  firmly on the fence as I also believe that there are plenty of acts (and more importantly the people that represent them) who are taking the michael on this. The other day I found my ticket stub from the 1988 Monsters of Rock at Castle Donington. For the princely sum of £15.50, I got to see two of the bands that played Power Trip (Iron Maiden and Guns n’ Roses), as well as Kiss, David Lee Roth, Megadeth and Helloween. Using an inflation calculator, I worked out that this would proportionally cost £42.35 in 2023. Recently I have been to see separately 5 of those 6 acts and believe me I didn't get much change from a hundred quid for each ticket. Spiralling costs or no spiralling costs, someone somewhere is making a pretty penny.

So, what's the solution? For all my socialist tendencies, I don't think there should be a cap or a ceiling for concert tickets. I do think we should be cleverer as consumers. I adore Genesis but I made a conscious decision not to bother with the last Domino tour because I couldn't justify coughing up nearly £150 to see a band, I had seen numerous times before. But what I did do was go and purchase a number of tickets to see smaller up-and-coming Prog acts (people like Harken, Frost* and Big Train). Bands that need my investment.

When the inevitable 2024 AC/DC tour gets announced I will be there, arms aloft screaming “Take my money”. But I will also be ensuring that I invest my finite gig-going budget into emerging talent because, quite simply, the band demanding £100 a pop for a stadium show has to start somewhere and if we don't pay our ten quids for club shows then there will be no next-generation.