assume he is refering to aerosmith et al – completely agree Bruce, but ticket prices are only going one way in the future and it aint down!

Easy for him to say when he’s rich as fuck. I do agree with him though, Metallica absolutely take the piss with ticket prices. I hear gigs is where bands make the majority of their money though…

Unfortunately, in the current climate bands lose a lot of money due to illegal downloading of their albums and have to charge more for concert tickets to make up for the loss. It’s really annoying for fans like me as I always buy the CD and love going to gigs.

Bands generally get a set fee for playing a gig and the promoter is the one that sets the ticket price to reflect this fee plus venue hire and all the other extras like security, advertising, printing of tickets and of course the nice lump they make for themselves. If you want to blame anyone, blame the big companies like Live Nation, they are the ones that set the prices. A band makes money from the sale of merch (assuming the venue don’t insist on taking a cut of the profits like the carling academies do), that’s where they make their money in general, album sales don’t make you money unless you sell millions. So it’s simple, if you download a band’s album, the least you can do is buy some form of merch.

@Will I wouldnt say Metallica was that bad. yes, 40 quid is alot of money, but i thought it was fully worth it for the experiance. Same for KISS. infact the only reason I paid that much was because they’re two of my favourite bands. any more than 40 isnt worth it though for a single gig in my opinion

Its a shame that ticket prices wont decrease at all in the forseeable future, but charging obscene amounts for a gig is uncalled for really. Aerosmith and Santana have charged rediculous amounts recently. I understand it because of artists loosing money on record sales, but if you’re a huge international artist that has no problem selling out stadiums, you could lower the prices a bit

@ will, it is where they make they’re money now, cuz of downloading music is taking down they’re album sales. but bands like metallica could do a 2 year tour, paying everything themselves and not charge anything for the concerts and it won’#t have a slightest dent in they’re piggy bank. Bon jovi is the worst, £90 for a fuckin ticket,,.,to see that wanker, i think not.

I paid £5 a ticket to see Metallica in 2008.
Also, I hear they are one of the cheapest bands that size to book on a festival. I assume it’s the same for a one off gig.

To me they’re doing it the right way – charge less, play more, still make the bucks.

While I agree with his point I think it’s a bit hypocritical of him considering a ticket for Maiden in the o2 Dublin is €65

Er… did Maiden not charge £50 for their Twickenham show in 2008? I know that’s half what Bon Jovi are said to have charged earlier this year, and I know there’s no better show than a Maiden show, but it’s still rather extortionate. It’d be nice if Dickinson could get his band to lead by example…

I paid close to £50 to see Maiden so I’m not sure what Bruce is talking about. I too saw ‘Tallica for a £5 (all of which went to charity) so I think it’s unfair for people to single them out

its not the ticket prices that offend me as such, its the fucking booking fees and postage costs etc! why do they need a booking fee on every individual ticket?

in fact, has anyone noticed the booking fee gets higher the more expensive the ticket is? it doesnt cost any more for Live Nation or whoever to book that ticket, its purely a rip-off. they could do it more stealthily by dropping the booking fee and putting a couple of quid on the ticket price, i wouldnt be quite as offended then!

I love this- in another recent post Ozzy’s being a total tabloid tit bitching about Bruce, and here Bruce is talking about a proper issue that true metal fans are concerned about- up the irons! \m/

Will – Before you or anyone else for that matter jumps all over Metallica as usual without doing your research, please be aware that tickets to see a Metallica or an Iron Maiden arena show are exactly the same.
Seeing as that is the case ( between £35 and £45 ) i would assume that Bruce is talking about other acts. There is no mention what so ever of Metallica in his article. Nothing lazier than just jumping on a band without doing a comparison first.
If your going to have an opinion, please do so, but don’t be ignorant to your subject matter in the process.

@Ryan – Ozzy was simply answering a question that was put to him, honestly as usual. Whilst I love Maiden, I agreed with everything Ozzy said – you don’t bite the hand that feeds you, especially whilst your still being fed.

That doesnt mean I agree with what Sharon did to Maiden on that tour in response, but I’d wager if Avenged had walked out and slagged off Maiden at Twickenham then their would have been some kind of response from Bruce.

Back on topic – I think Ozzfest sets a good benchmark going forward, £40 for a whole indoor festival is amazing value considering the combined costs of seeing the 5 announced bands seperately – you’d pay £40 for a London Korn ticket alone. Bigger bands are going to have to bring more than one average support band with them in future to justify the increasingly high prices at gigs.

seconded, ozzfest is a good price! also with all this “illegal downloading is pushing prices up/killing the industry/hurting the bands” bullshit, id like to point out that it is baisically tape trading in an updated format. without the tape trading scene, many many bands would not be known in the reigions that they are, and certain music scenes themselves would not exist. FFS metallica owe their career to tape trading(go ask lars). i download lots of albums sure but ive also got a massive cd collection. i go to as many gigs as poss and i have an absurdly large t-shirt collection so i do not feel guilty in the slightest. the more people that listen to a band the more people are gonna SEE that band and buy the t-shirt and the cd. thats how it works. spread the love.
peace.

Bands who’s music gets downloaded illegally get more successful because their music is more accessible to the masses; people who cant afford and will eventually to people in Iran, Cuba and places where heavy metal persecuted.
Motorhead later this year £35 each! at Brixton thats far to fucking much and sorry Lemmy I cant afford to come and see you!
Bruce is right lower prices and more people will come you’l make more money that way because you wont have a half empty venue duh!

Has anyone told Bruce about the pot calling the kettle black? What a hypocrite

This makes me laugh seeing as I couldnt afford the 60plus quid for standing to see them at Twickenham

I agree with Bruce to a certain extent. I paid £50.00 for Twickenham for 4 bands. Although expensive it’s nothing compared to Aerosmith at O2 and Robert Plant is charging £50.00 just to see him.
The difference with tape trading and illegal downloading is tape traders with just amatuers and mostly people who could not afford to buy them anyway.

He cant say shit! the price for the tickets for the Iron maiden gig for dublin O2 is 70 euro so wtf gives him the right to say tha knowing his own show are over price!!!

Between 50 and 70 quid for a maiden ticket is still not as bad as other bands on the same level so he has a right to make that statement and arenas themselves put tthe price up aswell as they have a say in how much is charged so its not always just the bands fault. Last time i saw maiden in glasgow i only paid 35 and i thought that was well worth it.

Well to date, and not counting crazy VIP packages, Iron Maiden’s the most expensive gig I’ve ever been to at a hundred bucks. So there’s that.

only cost me £30 to see maiden, BTW Ozzy is a hasbeen fuckwit! and the ozzfest line up is shit!

I’m just a student, I can’t work because of school. And I love going on showsn of course. I respect the artists and their work -I buy CDs when I can and merch. But the tickets are so expensive ! I do my best to go support them, cause that’s how they’ll continue, you know, taht kind of stuff. But I can’t pay 60€ for only ONE band, that’s too much. I wonder if it was possible, for every band and artist, to do something for those so expensive tickets, but I don’t think the industry’ll let them -cause we all now that we’re kinda the slaves of the Money…
In a year, I only went to 3 shows, and my part of money for the shows was over. It’s so frustrating… !

I think he’s talking about smaller bands.

My first gig i went to cost £8 for fear factory and that was the demanufacture tour so a while ago.

And most gigs back them cost probably on average just over a tenner then i stop going to gigs for a few years and then i went to machine head blackening tour (with arch enemy and that) and that was £35 which was a ridicolous price, considering Pearl Jam this year was £50 and there a much bigger band.

How about Devil Driver, Suicide Silence, Behemoth, Trigger the Bloodshed and Malefice- all for £16 last October!!! Bargain or what- Lamb of God and Job for a Cowboy +- Brixton £17.50, and Machine Head and Hatebreed +- Brixton £17.50 this year- Bloodstock and Hammerfest are amazing prices especially if you book early. Fuck those bastards who charge an arm AND a leg!

@Will – Iron Maiden charge more than Metallica for ticket prices at £50 a ticket which I feel is too much, although disregarding that I entirely agree with Bruce despite this being a bit hypocritical. Also I seem to remember sseing Metallica for £5 at the O2 on death Magnetic’s release

What promoters etc need to realise is that I, much like many other metal fans, don’t live in London, Manchester or Birmingham. If I lived in London I’d be more happy to pay the £40, £50 quid it would cost me for a ticket and I’d probably see a different band every couple of weeks. Although I’m not a million miles away from the capital (Ely, Cambs) it still cost me upwards of £30 to travel down and back on train. Covering all expenses, it costs me at least £100 a time to go see a band. I have, and will continue to make exceptions for some of my favourite bands and I LOVE live shows but I’d be more tempted to travel to London – even Birmingham – more if the prices of tickets were lowered. The closest venues to me are in Cambridge and Norwich and the bigger bands tend not to play these places (except the mighty Mothorhead who always come to Cambridge). Well done Bruce.

BRUCE DICKINSON YOU ARE SO FUCKING RIGHT!!!

Paid £6.75 (inc fee) to see Airbourne in a pub in Bristol in Feb 2008, in Nov that year I saw them again at the academy in Bristol £12.00 + £1.20 booking £ee.

Regarding the £ee$ being proportional to the ticket price – I saw Testament at the academy in Bristol – price £15 + £3 booking £ee.

@vazzer £17.50? please pm me where you got you MH ticket from, I need to change vendors! I was at Plymouth and Brixton – I purchased my tickets from a well known ticket vendor price £26 + £ee$

I have to say that all these were good value but who’s charging the extra and who’s making the pro£it?

Well, after reading this I was hoping for a good price for Maiden next time I saw them, but I’m looking at AUD$145 for them… only upside, the gig’s on my 20th birthday.

Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!