TICKET SALES:This may well be the year when the Irish gig-going community says "enough already" to overpriced tickets. Indeed, there has signs already of caution in the air.
Until recently, instant sell-outs for event gigs used to be the norm, but the fact that Bruce Springsteen’s second RDS gig, U2’s third Croke Park date and Coldplay in the Phoenix Park did not sell out immediately indicates that some sanity is returning to the market.
That rebalancing is largely due to people now treating tickets for live music shows as luxury items. The days when audiences would shell out three-figure sums without thinking, to see a heritage act sing the hits are over.
Tom Waits may have picked the right year to come to Ireland to shore up his pension fund.
For an illustration of the new state of play, look at the forthcoming three-night stand by Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe in Dublin’s Olympia. At the time of writing, there are still front-row tickets available for these gigs on Ticketmaster, and sources indicate that total sales for the run are sluggish.
This would have a lot to do with eye-watering ticket prices of €131.25, €116.25 and €96.25.
Yet there are some shows which buck the trend. Irish comedy continues to be immune to the slump, particularly when it involves shows in Dublin’s Vicar Street. There is also a huge demand for tickets to see Bell X1 at the moment on the back of their radio hit The Great Defector.
And, just to show that it’s not all homegrown, there has also been massive demand for tickets to see tried-and-tested vintage acts such as Tina Turner and AC/DC and newer pop stars like Girls Aloud, Lady Gaga or Chris Brown.
