Let's see if we can pinpoint the exact moment things began to spiral out of control and, perhaps, even identify the culprit(s) who is most to blame.

Okay, I'll start.

1976: Paid $9.50 to see Paul McCartney and Wings. Seemed expensive because the industry standard was only $8.50 at the time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 05:04 by tatters.

1979: Paid $11.00 (cheap seats) to see the Who at Madison Square Garden.

My dad paid $12.50 a ticket to see the Rolling Stones in Los Angeles in 1969. The "regular" top ticket was either $8 or $8.50 but the front section was $12.50. I remember people were outraged.

For Germany:

pitch standing

1976 -- € 10
1982 -- € 19
1990-- € 28
1995 -- € 32
1998 -- € 50
2003 -- € 80 to 90
2006/7 -- (seated) -- € 190 !!

nearly 4 times higher from 1998 to 2007

[www.iorr.org]

1976 : paid £3.50 (no booking fees then!) to see The Stones in Glasgow, Scotland in a 3,500 venue (all tickets were the same price)

Just put that figure into an inflation calculator - 2012 equivalent - around £24.00



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 01:47 by GuessWho.

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TeddyB1018
My dad paid $12.50 a ticket to see the Rolling Stones in Los Angeles in 1969. The "regular" top ticket was either $8 or $8.50 but the front section was $12.50. I remember people were outraged.

Hard to believe it was that much because even in '76 when I started going to concerts, a typical arena show was priced at $8.50, $7.50, and $6.50.

I paid $12.00 to see the Stones in '78. General admission in a football stadium.

I'll tell you the first outrageously high ticket price I remember. $18.50 and $15.50 to see the No Nukes concert at Madison Square Garden in 1979. It was the same week as the Who concert for which I only paid $11.00. Nosebleed seats for $15.50. I couldn't believe it. I remember thinking that even for a Beatles reunion the tickets couldn't have been priced any higher.

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tatters
Let's see if we can pinpoint the exact moment things began to spiral out of control and, perhaps, even identify the culprit(s) who is most to blame.

Okay, I'll start.

1976: Paid $9.50 to see Paul McCartney and Wings. Seemed expensive because the industry standard was only $8.50 at the time.1979:
Paid $11.00 (cheap seats) to see the Who at Madison Square Garden.

1976. Paid £4 to see the Stones at Earl's Court and £4 at Knebworth for the Stones plus.........
Also 1976, paid zero along with 6 friends to see The Who at the Vetch Field Swansea, I used to sell programs for the football team - Swansea City - so used my free pass to get all of us in.
1979. Paid zero to see Led Zeppelin & New Barbarians at Knebworth and zero to see Ian Dury and the Blockheads the following night at the Hammersmith odeon...........
Taking into account the rate of inflation I'm sure I'll be able to find a loose corrugated metal sheet somewhere at the O2.................



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 01:54 by EddieByword.

1981: Paid $8.00 to see Muddy Waters in a 300-seat club. They let us stay for both shows at no extra charge.

all exluding service charge
$15.50 1981
$25.00 1989
$50.00 1994
$75.00 1997
$90.00 1999
£85.00 2003
£95.00 2007 (at the o2 , 1st level to the side of stage, they are going for £375.00 in 2012

The Eagles started this cluster @#$%& in the ticket prices in the Spring of 1994. Repeat it over and over. The Eagles started this cluster @#$%&.

Paid $11 for the Mick Birthday show in Oakland. Last show of the Some Girls Tour in 78! $15 for the Cow Palace in 75! Most paid $200 for Dodger Stadium in 2006 (not including air fare from SF)
Non Stones shows......paid $5 to see dozens of shows at Winterland in SF in the 70's. Not including the ones we slipped into for free when someone opened the side door! :-)) Also paid $2 to see Aerosmith in Nashua, NH in 1972.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 02:09 by No Expectations.

First concert - Hendrix in 1968, although I won those tickets, they were priced at $3.50. The range for that show at the Hollywood Bowl was from 6.50 down to 2.50.

My next concert - Cream (farewell) I paid $5.50 per ticket.

to be honest it is only these shows at the o2 next month that I have been outraged. even in 07, I thought yeah they are a bit more then other big acts but could live with it but now they are just taking the piss, 400 quid for a level 4 seat is just bloody nuts!

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Ket
to be honest it is only these shows at the o2 next month that I have been outraged. even in 07, I thought yeah they are a bit more then other big acts but could live with it but now they are just taking the piss, 400 quid for a level 4 seat is just bloody nuts!

Unfortunately they will get it. We all know the Stones sold out to the almighty buck long ago and it's not gonna change. Not saying they shouldn't go for whatever they can get....that's a decision only they can make... but the band we knew in the 60's and 70's is gone and nothings gonna bring em back!

$12.50 for The stones in 1978 at the Louisiana Superdome.

Regarding the Stones, I paid @ $50 each for 3 theatre shows in 2002/2003. The last Stones concert I attended I had a free ticket.

I feel like I'm not doing too bad!

When the stones played in Atlantic City, I paid $450/ticket. I might have been one of the best show I have ever seen. Worth every penny.

I had a free ticket for Dodger Stadium, second show in '97.

Mind you, the flight wasn't free.

Highest price I ever paid was around £ 90,-. Not willing to pay much more since the guitarplaying hasn't been improving.

$450 for 12th row Fenway Park second night. I got mine via Tickmaster drop the day before and sat next to someone who paid $1,200 to a broker.

My Bruce Springsteen stub from 1992 is $25

Paid $50 for Voodoo Lounge in 1994.

You can see Chuck Berry for about twenty bucks or so once a month here in St. Louis at the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill.

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trainarollin
The Eagles started this cluster @#$%& in the ticket prices in the Spring of 1994. Repeat it over and over. The Eagles started this cluster @#$%&.

The Eagles had a lot to do with it, sure, but in 1991 or 1992, Jethro Tull, whose ticket prices for arena shows had always been slightly lower than the norm, scheduled a show at the Beacon Theatre in New York with a ticket price of $32.50. This was off the charts expensive at the time, but, as Ian Anderson explained, this was to be a special intimate show for die hard fans only. The truth was, they couldn't fill arenas anymore. There never was any intention of going back to low-priced arena shows. From that day forward, their concerts became private parties for hardcore fans only. You had to be hardcore to pay those prices, but it greatly discouraged anyone who was maybe just a casual fan who had never seen them before from taking a chance on going to one of their shows. In the 20 years since, virtually every other touring act has followed this example.



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 04:33 by tatters.

My Montreal Stones shows:

1989 = 32.50 very bad seats way up in the stands, level 700
1994 = 45.00 15th row, main floor, center stage.
1998 = 55.00 5th row, main floor, center stage
2003 = 300.00 5th row again, main floor, center stage

I also went to see them in 2005 (Toronto), 2006 (Montreal and Boston) but I can't remember the price I paid then.

In recent memory:

Bruce Springsteen 2007: £80
ACDC 2009: £65
ZZ Top 2010: £65
Robert Plant 2010: £30
Jethro Tull 2010: £30
Motorhead 2011: £45

$50 for the Aragon Ballroom club show in 2002. (Yes, I got lucky on that one...tried on a whim at Ticketmaster's site long after the show was "sold out"...and lo and behold, two came up available a day or two before the show. For $50 each.)

And ya know what? I couldn't have scalped them if I wanted to. They had a wristband system where you had to present your ID to claim the ticket the day of the show, and they put the band on your wrist. I suppose I could've cut the band off my wrist and tried to hawk the ticket to somebody...but it would've been a risky hassle. So there are steps that can be taken to discourage scalping if they really wanted to have low ticket price.


EDIT: this thread title was changed after I posted. I was just simply posting an actual ticket price I remember paying. Doesn't have anything do to with the evolution of high ticket prices.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 05:11 by rocker1.

$60. Bridges to Babylon. I remember that. I had trouble convincing people to go because it was getting a bit out of range for college folks.

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Send It To me

My Bruce Springsteen stub from 1992 is $25

That was considered "top dollar" at the time, which is why those $32.50 Jethro Tull tickets (see above) seemed so expensive. How much were Stones tickets in 1989? I think it was $22.50 wasn't it? Well, that very same year, I paid $35.00 (face value) to see Lou Reed and John Cale at The Brooklyn Academy Of Music. $35 was an unheard of price for a concert ticket in 1989, but I would have gladly paid much more. You have to be a VU fan to understand what this meant. It was like you were seeing Lennon and McCartney.






Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 15:37 by tatters.

I posted this in another thread, but let me talk about Simon and Garfunkel for minute. This, I think, is where we, as fans, really let the situation with ticket prices get completely out of hand. In 1993, a year before the dreaded Eagles tour with its $100 tickets, Simon and Garfunkel played a 20-night stand at the theatre that's located beneath Madison Square Garden. It used to be called the Felt Forum. I have no idea what it's called now, but in 1993 it was called The Paramount, I think. In 1993, concert tickets still only cost around $27.50 for most shows. I certainly had never heard of anything higher than the $35 tickets for that once in a lifetime Reed and Cale show. The Simon and Garfunkel tickets were $60. If there was ever a time when fans could have made a stand and boycotted a show because of excessively high prices, and maybe gotten promoters to think twice before trying anything like that again, that would have been the time. But $60 was what a ticket to a Broadway show cost at the time, so it was a price that many New Yorkers were used to paying for a night of entertainment. All 20 concerts, about 60,000 tickets in all, sold out. That's what lead directly to the Eagles charging $100 in 1994, and to everything that's happened since.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 04:57 by tatters.

Any boxing fans out there? (I know Gazza is one) Always wondered why boxing tickets are so expensive. In 1971, ringside seats for the Ali - Frazier fight at Madison Square Garden were $100, or maybe $150. That same year, tickets to The Concert For Bangladesh, also at Madison Square Garden, were $6.50. I never understood that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-10-18 05:09 by tatters.

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tatters

Quote
Send It To me

My Bruce Springsteen stub from 1992 is $25

That was considered "top dollar" at the time, which is why those $32.50 Jethro Tull tickets (see above) seemed so expensive. How much were Stones tickets in 1989? I think it was $22.50 wasn't it? Well, that very same year, I paid $35.00 (face value) to see Lou Reed and John Cale at The Brooklyn Academy Of Music. $35 was an unheard of price for a concert ticket in 1989, but I would have gladly paid much more. You have to be a VU fan to understand what this meant. It was like seeing Lennon and McCartney.

I'm sure it was more because they were charging £20 or more in Europe in 1990.