The other day I was looking through some old music memorabilia of mine and found some old concert tickets from the 90’s. If you will excuse my rather random musical choices they were, in no particular order:

Peter Gabriel - Earls Court 

Whitney Houston - Earls Court 

Genesis - Knebworth 

George Michael with Mick Hucknall, KD Lang & David Bowie - Wembley Arena 

With the exception of the Wembley Arena gig which was £45.00, although can you imagine seeing Bowie for £45.00! the rest of the tickets were around £20.00. Whilst I appreciate that this was 30 years ago, I really don’t recall it breaking the bank at the time.

Where is this heading I hear you ask, well I have been looking online as to the prices being charged today. Should you wish to see Madonna adding to her retirement fund then you better be ready to stump up £330 for a “restricted view” ticket. To see Beyonce strutting her stuff you best be prepared to part with the thick end of £500. In most cases you will be crammed in with 50,000 like minded people who all try to race to the exit at the same time at the end. Then there is the hassle of heading up to the Big Smoke. Plus, in many cases you cannot now actually buy tickets at their face value, you have to go through a ticket agent who will then put their own mark up and booking fee on top.

Last summer for my 50th I was treated to the Rolling Stones gig in Hyde Park. Not including the hefty ticket price (you don’t even get a real ticket as a souvenir anymore) we had to drive 200 miles to friends in Berkshire then get a cab into London as the trains & tubes were on strike that weekend. Add to that a night in a Travel Lodge, plus another cab to and from Hyde Park, not to mention the London price of drinks! With all that being said, value for money wise, The Stones certainly delivered, this is a band who clearly love what they do. 

A few months previous, my local town of Callington hosted an event which included totally for free a flatbed trailer with live music on all afternoon, the weather and the atmosphere was great, the drinks reasonably priced and best of all it was 3 miles from home. The bands were up for it, the music was excellent and as they say, a great time was had by all. Up until the start of this year my local pub would always have on some excellent live music most weekends and some weekday evenings, anything from cover bands, indie, rock, right up to proper traditional Cornish music. Again, great atmosphere and you could actually see the acts. 

I guess that back in the 90s most “pub bands” were just that, bands that played in pubs, but not these days. Todays acts have proper talented musicians who know their stuff and more importantly love what they do. The musicianship of a great many these local bands can rival and in many cases exceed some of the big names that you will pay top dollar for, remember that in a lot of cases these so called “pub bands” have paid their dues and been around the block a fair few times and in many cases have often rubbed shoulders with some of the big names in music. Whilst not shouting it from the rooftops, in quieter moments at the bar after the gig you may hear the occasional top name being dropped, not in a shouty look at me manner, more of a matter of fact way.

Let us not forget the amazing tribute acts that are out there, for the same price as a 1990s gig ticket you can see Let me entertain you, a Robbie Williams tribute act in Redruth, The Bowie Experience in Truro or my own personal favourite, Moments of pleasure - the music of Kate Bush. I have seen as many great tribute acts in the past 10 years as I have genuine bands, once again as mentioned above, the music, production and singing is second to none, in many cases this will be the only way that many can get to experience some of these bands and singers.

So my advice is get yourself out there, go to a local pub, go to a local venue and support these fine acts. Check out our regular monthly gig guide to find your nearest venue.

The Scribes will be playing in Falmouth on March 17.