By Isle of Wight Observer
Nothing compares to Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band playing live, although the Jam’s equally exciting rock-‘n’-roll music was actually the soundtrack to my teenage years.
I bought ‘Going Underground’ on the day of release, and played it to death at my Nan’s flat. Frontman, Paul Weller, was super cool, bassist, Bruce Foxton, was just as hip, while Rick Buckler had a unique drumming style. Weller now says some of the early stuff isn’t that great, but I beg to differ.
Young Mr Weller was the angry young man from Woking who seemed to hate bosses, the rich and the ruling class. Maggie Thatcher was “The public enemy at number 10.” He became a spokesman for a generation, trying to right every wrong. “It’s the kidney machines that pay for rockets and guns,” is one memorable lyric. He also sang of “Video machines keeping us slaves to the HP.”
Along with Billy Bragg, Weller was a prominent member of Red Wedge, a collective of socialist musicians who attempted to educate the youth about the policies of the 1987 Labour party. ‘Eton Rifles’ was about public-school toffs – “All that rugby puts hair on your chest”. It backfired slightly when Eton old boy, David Cameron, chose it as one of his Desert Island Discs!
In those days, Weller seemed to detest privilege and wealth, and everything that elitist private education stood for. Naturally, when the working-class hero had made a few bob, he had his children privately educated – all eight of them! He also resides in St John’s Wood, arguably the poshest trendiest part of north London. I still love him, and it’s a huge regret I never got to see ‘The Jam’ live, but those tickets were rarer than hen’s teeth.
When it comes to gig tickets, the primary objective must be to make money. I’m not certain it’s true, but a friend in the music business recently told me that one of Mr Weller’s band members gets paid around £300 per gig. That doesn’t seem an overly generous share of the money generated from fans, but presumably it’s the going rate. Paul Weller occasionally plays the 5,000 capacity Albert Hall. Currently, his nationwide tour tickets are on sale with ‘limited availability’ at around £55 – plus the dreaded and grossly unfair £3.25 ‘booking fee’. If he usually plays 5,000 capacity venues, I make that around £275,000 in revenue. If true, the band member’s 300 quid fee seems a bit mean, doesn’t it?
Oasis were the next generation’s working class musical heroes – they were Jam fans too. The Gallagher Brothers made headlines last week for their much-hyped reunion tour and, when tickets went on sale, got even more attention for the ‘dynamic pricing’ strategy. This greedy tactic is now common practice for ticket sellers – because the more revenue generated, the more profit for artist, management and record company, who also want a slice of the pie.
After queuing for hours, lucky Oasis fans were asked to stump up £355 to see the Mancunian funsters. Fourteen million people were trying to buy just 1.4 million tickets, so, unsurprisingly, very few were favoured. Friends claimed they’d spent 8 hours trying on-line. Does that make them superfans or stupid fans? Lots of disgruntled people think dynamic or ‘surge’ pricing should have no place in concert ticket sales, but many other companies, who want their prices to reflect ‘market value’, also do this.
When I heard disgruntled punters bellyaching, I wanted to yell “Isle of Wight ferry operators do this too, and ferry travel is not discretionary, like gig tickets; it’s a vital public service!”
The government and EU now say they’ll urgently look into ‘dynamic pricing,’ so please be sure to let them know how it affects your daily life.