Dont forget the rip off charge as well... I saw a post on another messageboard that Neil Young was supposed to be playing the source festival in kilkenny

Q2 - I wouldn't worry a whole bunch about the ticket price. Even if you had a sackful of money, you wouldn't get your hands on one. It'll be a tiresome industry love-in in much the same mould as the Dylan gig there a few years ago. If there is any solace to be had, the Dylan gig the following night in the Point was generally rated as one of the best gigs he has played in years. The Vicar St. love in was so so. Me, I'd love to see Young up close and personal but I'd have difficulty restraining myself from throwing my empty pint glasses at Bono, The Corrs, various TV3 and Sindo hacks and c-list celebrities. No doubt, the highlight of the night will be his collaboration with Six??

It is definately a bad milestone ... I never thought they'd break the €100 mark so quickly.

Good point, the 100 quid mark has been broken already. Anyone care to guess what such a gig would cost this time next year or the year after? It will sell out and mcd will laugh all the way to the bank. And then it'll just get worse and worse....... PS Vent My Spleen, throwing pint glasses at the Corrs? You should have been at Iggy Pop at the Olympia last year. Just after he came out, he spotted the 3 Corrs girls smiling from the VIP box. They quickly left after he hocked up a huge wad of phlegm and landed in it the box with them. Sounds like your kinda guy........... Q2

105 europes is a lotta dough alright, but i just couldnt pass this one up - so i decided to ignore the slane gig for the moment, as well as that new pair of jeans and postponed booking the summer holiday... yes, they got me good and proper this time... oh, just so you know, dont think this is an MCD affair, its Aiken promotion who own and run Vicar St. to the best of my knowledge. he's the only fella i would even consider paying this much for though - and i was lucky enough to get a couple of tickets for the Tuesday night... phew..

I know MCD, Aiken and all the other promo companies have to take a large slice of the blame for this travesty but part of the blame must fall on the artist in question also. The Paul McCartney gig is the same. Look, these guys are huge and have a lot of power, we all know that and they are certainly powerful enough to stop this madness, they are by no means dancing at the end of the promoters puppet strings. Look at Pearl Jam for instance, they stood up to Ticketmaster in the States even though it meant they could not get a decent venue to play for years because they were blacklisted and it caused them heaps of problems. But at the end of the day I have loads of respect for them, even though I'm not a mad fan, because they felt it was wrong for the fans to be expected to pay ridiculous ticket prices. I love Neil Young and I love Paul McCartney and it is killing me that I will miss their gigs but aswell as sticking one finger up in the air at the promoters I am going to stick another finger up at the artists in question as they have obviously forgotten that me and all their other fans have spent hundreds in putting them where they are. At this point, I'd like to nick a line from Paul McCartney's most famous song.....Suddenly, you're not half the man you used to be!!! I wonder if John Lennon would charge 105 euros to one of his gigs if he was still alive?.....I doubt it very much.

There's not much to say on this really except prices like this are a complete outrage. I think we have a weird mindset here that we need to get over. We appear to think nothing of paying well over 20 euro to see bands with one album released, riding the crest of pr hype, and then dis the likes of excellent hard working bands like the frames and the walls playing bigger venues like the ambassador. Even bands like The Coral (whom I love don't get me wrong) are coming straight over and playing in the olympia and they don't even have to worry as it'll be completely packed. But THE most annoying thing is people begrudge seeing local bands and having to pay 5/6 euro, which unfortunately is now nearly the price of a pint (well amost give or take). So please punters, check your listing for some excellent line-up's brought to you by the likes of the Ballroom Of Romance, the Asspersions Collective (Limerick) and Soundroom (if I may mention it). Thanks.

I suggest instead of paying €105 for a ticket, invest in a good DVD player with surround sound speakers, Neil Young unplugged DVD, a large amount of grass and ..... well he'll be right there in your living room every night of the week!

Personally, the Paul McCartney gig vexes me more than the Neil Young one. At least in Vicar St, you are at worst 50 feet away from the performer. I personally can see the attraction of paying a premium to see a legend in an intimate venue (afterall, if Neil Young played Slane, it would be roughly half the price). Macca's cash in is to my mind far worse. If memory serves, there are only two bands I can recall standing up to the promoters, Peral Jam and Zeppelin. Kudos to Pearl Jam though as Zep were such a huge act at the time they had to listen

Q2, is that iggy pop/corrs story really true??...i hope it is, but why the f**k would those hideous oirish cupcakes gone-off be at iggy pop in the first place??...what next, ronan keating checking out godspeed, you black emporer!??... in terms of the neil young thing, if i felt as passionate about him as a lot of people do, i'd do me darndest to see him, even at that bloated price... i like young a lot but it'd have to be someone else for me personally to deserve that kind of commitment... he'd want to do a pretty f**kin great set if he really appreciates the honest ordinary fans who are willing to pay so much money for what they're hoping will be a truly seminal, emotional occasion...apparently nina simone was disappointing about a year ago when tickets were something like 80euro... the acid test will be finding out after the event if it was really worth it...it's a shame when economics is mixed with love of music so blatantly as it is with these young/mccartney concerts but that's life... and soundroom, i've been really getting into local acts recently, mainly through going to the truly excellent ballroom of romance gigs you mentioned, but you can't just support homegrown music for the sake of it...it has to be good music and luckily this country is brimmimg with it right now but if you're not careful, you can see an awful lot of demoralising s**te aswell...my advice, discover great new local music through the radio (eg. jay ahern, fanning sessions, xfm etc), tv (no disco) , papers (eg. event guide), internet etc. and then definitely see them live as much as you can but going to gigs blind can be very damaging for such an appetite in the long run...er, if you know what i mean... but essentially, you're right...i've recently enjoyed say the ballroom gigs or someone like paul o'reilly at whelans or whatever just as much as i have done going to witnness, gigs at the olympia/ambassador etc...great music is great music at any level, at any venue, at any price...

I don't mind paying the price of 1 or 2 pints to see a good band soundroom. Nor about the first album thing. For example, Idlewild are an excellent live act with only one of 3 albums being noticed so far. I'm not sorry I paid 20-25 quid to see them, considering the coverage they're getting, that price is quite reasonable. And yes your majesty, the iggy pop/corrs thing is true. I remember seeing him spitting at someone when he came out, but I didn't know who until later. It does beg the question though, what were the Corrs doing at an Iggy Pop gig? Oh well, you were once at a Westlife gig, so you can't talk Hee Hee Q2

Just checked the London Prices for Neil Young's tour anf they are 55 sterling + booking for the Hammersmith Appolo, making it about 100 euro for a far bigger venue. A bit rich I would have thought....

especially with the cost of 'been brought back from the dead' charges, gotta pay for them some how

It's those f**kin hidden charges man .. they screw ya everytime

I always find it interesting how the Beatles songwriting ability faded quickly after they broke up. McCartney descended into sinckeningly sweet pop tunes - I'd forgotten how much crap he churned out until I listened to the recent Wings retrospective. Equally, Lennon's output was decidedly hit and miss and from 1973 on was practically non-existent. I should say that I am not a Beatles fan at the best of times but all the indications were that John was unlikely to rekindle the heady days of Instant Karma or Cold Turkey. That said, I don't think he would have inflicted The Frog Chorus or Pipe of Peace on the world. On the gig side, I think he would have been equally as expensive and probably as shambolic as ever (100 yoyos to see Yoko shrieking for 30 minutes...no ta)

King of Nails - Nina Simmone was dissapointing because she canceled her gig. However, I do agree that hers, Paul McCartney's and Neil Young's gigs are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overpriced.

what about the Paul McCarthney gig. THats well over the ton and its in the point and all. Hes another Legend as is Young, so is it jsyt the older these boys get that the promoters reckon they can just jack up the price cos these boys won;t be around forever and people will always want to see a legend