Tuesday, December 30, 2008

2008 - The Best and Worst

My annual look back over the year from a "best of" and "worst of" perspective. 

Best Gig 2008 
1: Bryan Adams - O2 Classic long set and barely a "filler" amongst them 
2: Who - Indigo2 They maybe of pensionable age (nearly), but no-one rocks like the 'oo! 
3: Journey - Hammersmith Apollo Unexpectedly good evening of Classic Rock 

Most Disappointing Gig 2008 
1: The Scorpions - Hammersmith Apollo Last years "Best Gig" winners was the most disappointing this year - but still not bad! 
2: Status Quo - Brighton A rare below-par performance from the Quo - but still an enjoyable show. 
I can't really describe any of the others as disappointing - In a year of reduced shows for me, the quality has been really good. That's probably down to me being very selective! 

Best Venue 2008 
1: Hammersmith Apollo 
2: Indigo2 

Worst Venue 2008 
1: London Astoria 
2: Wembley Arena 

Good in 2008 
1: Less Drunks at gigs than last year. 
2: Venues don't seem to be quite such a squeeze when "full". Maybe Health & Safety has reduced some capacities. 
3: More friendly security - Seems more customer focused at most venues. 

Bad In 2008 
1: Even more people buying tickets for "big artists" purely to flog them on eBay for profit. Lowlifes! And don't even get me started about Seatwave / GetMeIn / Viagogo etc! How does AC/DC sell out 2 nights at the O2 in less than 10 minutes? Why are prime seats available via GetMeIn (A Ticketmaster Company) etc a nanosecond later at a 400% markup? 
2: Fuelled by above, Rip-off ticket prices still. Maybe the credit crunch will bring these back down. Even if it does you can bet the agencies will still charge a fortune in "booking fees" and postage. 
3: Merchandise costs are still far too high. I still don't want to pay £15 for a programme. As said before, I would buy a T shirt if they were a) good and b) around a tenner instead of poor quality and £16/£20 each ! The "fake" ones outside are less than a fiver and often not any worse quality. 

Well, that's it for 2008. Hope you had a good one and an even better 2009!

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