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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jun 13, 2021 7:11:18 GMT
Ministers fear Britain will have a six-week window to open up in the summer or risk having Covid restrictions in place until spring, the Sunday Telegraph reports. Government advisers have explained there is a "ticking clock" to lift measures before it becomes too late to do so in September because of the greater transmission of Covid in winter and seasonal pressures on the NHS. It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave his clearest signal yet that he is planning to delay the return to normality by a month. Delay in England looks certain Whadaya gonna do?
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jun 12, 2023 8:08:23 GMT
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Post by personunknown on Jun 12, 2023 9:30:05 GMT
A bit lost in the midst of time but I recall a little, weasely guy going up and down the queue outside The Lyceum on the Strand trying to convince people that the gig had sold out and you had no chance of getting in. He would then proceed to offer you twice the price tickets of completely different events elsewhere in the capital, Miss Saigon, Brian Rix farces, Phantom of the Opera. The doormen would eventually come out and chase him off but he would be back there same time the following week.
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jul 14, 2023 11:40:42 GMT
From an email I just received (Guardian guide) and an interesting read re live music... Were you watching live music in a field/city park/stadium/arena/back room of a pub last weekend? If so, you weren’t alone. Wherever you looked there seemed to be a festival or mega-gig blaring away. London alone felt like it might collapse under the force of decibels as a reported one million people went to a gig last week. I was at Blur for the first of their two Wembley stadium gigs, but you could have taken your pick between The Weeknd, shaking off the stink of The Idol at the Olympic stadium across two nights; The Boss at Hyde Park on Friday and Saturday; Lana Del Rey (making curfew this time), at the same venue on Sunday; the, ahem, delights of Black Eyed Peas and Kaiser Chiefs at Greenwich Summer Sounds; or a bouncing Wireless festival weekend in Finsbury Park featuring Playboi Carti, Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert. And that was just London. Elsewhere in the UK, you could have caught Pulp, Sam Fender and The 1975 at the T in the Park-usurping TRNSMT festival in Glasgow, or enjoyed the noughties rock-tastic lineup (Rival Schools! Hundred Reasons! Hell is for Heroes!) at 2000trees in Gloucestershire. You could have also been in Malvern to see KC and the Sunshine Band and Sampa the Great at the good-vibes-only El Dorado festival, or you could have seen Pulp in Scarborough, The Lumineers in Halifax, or any one of the hundreds of regular gigs motoring along across the length and breadth of the UK. But how many gigs is too many gigs in one weekend? There was a feeling, best articulated in the Clash piece (link below) about the risible numbers for Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard at Wembley the weekend before, that there might be an unsustainable number of live events at present: too many gigs, not enough people to attend them, certainly at some of the prices being asked for. In the event, despite Blur having to slash prices for some of the nosebleed seats for the second night at Wembley, all of those many London gigs and festivals last weekend seemed to be full or close to it. Besides, you suspect last weekend might have been a bit of a unicorn – a perfect storm of lots of big venues being available on the same weekend (want to book the Olympic Stadium this weekend? Tough luck, the monster trucks are on), lots of artists wanting to tour at the same time, plus the usual summer festival glut. More generally, this has been a year where the gig industry is trying to play catch up after that long pandemic-affected period. Sure, 2022 might have been the year where normality started to return to gig-going, but a lot of the bigger touring shows – scheduled and booked in some cases more than a year in advance – wouldn’t have been in a position to commit to dates that early – hence the surge of shows in 2023. What’s striking about the surge of big-name shows is how detached it seems from the far bleaker outlook for live music in this country, where 100 festivals have packed up since Covid, artists are struggling to make a living from live performance and smaller venues are closing en masse due to rocketing costs, noise complaints or vampiric property developers. There’s a growing disconnect between the top rung of live music – where eight vast new venues are currently in development, city parks are booked up for gigs and festivals all summer (to the inconvenience of local residents), and ticket prices continue to spiral – and its struggling lower rungs. As is often pointed out, it’s the grassroots scenes that facilitate that top rung, providing a valuable platform for artists on their way up, and offering younger audiences an affordable chance to see live music and build a habit of gig going. Take that away and the whole edifice starts looking shaky. Soon we might not be asking why there are so many gigs going on every weekend – but why there are so few. * Clash piece about the risible numbers for Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard at Wembley... www.clashmusic.com/features/those-motley-crue-viral-pictures-highlight-severe-flaws-in-live-music/?CMP=guidestayingin_email
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Post by personunknown on Jul 14, 2023 12:26:45 GMT
Great article. If people thought that Crue/Leppard crowd was paltry they'll be astonished to know that N Dubz are playing the Scarborough OAT next week. 8000 capacity and less than five hundred tickets sold to date. Whoever thought that was a good idea....
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jul 14, 2023 13:54:05 GMT
It is good isn't it?
That N Dubz gig sounds like another disaster in the making
N Dubz played a big one here but I haven't heard how busy it was
I did here that people were leaving a big Paulo Nutini gig well before the end as it was so underwhelming
I know very little about either N Dubz or Paulo Nutini but, from my scant knowledge, booking a 10,000 person venue feels like madness. It was a run of concerts in a local park, culminating in Chic, which I did attend and which was full and went down very well
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jul 14, 2023 14:00:45 GMT
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Post by personunknown on Feb 3, 2024 11:09:54 GMT
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Feb 3, 2024 12:03:07 GMT
Tragic Probably be flats this time next year
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Post by zeopold on Feb 3, 2024 21:00:15 GMT
The Clash in 1977 was the greatest gig I have ever been to I saw them a fair bit later on the '16 Tons' tour. No other group before or since has rocked me so hard.
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Post by personunknown on Feb 22, 2024 12:44:02 GMT
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Feb 22, 2024 13:34:38 GMT
Sad state of affairs but as the article suggests promoters have to be more creative and there are ways to still make it work
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Post by personunknown on Feb 22, 2024 13:50:11 GMT
Agree. Most festivals are too linear, stage just surrounded by food vans. Beautiful Days gets it right with activities all over the site for all ages. They've been running for over twenty years now with no public funding or sponsorship.
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Feb 22, 2024 14:37:43 GMT
Yes, BD is a very good example of how to carve out a niche and build a very loyal clientele who will be buying early bird tickets for the following year, the moment the festival ends. See also Rockaway Beach.
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