As A Live Music Fan There Is No Better Experience Than Going To See Your Favourite Band Live At A Gig, But Why Do Countless People Get Rebuked For Wishing To Watch Their Favourite Band On A Regular Basis?
As an obsessive music fan, there’s nothing I love more than going to watch my favourite bands performing live. In recent times I’ve driven all over the UK to follow the bands that I are my favourites, and have even made the trip over to Ireland and mainland Europe a few times. On quite a few occasions, I’ve actually booked tickets for an entire tour of approximately ten or twelve dates and had an amazing road trip with a friend to see them all.
There are a lot of people who think that doing something like this is a bit odd, but I always ask them if they think it strange that someone would travel and see a football team at every game they play, and as we are all aware, there are countless people all around the world who do that. And not many people query why they do it! In any case, I don’t honestly care what other people think about it. So many people have hobbies that are of no interest to me, so why should I be condemned for doing something that I get so much pleasure from?
Anyway, when my favourite band announces some gigs, the first thing my friend and I do is to look at our diaries and check our bank balances. Money is always the biggest obstacle, as a really good road trip is not just about the cost of tickets, but fuel and accommodation costs too. If the tour looks affordable, then time off work needs to be confirmed. And we do figure that if we decide to go to a gig straight from work and then travel back home that night, anything under two hours travelling each way is quite acceptable.
After that it’s a question of finding hotels wherever we need them, making reservations, checking out maps of the few venues that we aren’t already familiar with, and then we’re all set to to rock and roll – in the literal sense! As the countdown begins, the expectations rise.
I inevitably have butterflies in my stomach before they walk on stage, and that feeling never diminishes regardless of how many times I go to see them. And before I get on my soapbox about artificial pop music, it’s brilliant watching a decent band, folk who write all their own material, are all highly accomplished musicians and sound great live. They don’t have to depend on choreographed dance routines, loads of lighting, Laser eye beam effects and firework displays – their music and their personalities are all they need to keep the crowd happy.
For this band though, budgets are limited, so when we step in and help them out by doing things like staffing their merchandise sales or arriving at the venue with things we know they don’t have with them, it’s good to feel like we’re helping with their crusade. It’s great to feel useful!
We’d totally love for this band to be massive and for everyone to have heard of them, but unfortunately they have a fair few fans who would rather they remained a well kept secret so that they continue to play in intimate venues and can meet up with fans after the show. But as I have said to so many people, small venue shows don’t pay the mortgage, fund reliable cars, finance the Laser eye surgery and ankle operation that two of the band members need or most importantly, leave them with any money to spend on promoting their music.
To get back to something I said earlier, the music business in 2011 is much more obsessed with making money fast and hasn’t much interest in nurturing musicians with potential because they take a longer period of time to become well known. It’s awful to think that many outstanding musicians get out of the industry because they can’t survive financially, whilst the music business throws vast amounts of money at the winners of television reality shows, spending millions on their ‘image’ – which probably means cosmetic surgery, Laser eye treatment, long sessions with stylists, expensive choreographers and almost inevitably the infamous autotune. But, you know, it’s all about the music!
I’m visiting Wembley Arena in a few days. But I’m going to cheer on the support act. I’ve paid nearly £30 just to enjoy half an hour of amazing music. I really won’t bother to stay and watch the headline act, because I’ve previously seen them at a festival and they were fairly awful. Thinking of the vastness of Wembley, I expect I’ll wish I’d already had my Laser eye surgery done as unfortunately my eyesight has got quite bad, so in all likelihood the money I’ve spent will allow me a blurred view of half a dozen moving dots on stage, but it’s still vital to me that I turn up and support the musicians I love.
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