Swifty? No, but I am a bit of a Smoovey
YOU could end up paying thousands of pounds if you want to go and see Taylor Swift during her brief tour of the UK this summer.
You would probably have a fabulous time, too. Taylor Swift makes breezy pop songs packed with positive messages and is famously good to her fans when she gets the opportunity.
But such is the entertainment business these days that, however whole-hearted and genuine a performer might be, things change when they become the biggest act in the whole world.
Promoters, logistics handlers and vast stadium venues want their share of the performer’s riches, and it all means massive ticket prices for gigs in big cities.
I looked at the cost of tickets to see Taylor Swift at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, just to compare them with the price I paid for a glorious Saturday night of musical entertainment. I paid £20.
Given the choice, Taylor Swift would probably knock out her tickets at £20 a time, but that isn’t going to happen any time soon.
On the main ticket site I couldn’t even look at the cost of the most reasonably priced seats still available for shows in June without joining a long queue, and other websites were offering me tickets starting from £580. There were some available for £3,000, sitting a bit closer to the stage, and I guess die-hard fans will buy them, if this is the only way of seeing their idol in action this summer. 1. Defence. 2. Six. 3. Andrew Lloyd Webber. 4. £600,000.
They will spend their evening in the company of other devoted fans who share the same passions, and they will have a great time, even if for some of them in the ‘cheap’ seats the performer is a dot in the distance and they can only really see them on a huge television screen.
Sorry, but give me the Pig’s Nose every time.
Saturday night saw us clutching our £20 tickets and heading down into the deep South Hams, where the Pig’s Nose pub, at East Prawle, was hosting Smoove and Turrell – six lads from the North-East with a gift for boisterous funk and soul music.
We’ve seen them a few times, and the chance to see them again in the setting of the Pig’s Nose was too tempting to turn down. Gigs happen in the old village hall next door to the pub – a tiny old wooden building with a stage at one end and a bar at the other. There are stuffed animals around the walls and nautical flags nailed to the ceiling.
The landlord is well connected in the music business, and some big names have played under the spidery rafters down the years.
Koo Stark, Roger
Getting to East Prawle is a mission in itself, of course. The roads start to narrow after Kingsbridge, and by the time you are out on the headland to which the little village clings, your wing mirrors are brushing greenery on both sides.
But it was well worth the trip. The band were on top form and the place was buzzing. We had every bit as much fun as any Taylor Swift fan will have at Anfield, and we were close enough to have reached out and shaken hands with the band. That’s the way live music should be enjoyed.
Mind you, we almost wrote ourselves into one of those ‘sat-nav idiots’ stories on the way home, following the advice of the little box on the dashboard through mile after mile of rutted narrowness, up and down ‘roads’ that climbed and descended through farmyards and denselywooded valleys. Eventually, the lights of East Allington hove into view and civilisation was restored.
At least Taylor Swift’s fans won’t have the joy of the South Hams’ finest lanes to negotiate on their way home.
‘The band were on top form and the place was buzzing. We had every bit as much fun as any Taylor Swift fan will have at Anfield’