I've read this thread from start to finish today - and now I need a drink! It's seriously depressing. Not wishing to sound naive, I know it's all about business and money-making, but geez! It shouldn't be. It really does making you lose respect for the artists, even if guys like Irving are pulling the strings. The artists have to be complicit, surely?
Jon Bon Jovi was asked about ticket prices on This Morning, in the last week (a UK magazine show.) He seemed quite taken aback, he stuttered quite a lot and basically said that he wasn't aware that prices had been particularly high, immediately questioned which newspaper had printed this, and then seemed to kind of back down and said "Well, I guess I AM in control of it... although obviously I'm not right now. If there's a problem, I'll look into it." Either he didn't have a clue, or he was just covering (badly). It all seems so seedy and messy - and completely deceitful. So much for: "you don’t have a f**king clue what those men up in the towers are doing to me and you, and they’ll keep doin’ it and doin’ it until we wake up." And what exactly ARE we meant to do once we 'wake up'? It seems we don't really have a choice.
This is the problem though. Despite how much Ticketmaster and the whole practice pisses me off, I'm giving them money. I know how much I love Don Henley and the Eagles, and I know I would be prepared to pay the highest price I could to see them. Even if I knew, in my head, it was an obscene amount to pay for a concert. That's my own stupidity - but it's exactly what Irving & Crew prey on.