Thanks to Debra Cowan for alerting me to this discussion, which is highly relevant to conversations I've been having over the past few weeks. I've just finished a 25-date UK tour, am now setting off on an equally long US tour, and have been having repeated discussions with my road manager about the ticket price issue -- have been considering setting a similar minimum ticket price rule myself. Basically I find -- both on my UK tours and on the US tour I did last Feb-March -- that the higher the ticket price, the bigger the audience. I don't know whether this is because people see a high ticket price and think the gig must be worth going to, or because the venues that charge more on the door tend to be better venues and therefore get better crowds. Either way, it seems to be a pretty good rule of thumb, for me anyway, that if a gig carries a low ticket price it's probably not a good idea to do it. It's also not very nice for punters who've forked out good money for a ticket if they then see that people 50 miles down the road can pay half the price for the same show.

I'll be interested in continuing to follow this discussion, and might raise the same issue on assorted other fora as I'd like to know what others have to say about it!

Sarah McQuaid

http://www.sarahmcquaid.com