Tom, thanks for pointing to the Folkwise stuff - invaluable advice that I was not aware of.

Shall I raise the elephant in the room? Is not some of this desire for high cost tickets just one-up-manship on the part of the artists? The desire to show that they are actually better than some other acts they could mention, without giving away how much they actually get paid? Very few people know how much these artists actually get paid. They only way they have to enforce their perceived status is to set a high ticket price.

Probably totally cynical, certainly a totally unsupported punt in the dark, and definitely not aimed at anyone on this list. And I do know of some top-notch artists who will perform anywhere for absolutely minimal fees because they are friends with the people running the clubs or because they just love what they are doing.