I like the idea of musicians getting paid but I’m fugged if I would fork out in excess of £100 to see a small singing dot on the horizon, even if she or he is magnified by a big screen. I am a male over the age of 80, not a young woman, but I like Beyoncé. Yet the thought of paying a small fortune to see her at a stadium doesn’t work for me. When I saw James Brown at Wembley Arena in 1986, it wasn’t a patch on his gig at Brighton’s Top Rank five years previously. I’m glad I saw Bowie’s Serious Moonlight show at Milton Keynes Bowl, but how much better would he have been at Hammersmith Odeon? I have enjoyed some stadium gigs: U2 and Fine Young Cannibals were examples. But I just don’t feel so connected to the musicians from a great distance; it’s like watching them on telly. Sometimes it’s: see an artist at a stadium or not at all. If you want to go, fine; but a large theatre is the biggest space that really works for rock and soul.
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Paperback Blighters - The books every record collector should read.
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