Re: 60 euro plus service charge for Moz in Dublin....F*ck that
Ireland is an expensive country. Wages are higher than other parts of Europe, and costs reflect this. I think that Zagreb tickets are €30. For me, I have to factor in flights from London, tickets, hotel and the flight back to Manchester. Dublin hotels are nowhere near as expensive as they used to be, due to over investment during the Celtic Tiger years. So it's swings and roundabouts.
As for comparing ticket costs of the 80's, it's a whole new ball game. Then the tour broke even, with it being a promotional vehicle for album sales. The music business model has changed. The tour is the payload now. I get the impression that Morrissey much prefers the old way, but what can he do? Some argue that live circuit has benefitted, as artists now have to sing for their supper, fuelling a rise in live entertainment. This may be so, but it's the bloody middle man charges that piss me off. Technology has led to the changes that I've eluded to, but the same technology allows the money sucking middle man to be departed from the equation, but they remain. We are charged to print our own tickets, on our own paper with our own ink (ok, works!) and then we are charged to pay.
About a decade or more ago the big players in the music industry bought into the live entertainment sector. It's just following the money. The old claim that piracy was killing live music must have these music execs pissing themselves all the way to the bank. It's just forced them to refocus the product and how they deliver it. Kerching!