Might As Well Go On Holiday

When did going to gigs become such a colossal pain in the arse? Seriously, when? I've never been to one that didn't require huge amounts of planning, organisation or luck to make the whole thing go as smoothly as possible.

It's that time of year when band's start thinking about next year, Pulp have reformed and will be performing, Foo Fighters are playing humongous shows, and Blink 182 are going on a big arena tour, all in summer of next year.

The main problem, as far as I can see, is that I don't live in one of the UK's main cities. I live in either Cheltenham or North Devon. The only time rock stars ever bother going to the Cotswolds is when they want to live there, and as for North Devon, well, I only go there because it's where my home happens to be. The main problem with both of them is that no gig is ever really less than an hour away in a car. You city folk don't know how easy you've got it.

So, as an example, say I want to go and see Arcade Fire at the LG Arena in Birmingham on 8 December. I have to buy a ticket for £31.25 for a ticket (including the booking fee). After this I need to arrange transport, and a place to stay (because Cross Country trains don't exist after 10 o'clock for some annoying reason). Transport to the arena will cost me £20 overall, and because I have no friends in Birmingham (or anywhere for that matter), accommodation will be around £50 at a hotel near the venue. That's £101.25 in total, for a Wednesday night in Birmingham, and that doesn't even take into account any food or drink. Would it not just be cheaper to go on holiday?

Well, why not go on holiday and go to a gig at the same time? Spain's Benicassim festival next summer would almost definitely have better weather than Glastonbury, or a Foo Fighters gig. The expense would be worth it for seven days away from Britain, which by July will probably have been run well and truly into the ground by Cameron and Clegg, and to top it all it turns out that The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys are headlining. Tickets are only around €36 a day. What more could you want?

I'm coming round to the idea rather quickly.