Big Bands and Small Gigs: Great for Celebrities and Profiteering Touts

Big bands playing really small gigs are the stuff of legend. The Stones and Led Zep both played venues like the Half Moon in Putney when they were at their peak - often taking on peculiar aliases to try to put people off the scent. Bands love going back to their roots and fans love the idea of seeing their idols in a tiny venue.

This comes to mind now because it looks like the mighty Strokes are playing a gig at Dingwalls in Camden Town tonight. They have hidden behind the alias of 'Venison' and the news was mentioned on NME.com and a few other sites.

Now this is the kind of gig that big Strokes fans (myself included) would walk to the ends of the earth to see. But the question with this kind of gig is how many genuine Strokes fans were able to get tickets. The Dingwalls website was apparently down for the first 15 minutes of ticket sales - clearly unable to cope with the demand. By then, the sold out signs were up.

If this kind of gig was a genuine first come, first served gig for genuine fans that would be great. But the sad thing is that people are selling tickets for hundreds of pounds on e-bay. At the same time, I'm sure that assorted celebrities and 'industry figures' will have had no problem getting tickets.

Small gigs are great things. Sadly, however, they seem to be the preserve of celebrities and profiteering touts, rather than genuine fans.