Let's have a look at what bands you can see for around £30 in Brighton:
Adam Ant at the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill costs £27.50.
Peter Hook & the Light performing 'Unknown Pleasures' at Concorde2 costs £22.
Happy Mondays at the Brighton Centre costs £35.50.
The Great Escape Super Early Bird ticket costs £38.50.
Three legendary artists and a whole load of exciting up and comers all for the same rough price as an upper level football match. I recently went to see Sheffield Wednesday play at Brighton and my ticket for that cost around £30 (unfortunately I've recently tidied my bedroom and so cannot find the stub to see what the precise cost was). Looking at gig prices, I would say that £30 was a sum that should indicate a fairly exciting time at a slightly prestigious event. It suggests a higher quality of performer. There is carries over into football to a degree. Both Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton are in the 2nd tier of the English football league, and so a decent standard of football is to be expected.
The comparisons end there though. I would venture to state that the chance of having a good time at a gig is very, very likely indeed. Let's say 80%, although I would say my own personal experiences of gigs would hold this higher. With football though, this figure would have to be much lower. You could witness a dull 0-0 draw or, even worse, watch your team give an utterly insipid and uninspiring performance and ultimately lose 3-0 to Brighton in an embarrassing manner. For the same price. Also for your money you are receiving 90 minutes of 'entertainment', whereas gigs usually clock up as longer than this (taking support acts into consideration). Put simply, football matches cost far too much money to go watch.
Similar to this I have found is the visit to London. With tickets booked on the day (both rail fare from Brighton and Tube manoeuvres) this easily exceeded the £20 barrier. With additional monies spent the following day to get home, I would say my visit there this weekend put the 'London visit' firmly in the same category as upper level football matches and gigs. This was for a birthday meal and drinks, with others who had similarly commuted in. Now, due to the need to get last trains home and starting the meal around 8ish (due to train delays) this meant that the length of the night out was relatively short. It had to be wrapped up at some point between 11 and 12 (something that my wallet was especially pleased about) which meant, as far as drinking and mingling went I didn't manage to get into my lanky stride.
It was a nice evening but felt all too brief. Bloody London. I blame London. All big and expensive, with its air of prestige and cultural capital. If you're just going for a wee drink and a meal it's probably worth going somewhere more local due to being able to stay out longer and no doubt spend less money. It's equivalent to being able to choose to see one of the most influential bands of the 80s and early 90s (albeit in a slightly adjusted form) or Sheffield "Worst Defence in the League" Wednesday. It's a risky venture, and one whose risk I don't think is worth it. On one hand you know what you're probably going to get, and on the other you are equally likely to be elated or suicidal by the end of it. Noel Edmonds would probably say that if you put out enough positivity into the cosmos you will receive that positivity back, but he's probably never supported a football team like Sheffield Wednesday.
This has been a brief, slighty incoherent ramble about London. The conclusion to be drawn from it is that London is not the place to conduct brief, slightly incoherent rambling.
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