大象传媒

Watching live music can be one of the greatest experiences in the world – but things don’t always go exactly how we’d like them to. A recent thread on showed that many of you have had your gig experience marred by issues like touts, excessive camera phone use and bad access.

With that in mind, we've pulled together some ideas about how to tackle 6 of the gig gripes you care about the most, and discussed them with live music experts. Is your biggest gig gripe on the list? Let us know your opinions on our and channels.

We’ve all been there. The gig you saved up for and looked forward to for months finally comes around - and you spend the whole night struggling to see the actual band through the sea of camera phones in front of you, held aloft in up-stretched hands. There's nothing wrong with the odd cheeky photo, but since when did filming the entire show become the norm?

While this was one of the very biggest gig gripes for 6 Music listeners, it's a hard one to solve without venues collecting phones at the door (which is probably unrealistic, and perhaps unreasonable.) Nevertheless, acts such as Kate Bush, Björk and Savages have had success when they've asked their audience not to use their camera phones - so perhaps more artists will follow suit?

"People filming whole songs or sets is awful. If someone does it in front of me, I've asked them to stop," says Chris Perdue, owner of The Trinity in Harrow (and frequent gig goer.) "I think the only way you can deal with it is get the artist themselves to make an announcement before they start. Whilst it doesn't stop it entirely it does certainly help. I know not many people got film of the Kate Bush shows."

Many acts and venues have also been using a new service called Yondr () to help them create phone-free spaces. "I used it with Cage the Elephant recently when they did a special tiny show at Union Chapel," says national promoter Steve Tilley. "It worked a treat and we had very few complaints from customers."

Touts, who buy up large numbers of tickets the moment a tour goes on sale before selling them on at hugely inflated prices, understandably make you infuriated.

While the issue is still a huge one, there have been some big strides forward in recent months. The government recently released the results of an independent review into secondary ticketing, which found (unsurprisingly) that the market was falling short. As of March 2017, online bots (which use automated software to buy up huge swathes of tickets at once) are now illegal, and any tech savvy touts using them can face unlimited fines.

Some acts are now setting a a good example by saying that resold tickets, purchased at often extortionate prices via secondary ticketing sites, will no longer be valid for their tours. Last February, the 大象传媒 told fans buying resold tickets for the 6 Music Festival in Glasgow, featuring a headline set from Depeche Mode, that they would not be allowed entry.

If in doubt, the experts suggest that you only look for tickets on an official resale site such as, where tickets which people genuinely can't use any more are sold on at face value or less. Backed by acts like Noel Gallagher and Arctic Monkeys, the is also a great place to share your experiences and get more information about the fight against online touts.

"Touts are the scourge of artists, fans and live music venues," says Steve Tilley. "Simple message is, don’t buy tickets online from any so-called online "secondary sellers’’ who are marking up tickets for profit, with none of that money going back to the artists, promoters or venues. Very often the tickets are invalid or fraudulent as well."

Many believe also that making it compulsory to show matching photo ID alongside named tickets would pretty much eradicate the problem. “I'm staggered that this issue can't be resolved," says Chris Perdue. "It just seems ridiculous in this day and age that names can't be printed on tickets and ID checked. If venues have time to search you then they can check an ID. It's no different to having a boarding pass at an airport - it takes seconds."

At first, griping about people making noise at a gig might seem somewhat disingenuous. But while we're all for cheering the act along at the right moments, it seems that all too many of you have been having your gig experience ruined by people who talk loudly all the way through a set - without pausing to listen.

Nevertheless, this is probably one of the hardest gripes to propose a solution for. Though we did like the suggestion of listener Richard Leach, for: "A soundproofed enclosure where people who want to talk loudly for the whole three hours can go."

In reality, there's only so much we can do to stop someone yacking loudly about their new job all the way through a gig.

"This is just common sense and personal decency," says national concert promoter Steve Tilley. "I’d encourage venues to put up signs asking for people to be quiet or perhaps have a compere before quiet acts take to the stage just asking people to think before they talk to each other during a gig. Or maybe a pre-recorded message from the front of house desk."

The admin charges accrued with online ticket purchases, for everything from booking fees to the pleasure of printing your own tickets, have also come under close scrutiny.

Several online agents apply fees per ticket, rather than per booking, so if you are after a handful of tickets you could end up pretty out of pocket. Back in 2014, a petition requiring venues to "play fair on fees," gained over 50,000 signatures. Several companies (including Ticketmaster and See Tickets) now have to display their fees up front, as a result - so at least you won't get a nasty check when you're checking out.

“I think admin fees should just be set at a single price," says Chris Perdue. "Most fees are worked out as a percentage of the ticket cost, which is ridiculous. And if you are printing tickets yourself the admin costs should be halved. I accept the agent needs to make a living, but that cuts their costs immensely.”

At the same time, experts such as Steve Tilley believe admin fees aren't the enemy. "People moan about booking fees and admin fees but people of an older disposition will remember having to sit on a phone for hours or queuing up, sometimes outdoors, just to be in with a chance of buying a ticket," he says. "Now you can do it from your own home, but the technology does cost money. And the companies that help deliver the ticket are still businesses with overheads and staff and with the need to continually invest in websites, technology and other elements of access control at gigs."

We can see both sides on this one. While we've all been the person arriving at a gig with our laptop and our gym bag, but balked at the size of the cloakroom queue, we've equally experienced how annoying it is to be sandwiched between the woman carrying what appears to be all her worldly goods and the man sweating steadily inside a giant puffa jacket.

The only solution seemingly lies in bigger and better - and possibly compulsory - cloakroom facilities. "The answer here I guess is insisting all large bags have to be coat checked," says Chris Perdue. "Make the cloakrooms less of a rip off and people won't mind."

At the same time, perhaps it's just something we need to learn to live with. "I understand it might be annoying," says Steve Tilley. "But so is standing on a packed tube train."

The word 'gripe' seems too inconsequential a word for such an important issue. However many of you were, obviously, concerned about a lack of adequate disabled access at certain gig venues. The general consensus seems to be that, while newer venues have been built with universal access in mind, some of our older venues need more help to become fully accessible.

"Our venues nationally are badly in need of some proper Arts Council funding to improve conditions," says Steve Tilley. "The issue of access requires serious investment across the board, which many venues themselves can’t afford to do. It isn’t a lame excuse either - it literally is hand to mouth at some small venues, which are in old buildings with limited space. The Arts Council could solve this if they wanted to divert some money away from classical music and other non-mainstream arts organisations."

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