News

Blondie to play intimate London gig

By Paul Sinclair

Comments

34

Blondie continue the promotion of their new album Pollinator by announcing a London show in a couple of weeks’ time at a tiny North London venue…

The group with play the 750 capacity Round Chapel in Hackney on 23 May. The gig is being promoted as the inaugural ‘Prime Live Event’ and tickets will be available only for Amazon Prime members and via Amazon Tickets.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (11th May) at 9.ooam. Click here to buy tickets.

SuperDeluxeEdition.com helps fans around the world discover physical music and discuss releases. To keep the site free, SDE participates in various affiliate programs, including Amazon and earns from qualifying purchases.

Related Content

34 Comments

34 thoughts on “Blondie to play intimate London gig”

  1. Ticket prices for gigs are becoming beyond the realms of ridculous. It was £170 for us to see Madonna, which was a total car crash. 2 hours late start and only half a show. At the end I was almost wishing the cape pulled her off stage again. Have you seen cost of ELO tour tickets? OMG promoters think we are made of money. For the prices being levvied nowadays, Id expect a ticket for the Royal opera, dinner included and a hotel overnight.

  2. The Borderine’s capacity was 300 and there was a huge air of excitement as Debbie hadn’t played live in the UK for almost 10yrs. Tickets cost £6.

  3. the alison moyet show is supposed to have a q&a in the first part. also, they will be shown on amazon about a month after the show. i wouldn’t/couldn’t pay 95 pounds for her show…but i will sure as hell watch it on amazon.

  4. I’m not going to defend a £150 ticket price, but The Round Chapel IS intimate. Put it this way, my daughter’s school do their annual singing event at this very venue.

      1. Sounds great. But just because you once went to a Debbie Harry gig that was in a venue that has an even smaller capacity than the Round Chapel, that doesn’t support your assertion that the 750 capacity Round Chapel isn’t intimate.

  6. To borrow a self-deprecating two-word phrase from Joe Jackson’s autobiography, Blondie are very much “Medium Wave” nowadays.
    Amazon (I saw you coming) Prime?
    Pass.

  8. The first two of these events (must have had invited or fan club audiences ? as don’t recollect Amazon selling tickets), are now available to view on Amazon Prime Video. Both it says filmed in London in 2017.

    Robbie Williams – 48 minutes promoting new album “The Heavy Entertainment Show” and classic songs.

    John Legend – 71 minutes promoting new album “Darkness and Light”

    So if they continue at this length you won’t be getting much music for your money. The selling point seems to be small venues and crowds so you are close to the artist hence high prices.

  9. It’s basically a corporate gig with the corporation passing the fee on to the fans. If you don’t like it or can’t afford, you can stay home and stick on a DVD. Simple. If the band and all they’re equipment are travelling to the UK for a one-off gig they deserve to get what they can for it. And Call Me never sounds great live, even the first time around, because everyone is used to the Moroder produced track which is a studio creation – their performances of Fun and Long Time were excellent.

  10. Not wanting to defend these incredibly steep prices but I understand all of these gigs are being filmed and will be available on Amazon Video which is usually included the Prime Membership. So it should still be possible to enjoy the music even if you don’t want to shell out for these high ticket prices.

    1. Sorry again, wrong dates for the other gigs: Texas on June, 16th and Katie Melua on July, 25th AND 26th (They sure hope to sell tickets for these, it seems). Got the stage dates confused with the on-sale-dates.

  12. So far there are three more “Prime Live Events” on Amazon’s schedule:

    The first will be “Texas” at Porchester Hall on May, 18th for a mere (from;-) ) GBP 75,
    followed by said “Blondie”-gig on May, 23rd,
    next then will be Katie Melua at Cadogan Hall on May, 25th, again for just GBP 75
    and the currently final date of the series is for Alison Moyet at Round Chapel for GBP 95.

    For non-UK-residents: All venues are in London.

    Not sure whether the lower prices for the other artists mean that they aren’t allowed to use electricity during the concerts, meaning Miss Melua and Miss Moyet singing a-capella and Texas will play unplugged, all supported by candlelabras supplied by Blackmores Night ;-))

  14. But in a roundabout way some of the music artists who just released albums and never did much touring if any to promote a new album release although some did but it was the bigger venues…well now they are having to play smaller venues/more dates plus they are having to actually get OUT THERE now and actually TOUR properly because that is where the money is…and all the things that go with it like tour programmes/merchandise etc…they cannot rely on physical sales releases anymore…So us fans DO get to see these guys now which is a BIG bonus…BUT they have to price their concert tickets reasonably/ accordingly or we will NOT pay the silly over inflated rip off prices.

  16. I would suggest the music industry is in a mess because too many people and most under 25 don’t see it as something that needs to be paid for. So if you can’t sell sufficient amounts of CDs because digital music is too easy to steal then you have to make up the money somehow. The likes of spotify / iTunes are but a drip for all but the very top tier. So expensive SDEs and expensive live gigs will replace some of the money that most artists will feel is being stolen. If you look..I will do it right now…pirate bay top music leechers are 3374, second on KAT is 1897 so at any moment over 3,000 people are stealing your talent…. that’s a CD at £5 – £8. AND that’s only a spot check, most of those will be replaced by a new 3,000 in 4 or 5 minutes when they switch to seeders. People here who want physical music (SDE and Vinyl) and are prepared to go to gigs will be the new source of income. That’s why the industry is struggling, theft and the “logic” that no one is losing anything so it can’t be theft, not because the gigs are £150. The youth don’t see much music as being worth anything any more. yeah, they’ll listen to it, but they don’t see why they should have to pay for it. I have two kids at 19 / 20 and they each have spotify account and I can’t think that they have EVER spent a penny on music, physical or otherwise. If they didn’t have spotify they would never contribute a penny to the industry and that’s with a Dad who believes in physical music and has tons of it right there in front of them. It ain’t Blondie’s fault.

    1. I have to say I agree with you completely Chris. In the end consumers have to make a choice as to whether they wish to support artists either by buying their music or going to their concerts (more likely).

    2. Sorry, Chris – good points but unrelated to the central issue here: £150 for a gig ticket is a rip-off. Escalating ticket prices from established, wealthy bands are purely about fleecing a supposedly affluent fanbase. This is just another example of a trend that’s been developing for the past 15 years.

  17. It amazes me how any band can’t say “hang on a minute, we can’t charge our fans that kind of price for a ticket”! As much as I love Blondie – I would love to see them walk out to an empty hall.

  18. Disgusting ticket price what an absolute rip off !!! Everyone intending to go should all stick together and say NO we are NOT paying your vastly greedy over inflated ticket price and then that would teach Blondie to rip off their fans…But you know some people are out there daft enough to pay that price and it will sell out…MUGS.

  19. Jesus!!! £150 for a concert, no wonder the music industry is in the mess it is, that is outrageous!!!

    I will be amazed if they can sell half the tickets at that price.

  21. Is this supposed to be a privilege for Amazon Prime customers? They pay a £79 subscription to be offered exclusive gig tickets for £150! I am not an Amazon Prime customer, by the way and this event has made sure I won’t become one either, thank you very much!

  22. that’s a bit ridiculous that price but it will sell out, Ive just seen them at the roundhouse and whilst it was a great gig I couldn’t really see an awful lot and the crowd were not the moving out the way type.

  24. Gutted about this! In December this year it will be 40yrs since I bought my first Blondie single and Ive been a loyal fan ever since. This gig is only a 5min bus ride from me but after shelling out £100 for two tickets for the recent Roundhouse gig, and almost another £100 on 3 variatons of “Pollinator” plus the 3 7″ singles, I just cannot afford another £150.

  25. £150 !!
    Ticket prices are becoming beyond a joke .
    Paul have you seen some of the other artist on Amazon Tickets ?
    Some might be third party sellers but Lady Gaga tickets £265 !

    1. Blimey, hadn’t noticed that price! “from £150” seems weird phrasing. Can’t imagine in a small venue they’ll be different prices. Maybe Blondie said they’d only do it for a decent payday…

Leave a Reply