Getting old

A while back the Davemeister asked on facebook for a list of the 50 best gigs of your life. You were only allowed to list the headliners and no festivals were allowed. I stuggled I have to say. The last gig that I went to was months ago - The late and very much lamented Broken Family Band at the Junction which is itself 20 years old this year. I'd have loved to go and see James at the Corn Exchange in April but its a sell-out. I was hoping to get to Latitude for the first time this year as opposed to the Cambridge Folk Festival which has for the last few years been a chance to meet up with old friends but what with one thing and another that doesnt look like its going to happen. I guess its money as much as anything - most gigs now go for £20 even at a shed like the Junction and for a name band youre quite likely to be paying big money. For the price of a Glastonbury ticket you could buy a budget airline flight pretty much anywhere in Europe. Added to that is the propensity to repeatedly see the same artist - a quick glance at the pinboard in the kitchen - a pinboard surrounded by the papery memories of gigs gone by shows an awful lot of Billy Bragg and Orbital tickets - and thats not counting the times that Ive seen them at Glasto or the Cambridge Folk Festival. And again I think theres the slow process of osification of the aural canal when new music becomes harder and harder to hear, or rather slips further and further down the list of priorities. Lets face it if its a choice between paying your council tax or another CD we know where thats going to end up... And so I end up trying to defend myself against a charge levied by myself - of getting old.