how often do you travel for gigs - say outside of your town or city? what’s the furthest you’ve gone just for a gig? do you have any significant gig travel coming up soon? how often do you skip a gig you’re keen on due to the travel involved?
questions!
Once every seven years.
im a very lazy gig traveller, there’s so many bands I’ve not seen just because they usually play Glasgow - and that one hour train is enough to put me off. Mentally I basically have a sub-genre of bands which are “Glasgow travel worthy” versus ones I’ll happily see here but can’t be bothered making more effort for. I have been getting better at it, but still really doubt I’d ever do that travel for a solo-gig experience
basically didn’t realise I even could travel significantly for gigs until 2016 
when Wilco were touring but not playing Scotland, and I needed to finally see them. Was a great gig and nice weekend away built around it, so that sold me on the idea
since then done London a couple times (GBV, Hold Steady) when those are the only UK shows on the cards, and got a couple in England this weekend for people who aren’t going any further north on these tours. Resent it a bit, but if you can build some other events around them, or catch up with some people in those places, then definitely makes it worth it
Regularly travel up to London for gigs, which is about 75 mins on the train plus tube once there.
My main gig decision locally is between Where Else? at Margate and Ramsgate Music Hall in Ramsgate. Both are about 30 mins away. Much prefer the Margate gigs nowadays as I can take the train. Ramsgate Music Hall is a 20 min walk from the station and it is touch and go whether you can make the last train and catch the whole set, so I tend to drive which feels like a bit of a chore, so I don’t go there as much as I should.
Would love to live somewhere where I could easily get to gigs. I would go to a lot more things just on the off chance rather than picking and choosing.
Furthest I have travelled specifically for a gig? Probably Portsmouth to see The Flaming Lips, about 2.5 hours away.
Any gig that i attend involves an element of travel (50 to 60 miles roundtrip). It’s no hardship, my nearest venue as a youth was over 100 miles away and we’d routinely make the trip.
realising the cost of getting to London has now made me keen to try seeing a band in Europe though - and being inspired by a few people here who do that semi-regularly
if I’m doing a long weekend away around the gig anyway, why not make it in Europe, for probably less money and more novelty than just rocking up at Electric Ballroom again
Whenever Springsteen tours Europe I usually make a few trips - had some amazing trips away
yeah i still go to a solid number of gigs for my tastes, but I know if I was right in one of the major UK gig hubs I’d be at something every week probs - would be just as easy mentally as going out to the cinema, which often isn’t the case rn for me
Every ‘local’ gig is a travel into Belfast (and on occasion Bangor) but thankfully not a great distance.
Probably ATP at Camber Sands. Been to a few festivals and gigs in Scotland and England. Seen gig in Japan but they lined up with the trip rather than being the reason ofc.
Dublin in a few weeks. 200 mile round trips (especially midweek ones) arent as appealing these days so try to limit Dublin gigs to a few a year and has to be something pretty special.
As I say if it was something very special or a fave band/someone I’ve wanted to see for ages I’d go but travel/cost/real life things which are more important rule out a lot of “oh thatd be pretty good” gigs these days.
Gonna be not living in a city for the first time in 20 years from next week so i guess i’ll be travelling more for gigs, think i might end up driving a lot to Leeds ones which sucks
I live in London, so there’s not really any gig venues in the city that are more than 45 minutes away on the tube/train/bus anyway.
We have been to a few European city festivals and made a holiday out of it. It was often about the same price as the overall cost of going to a UK festival, so made sense to us. Post-Brexit vote and post-Covid, I don’t think the cost benefit is there these days, however.
I have gone back up to Newcastle a few times for long weekends if there’s a gig happening that a group of friends want to go to.
The only time that we went abroad for a single gig was last year, when we went to New York for the Pet Shop Boys/New Order Madison Square Garden show, and extended it to a week in the city.
I’ve become very familiar with the Manchester Ancoats Travelodge over years because there are no gigs in Liverpool, ever.
Weirdly the only gig I’ve travelled for recently was from Manchester to Liverpool to see Comet Is Coming at Invisible Wind Factory. Shame there aren’t more gigs there as the venue’s incredible.
Yeah it’s great, saw Black Midi there and it was properly gnarly. Just a shame it’s a bit of a trudge from the city centre. Hopefully when the new Everton stadium opens they’ll put a bus route one down there because at the moment there’s nothing.
that surprises me! I guess what seems like a great location from the outside (pretty close to Leeds and Manchester) is a downside locally, since those cities might end up monopolising the gig scene?
I’m being a bit glib tbf there’s lots on, but seems to be more older/legacy acts, whereas the stuff I’m more excited about goes to Manchester (or Birkenhead)
Although a venue round the corner from mine that previously only did stag do/boozy bingo type events just put on Caroline Polacheck and Unknown Mortal Orchestra so the tide might be turning…
Yeah especially with places like New Century in Manchester which I believe is operated by a major gig promoter?
Now wave? They are only manchester aren’t they, not major
I travel to Dublin for gigs fairly regularly because I can get a late bus home afterwards. Can finish work early and head straight down but prefer to book a day off work if possible and head down a bit earlier and make a day of it.
The bus home can be a bit of a miserable experience though (takes about 2 hours 20 mins) which can put me off doing it too often so I don’t travel for every Dublin gig that I’d like to (a new bus with an actual toilet just launched which has improved the experienced somewhat)
Will occasionally travel to Bangor for gigs which is only half an hour on the train and they tend to make a point of finishing up in time for the last train back to Belfast at 10:25
Go to Leeds and Manchester a lot for gigs. Occasionally to London but it needs to be a weekend or someone I absolutely love