The Death of the Souvenir Gig Programme

By Gaby

There was a time a long, long time ago, when you might per chance purchase a souvenir programme when you went to a gig and in that programme you would find a great assortment of beautiful colour photos as well as a good amount of written text about the artist/band, the tour, their back catalogue, forthcoming releases, set list and just sometimes a little welcome snippet of information about the band or artist that you didn’t know about.

I for one used to be (and to be honest still am) an avid collector of such programmes and still hold them as a treasured musical collection, having programmes from the likes of David Bowie, Tina Turner, Guns n Roses, Queen, U2, Billy Idol and Fleetwood Mac to name but a few.

Programmes were great! They acted like a stamp or patch upon what was a great gig and were something you could share with friends. They were a statement of “I was there!”

And for usually a small amount of money ie: £5 - £7 did not seem to break the bank too much and in those moments of musical nostalgia would be a welcome oasis of joy.

But alas the day of the gig souvenir programme seems to be at a sad and sorry end.

Is it just me or has a worrying trend been emerging of late?

Gig programmes these days contain no words at all and are often just a collection of set piece photographs of the band and very little else.

What is the reason for this I ask? Could it be that programme buyers these days have a far less superior intelligence than programme buyers of years ago and no longer have the ability to read?

Could it be that the cost of printing and paper has gone up so much that the cost of said programmes can now be escalated to the ridiculous price of £15 - £20?

Or is it just the case that no one can be bothered anymore to find any interesting text to put into the programmes?

Personally I think that gig programmes today are basically a rip off and as much as I still enjoy (fool that I am!) purchasing them, you can’t but feel that you are indeed being ripped off big time!

Having read many times that a band makes it’s “real money” on tour from the selling of band merchandise ie: T-Shirts, Sweat Bands, Caps, Key Rings, G-Strings and the like, I suppose this attitude also prevails in the production of glossy programmes.

So maybe next time when you are at a gig and have an urge like myself to splurge out a wallet emptying amount of money on a gig programme do what my girlfriend keeps telling me and have a quick look through the said item before you buy and ask yourself the question. Is this really worth it?

You never know, you might just buy it anyway!