Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne: feeling charitable. Photograph: Chad Buchanan/Getty Images.
We all have our own idea of what constitutes value for money, but if you want to reduce a regular gig-goer to gibbering rage, ask how he or she feels about paying up to £175 per ticket to see a top band live. Better yet, ask how it feels to have to pay double that on eBay because the show sold out so quickly they couldn't get tickets at the normal price.
Surprisingly, Sharon Osbourne feels their pain. Yesterday she announced that, because the biggest touring bands were "outpricing themselves" - thus depriving less affluent fans of a chance to see them - she and other half Ozzy had decided to lead by example. Tickets for this summer's entire Ozzfest tour - no mere pop tour, but a "brass-knuckled beast, [an] earth-pounding event" - will be free.
Details of how tickets will be allocated for the 25 American shows haven't been decided, but the Ozzfest website promises that when the time comes, fans who have registered with the site will be contacted with instructions for claiming theirs. So far, so innovative, and if all goes smoothly then Sharon's prediction that it will change the way bands tour in America might come true.
Ah, but how will the Osbournes make money out of this? Ozzfest is a touring festival with two stages and numerous acts on the bill (20 bands played last year). How will it break even if entrance is free? Well, here's where it gets intriguing. "This summer's Ozzfest will provide select sponsors with a unique opportunity to engage fans one-on-one, utilizing one of music's best-known brands," runs the blurb released by promoters Live Nation, America's largest concert promoter.
The translation of that corporate-babble is something like: "In return for tickets, fans will have to barter their souls, or at least their email addresses, to sponsors who are funding the whole thing in return for being allowed 'one-on-one' contact with them, although nobody knows what this one-on-one business will comprise." True, Ozzheads will probably consider it worth it, but the idea of jumping through sponsors' hoops sticks in my craw.
Another eyebrow-raising element is that other bands on the bill apparently won't be getting paid. Sharon suggests that, in lieu of their normal fee, support acts can sell merchandise or play their own shows in local venues on the day of Ozzfest. She anticipates great interest from up-and-coming groups, for whom exposure at an event of this size would repay whatever cash they'd have to cough up to go on the road. But does this mean that the festival will consist of Ozzy plus 19 keen-as-mustard unknowns? Picture the New Band tent at Glastonbury and imagine spending an entire day there, the novelty quickly wearing off at the prospect of waiting 12 hours to see the one act you've heard of.
So does a "free" gig, with accompanying conditions, sound like a great deal? Bearing in mind that some of those tickets will make their way on to eBay before you can say "Do you want fries with that bat, Ozzy?" is this a truly groundbreaking idea, or a way of drawing attention to the Ozzmeister, who also happens to be promoting his first studio album in six years?
