The other day I booked tickets for Karlheinz Stockhausen, who is performing during Frieze Art Fair in London on September 22.
Tickets are being sold through the agency Seetickets, so I duly phoned them up, and asked for two. There was a bit of a sharp intake of breath when I was informed that the price was £35 per ticket. After all, it's only an hour of music (he's presenting the classic electronic piece Kontakte from 1960, and Oktophonie, part of Tuesday from the seven-day-long opera Light, written in 1991). And, though he's a living legend and all that, he's only one bloke twiddling some knobs. It's not like there's an orchestra, a choir and five expensive divas to pay for.
Then the wretched booking charge - £2.50 per ticket. I really should be used to these when booking tickets but it still really hurts. It seems an obscene amount to pay for the "services" of the ticket agencies.
Finally, I was informed (this being the straw that broke the camel's back), there was a further £1.50 charge "for booking by card". What? Why?
"That's the way the producers have set it," the bloke said. "Does the charge apply to both debit and credit card payments?" I enquired. He said that it did. "Is there no other way I can pay?" I asked. "No," he said. So, I was being charged for paying. That, I have to say, was a new one on me.
Oh, I went ahead, through gritted teeth. Later I looked at the website to make sure I hadn't somehow missed a trick, but no, the charges were precisely the same, this time the £1.50 being described as a "postage" fee. (Don't understand that, either, since the tickets were just sent out as a normal letter.)
The whole thing has cost me £76.50, the price of cheap flight to somewhere warm. He'd better twiddle those knobs well.
