The most expensive concert tickets of all time
Believe it or not, the most expensive concert tickets aren’t the recent ones sold for Glastonbury, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, or Blur. In fact, the most expensive concert tickets of all time were bought back in 2007 at £83,000 for two entry fees to the Led Zeppelin show at the O2 Arena in London on 10th December. The buyer of the tickets was a young Scottish gentleman by the name of Kenneth Donnell.
NPR host Madeleine Brand invited Donnell to discuss the concert and its cost on her radio show. She opened the segment by saying: “Twenty thousand fans listened to Led Zeppelin last night in London. It was the legendary British band’s first full concert together in 27 years. The group disbanded in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham. Bonham’s son Jason handled the drums last night.”
She added: “The face value of tickets for the concert was about $250, though some tickets went for as much as 10,000 on the Internet, and even at that price, they were a bargain compared to what one young fan paid – $168,000 for a pair of tickets.” A wild price regardless of how much of a legendary band was playing the show.
When asked if he thought the tickets were worth the eyewatering price, Donnell replied: “Of course it was worth it, yeah, definitely,” before explaining that he had bought the tickets as part of a charity auction, helping the UK children’s charity, Children In Need. The tickets afforded Donnell a front seat “just to the left of the stage”.
Yet, entrance to the show was not the only thing that the tickets afforded Donnell. He added: “We actually got to meet the whole band the day before at the rehearsals as well, and Robert Plant is just such a nice guy. He went out of his way to come over and see us, and he spoke to us for a while. It was brilliant.”
Fortunately for Donnell as well, his favourite band are the iconic Midlands rockers. “Well, my dad – he saw them a few times, and just because he’s always been a fan, I’ve been a fan my whole life,” he said. “So it’s kind of the soundtrack to my life.”
And the band did not let him down in terms of his expectations. “Obviously, I’ve never seen them live before, but they were just absolutely phenomenal last night, so I don’t know how they could be any better than that,” the 25-year-old added. “And Robert Plant, yeah, his voice was still absolutely fantastic. He sounded great.” So despite the price, it seemed like it was money well spent.
The show had actually been recorded for a film and album release. In 2012, Celebration Day was given a short theatrical run before being released on home video formats. The concert itself was scheduled to commemorate Ahmet Ertegun, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, who signed Zeppelin after hearing their demo.
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