Award-Winning Artist James Bay to perform at Norwich Arts Centre, but there is a catch for his fans

The BRIT award winner and multi-platinum selling artist, James Bay, is set to perform at Norwich Arts Centre on Saturday 29th January.

Best known for his hit single “Hold Back the River’’, the singer-songwriter will be performing at a series of ‘grassroots’ music venues as part of Independent Venue Week from 24 January to the 4th February 2022.

This is quite a moment for the multi-talented James. The Hertfordshire born-singer songwriter took to Twitter to express his excitement, saying “I cannot wait for this special little tour and I hope to see as many of you there as possible.”

He went on to say how performing at small venues “reminded me of how I got started” and “why I love to do what I do.”

Fans lucky enough to get tickets will also be delighted to know that as well as performing his much-loved classics, he will also be sharing many brand new songs that he worked on during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Perhaps not surprisingly, as of the 17th January all tickets (which were priced at £25) were sold out on the website, and according to multiple posts on social media, ticket resellers are now selling them for around £175.

This highlights a growing problem for ordinary fans who want to see their heroes, and this is affecting access to a range of musical experiences. As reported on the DJ website, research published by the Competition and Markets Authority in 2020 found that 10% of resellers account for between 80% and 100% of tickets advertised on StubHub, and more than 70% on Viagogo.

A good local example of this problem is the Britain’s Got Talent star, Tim Goodcare (a Norfolk local), who along with his son Jack impressed the judges with a father and son duo music performance on the show back in 2018. Tim took to Facebook to vent his frustration at the situation.

He described how he wanted to buy tickets for the performance for his son Jack, but that the “greedy ticket resellers swiped them up” and are “being resold online for £175”. “Angry and disappointed doesn’t come close.” There is clearly more to do in tackling this problem and letting ordinary fans see their favourite artists for a reasonable ticket price.

Norwich Arts Centre, which is in St Benedict’s Street, is hosting a wide variety of performances in 2022 after a difficult year following the pandemic.