Are you good value for money?

I took a break from a soundcheck to get a sugar fix last week, getting ready for brilliant Ross A’s brilliant gig in The Workman’s Cellar in Dublin. So I went to Brick Alley Café in Temple Bar for a thin small slice of chocolate caramel cake, and they asked me for 7 Euro!! The waitress even seemed embarrassed by the price. And I refused to buy it on principle. I headed off and got a packet of Rolo instead, muttering and mumbling like Victor Meldrew. I’m embarrassed that we rip off tourists in this cynical little particular micro economy in Dublin. 

But here’s the opposite side of the coin! I was travelling from a gig in a Circus tent in Connemara with Kila last Friday to a festival gig in The Bogside Derry the next day with Bronagh Gallagher and I stopped in a small shop somewhere in County Sligo. There were no sandwiches on display but I asked the lady anyway. She said, “what kind of sandwich would you like?”. I said, “what do you have?”. She started with “Chicken and stuffing”….. “Yes that’s perfect”, I interrupted. So she went in to the back kitchen of her shop/house and made a big heavy, fresh chicken sandwich with proper homemade nut, herb, cranberry, and onion type stuffing. It was so delicious and only e2.50! That food item should in fact have been 7 euro! That’s an inverted value right there between the 2 establishments described. We seem to now have 3 micro economies in Ireland. Dublin, 'Not Dublin', and the third and most scarifying, Temple Bar. 

We probably have the same amount of rates of value in the music industry. And maybe in the world in general. Those who undercharge, those who are paid fair, and those who overcharge ( or are overpaid or end up with too much) for the service they provide. Now, ironically the gig in Temple Bar we did that day had huge value for money. We have an embarrassment of riches in Ireland when it comes to musical and creative talent and the 2 main songwriters on the night, Ross A and Molly O Mahoney performed with a soul and a magic that bewitched the audience. I couldn’t help feeling that the 50 people or so that actually found the gig and willed us on were getting a priceless evening to remember. 14 Euro compared to something like e81 to see somebody in a massive stadium like Garth Brooks with no intimacy, questionable song craft, and more or less the same show every night. ‘Hello Dublin!’. For me, that is Inverted value again. Whatever job or position you have in life, or business you own, I hope you feel like you are providing good value for money with what it is you do or sell...