My eldest son is going to be making me a grandparent in the summer and we were talking about what the arrival of children does to your ability to get out and about. Turns out this is beautifully illustrated in the chart above.
I have kept a log of all the gigs I have ever been to in a spreadsheet for quite a while and this allows me to record the number attended graphically. So the above shows the number attended by year from 1982 through to the end of 2018. You will note that it has a very clear U shape.
During the ten year period of 1994 to 2004 when my children were between the ages of nought and 12 we went to ten concerts. For comparison the ten year period prior to this (1984 to 1993) 27 and the ten year period after (2005 to 2014) 47. Interestingly in the latter ten years we’ve been accompanied by one or other of the children which has been great.
Now my new music discovery is almost exclusively from one or other of them recommending some band or another to me and my gig attending is pretty much bands I grew up with and I’m enjoying them more than ever – provided I’m seated!