Is rock recession resistant? In a year where budget cuts have dominated the headlines we have been asking musicians who have gigged through recessions old and new for their observations.
Rick Parfitt, of Status Quo, has been on the road with the Quid Pro Quo tour throughout November and December. Has he noticed a change in audience behaviour?
"It's started to hit us," the guitarist admits. "Seat sales are staying relatively the same - we're not getting any bigger or smaller - but you do notice it in sales of programmes and T-shirts.
"If you bring the family out to the gig, it's expensive enough anyway. We try to keep it down, but we have to move with the times. So you go out there and try to give great value for money - we've always given 100%."But if we only suffer in sales of programmes and T-shirts then we're doing all right. As long as we've still got bums on seats, we're happy.
My dream for the end of Quo - to see every member of the band past and present on the same stage at the last ever gig. As the encore ends, they all stand on the stage in the "Tank" formation with teles playing Rick's intro to Caroline as the stage sinks from view in dry ice .