Tom Dunne: Auld Dunne's Almanac and predictions for 2025

I’m not sure when this Utopia will arrive, but I am counting the days and scanning the actual news feeds. The smart money in on New Zealand. The only issue I have is how I will use the rest of my time once freed from “death scrolling.”

 As we wait for this heavenly escape, some other portents of 2025 you might need to know about. If you teenage children of a gig going age, I won’t lie, 2025 isn’t going to be kind to you.

Teenage Wasteland

 Starting at the tail end of the Mocks and running well into results season, venues such as 3Arena, Malahide Castle and the Aviva will be playing host to the superstars of 2025. Taylor Swift was just a dry run. Prepare to open your wallets many more times next year.

Including, but not limited to: Sabrina Carpenter,  Grace Adams, and Teddy Swims in March; Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa  and Lana del Rey in June; and Billie Eilish in July. 
There are others, but in the teen universe, all of the these are probably regarded as unmissable.

I’d hate to guess at the potential spend in all that. Factor in a few friends, dynamic pricing, food and drink, dynamic pricing, travel and hotels and dynamic pricing and you may feel someone is making you an offer on the house.

I deliberately left the Brat Tour arriving at Malahide, July 17, out of all that as there is still a bit of Christmas cheer left in my system.

Definitely Definitely

Any parent buffeted by the ticket price winds above and who already have Oasis tickets is probably feeling quite smug now. Whatever you may have eventually paid will seem like small change against your child’s merchandising requests as they exit Billie Eilish.

“Let mammy and daddy have this one thing” you can say to them with venom as you eye your credit card. Mind you, it’s more likely daddy and his equally married best mate from the band he was in briefly in 1994. Enjoy every soaring chorus.

Then there are new albums expected from David Gray, Mogwai, The Manic Street Preachers, Inhaler, Doves, the Murder Capitol, Lane del Rey and, intriguingly, Brian Wilson. Plus, U2 must be up to something, but what?

There will of course be more Beatles films in 2025, and more Beatles books and more Beatles reissues. That is one well that will never ever run dry.

But look out too for Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly which will hit bookshops in March. It changed everything, saving the music industry from financial ruin. But what has it created and at what cost?

If your bank account survives the live music outings there is further bad news. Box sets are not going anywhere. They are if anything getting bigger and more expensive. It is the one part of the “physical product” market that cannot it seems lose money.

In 2025, gird your loins for boxed sets from the following.

Celebrating 50 Years: Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, Queen’s A Night at the Opera, David Bowie’s Young Americans, Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, Wing’s Venus and Mars, Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night, Patti Smith’s Horses.

Celebrating 40 Years: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, The Cure’s Head on the Door, Tom Wait’s Rain Dogs, The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, The Smiths’ Meat is Murder, Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms, Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen, The Waterboys This is the Sea.

Celebrating 30 years: Oh god, I did warn you: Pulp’s Different Class, Radiohead’s The Bends, Oasis’s What’s the Story Morning Glory, Bjork’s Post, Blur’s Country Life, Supergrass’s I Should Coco, Tricky’s Maxinquaye and PJ Harvey’s To Bring You My Love.

2025. Bring it on.