You would imagine that Pearl Jam might have enjoyed Taylor Swift publicly digging out ticketing giant Ticketmaster when the company fumbled the sales of her huge Eras tour at the tailend of 2022. For Eddie Vedder’s band, it was a case of ‘Been there, done that, just about managed to emerge intact’. Next week marks 30 years since Pearl Jam took such umbrage with the control that Ticketmaster has over the US live market that they decided umbrage wasn’t enough: on 6 May, 1994, Pearl Jam filed a complaint against Ticketmaster with the U.S. Justice Department in a move that the LA Times called a “holy war” between the country’s biggest rock band and the country’s biggest ticketing agency.
In their filing at the time, Pearl Jam said the Ticketmaster had put pressure on promoters to hinder the group’s attempt to embark on a low-cost tour, alleging that the company had a national monopoly on the live industry and specifically pinpointing the huge service fees Ticketmaster were adding to ticket prices.
