When oh when will promoters give a shit about true fans going to see bands? I’ve been to one gig where your name on the ticket had to match some ID.
Just had a quick look for u2 tickets. “Get me in” a company in patrenership with ticket master has over 450 listings with various amounts of tickets available starting upwards of 130 quid for a seat up in the gods. The odd one at 160 for standing. It really is just a bit shit.

How do you know that the people that can afford £160 aren’t true fans?

you can’t, but secondary ticketing sites are an absolute scam, up there with ambulance chasers and rental estate agents for people who need to be drenched in sewage in recognition for their contributions to society.

Those tickets would have gone to true fans at the original price if a load of them hadn’t been sold to people just out to make money.

There was a piece on the radio the other day talking about the anti-touting measures being used for “Hamilton”.

Paperless tickets where you need to swipe the original payment card AND provide photographic ID to get into the theatre.

Despite that they are still getting touted!

How do you know that the people that can afford £160 aren’t true fans?

surely only true fans would pay the massively over inflated prices

true fans

Of U2?

Is this a troll?

Maybe its just a tax on people who like U2

Same with Phil Collins. What is a true fan to do. And it just gets worse:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jan/18/royal-albert-hall-called-national-disgrace-members-ticket-resales

When the likes of Ticketmaster have a finger in the ticket “resale” market it stinks to high heaven of corruption.

Sorry about the Robbie content but this article give a good insight http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38131028

OP, do you still need tickets? i recently had a thread on here about my mate selling some he bought by mistake. no idea if hes sold em yet but i can ask if youre still after some. theyre for twickenham i think and will be at face value.

The problem seems to be a disparity between the price promoters set the tickets at (which they hope is fair) and the price people are prepared to pay. Obviously many people are prepared to pay well above the face price and thats what sustains the secondary market. No matter what systems you put in place if theres a 1000% markup to made re-selling the tickets to fans who’ll pay that then people will find a way to do so.

The people who manage to by at face-price and the people how pay many times over to resellers are both fans. But at the moment the promoters don’t have a way to sell to both of them at the prices they’ll both pay.

Perhaps they should auction them, then even if some people are paying inflated prices in the scramble at least that can be turned into production values that all the audience can enjoy.

But the other solution is to satisfy the demand – play bigger gigs or play more of them so theres more tickets to go around. Its gratifying to have people queuing out the door to see your show but the key to everyone paying the same price for their ticket would be have enough to sell that some end up unsold.

but secondary ticketing sites are an absolute scam, up there with ambulance chasers and rental estate agents

Arguably worse than ambulance chasers unless one of them deliberately runs you over and punches you in the face before offering to represent you. Ambulance chasers only occupy one side of the arrangement whereas the relationship between venues, agents, promoters, artists, primary and secondary sellers is very murky as numerous recent news articles testify.

Scarletmist (http://www.scarletmist.com/) used to be the antidote to touts (apparently it has re-surfaced – hurrah) and the new golden child is twickets.co.uk

Another reason I don’t like “Big” acts. Pay shitloads to see them miles away, like dots, in a massive warehouse or stadium, surrounded by 100s of morons shouting along to every song. No ta.

Touting by itself is pretty crap but the outright fixing- Ticketmaster and Getmein being the perfect example- is downright dirty. And I’m pretty sure it bypasses the “passport” stuff too- it seemed to at the last id’d gig I went to, you couldn’t pass the tickets to a mate or a random but Getmein could.

DezB – Member

surrounded by 100s of morons shouting along to every song

Never join a choir.

I might just heed that advice.

Supply and Demand. The price is what people are willing to pay. Touts have to make a living too.

CharlieMungus – Member
How do you know that the people that can afford £160 aren’t true fans?
surely only true fans would pay the massively over inflated prices

munrobiker – Member
true fans
Of U2?

Is this a troll?

binners – Member
Maybe its just a tax on people who like U2
All totally irrelevant. Personally, I think some promotors are really taking the piss, knowing that they can never really satisfy the demand, they can’t expect bands to play five-ten gig residencies at maybe six or seven big arenas in the UK, then the same worldwide, it just won’t happen.
What needs to happen is the secondary ticket sites are separated by law from the primary agencies, and the secondary sites forced to publish face value along with their mark-up.
Also, it needs more major venues to adopt the procedure used by Kate Bush where each ticket has the name of the person who paid for it printed clearly on the ticket, and any third party holding a ticket with another person’s name on has to accompany that person through the door, with photo ID.
It worked for Kate’s twenty-odd concerts, and can work just as well at other venues; double-checking several ID’s doesn’t really add much more time than bag searches and pocket content searches.

That’d be fine for Kate Bush, where everyone is over 30. Doesn’t work at all with bands kids like. “Do you have the credit card you bought the tickets with?” “No, I’m 15, my mum got it” “Is she with you?” “No, the tickets were £30 each”. And who wants to lose their passport in a moshpit?

£160 per ticket and they bleat on about world poverty. 😯

Mrs has been trying to get tickets to this Harry Potter show, Cursed Child. Cursed scam more like. Impossible to find tickets, even as far ahead as April next year. Plenty on Get Me In etc, for twice the face value.
While you’ve got ticket sites running secondary ticket sites it’s always going to be a scam.
If these artists could give a toss they’d have named tickets, but obviously palms have been greased etc.
Utter scandal but what do you expect.

£160 per ticket and they bleat on about world poverty.

****** aren’t they! I reckon he’s dodged a bullet there not getting tickets.

While you’ve got ticket sites running secondary ticket sites it’s always going to be a scam.
If these artists could give a toss they’d have named tickets, but obviously palms have been greased etc.

All it really takes is for the tickets to be issued electronically on shortly before the gig and for the resale sites to have a capped fee for relisting (or what the hell return to the orginal site where they have all of the mechanisms to sell them back on. Refunds only issued as per T&C’s relist and recieve the payment if it sells.

Touts have to make a living too.

In these cases they are not as the original ticket retailers are now squeezing them out of the market

The Glastonbury ticket system might be flawed but at least it stops this rubbish. Bit overkill for most gigs though.

Really hacks me off how a internet sales site like Ticketmaster, also owns a secondary sales site, clear they are just sticking a proportion of the tickets on there anyway, or genuine sellers want to sell tickets, they profit twice.

Hacks me off as i tried twice to get Stone Roses tickets for Wembley, sat there on laptop constantly refreshing only to be told 20 mins in that they were all sold out.

After 24 hours, there was over 800 tickets for sale on their secondary (Get Me In?) site, don’t tell me within a day 800 people have decided they don’t want to go anymore or their hamster is sick?

Unfortunately i went for a pint with the mate who wanted to go with me, and that pint turned into 6 and before you know we’d bought two tickets off Getmein for £236!!

Then what do i see at the weekend? EXTRA normal priced tickets to go on sale for same gig, did Ticketmaster find some extras down the back of the sofa!!

Rant over…

If these artists could give a toss they’d have named tickets, but obviously palms have been greased etc.

Whatever makes you think any artist has any input, with one or two exceptions? Tickets are the responsibility of the venue or promoter or both. Artists are booked into venues by their management or by a booking agency.
It’s a rare artist like Kate Bush who has total control over the entire thing from top to bottom, beginning to end, and that’s because she’s pretty much unique.
The same sort of ticketing system is now being talked about seriously as the best option for stopping this sort of behaviour by the ticketing agencies, and it’s them entirely responsible, not the artists, who stand to gain nothing from this: they get their share of the face value ticket price, once a ticket is sold, then finds its way onto a secondary selling site, any extra money over and above face value goes to whoever bought the tickets(s), which could easily be someone working through the ticket agency.
Common sense ought to tell you this, if you had any…

takisawa2 – Member

If these artists could give a toss they’d have named tickets, but obviously palms have been greased etc.

See: Pearl Jam vs Ticketmaster. (spoilers- Ticketmaster destroyed them)

See: Pearl Jam vs Ticketmaster. (spoilers- Ticketmaster destroyed them)

A band that tried to put fans first, garnered no support from other acts and almost financially ruined themselves in the process. One of the reasons I like them.

Yeah it pisses me off too – I saw Black Sabbath on Sunday (paid the normal ticket price). However I really wanted to see them on the last night of the tour in Birmingham (their last ever gig, in their hometown – I expect it to be something a bit special). However from the very second tickets went on sale I could not get through at all, however there are loads to be had on GetMeIn. Unfortunately I am still very tempted to buy one of them.

However, Iron Maiden have put a restriction on their sales to stop this crappy practice – you have to take the original card used to buy the ticket with you when you go to the venue (which means if you bought multiple tickets, all holders have to go through the turnstiles together).

The Glastonbury ticket system might be flawed but at least it stops this rubbish. Bit overkill for most gigs though.

Yeah I am utterly gobsmacked at how secure they are with it – even down to constant checks on your identity should you go in and out of the grounds during the event.

surrounded by 100s of morons shouting along to every song.

More like, constantly shouting to each other about banal crap through every song, pausing only to video it on their iPads.

First against the wall come the revolution, I tell you.

And who wants to lose their passport in a moshpit?

This for me – no way I’m taking my passport to a gig.

It’s a rare artist like Kate Bush who has total control over the entire thing from top to bottom, beginning to end, and that’s because she’s pretty much unique

Well, it’s easier when only fifteen people want to watch you sing.

Unfortunately i went for a pint with the mate who wanted to go with me, and that pint turned into 6 and before you know we’d bought two tickets off Getmein for £236!!

and the next thing you know you’re surrounded by 100s of morons shouting along to every song. 😆

nd the next thing you know you’re surrounded by 100s of morons shouting along to every song

It’s the Stone Roses, i fully plan to be one of those drunken idiots shouting along to every song! if i wanted to sit down and stroke my beard i’d go see Radiohead! I’m getting old now, and i’m only allowed out to play occasionally, so i need to try and recapture what in my head was my youth..

LIKE.

I’d be narked if I went to the opera and the dude beside me insisted on singing along but at my gigs, if the crowd’s not singing, something’s gone horribly wrong.

Thank you Northwind, if you’re ever playing in the East Anglia region, i shall endeavour to get my bi-annual pass to see you, learn your songs and imbibe a few shandies..

Even worse when their management put the tickets directly onto resale sites.

Looking at that Robbie Williams article, it is written by:

“By Chi Chi Izundu”

Isn’t there a separate thread for daft names..?