Tickets for The Who in Glasgow available from StubHub UK one day before they go on general sale. |
I'm not
the sort of guy who has much change jingling about in my pockets.
I never
have been.
Money and
me have never really been that close.
It often
prefers to spend time in other peoples pockets and bank accounts and
steers clear of being seen in my company.
The most
I have ever had in savings has been a few hundred quid, and something
always comes up that snaffles that away.
It's just
the way it has been. I'm not complaining.
For a
while now I have been salting some cash away for a rainy day though,
but today I thought that I would just throw caution to the wind and
buy a couple of tickets to see The Who in the Glasgow SECC.
I love
them, and I haven't seen them before, but I wasn't really looking to
buy them for myself.
They were
going to be a gift for my son.
He loves
the whole sixties era, and chances like this don't come around often.
It would
have been a great memory for us both.
So at
£140 plus a booking fee I wasn't really looking on it as a couple of
gigs tickets, but more a night where we could share an experience
together.
At that
price it's really a tad more than I could afford for a rock show, but
like a great deal of parents it's a price I would pay to put a large
smile on my sons face and give him a night that would live on forever
in his memory.
It
doesn't look as if that's going to happen though.
I was
aware that presale tickets were made available through Ticket Soup,
the official outlet, so I signed up to see if I could get a good seat
by getting a jump on all the people who were waiting patiently for
the public sale.
I was
kidding myself on though.
All that
appear to be available are at the fringes.
£70 each
to look at the very side of a stage, and get a fraction of the view
available elsewhere.
I'm sure
people jumped in earlier than me and are sitting quite happily with
their tickets already winging their way to them, and that's great.
I have no
issue with other fans getting in their early and grabbing a seat, but
I'd really like to know how many tickets have went to seatwave,
viagogo and the other legalized touts.
Viagogo
already have them on sale for £103.98 and Seatwave at £104.95.
A few
weeks ago when Pere Ubu tickets went on sale for MONO in Glasgow they
were still available for the face price of £18.00 from most outlets,
but Viagogo already had one up at £136.
Yes
that's right. £118 more than the asking price of a ticket that was
still available.
Meanwhile
the StubHub will 100% guarantee you a ticket for the Who if you have
£198.99 to spare.
Now most
of us who consider ourselves music fans are well aware that some of
these companies where focussed on by Channel 4s Dispatches, and they
were shown to indulge in using multiple credit cards to make multiple
bookings, and many more practices that we would consider immoral.
Yet since
they were outed for being little more that legitimised touts in
February of 2012 what changes have we seen?
Did the
government step in and clean them up?
Did the
venues attempt to address the problem?
Did any
artists come out and emphatically put their foot down?
If you
answered no to any of the above then give yourself a gold star.
I'm going
to be very frank here.
I'm not
so much disappointed as very fuckin' angry.
As ticket
prices rise, and most of us on modest incomes are starting to see
them creep ever further away from what we can realistically afford,
it's a real kick in the teeth to see them be snapped up before a
general sale just to reappear with the original price doubled,
trebled or more.
I'm not
going to give up on taking my son to see The Who, although it is now
very doubtful that it will happen, but if I am going to pay an arm
and a leg for tickets I'm not going to be handing my hard earned cash
over to these bastards, and neither should anyone else.
It just
feels criminal.
I'm
utterly disgusted.
Couldn't agree more. I've missed out on a few gigs over the last while and find that these chancers are rich with tickets for a good £100+ more than face value.
ReplyDeleteLike you say, until venues and artists make a stand more and more of these companies are gonna pop up to take advantage of the fans.
Perhaps I need to alter my moral compass ... rip off real fans and ensure that I live comfortably on some remote island somewhere.
Or perhaps not.
The only way that this can be halted is by people power, but as long as there are those who are willing to pay a hundred or even two hundred pounds, more than the face value then we have no chance of that as no one who is really in a position to do anything about it is, and that includes the artists themselves.
ReplyDeleteTarget those publications that are ADVERTISING these secondary ticketing co's ..NME, Guardian etc ..evertime they run an article regarding gigs/tickets then fill in the comments section with your views on this. Every little helps.
ReplyDeleteWorth reading the latest news about these dreadful touts here.
ReplyDeletehttp://louderthanwar.com/wilko-johnson-how-online-ticket-resellers-are-trying-to-profit-from-his-terminal-cancer/