i am royally fucked off at the moment. i can't get tickets to go and see the red hot chili peppers this summer, i'm even more anoyed when the pixies were anouced as the support band. i was out the country when the tickets went on sale. apparently they sold out all 4 show, 250,000 tickets in 4 hours. now its fair game if all the tickets went to genuine fans, but i think more and more people theses days are buying tickets these day to sell on for a nice profit. i had a look on e-bay, there are tonnes of tickets for auction, which takes the piss in my book. all the big events seem to be selling out so quickly these days.



glastonbury sold out in record time last year, although tickets were readily available on ebay for months. this year the are printing the name of the ticket purchaser on the ticket, so it can be crossed referenced with some ID. i really hope glasonbury new ticket policy can sucessfully distribute there tickets to genuine fans this year.



the problem of ticket touting has always existed, but it seems to be getting worse with new ways to do there buisness. i hope the real ticket retailers like ticketmaster can find a way to sell tickets to genuine buyers, rather than just writing 'not transferable'. if not live music will suffer!!



do other countries have problems like this??

That's crappy news, sneakerbeater! I hope you can find a way to come across a ticket without it putting a major dent in your wallet.



The same thing happens here in the US - tickets sell out and you find them elsewhere (e-bay, indie ticket offices) for jacked up prices. It's so unfair. I don't get to see many shows mainly because of ticket prices as they are (not to mention the bullshit service fees tacked on to Ticketmaster tickets - plus, if you use a credit card to pay for tickets at the walk up service, they charge you an extra few bucks.) A good example is the last time I saw the Chemicals at Audiotistic in Los Angeles. I bought my tix at the last minute because I didn't think I was going to make it, or else I would've bought them earlier. My tickets were, altogether, $98. I almost died! Tickets were $40 each, which is steep but hey, Tom and Ed are worth it ;) but the extra $18 bucks was Ticketbastard service fees and the Ticketbastard credit card charge.



In short, I think Ticketmaster are a total monopoly. There's a walk-up window at my place of work. The system is a pain in the ass, as a Ticketmaster site our store gets no compensation for making Ticketmaster it's money through ticket sales - so, no allowances for pulling tickets first, no comp tickets, no price breaks for employees... it's not called Ticketbastard for nothing but I think I've ranted enough.



One good thing I've seen Ticketmaster do is have tickets-per-customer limits on certain shows - not all shows, but some - I think it depends on the band who's playing and whatnot. I remember back in the early 90's, U2 tried to stop ticket scalping by limiting on 2 tickets purchases per customer. It was a mad house for Ticketmaster - you paid for the tickets, you got a number but you didn't know where you were going to sit, it was all random - then you had to go back a couple days before the show to pick up the tickets. It did limit the scalping to some degree but it turned out to be more a pain in the ass than anything else. Especially for the fans.

I feel your pain....Im hoping wolfsheim tickets wont swll out in like 5 min..anyhoo I feel your pain... :(

the same happened to me when the chem�s come in 2002.....HORRIBLE, I FEEL ACID IN MY STOMACH, IS THE WORST ....

i'm kinda feeling that e-bay is the devil in disguise these days. it use to be a great place to buy and sell, now a days it's become more of a place to be ripped off. it populated by ticket touts, record bootlegers and scammers

that's right, ebay is getting crap now, i'm starting a new company called e-gay, it will cover all your homosexual needs you gay bastards!



I better get a ticket for glastonberry!