Most of the gigs I go to usually sell tickets through the venue or on various third party sites and on the odd occasion I have had to use Ticketmaster it was fairly straightforward if not a bit pricey.
Anyway, since Black Sabbath announced their final gig in Birmingham on 4th February, I have been chomping at the bit to get tickets and thought I stood a chance with access to both the O2 priority pre-sale and the Amex preferred tickets. Cue 0900 on Wednesday when the pre-sale began. My wife and I were both set up and ready to go with multiple devices but it was futile, the tickets were gone in seconds.
Unfortunate but I thought I stood a chance of getting a ticket in the main sale this morning. Not a chance. Same strategy, clicked through as soon as the sale began and there were no tickets available. At 0902 there was no hope of getting a standing ticket, yet there were over 1000 already available on Getmein, a subsidiary of Ticketmaster, for twice the face value and a steep additional admin fee. End result is a couple of standing tickets are going to cost north of £350 which is ridiculous.
Is this really the norm now? It seems like legitimised extortion. I know ticket touting has always been around, but I don't ever recall it being so obviously orchestrated by the ticket vendor for their own gain.
Even though I'm in the fortunate position to be able to get the tickets if I really want them, the experience has really put a dampener on the prospect. I know a few people who have been die hard Sabbath fans for most of their lives and they too tried to get tickets as I did but they are now priced out. The whole thing seems even more wrong since Sabbath came from nothing and their music spoke to and captured the discontent of the working class fans who made them what they are today.
Thanks for reading my rant. As you were.
Anyway, since Black Sabbath announced their final gig in Birmingham on 4th February, I have been chomping at the bit to get tickets and thought I stood a chance with access to both the O2 priority pre-sale and the Amex preferred tickets. Cue 0900 on Wednesday when the pre-sale began. My wife and I were both set up and ready to go with multiple devices but it was futile, the tickets were gone in seconds.
Unfortunate but I thought I stood a chance of getting a ticket in the main sale this morning. Not a chance. Same strategy, clicked through as soon as the sale began and there were no tickets available. At 0902 there was no hope of getting a standing ticket, yet there were over 1000 already available on Getmein, a subsidiary of Ticketmaster, for twice the face value and a steep additional admin fee. End result is a couple of standing tickets are going to cost north of £350 which is ridiculous.
Is this really the norm now? It seems like legitimised extortion. I know ticket touting has always been around, but I don't ever recall it being so obviously orchestrated by the ticket vendor for their own gain.
Even though I'm in the fortunate position to be able to get the tickets if I really want them, the experience has really put a dampener on the prospect. I know a few people who have been die hard Sabbath fans for most of their lives and they too tried to get tickets as I did but they are now priced out. The whole thing seems even more wrong since Sabbath came from nothing and their music spoke to and captured the discontent of the working class fans who made them what they are today.
Thanks for reading my rant. As you were.
