domingo, outubro 31, 2010

25 dates are now sold out

TAKE THAT broke tour sales records yesterday - sparking fears of a biggest ever tickets scam.

Analysts estimated fraudsters could rake in a record £15million by luring buyers to bogus websites.

The warning came as the band smashed their own UK one-day sales record yesterday - and added TEN more dates to the tour.

Fans have snapped up the 1.35million official tickets, meaning all 25 dates are now sold out. Firms estimated that 50 tickets were being sold every second. But internet experts revealed at least one new fake ticket website was appearing every hour yesterday.

Tricksters were preying on unprecedented demand to see the band's first outing with former member ROBBIE WILLIAMS for 16 years.

Bogus sites - some based as far away as India - either take cash for non-existent tickets then close down, or use the buyer's personal details for identity fraud.

With touts selling tickets too, scams could rake in £23million.

Edward Parkinson, of ticket exchange Viagogo UK, said: "Fans need to be extra vigilant when they see a site offering Take That tickets and should not judge a site by its appearance; they must do their homework before they buy."


Official sites and phone lines went into meltdown as fans scrapped for precious £55 tickets for the Progress Live 2011 stadium tour.

Demand was a staggering 30 TIMES higher than for the ill-fated 2009 MICHAEL JACKSON This Is It tour.

Some fans queued for 72 hours before box office doors opened. Others purchasing online were unable to log on for up to four hours as ticket sites handled their highest-ever day of traffic. Ticketmaster, Gigs and Tours, Ticketline and The Ticket Factory all struggled to cope.

Ticketmaster's site went down as early as 9am. A spokeswoman said it had a knock-on effect for telephone hotlines, causing them to jam.

She said: "Call volume is at least twice that of when Michael Jackson went on sale last year."

Within minutes of the official tickets becoming available some were being offered at massively inflated prices on auction site eBay. One opportunist tout was flogging a pair of tickets for the July 7 gig at London's Wembley Stadium for a whopping £2,703.

Last night bandmates GARY BARLOW, 39, MARK OWEN, 38, JASON ORANGE, 40, HOWARD DONALD, 42, and ROBBIE WILLIAMS, 36, added three more dates at both Wembley and Manchester and one each at Sunderland, Glasgow, Birmingham and Cardiff.

The lads will now be playing seven dates at Wembley - which will equal Michael Jackson's record-breaking stint there on his 1988 Bad tour.

Last night Take That said in a statement: "We are speechless, truly and utterly shocked. This is the most amazing news for all of us.To sell one million tickets in a day is mind blowing and we think we'll be in shock for a few days!"

Earlier the boys posted an apology on Twitter for the sales fiasco - saying "the technology available has not been able to keep up with demand".

The band's promoter SIMON MORAN added: "The demand for tickets was at another level to The Circus tour."

Last night Business Secretary VINCE CABLE told The Sun: "No one should get ripped off by scam websites. Take That fans who think they may have been scammed should contact Consumer Direct for advice."

UK's best in a day

TAKE That's incredible 1,100,000 ticket sales yesterday set a new all-time one-day high.

It beat even their OWN previous record of 1,080,000 for the Circus Tour 2009.

Other top UK sales were Michael Jackson 1988 Tour (780,000), Michael Jackson 2009 (750,000), Oasis 2009 (700,000), Rolling Stones Bigger Bang (600,000) and U2 Vertigo (350,000).

Read more: The Sun

Sem comentários: