[Music] The Who Sell Out......

[Pinkie Brown]

*WARNING* This thread contains moaning.

The Who Sell Out: The title of of one of The Who's classic 60's album and directly or indirectly, what they have done regarding ticket sales for their latest tour which was announced yesterday.

The tour was announced yesterday morning with advanced pre sales starting at 2pm for Who Fan Club members (fair enough) plus AMEX Card holders!!! A corporate sell out of many fans surely who will now struggle to get tickets? No doubt AMEX are paying a few quid for this sponsorship, but why? Its not as though messrs Daltrey and Townsend are broke and reuniting to make ends meet like many old bands have down in recent years.

A comparable example maybe? BHA are through to the 6th Round of the FA Cup and are drawn at home to Manchester Utd/Chelsea or similar. The club announce that in partnership with their 'prefered' sponsor, American Express, Cardholders will get first dibs on tickets before fans! I think there would be a meltdown.

Needless to say, when we managed to book tickets yesterday evening through a fan club member, all the prime seats downstairs had been long blagged. Tickets for that area were £85 inc fee's which isn't too OTT compared to what some bands of the WHO's stature charge. But guess what? The likes of Viagogo, ticket stub etc have stalls tickets a plenty - From an average of £150 and upwards!

Could somebody please explain: How do these sites bypass the touting laws and get away with it? If I was to stand outside the 02 trying to flog tickets at inflated prices, I would soon get my collar felt. Genuine question if anyone knows the answer?

This will be my 5th time of seeing The Who over the years. I was lucky enough to be at the legendary Charlton show in 1976. I'm still drying out from the rain! They have always been a great live act, even if there is only 50% of them now. The arrangements for this gig have left a bad taste though.

Genuinely interested in other views. Am I right to be slightly pissed off or am I missing a point somewhere?

 

[Mellotron]

They're not even that good anyway.

*runs and hides*

 

[paul & shark]

**** giving that nonce Townsend any of your hard earned

 

[Bozza]

Amex have pre-sales for a large number of events. My main card is an Amex in order to collect Virgin Atlantic miles, but if you go to much stuff, it's well worth having an Amex card just for the pre-sale offers.

I'm not sure what the solution is with the ticket re-seller sites though. Buying scarce tickets for, essentially, touting purposes has always gone on, but it seems to have been further legitimized over the past few years with StubHub, SeatWave, ViaGoGo and the like. I've used them as a buyer before, picking up Elbow O2 tickets a day or two before the gig and also used them to dispose of Arcade Fire tickets booked months in advance that I could no longer use. I think I paid face value when buying, and got below face when selling, and that was before the quite prohibitive fees.

 

[Blues Rock DJ]

well past their sell-by date, anyway !!

 

[Shy Talk]

well past their sell-by date, anyway !!

So are you, you old bugger!

 

[Blues Rock DJ]

So are you, you old bugger!

yeah, difference is I admit it......how's you doin' ?

 

[spring hall convert]

Could somebody please explain: How do these sites bypass the touting laws and get away with it? If I was to stand outside the 02 trying to flog tickets at inflated prices, I would soon get my collar felt. Genuine question if anyone knows the answer?

There was a Channel 4 dispatches about this a few years ago. The suggestion was that the promoters, the ticket agency and the resale agency all club together "buy" a certain number of tickets, advertise them on the resale market and split the profit. Totally and utterly out of order, I'm sure it still goes on.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

This isn't really the band's fault. It's the promoters and the way ticketing systems work in general. The Amex thing is just part and parcel IMO. Any event that big will have sponsors who want a piece of the action. That's fine. What I hate is the reselling you've mentioned.

Until you need photo ID to get into a concert, I can't see it changing...

 

[carlzeiss]

The Who sold out years ago

 

[Shy Talk]

yeah, difference is I admit it......how's you doin' ?

Still busy tending ladies bushes!

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

It does all sound a bit Silas Stingey of them. With a decent pair of binoculars you could probably see the gig from miles and miles and miles away, even from Armenia City in the Sky, which would be a cheaper, and some would say, a more Rael experience.

 

[Biscuit]

It does all sound a bit Silas Stingey of them. With a decent pair of binoculars you could probably see the gig from miles and miles and miles away, even from Armenia City in the Sky, which would be a cheaper, and some would say, a more Rael experience.

Luckily I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles.

 

[dingodan]

Who sold out?

 

[Trufflehound]

Who sold out?

No, Who's on first.

I Don't Know sold out.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Ahh The Who.

Well its not really The Who is it. I mean there is only Roger Daltrey and "whens THE book out??" Pete "operation yewtree" Townshend left. The Ox and Keith Moon no longer with us. It should be more accurately "Pete and Rog sing songs from The Who".

Thats like Ringo and Paul getting together and saying we are "The Beatles" no it isnt.

Led Zep just about got away with it by having John Bonhams SON on drums at their o2 gig. But The Who? Nah.

 

[KJP]

Saw them last year and they were amazing. That had an Amex presale too, and I shall be going this year too

 

[Norman Potting]

Luckily I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles.

Saw them early '90's at Wembley Arena. Didn't seem right that they had about a dozen or so other musicians with them. One of my "time machine" gigs would be the '70's tour they did with Lynyrd Skynyd as support and Keith Moon at his mental best on drums.

..Not buying tickets for this tour, won't get fooled again.

 

[dingodan]

No, Who's on first.

I Don't Know sold out.

You don't know who sold out?

 

[User removed 4]

Saw them last year and they were amazing. That had an Amex presale too, and I shall be going this year too

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