So pissed off - got through to the booking page twice, entered my card details CORRECTLY twice and then the cruddy website is so slow that it times me out so that I have to start again. And by that time, guess what - yep - they've sold out. I hope that somebody enjoys being there in my place.

Morrissey fan for 15 years and some little clammy handed git flogs tickets for a tidy profit on Ebay.

The bile inside me is about to blow...

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

To make maters worse Bridgewater Halls' box office doesn't open until 10am, one full hour after internet and ticketline box office opening. Is there any point in even queing up there?

The tickets need to have the address of the buyer on and ID produced on entry similar to last years Glastonbury which wasn't perfect but gave us a chance of not being ripped off.I missed out today and it will probaly be the same next week.Heaven knows..

How? Is he God?

Is Morrissey the only artist you buy tickets for? If he wasn't, you'd realise touts are a problem for every in demand gig.

Today's handling of ticket sales was an absolute f*cking shambles.

Nothing for sale for people queuing in person at the Palladium. I'm told that not a single ticket was sold to personal callers today, which is madness.

Ticketmaster died on its arse in every way imaginable. Phone lines claimed tix were sold out a minute before they were due to go onsale. Website links directed people via a members-only area that they couldn't possibly navigate without having previously registered. Even the "security" feature of having to type in the word in the picture backfired, as on at least three occasions for me, no image loaded. As I type this, you can still go through each date in Ticketmaster and try and buy tickets, so I don't doubt that people are still trying.

Seetickets have left countless people heartbroken by waving decent stalls seats in their faces, and then taking them away because their website couldn't cope. I reckon their website let me go as far as confirming my booking as many as 20 times, and as I wasn't able to complete any of those transactions, through no fault of my own I tied up 40 tickets for a total of an hour and 40 minutes (as each pair of tickets won't have been put back onsale until 5 minutes after I started trying to buy them). Repeat this phenomenon across the country and pretty much all of the tickets will have appeared to have been sold almost immediately, when in fact a decent chunk of them will have been bouncing around behind crashed windows for the better part of the morning.

And what will the Sanctuary press release say? The three London dates sold out in less than 10 minutes.

Even worse was the way that seetickets then changed their method of allocating tickets - instead of giving you an idea of where the seats are, they then decided to sell them blind.

Net result? Having entered my credit card details god knows how many times for seats in the stalls for all three dates, I eventually ended up with seats half way back in the gods for just one of them.

And I'm one of the lucky ones.

If Moz is going to play seated areas like the Palladium, they really have to start being imaginative about how to allocate tickets. A situation where people have to fork out hundreds of pounds to get within 30 metres of the stage is like something from the dark ages.

How about a lottery? It can't be any less fair than today's bullsh*t, let's face it.

In an ideal scenario after today, and if the fans backlashed hard enough and loud enough about it, there would be tickets left unsold on ebay, a ton of touts selling for less than face value on the night, and a raft of empty seats in the front of the venue for all three dates.

The demand that killed the ticket sites today evidently means that that won't happen.

If people email and write to the ticket agencies though, copying in Sanctuary, maybe they'll be forced to think it through a little better next time round.

If someone digs out the relevant email addresses and puts them up on this board, a big song and dance could be made before the next bunch of tickets go onsale next week. And even better, if Sanctuary are stupid enough to write a press release to the effect that tix sold out in less than 10 minutes, we should write one rebutting this and forward it to every newsdesk we can find telling the real story.

Hopefully not next week plan on booking two gigs that should be bloody stressfull.Mite do one on the phone one online. Those bloody touts why dont they get propper jobs.

sold out by 09.02

Let's all register new accounts on eBay and put in bids of £1,000,000 for each ticket. This has effectivly stopped people selling Glastonbury tickets in the past. Together we can put an end to this disgusting profiteering.

BTW I couldn't get aticket either!

Yes, gutted, tickets sold out in 20 mins, look on ebay, lots of unscrupulous b*****ds making hugh profits.

The real fans suffer.

Will it happen next week??

Not happy!!

Note how the touts on ebay tell you that if the concert is cancelled (yeah, that never happens), they will very kindly refund you the FACE value of the ticket. One thing to ponder on if you are daft enough to pay £300 isn't it.

Someone posted a link to their customer service dept on the discussion board. I didn't even want a ticket for today, but I sure as hell want one next friday. So I wrote a polite e-mail, wondering if they could stop this sort of thing happening. This is what I got back:

"Speak to the agency/tour promoter NOT the record company who have nothing to do with this!"

Well, at least they gave me a prompt response ... and look, they were even thoughtful enough to include capitals and an exclamation mark. So, it's on to seetickets and ticketmaster I guess:
'Hello ... miss ... I wish to register a complaint.'

Poor Morrissey, what often happens with fiascos like this is that some fans end up holding grudges against the artist.

Is it allowed to sell overpriced tickets on eBay? Shouldn't we all write in and complain? No harm in making ticket scalpers' job a bit harder.

Are the bane of my existance. Ebay shouldn't allow them to sell tickets through their site, they're just perpetuating this horrible mess & leaving the British gig scene in an absolute shambles. I thought the re-selling of tickets was illegal? It should be anyway. Like someone above said, a petition or an angry mob carrying huge prodding sticksis called for. I hope everyone will follow me in shouting abuse at the touts outside every Morrissey gig, maybe throwing things at them will help (you feel better), i'm sure they'll get over it while they're sleeping on their silk sheets bought with our hard-earned cash.

I don't know how they sleep at night. You can tell what scum they are, they majority of them offer to take sexual favours in order to get the tickets at a reduced price, at least it's happened to me plenty of times (obviously didn't accept). I just hope something's done about them, if only the police would get involved outside the gigs.
I'm going to go away & think happy thoughts now.

I knew there was something wrong with the system early on. I bet there are actually still tickets to be found now, somewhere or other.

it was pretty shambolic.. and it will probably be worse with the small venues next week. On the positive side, I am sure Morrissey will announce more dates later, given how in-demand the tickets for these shows were.

I know it's tempting to vent your anger - but it's really not Morrissey's fault the system is so shambolic!

broken

I tried ticketmaster - the secret word never appeared.

I tried See Tickets and it kept timing out.

I kept calling the Credit card number - it was engaged.

By 9.20, Shitmaster had sold out.

See tickets continued to time out...by 9.50 I got through on the phone. There were still a few tickets left but in The Gods. I was lucky. Just as I got them, the See Tickets site appeared with Stalls tickets - didn't take them - I'm not a tout.

All this at 9.50.

Don't give up next Friday - and perhaps use the phone as their central PCs don't time out.

Don't believe that sold out in 20 mins shite either.

Who the f*ck are 'Get Me Tickets'? They are advertising tickets for the Stirling gig at £97 each(that's NINETY SEVEN POUNDS EACH) on the same page where they are showing the face price of the ticket as £27. Do they think our heads button up the back?

My biggest fear is that these con-artists have got a supply of the tickets and that this may be one of the only means of access to them. Well they are NOT getting £194 of my money, the f*cking chancers.

As for E-bay, well, I've already made my feelings clear about them(or rather the twats that rip us off there) elsewhere on this page.

It's an absolute disgrace.

Does anyone recall when Morrissey toured here in 1999? There was none of this hassle then. It was piss easy to get tickets for those shows, even a while after they were put on sale.

Christ knows what it's going to be like next Friday. It'll be like watching a bullfight!!

(Apologies for the language but today has really pissed me off!)

yes, of course, capitalism strikes again! if only we lived in a socialist society where everything would be better. first off, whose model should we follow, hitler's or stalin's? i guess it's not important. at least the authorities will be telling us what to listen to. not only that, but they will be allocating us to concerts. now you're forced to go! awesome!

really, let's place blame where it really lies, with morrissey and co. any band with half-decent management has dedicated fan pre-sales so this type of crap doesn't happen. when my favourite band last played my hometown this process was good enough to get me front row seats, and those around were all real fans, so don't say this doesn't work, it just requires some effort on the part of those in charge.

In the Ebay rules it is prohibited to sell tickets to football matches. Football fans are protected.

Why isn't this rule applied to music venues?

Touts are odious vermin.

I've been a Morrissey fan for twenty years. I've bought all the records and other items. And I visit this site and others almost every day for news (especially when tickets are about to become available for gigs.) I've been doing this for many years (ever since i first got online.)

Been there through thick and thin- in other words.

Today for the first time I was unable to buy a ticket for a Morrissey gig in London, despite being on-line on two computers (checking two websites at once) and constantly redialling on four phone lines from before 9am for over an hour... There was nothing else I could have done.

Why wasn't I (and devoted fans like myself) protected from this with a pre-sale?

At what point does loyalty get recognition?

I'm not expecting special treatment compared to other true fans but can't help but think we should have been afforded a little help.

No wonder we hate it when our friends become successful.

 

before anybody panics could i just point out that nowadays touts buy almost all of the tickets and then stick them on ebay for mugs to pay up to 5x face value for... the smallish (by london standards)palladium shows possibly aside, morrissey doesnt warrant this kind of price inflation - i bought tickets for two of the RFH meltdown shows on the night off touts for £10-15 above face value - the touts couldnt give the tickets away for earls court... i got one for £10... sure people will pay premium for front row but if you just want to get in and see the show - hold off, nearer the time the tickets will be less expensive - also - there will be more london shows later in the year

Well it's always this balck and white thing.....can't see that this has been mentioned already but if I'm a ticket agent selling at £30 and I see that the person I'm selling to just takes the ticket and sells it at £200 ten minutes later, I'd be thinking there's a bit more money in this - let's have a look at the whole demand and supply thing - eventually, as with what has happened in top flight football, only those who can afford can enjoy and will ultimately be the death of the game as those who can afford, as we well know, aren't necessarily the fans and those diehards eventually find something else to do. To be fair, Morrissey needs all the fans he can get so I would have thought somebody somewhere would be pulling out the stops.

I hoped to get a pair of tickets for May (I wanted to impress a lovely lady I've been courting more than a while now - big kisses from me to to you!), unfortunately, some bastard tout's got their Nokia on speed dial - AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH! I certainly won't lower-rate myself and bolster said so-and-so's bank accounts bidding for tickets on Ebay. Morrissey is said to have a 'unique relationship' with his fans, he should show his appreciation by sorting this mess out in order to avoid future disappointment.

Well, at least you all have a ridiculous amount of other Moz shows you could go see in the UK. I'll be lucky if I get even one where I live.

I'm in the States and woke up before 4am to buy tickets online for the first London date only to get two seats in the second row in my basket and have Ticketmaster flake out on me and lose them. I wasn't able to get any others after that. Man, I am bummed. That was supposed to be my boyfriend's surprise birthday present!

Well here I am, no.65 registered on Morrissey Solo (how I try in vain to prove my 20 years devotion - only to fall on deaf ears like so many others). And like so many other sentiments expressed above, desolate that the best I can do is the back of the Gods for the London shows.

OK, I know I'm lucky - seen him so many times, crushed at the barriers (5 hours in the cold outside), met him, held his hand, passed letters on the odd occasion, caught the tshirt even - yet still gutted at having to spend this tour watching behind binoculars from afar.

All this with two people at two computers each and two phones from 8.45am until 10.30am. Mozza, this is a cock-up indeed!

Why can't there be some kind of fan-club/pre-registry system whereby you have to submit your full credentials and have membership for priority booking. Why do the greedy bastards always get there first? Why oh why oh why.

I need a cup of tea...

I woke up at 6 and went to stargreen cause ever since the Pixeis gigs I don't trust the fucking internet, to my surprise I was the first there (where are those Wolverhampton days when fans waited a whole night for a ticket), now i had to wait 2 hours outside and it was bloody freezing and raining and eventually they told us we can get only 2 tickets per person, WTF? I am no fucking tout and i waited there so long to get tickets to all shows!!! and on top of that they didn't even aloocate any seats so i know what would happen - we the true fans end upin the fucking upper circle or what ever it called and all the so called VIP fans (AKA true-to-you.net...) will get the first row for all the shows.
That is really disappointing especially the reply of his shitty record firm - i mean wha the fuck have the become bloody EMI?? they should thank the fans they bloody exist in this MP3 era.
This whole scenario is more suitable to Robbie Willams/Take That gigs - Well as one once sang - "It's not like the old days anymore..."

i phoned had tabs open on ticketmaster seetickets etc i also had one open on ebay and watched the ads for the tickets i was trying to buy come up on the ebay site,talk about fucking quick out the traps,and adding insult to injury,greedy grasping money grabbing wankers....i wish one of them would jump in my grave that fucking quick.

Stitched up for tickets again.It is all Morrissey's fault.I saw Mike Joyce for free at the Secret Machines gig ,Manchester Academy 3 last night.

We are all venting our anger out on this website which is not a bad thing & it makes me feel better to know that I am not alone tonight with my misery
But we need to do more than that
My moto in life is 'To do nothing is to consent' no matter how small that something you do is. It all adds up if we all do it
Having read one of the messages above I've just emailed Sanctuary and let off at them & told them what I thought about their response of passing the buck over to the ticket agencies
So go to it M fans and mail anyone you can think of that has anything to do with this and share the details so we can also follow

....as a way of saying sorry for the heartache caused on the 20th, perhaps? Most unlikely, but it'd be a nice way of making up for the frustration caused. Oh well, here's hoping that he picks Tottenham (it certainly won't be down Finsbury Park way, given what happened the last thime he was there - I bore witness to that whilst perch on a playground climbing frame), should the thought occur. Oi! Julia dear! Have a word with your v. bestest friend, please?

My Mum and I tried in vain to get tickets online today, and faced the same problems as everyone else. I rang the hotline, thinking there would be no tickets left and nearly fell off my chair when I there were! My Mum was buying them for my bday present so quickly got on the phone to her to say give up on the internet and get on the phone. However, like many others, she had the transaction up on screen thinking it was a done deal already, so didn't use the hotline. Suffice it to say the predictable ending to this story is that the tickets vanished into the ether leaving me so disappointed I stayed in bed til late afternoon.

Yes I am kicking myself now.

Well, I am from the U.S.- and I can relate totally to what many of you are saying.

Morrissey played an exclusive show during YATQ here in Chicago- and tickets HAD to be purchased using American Express credit card.

On the positive side, a portion of the sales went to education for children-

but the tickets were gone in about 15 mins. I had to purchase my ticket through a SHARK- and I paid over double.

BUT the show was spectacular at the House of Blues. I was 6 feet away from Morrissey- honest.

The Killers opened the show, and one of their monitors actually started smoking and burst into FLAMES!

I got Brandon Flowers' bottled water (unopened).

I WAS ALMOST KILLED- (read on)

This jerk next to me had a VIDEO PHONE, and he was trying to photograph or film Morrissey illegally- and this HUGE bouncer tried to snatch the phone from the lad. I got elbowed in the face- I was SO mad.

Then- Morrissey threw his shirt out to the audience near the end. This JERK caught it and began screaming; he crouched low to the floor- and I got elbowed again. I was not trying to even get the shirt in the first place.

I will remember this always- since I am a farm-boy originally from NW Indiana.

Love,
Ken

Moz will probably be playing to no one at the palladium because all the ticket touts have all the tickets. Who wants to pay mad money, It serves Morrissey’s management right. I hope they will learn a lesson before the 29th

i feel terrible for everyone who couldn't get tickets today. i managed to get through on the phone after 10 mins constant dialling. i'd intended to try to do it online but was forced onto the phone since my broadband provider chose this morning to disconnect me for paying my bill late. clearly today was my lucky day

sorry this must be nauseating if you suffered this morning. but i just wanted to say if you are going for the shows on sale next week start dialling with at least 2 phones. clearly all the online ticket shops are crap.

... get it off your chest! You'll feel better, honest! :)

-Get on to ebay and ask why gig tickets are allowed but others are not [ebay.co.uk]

-Complain to the ticket sellers: Seetickets [mailto] Ticketmaster [custhelp.com]

-Sanctuary, anyone?

Sanctuary Records Group
Sanctuary House
45 - 53 Sinclair Road
London
W14 0NS
T: +44 (0)20 7602 6351
F: +44 (0)20 7603 5941

[email protected]

One idea might be to offer tickets to those with Morrissey tattoos in advance of the general sale. No other music based tatoos should be on the purchaser's body (anti tout measure) and the tattoo must reflect respect and appreciation for Morrissey. The maximum number of tickets available for each person would be based on the tattoo coverage/total body area ratio.

The easiest way to beat the touts and to get the whole EBAY problem fixed is not to bid. Simple as that, these are the same people selling the tickets on the street. If nobody bids on ebay they are back on the street on the night of the show trying to sell their tickets there. An hour before showtime they are looking for a little over face value, half an hour later they are selling for less. It really is that easy, leave these fuckers with their tickets and let them do the worrying not us until the day of the show and they will be happy to break even. You sit in the pub in the warmth and wait. Just a suggestion but in my view Ebay only works in their favour when we panic and they sit back and watch the money roll in. Without a change in Ebay policy the situation is currently in favour of unscrupulous (don't correct my spelling please) touts. Without us they are nothing and without us worrying about not getting tickets they are less than that. Regards G

I am beginning to think so - I am sure he thinks he is doing all a favour playing quirky, small venues but all I can see is a tour turning into a giant tout trap.
I have stuck with Moz for over 20 years now, but this is starting to look like the thin end of the wedge. All this tours proves is that gigsandtours.com are at best shambolic and worst, corrupt. Even if you managed to get tickets for all three gigs, that is £3+ per ticket for the ticket agency, plus the arbitary mailing fees...where does capitalism stop and robbery begin?
I had enough of this bollocks during the last tour - this isn't sour grapes (but it will sound like it) but I got pissed off him name checking Julia every gig, when there are a lot of people who are paying over the odds, and spending a lot of time, flexi or leave to see him and who put in the hours on a lot less money.
I have seen a previous post on here which I can agree with, and that is haggling with the touts when the support act is on or Moz just starts; you can usually a decent price if you take a chance.
Bonne Chance for Friday, one and all.

Clearly a complete scam by the ticket companies reps selling themselves tickets to tout on.
Why don't Mozza/Sanctuary just auction the whole bloody lot on e-bay, I would rather he pocketed the loot than the rooty-toot-toots.

You're right, fuck capitalism. But I don't think Morrissey has any more control over this type of shit than you or I.

Ticket touts are scum, they bring nothing to society and contribute nothing in any way, they only take and deprive others of the freedom and opportunity to appreciate someone who does provide something. They are worthless and lead shallow lives. They pay no taxes although I believe the Inland Revenue have started at the beginning of the year a campaign to target any ebay seller you has sold more than 20 items. They expect to get whatever they want without any regard or respect to others. I hate and despise them and hope they die painfully in an M62 pile up and I wish until that day the very worst for their pitiful lives.

let's just all bomb ebay with £1'000.000 bids at the last minute for each sale. I bloody well will do. All it takes is a couple of dozen people to completely wreck every one of these illegal and immoral sales

i don't think you can blame opportunistic ticket touts...they've spotted a hole in the market and they're making use of it. nobody is physically abused by it, are they?

the problem comes from the ticket agencies who are happy to sell them in bulk on their sites so long as the tickets get sold. they dont care who it goes to, and it would be sensible if they had a 4 ticket limit on people. but blaming touts is like blaming unemployed people for taking a free handout or blaming asylum seekers for the laws and regulations a country adopts on immigration. people are just taking advantage of a legal opportunity to buy tickets and resell them online. but the way to stop it shouldn't be to ban selling tickets on ebay...that's unfair i think. just get ticketmaster and co to have a better procedure for purchasing.

ay yay yay - awful headache.
So Aussie traveller here, looking to do 3 or 4 Morrissey shows at the very beginning of his tour. Anyone else?
Already have to forfeit $150 dollar plane ticket to Paris because of bad timing ... but what is my best bet for booking tix from Australia for Moz's first 3 shows - Salford, somewhere unpronounceable in Wales, Leeds ... say?
Any advice?

I reckon that has to be the least likely of all venues for anyone to want to go to. I'm bound to get tickets.

Can anyone think of any other dumps that only the criminally insane would want to enter and a place even the touts won't bother with?

Exactly HOW are companies like Get Me Tickets (and those others currently selling on Ebay at extortionate prices) actually able to get these 'prime tickets' in the first place?

Like most other people I lost out yesterday (as did all my mates who only wanted a couple of tickets too), while at the moment some fucker is selling Ebay at £620 for 2 'prime tickets'. What the hell is that all about?

A lot of people are making a shit load of cash out of events like this. The ticket agencies have their own allocation of tickets, but obviously decide to hang on to the best tickets before they even go on sale, then offload them to 'the front row specialist' companies for way above face value, and people like Get Me Tickets then in turn sell them on with their own fuckin 500% premium on top. Sadly, some rich dozy bastards pay these prices which leads to Get Me Tickets justifying their existence by pleading the old "well, its supply and demand y'see" argument. Bullshit.

I've just checked the Get Me Tickets website for the first time ever, and you can buy tickets for the Lowry gig already - they even list the different rows that are available. And if you want a seat in row 5 (the closest that they offer), they're charging £277. Nice of them to make mention of the 'normal face value price' though, just so they are making you aware of how much extra you're paying.

I don't know, maybe it should be like a ballot. You should be able to book a ticket at face value over a period of, say, a week - to prevent the mad clamour at 9am on a Friday - and like at some Premier League footy matches, if the gigs are oversubscribed then you go into the ballot for a chance to get your ticket.

At the very least, people's name and address details should be printed on the tickets, like at Glasters last year, which some people have already mentioned in these posts.

It just pisses me off. I'm still fuckin annoyed.

Let's lynch the touts outside the Palladium and get all their tickets.

do you think the sad spectre of what appears like many of the devotees being unable to secure tickets will have a negative effect on the atmosphere of these gigs? Mozzer does feed off and interact with the lunatic fringe that always seem to be down the front:) It's usually all part of the show.

I absolutely f_cking hate them. Cocks.

Now I've got that off my chest I can try and move on.

It's the first time I'll be attending to a Moz gig in a seated venue, I got a stalls ticket and I'd like to know if people will be standing in front of the stage or we're all gonna be seated tapping our foot.