Iron Maiden is joining in the fight against ticket scalpers. The band’s manager Ron Smallwood was among 80 representatives from the music and sports businesses who signed an open letter asking the U.K. government to crack down on secondary sellers.
The letter published in The Independent asks officials to “put fans first” and help ensure that anyone who buys tickets to shows and games is getting a fair price.
Smallwood tells BBC News they care about the fans and “the future of this business.” They’re asking for changes to be made to a Consumer Rights Bill currently going through Parliament.
The battle against ticket scalpers is also being fought on this side of the Atlantic. The Foo Fighters recently brought attention to the issue by selling tickets to their upcoming tour in-person rather than online.
source: q1043.com
5 Responses
Kids today have no idea of how awesome it is to camp out for tickets. Maybe if a few more bands join in, they’ll get a chance.
I’d never buy tickets from scalpers. But I’d also never buy bootlegged band merchandise like t-shirts because that takes away from band income and, especially these days, bands need all sources of income
they can get.
When I was a teenager, a friend of mine from school bought a Kiss Asylum tour t-shirt in the parking lot outside the concert venue from some guy and he said it itched when he put it on and most of the design came off during the shirt’s first washing. I bought an officially licensed shirt inside the venue at the same concert and I still have it (I never throw away concert shirts). So that shows how bootlegged shirts are usually of cheap quality.
Yeah, I bought a few scalper shirts back in my younger days. I didn’t know any better at the time, but true they were always junk after just a couple washings (if they even got that far)! Most of my “real” ones are still in good shape. Unfortunately, MY shape is a little different now!
None of us knew any better back then and the good thing is bands, especially the big ones, weren’t struggling to make a living back in those days like a lot are now. And don’t feel bad: The older concert t’s I still have are either on display (I have a few, like Maiden’s World Slavery Tour and Metallica’s Damaged Justice Tour framed on the wall of my game room/bar) or my nephew wears them because there’s no way I could fit in them any more. I’ve tried putting one on as a joke now and again and I look like that Chris Farley gag “Big man in a little jacket!” or whatever it was he called it.
My opinion is if they want to give everyone a fair shot at tickets stop doing the presale of the tickets and release the tickets to everyone at the same time. This is where the scalpers hoard the good tickets and then sell them for top dollar to all of us who can`t afford the access to the presale or don`t have access to presale all together.