E&I tour - EU pre- & general sales

Originally posted by LikeASong:I have been buying tickets online since I was 15 years old (2005), including very very high demand shows like Muse 2015, U2 Dublin 2015 and U2 Dublin 2017. Not bragging, but I consider myself to be pretty skilled when it comes to buying tickets. I have my tricks, some of them widely known and some a bit more obscure. I always get the tickets I'm looking for, with no exceptions. Sometimes it's rather easy, and sometimes it requires a bit more efforts like trying with several devices, a web script, etc.

And in 13 years buying tix online I hadn't seen such a rigged, impossible-to-get-through sale as I saw yesterday. Shows being declared sold out while most of the fans were still in the virtual queues? Thousands of clearly overpriced 218€ seats being sold in 2 minutes in markets where 218€ mean more than a 25% of a monthly wage? Dozens of fans from at least 12 countries all trying and all of them getting NOTHING AT ALL? I get that GAs fly away rather quickly and if you don't get through the virtual queue in the first seconds of the sale, then you're pretty much not being able to get them. Also, presales take up an ever-increasing percentage of the tickets, and the quota available for general sale is smaller and smaller each tour. But what I saw yesterday exceeds all logic.

All this ticket business is rigged and cooked from the ground to the top, and I'm not surprised that a good few of experienced, long-term fans (some of them attending shows from 1992 and 1987) have told me they're stepping out of the train and are not keen on being trampled and fooled anymore, and are determined to stop seeing U2 live. It's really sad. I wish I had the strength to follow their steps and give a big middle finger to Livenation, Ticketmaster and the U2 Corporation. I wish.

Originally posted by Remy:[..]
Not at all. Italy was horrible to get through.

Originally posted by badirishcharlie:[..]
First gig was 1997...didn't even bother trying yesterday. If I get one at a resonable price down the line so be it but I am not going to bend over and take it up the backside from Livenation & TM. It's all greed now fuelled mainly as artists make little money from traditional record sales anymore

Originally posted by andyuk36:[..]
I have been going to U2 gigs since 1980 and I agree with all the comments I have never known ticketing like this and so horrible. I know U2 are signed up with Live nation and under new management but they could have stopped this by being vocal about it. I know they are older now but the plan seems to be get as much revenue generated by playing less gigs. They are even getting lazy over the last few tours by not rotating the setlists they used to be great at that throwing in surprises almost every night alas a thing of the past now.........

Originally posted by Remy:U2.com confirms in an email that Dublin and Belfast dates are expected in the next few days.

Originally posted by LikeASong:I have been buying tickets online since I was 15 years old (2005), including very very high demand shows like Muse 2015, U2 Dublin 2015 and U2 Dublin 2017. Not bragging, but I consider myself to be pretty skilled when it comes to buying tickets. I have my tricks, some of them widely known and some a bit more obscure. I always get the tickets I'm looking for, with no exceptions. Sometimes it's rather easy, and sometimes it requires a bit more efforts like trying with several devices, a web script, etc.

And in 13 years buying tix online I hadn't seen such a rigged, impossible-to-get-through sale as I saw yesterday. Shows being declared sold out while most of the fans were still in the virtual queues? Thousands of clearly overpriced 218€ seats being sold in 2 minutes in markets where 218€ mean more than a 25% of a monthly wage? Dozens of fans from at least 12 countries all trying and all of them getting NOTHING AT ALL? I get that GAs fly away rather quickly and if you don't get through the virtual queue in the first seconds of the sale, then you're pretty much not being able to get them. Also, presales take up an ever-increasing percentage of the tickets, and the quota available for general sale is smaller and smaller each tour. But what I saw yesterday exceeds all logic.

All this ticket business is rigged and cooked from the ground to the top, and I'm not surprised that a good few of experienced, long-term fans (some of them attending shows from 1992 and 1987) have told me they're stepping out of the train and are not keen on being trampled and fooled anymore, and are determined to stop seeing U2 live. It's really sad. I wish I had the strength to follow their steps and give a big middle finger to Livenation, Ticketmaster and the U2 Corporation. I wish.

Originally posted by andyuk36:[..]
I have been going to U2 gigs since 1980 and I agree with all the comments I have never known ticketing like this and so horrible. I know U2 are signed up with Live nation and under new management but they could have stopped this by being vocal about it. I know they are older now but the plan seems to be get as much revenue generated by playing less gigs. They are even getting lazy over the last few tours by not rotating the setlists they used to be great at that throwing in surprises almost every night alas a thing of the past now.........