Elton John has criticised secondary ticket sites as "disgraceful" for selling UK concert tickets at inflated prices.
Speaking to the BBC, the legendary star told his fans not to pay over the odds for tickets to his concerts. "I'd rather have empty seats," declared the singer
Tickets for his 2016 UK tour are being sold for up to five times face value on some sites. Yet the shows have yet to sell out. Elton John has set a top ticket price of £89 for his 2016 tour, but secondary sites offer much dearer prices."The fact they're willing to pay that [amount] is fantastic, " he commented. "But I'd rather they'd save their money and not come."
"I think it's extortionate and I think it's disgraceful," Elton said, joining a vigorous campaign against ticket resale in Britain.
The flamboyant entertainer last played Ireland - the 3 Arena - on December 14, 2014. He and his band will play Belfast's SSE Arena on Friday December 2, 2016. Elton first played in Northern Ireland in 1979 and in 1998 he became the first rock artist to play in the grounds of Stormont Castle.
Coldplay recently signed an open letter to the UK government calling for more stringent penalties. The band declared that fans were being "ripped off by touts" and warned of "industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation" in the ticketing market.
Mumford and Sons have also drawn attention to professional touts who use "sophisticated" computer code to secure tickets from official retailers, before selling them on "in bulk".
"It's our hope that secondary ticketing companies root this out to stop it happening on their sites, and that they shut it down," said the band. "We want every seat in a sold out show to be filled with a fan."
Adele's management have tried to address the matter in advance. They vetted people who pre-registered for her 2016 tour to eliminate potential touts. In fact they identified 18,000 suspect accounts, thereby keeping an estimated 36,000 tickets off the secondary market.
