OUCH ... Take That say sorry as pre-sale website crashes
Mark Owen, Gary Barlow, and Howard Donald of Take That, at the announcment of their huge UK arena tour and greatest hits album to mark their 30th anniversary next year The John Smith’s Stadium will stage the final concert of Take That’s Greatest Hits tour next year. Tickets go on sale at 9.30am tomorrow. TICKETS for Take That’s Greatest Hits tour went on sale yesterday for fans who pre-ordered their new album – and the clamour caused the website to crash.
And some who managed to grab the sought-after tickets from See Tickets put them straight back on sale online – for a whopping £140 each.
Tickets for the Huddersfield gig are £55 for basic entry to £199 for the Greatest Day VIP package.
They go on general sale tomorrow but yesterday anyone who preordered the band’s Odyssey best of album got a special code for early access to tickets – which includes the last night of the tour at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Some tickets are already being sold on for hugely inflated prices.
The tickets on See Tickets are “general admission” with no seat numbers given – and charges of £27.30 EACH added to the tickets mean whoever buys them will be forking out £334.60 for the pair.
Fan Joanne McHugh tweeted the Examiner to highlight the sale, saying: “How is this acceptable after the ticket fiasco in the morning? I’ve managed to get my tickets but thousands didn’t.”
Meanwhile, fans described the internet woes which has left them worried about whether their code had worked – and whether they had even bought tickets.
Big Take That fan Sian Patrick, of Mirfield, who has seen the band five or six times, said it was a “nightmare” getting tickets for the Huddersfield gig.
She had ordered the new album and got a pre-sale code and was online at 9.30am.
She said: “I was trying on my work PC, my iPad and a laptop! I also had a colleague helping me. We both got through to the payment stage and having put my credit card info in on both occasions, it wouldn’t process.
“Then when you tried to go back and put your pre-sale code in, it said maximum number of tickets already purchased.
“A friend had the same issue and, when you look on social media, so did everybody else.
“I waited a bit and went back in and had no issues. Likewise for a couple of other people I know who bought for Manchester.
“Too many people trying at same time must have crashed the website.”
Huddersfield Town season card holder Sian eventually secured two tickets for her home stadium and said: “I was determined not to miss out. They will probably never appear again so close to home.”
Gary Barlow – who is joined by Howard Donald and Mark Owen in the group’s current line up – has apologised to fans.
“Sorry to hear of all the problems this morning,” he tweeted. “We’re being told it’s due to high demand. You’d think they’d know this by now. Hope you all get sorted.”
Howard added: “Sorry for that our management are on it! It’s basically a system crash because we are so mega!!!
“Next time we will personally deliver them to your [sic] door in the morning with warm croissants and a pot of tea!”
See Tickets has also issued an apology and assured fans it was looking into the issues.
“We are aware there have been some problems with buying tickets during the pre-sale for the Take That tour, these problems are being looked into,” a spokesman said.
“We apologise to any fans who have had issues buying their presale tickets.”
The final night performance in Huddersfield will be on June 4.
It will be only the second major concert at the stadium in 12 years, following the success of Little Mix this summer.