Fans who purchased resale tickets to Metallica’s upcoming UK tour stops at the O2 Arena in London, SSE Hydrow in Glasgow, the Genting Arena in Birmingham and the Manchester Arena worry they will be denied entry given the arenas’ united force against ticket “touts”, or scalpers, at the request of the band.
Last month, the Foo Fighters made headlines when about 200 fans were denied entry to their show at the O2. Leaving many fans devastated by the ticket crackdown, the band’s management later released a statement saying: “Foo Fighters, The O2 and SJM strongly advise and sincerely hope that in the future ALL fans buy tickets only from legitimate sites to ensure they are not defrauded out of their hard earned money.”
Now, Metallica fans fear their eligibility for entry into shows later this month, as it seems the heavy metal band is following suit. The Daily Record obtained statements from the four UK venues, who all confirmed that once again, all concert-goers will be asked to provide valid photo ID that matches the names on their tickets- some will even be asked to provide the payment card used to purchase the tickets. No ticket buyer may be in possession of more than 4 tickets, and all members of the buyer’s party must be present at time of entry.
Metallica fan Jimmy McDill spoke to The Record about his ticket purchase experience, and why he is “disgusted” by the prospect that he might be turned away.
“I tried everything to get tickets on presale and then public sale through Ticketmaster but they were gone in minutes. I thought I was getting sorted on Ticketmaster but at the very last moment it redirected me to Get Me In! – their reseller partner – where the prices were all hiked up with big commissions on top.”
McDill continued, “The cheapest ticket listed was £140. I didn’t know anything at all about needing ID until I read about it in the Record. I wasn’t even aware of the difference between Ticketmaster and Get Me In! and you trust the site because Ticketmaster send you there.”
“I can imagine there will be carnage if hundreds of people turn up with tickets they can’t back up with ID. I think the band could have done this a lot better. The problem is that the touts got all the tickets in the first place and sold most of them before people knew there would be issues with the ID.”
A spokeswoman for the SSE Hydro was the first to tell The Record that ID will be carefully checked for the Metallica show. The Record reported that Seatwave and Get Me In!- the official partners of Metallica’s concert promoter Live Nation- pulled all inventory for the Glasgow show after they requested a comment and that soonafter, Glasgow tickets were withdrawn by secondary sites StubHub and Viagogo, as well.
As of this morning, all four sites continue to sell resale tickets to Metallica’s shows at the UK venues mentioned above. Apparently, several brokers contacted by The Record have said they will “walk through” buyers turning up at the venue with the ID used in the primary sale.
Links to buy tickets from the band’s official site bring the customer to Live Nation, then to Ticketmaster or AXS (depending on the venue), then inform them that tickets are sold out.
Will these Metallica shows see the same chaos, sadness, and anger that the Foo Fighters’s O2 show saw last month? Or will the advance warning on the policy allow secondary buyers to sort it out with their sellers in time for the shows? Only time will tell; the shows in question take place on October 22 & 24 at The O2, 10/26 at The SSE Hydro, 10/28 at Manchester Arena and 10/30 at Genting Arena.
