Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi lashed out at secondary ticketing site Viagogo, claiming he’ll find a way to cancel resellers’ tickets after seats to his upcoming UK tour appeared on the resell site for three times the original price.
The 22-year-old rising star, who is making noise in the music scene with the single “Someone You Love,” announced a world tour earlier this month. Shows immediately sold out in Glasgow and Edinburgh, but tickets were still available on Viagogo. Fans expressed their anger online as tickets were listed for three times the original price at almost £300.
“If you bought to resell on Viagogo you’re the f****** worst and I’ll find a way to get them cancelled,” Capaldi wrote on Twitter, backing his fans.
Viagogo said his fans were “lucky” to be able to get tickets through their site.
“Unfortunately not everyone of Mr Capaldi’s fans will have the opportunity to be so lucky to gain access to his events during the initial on-sale primarily because so few actually make it to the general public,” a spokesperson for Viagogo said in a statement. “Between the venue, promoter, sponsor and other insider hold backs, it’s likely that less than 50% of the total capacity of these small venues actually went on-sale.
“Luckily, some fans still have a chance with Viagogo. The average price of his tickets is a modest £66.00 on Viagogo, which is merely a reflection of his rise in popularity and the value his fans place on his talent. It seems ridiculous that they would even consider stopping his own fans from trying to enter his gigs with valid tickets.”
Capaldi fired back, telling The Scottish Sun that by suggesting £66 is a modest price for someone who hasn’t even released an album yet, when it’s three times the face value, is “absolutely f***ing rediculous.”
“It’s in no way a reflection of my rise in popularity or talent and is more an indicator that Viagogo is a website for money grabbing b******* to scam people out of cash,” Capaldi said. “It’s not for anyone else to decide the ‘value of my talent’ other than myself and the team around me, which we already did, no more than 22.50.
“I’m in no way trying to stop fans from entering gigs with valid tickets, what I want to do is cancel overpriced tickets and sell ones at a fair price. I wouldn’t pay triple the original ticket price and you shouldn’t either.”
Viagogo reportedly told The Sun that venues, promoters, sponsors, and other insiders are “holding back tickets” and claimed only 50 percent of the total capacity for venues were made available to the general public. However, a spokesman for the singer called the accusation “patently ridiculous,” noting that a majority of the 30,000 tickets for Capaldi’s tour were bought by fans at £22.50 or £19.50, while only a “very small number” were held for guests and media, totaling less than 100 per show.
“We would like to see a change in the law to prohibit the resale of tickets at a profit and we wholeheartedly agree with Lewis’s own description of anyone who buys tickets with the only motive of selling them on at the biggest profit possible,” he said.
Capaldi is also set to hit the U.S. this summer and has sold-out select cities. His debut record, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, drops May 17.
