Ban the rip-off ticket touts

Among the baby photos and moans about the weather cluttering up my timeline the other day, a Facebook post by my friend Elaine caught my eye.

She’d been trying to buy tickets for a Jamiroquai gig at The Roundhouse in London on 31 March. Armed with one old-fashioned telephone and three devices, she’d been desperately dialling and refreshing web pages since the moment the tickets went on sale. But the tickets sold out in minutes and she wasn’t one of the lucky ones.

My first thought was ‘why am I friends with people with such terrible taste in music?’ My second was ‘I bet the tickets are already for sale on Viagogo for loads of money’.

I was right, of course. I always am. The band’s Facebook page was full of fans complaining tickets to the gig had sold out in a minute and were now for sale on secondary ticket websites for several times their £60.50