Radiohead back Ticket Trust and speak out against ticket touting

Radiohead's management have made Ticket Trust, a fan-to-fan exchange that sells tickets only at face value, the place to resell tickets bought from the band, and have come out against the resale trade. Secondary ticketing is wrong on so many levels¹, their statement says.

Tickets bought through W.A.S.T.E., the band's fan club and online shop, can be swapped at face value through Ticket Trust if the buyer cannot go, with a handling fee of up to 10 per cent on top. The exchange was set up last year by the Association of Independent Festivals and the UK company Sandbag. Clash reports the fan-club terms as two tickets per fan, with the buyer's name on each and photo ID checked at the door.

The statement follows Channel 4's Dispatches, which went undercover at the resale site Viagogo for “The Great Ticket Scandal”, broadcast a week ago on 23 February after Viagogo failed in the High Court to stop it.

Management say the aim is to see fans treated fairly, and that the band's enjoyment of their own shows has been marred by the knowledge that a great many of their fans have been obliged to pay well over face value for their tickets¹.