CityLife

Peter Kay tickets sold out in an hour

Fans queuing for tickets enjoy pasties from Peter Kay

ALL 200,000 tickets for Peter Kay's comeback stand-up shows sold out within one hour.

The tickets went on general sale at 11am on Saturday with hundreds of people queuing at the MEN Arena box office from 6am.

Kay was so touched by the massive response from fans he paid for breakfast pasties to be delivered to the first 100 in the queue.

Originally only four nights were  scheduled for Kay's The Tour That Doesn't Tour – Tour at MEN Arena in April next year, but the frenzy for tickets led to the comedian adding 16 extra dates.

And they all sold out by midday.

But many fans were left disappointed after missing out on   the £38.50 tickets  – only to see hundreds available on the internet for more than £100 within minutes.

Front row seats were going for as much as £850 on one  site.

Janet Fraser, 64, from Eccles, said: “It's not right. People are just buying up all the tickets to make money. I can't afford to pay triple what they are worth.

“I'm disabled and I'm a massive Peter Kay fan. He makes me laugh. Now I can't get a ticket to see him.”

'Enormous demand'

Fans have been logging on to the Manchester Evening News website to register their disappointment.

One, Bernie Williams, said: “Shame there are so many of the tickets now on  websites at ridiculous prices.

“I am sure I am not the only true fan out there who, despite four hours of trying on the phone and the internet, is still ticket less.

“There are some very greedy people in this world.”

National agency Ticketmaster reported that there were 50,000 people waiting online to buy tickets on Saturday. They were limited to eight per person.

The sales for the shows have smashed M.E.N Arena box office records.

A spokesman for the venue said: “While we share the annoyance of genuine fans when tickets are sold for inflated prices, there is nothing the venue can do about it.

“After a lengthy review, the government decided not to make the re-selling of tickets illegal and that opened the floodgates for touts.

“By putting on five times the original number of dates we tried to give all fans a chance of getting the tickets they wanted but still could not service the enormous demand from Peter's fans.”

At Kay's insistence, the arena has been restricted to an audience of 10,000 for each show. He said: “I don't want to be a dot in the distance that people can only see on big screens - like watching television."

The 20-night run eclipses anything which the Arena has seen in its 15 year history. The previous longest run by any act was Take That’s 11 nights in December 2007.