It looks as if most of the tickets have been hoovered off the site now, but there is another little scam: the people flogging oh-so-fashionable charity wristbands on the site have started adding "Live 8" to "Make Poverty History" in the adverts, kind-of-leading-to-the-conclusion that maybe they're in some way official. Or at least collectable.
Next week, No Rock will be launching its own awareness-raising wristband: made from purple material (depending on what's hanging around in the exciting partner sweatshop we're working with), this band can be yours for only fifteen quid; it gives you the chance to show your solidarity with everyone being ripped off in the great wristband racket of 2005. All proceeds will go to Prince Charles, directly, if there's any left over after we've bought some cool shoes.
Popstar Morten Harket wears a wristband on his wrist in a fairly similar position to where you might wear an Official No Rock Make Wristbands History wristband
I think eBay have actually responded in a mature fashion to this, pointing out that it's not actually different to selling on a cuddly toy you won in your local hospice raffle and making a profit from it. Of course now Bob is urging a "worldwide boycott" of eBay, blah blah, "electronic pimp" yada yada, bluster bluster...
ReplyDeleteThey did also claim simultaneously that it was illegal to sell charity ticket gigs in the UK (is it?), of course...
ReplyDeleteTrue enough, as you say they're not so dumb as to positively invite bad PR; it's just that I don't blame them for handing over their cut to Live8 and letting the world keep spinning on its axis.
ReplyDeleteThat said, as Tom on Freaky Trigger points out, it's not technically a charity gig anyway.