Bastille’s Dan Smith Joins O2’s Fairer Ticketing Campaign In The UK

Bastille frontman Dan Smith and telco giant O2, sponsor of some of the world’s best-known buildings for live concerts, teamed up for the launch of a new information hub created to help music fans buy gig tickets safely. Dubbed Stamp It Tout (www.stampittout.co.uk) it’s designed to make sure fans don’t get ripped off by ticket tours.

Dan Smith’s support comes as O2 ramps up its “Fight for Fairer Ticketing” campaign ahead of the UK government’s consultation on ticket resale, which closes April 4, where fans are encourage to share their own experiences of the ticket resale market.

Price caps, other ways of limiting resale, holding platforms accountable, or introducing a licence for the resale of tickets above face value are just some of the points that the UK government intends to address with this consultation.

O2, as part of its campaign, is calling for a 10% price cap on resale concert tickets, to combat the estimated £145 million ($187 million) touts are making off UK music fans every year.

Stamp It Tout is “an online hub designed to combat consumer confusion online and minimize the chance for touts to profit from genuine fans,” according to a press release, which also quotes from earlier research done by O2 and YouGov, which found that “almost half (48%) of music fans who have attended live events are ‘not confident’ in identifying a ticket resale platform. In addition, nearly two-thirds (62%) of music fans buying a ticket from a resale platform don’t realize they are buying it from another human being and 64% don’t realize the price they are paying is set by the individual reselling the ticket.”

See: O2 Study Highlights Confusion In The Ticket Resale Market

Some of the ways in which Stamp It Tout aims to demystify the way touts currently operate include offering music fans simple tips to help them make informed ticketing purchases; a guide to the government’s consultation; more information about the Fight for Fairer Ticketing campaign.

During the first days in April, The O2, London will deploy a so-called “Consultation Station,” where music fans at The O2 can submit their own views on ticket touting and how the government should take action. The views gathered across the three days will then form part of O2’s own response to the consultation.

Bastille are scheduled to perform at The O2 on Nov. 18. The show’s part of the band’s “From All Sides” tour, celebrating songs from their first 15 years, which kicks off Nov. 6 in Plymouth, and includes nine UK arena shows, culminating at London’s O2 Arena on 18 November.

The band last performed at the building April 7, 2022, selling 13,493 tickets at a $649,654, according to the box office report submitted to Pollstar. GA ticket prices for the show ranged from $27.50 to $37.50.

Bastille also performed two nights at the O2 Academy Glasgow that year, April 10-11 (4,615 tickets, $216,325 grossed), and the O2 Institute Birmingham, April 14-15 (6,016
tickets, $281,940 grossed).

The band is represented by Wasserman Music, and managed by Red Light Management.

Band leader Dan Smith commented, “Ticket touts have been ripping off music fans for way too long – like O2, I’ve been banging on about the unfairness of this for years. I’ve been frustrated to see it as someone in a band who hates our fans getting ripped off, and I’ve been frustrated to see it as a fan who goes to a lot of gigs myself. I hope the government takes notice and actually does something about it this time to stop the touts and keep tickets in the hands of genuine music fans.”

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