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Scalpers profit from sold-out AC/DC Zurich gig

Malcolm Curtis
Malcolm Curtis - [email protected]
Scalpers profit from sold-out AC/DC Zurich gig
AC/DC singer Brian Johnson (left) and group's co-founder Angus Young. Photo: AFP/File

Tickets for AC/DC, the veteran Australian hard rock band, sold out on Tuesday for a Zurich concert in six minutes but media reported tickets were being resold within an hour at five times the price.

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The 48,000 tickets for the June 5th 2015 gig at the Letzigrund stadium were snapped up in the fastest sell-out ever for a stadium show in Switzerland, according to vendor TicketCorner.

Purchasers were allowed to buy up to eight tickets at a time through the internet and it appears some buyers acquired them specifically for resale.

Within an hour of the sell-out, tickets regularly priced at 150 francs ($156) surfaced on EBay for as much as 750 francs ($780).

Fans unable to secure tickets through the normal channels were upset.

Erwin Haas, 43, from Engelburg in the canton of Saint Gallen, said he was “mega disappointed and pissed off” by the way the tickets were sold.

“Mainly because I wanted to take my 12-years-old son for the first time,” he told the Blick newspaper.

The Zurich date was the only Swiss one for the band, which is launching a two-year world tour next year after performing for more than 40 years.

But Haas may get another chance.

The concert organizer announced shortly after all the tickets were sold that another concert has been added in Zurich for June 7th.

Tickets are set to go on sale on Thursday.

Founded in 1973 by brother Malcolm and Angus Young, AC/DC has sold more than 200 million albums, with songs such as “Highway to Hell” among its most well known.


Malcolm Young dropped out of the band after being diagnosed with dementia and there have been a few other changes in the original lineup.

But if the band’s latest record, “Rock or Bust”, is anything to go by, it is sticking to the same hard-rock formula and familiar power chords that first brought it to fame.

The formula appears to still have some appeal — in Switzerland and elsewhere.

The group is set to perform next summer in some of the biggest stadiums in Europe, including the Stade de France in Paris (May 23rd), Berlin's Olympiastadion (June 25th) and London's Wembley Stadium (July 4th). 

UPDATE: Tickets for the second Zurich concert on June 7th also sold out on Thursday in about 90 minutes, the Blick newspaper reported online. 

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