It's pretty tough to get tickets to popular artists in London and I sense that people are becoming very frustrated by touting - the practice of buying standard price tickets and then selling them for a profit. Touting is endemic in London. If you go to a popular indie gag, you often see the same rabble peddling tickets. Channel 4 needs to do an exposure episode on these guys. It would make fascinating viewing but i digress. Essentially there are two ways to tout:

1. Buy tickets when they go on sale and sell on eBay.

2. Buy tickets from people who no longer want them and sell them for a profit outside the venue.

I don't have a problem with 2. but I do have a problem with 1. Within 30 minutes of a gig selling out, you will find at least 20+ tickets on eBay charging a %100 premium. So what to do? On May 14, the UK government announced that they have set up a committee to investigate touting and whether it should be made illegal. Even it was made illegal, it would be hard to enforce.

There is another option. Scarlet Mist is an ethical ticket exchange which has been set up in the UK to address the touting problem. Sellers and buyers are linked up so that unwanted tickets can be sold at face value. You search for the tickets you want, if there is a seller, then you will be placed in contact with them. If not, a notification will be sent when a ticket becomes available. Obviously there's a big degree of trust involved; Scarlet Mist are unable to verify whether a ticket is genuine or not so the principle is very similar to eBay. Still, it seems to have a dedicated community and I hope it continues to prosper.

Scarlet Mist - http://www.scarletmist.com

Scarlet Mist Blog - http://www.myspace.com/scarletmist