My girl managed to get a couple of Live 8 tickets. Both of us thought The Cure were playing -them and Muse were the closest thing to a good band- . As it turns out both are now playing in Paris.

Worse, no booze, unless you are a VIP and then you get a bar and silver service.

Anyone wanna buy some? Bidding starts at £100

Er...

...no.

Also, are you serious?

About selling the ticket or the shite line-up and lack of booze?

It seems people have managed to start selling them again on Evilbay.

There's a pair with 3 days to go sitting at £205.

Touting tickets is bad enough, unless you strongly believe in free markets, but making money from a charity event is pathetic.

Gramsci wrote:About selling the ticket or the shite line-up and lack of booze?

1. About bothering to get hold of tickets to what is clearly (in terms of quality of artist) a crap-fest.

2. About selling something designed to aid those dying of hunger at a profit.

Rodabod wrote:It seems people have managed to start selling them again on Evilbay.

There's a pair with 3 days to go sitting at £205.

Touting tickets is bad enough, unless you strongly believe in free markets, but making money from a charity event is pathetic.

I'm about as left as you can get, but I fuckin' hate most the bands and Geldof is a total wanker.

Most of the bands' will get free publicity from the gig meaning they will get even richer. While you criticise someone for selling their tickets for a few bucks?!?!

Your point about free-markets is a little strange because the whole point of Live 8 is to promote free-markets so African goods can be traded more easily with the West... it's not a charity event, they're not raising money, the tickets were a text lottery.

Gramsci wrote:Most of the bands' will get free publicity from the gig meaning they will get even richer. While you criticise someone for selling their tickets for a few bucks?!?!

I'd imagine that the bands are doing the concert for no fee, are they not?

Unless you are suggesting that they wear hoods and cloaks and play cover-versions of mid-period Can or 23 Skidoo, I hardly think they can be blamed for getting 'free publicity'?

Your point about free-markets is a little strange because the whole point of Live 8 is to promote free-markets so African goods can be traded more easily with the West... it's not a charity event, they're not raising money, the tickets were a text lottery.

I suppose it's mainly a question of good taste.

Is Anal Cunt playing?

If no, I'm not going.

Okay, it's a bit more complicated than just trying to promote a free market isn't it? I don't understand it exactly so I won't go into more details here, you just can't simplify it down to that. An international free market would actually be pretty bad for Africa right now...

I'm not defending any of the bands at all, they are all shite, but I'm getting really sick of everyone just being so cynical about it. So what if they're getting a bit of publicity, they are still kind of helping out in a way that they can. Even if they're doing it for the wrong reasons, the consequence is still the same isn't it?

phildodd wrote:An international free market would actually be pretty bad for Africa right now...

Not true.

Sugar and cotton (for example) can be (and is) grown much more efficiently and cheaply in Africa than in (for example) the USA, but the USA subsidizes it's cotton and sugar farmers, thus allowing them to undercut African producers.

If the USA (and Europe) allowed genuine competition then Africa would be in a far better position than it is.