Robbie Williams ticket hopes dashed

Quoted from: http://tonight.co.za

'April 15, 2006
By Jeremy Lawrence

He may be one of the biggest-selling artists in the world, but when it comes to Robbie Williams' live performances, apparently no one gets a freebie.

Popular radio station 94.7 Highveld Stereo found this out when it tried to give away free tickets to the sold-out concert at Loftus on Monday.

Tickets for the concert, with an average price of around R500 apiece, were sold out within hours of going on sale at the end of last year.

Highveld bought 100 tickets for the concert with the intention of giving them away as prizes on shows in the lead-up to the concert. But before the station could go ahead with its plan, Williams' management stopped the give-away.

Station manager Ravi Naidoo said this week: "This is the first time such strict regulation has been placed by any artist's management. 94.7's listeners expect when an artist is touring this region, we... would be doing ticket giveaways."

He said the station then worked closely with the record company to give away Robbie Williams hampers to listeners. Naidoo said Big Concerts, the local promoter of the concert, had been "very accommodating with our requests".

However, Michael Anetakis, of Big Concerts, said the restriction came from the singer's marketing company. "

(Williams' management) noticed that around the world... companies were sort of hijacking the event. They decided that no one but the official sponsors should be able to promote the event. In this case, 5FM is an official sponsor and not Highveld," explained Anetakis. '