After selling out in just 15 minutes, tickets for Kate Bush's comeback tour are being resold online for up to £1,500.The tickets, which were originally priced from £49, have appeared on websites such as Ebay for four-figure sums, prompting fans to vent their frustration at touts bulk-buying tickets online.Despite adding seven new dates to the initial 15-show tour, demand to see Kate perform for the first time in 35 years was so high that all 22 dates are now sold out.
In the wake of the announcement that tickets were on sale on Friday morning, the singer's own website, as well as some of the original ticket sellers, crashed as people tried to log on.
Kate then personally took to Twitter to thank fans for their incredible response to her tour. "I'm completely overwhelmed by the response to the shows," she wrote. "Thank you so much to everyone. Looking forward to seeing you all later this year."
Simon Presswell, the managing director of Ticketmaster UK spoke about the immense demand for tickets. "As expected, demand for Kate Bush tickets was phenomenal," he said. "After a 35 year wait several thousand lucky fans will be seeing Kate Bush perform live, but despite playing 22 dates demand has significantly exceeded the number of tickets available so regrettably a number of fans will be left disappointed."
The gigs at the Hammersmith Apollo mark Kate's return to the stage 35 years after her one and only tour, where she effectively retired from live performances after just six weeks on the road in 1979.
The Welling-born star was aged just 20 when she completed The Tour Of Life with three dates at what was then called the Hammersmith Odeon, after topping the charts with Wuthering Heights the previous year, becoming the first woman to go to number one singing one of her own songs.
Kate, who is famous for her ethereal and quirky style, last released an album, 50 Years of Snow, in 2011 but in a rare interview she revealed why she did not tour.Over the years various rumours have suggested that the 55-year-old did not tour again due to perfectionism and the death of her lighting director Bill Duffield during a show in Dorset, but Kate revealed it was due to the draining nature of being on the road. "It was enormously enjoyable. But physically it was absolutely exhausting," she told Mojo magazine.
