The Cure frontman Robert Smith has confirmed that roughly 7,000 tickets for the band’s upcoming tour have been “cancelled.”
On Friday, Smith tweeted a quote about the tickets being “acquired with fake accounts / listed on secondary resale sites.” He urged fans who believe their orders have been wrongly cancelled to contact Ticketmaster.
Smith tweeted: “A WEEKEND THOUGHT... THIS ONGOING TM 'CONVERSATION' IS NOT TAKING PLACE IN A VACUUM... THE SYSTEM THAT VALUES PROFIT OVER PEOPLE IS REALLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED.”
Also last week, Smith warned of a scalper scam in which they offer to sell account login details “to get around [Ticketmaster] transfer limitations.” He said “tickets obtained in this way will be canceled, and original fees paid on those tickets will not be refunded.”
Smith said the fees paid on the tickets will be donated to Amnesty International and the tickets will be resold to fans.
Last month, Smith said he was “sickened” by the fees Ticketmaster was charging fans for tickets to The Cure’s upcoming Songs of a Lost World Tour.
The band had promised to offer reasonable ticket prices and no “platinum” or “dynamically priced” tickets. It also said tickets would be non-transferable to crack down on resale and scalping. But, fans quickly discovered that Ticketmaster fees – service, facility and order processing – were in some cases higher than the ticket prices.
Smith later announced that he was able to secure refunds of $5 and $10 for each fan. “Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high,” he tweeted.
The Cure is bringing announced last month they are bringing the Songs of a Lost World Tour to North America, including stops in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal in June.
The Cure, formed in 1978, has released 13 studio albums that spawned hits like “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Lovesong” and “Close to Me.” The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.