Closet bare as Eminem tickets sell out

EVEN before he sets foot on Irish soil, Eminem - aka Marshall Mathers III - has already broken a record here.

His two Irish concerts sold out in a matter of hours, eclipsing both in speed and numbers ticket sales for U2, Oasis and Westlife gigs.

Even before the 8am deadline yesterday morning, phone lines to Ticketmaster were jammed with tens of thousands of his fans trying to get through.

“We could have sold as many again,” said Justin Green of Dublin-based promoters MCD.

“It was incredible. More than 70,000 tickets were sold before 11am and that’s amazing considering most fans were not expecting them to go on sale until Saturday and only found out about the change at 7am.”

Shortly after noon, that figure had risen to 90,000. The profits from the concerts are equally phenomenal.

With each ticket costing €52.50 plus a charge of €16.50 for each phone or net transaction, the organisers netted over €5m in the space of four hours - almost five months before the world famous rapper even arrives here.

The decision to allow tickets go on sale a full day ahead of schedule was made for safety reasons, according to MCD.

In a statement, the promoters said that due to current bad weather conditions across the country, “it would be inappropriate and unsafe to have thousands of fans queuing outside overnight”.

It said the decision was made following consultation with and the agreement of Eminem’s representative Ticketmaster Ireland and the gardaí.

Most concert sales were made either by phone or on the internet.

Such was the phenomenal public reaction to the concert announcement and the overwhelming success of the hit movie 8 Mile since its release, MCD had already added a second concert date and restricted the number of tickets sold to four per person.

Fans under the age of 18 must be accompanied to the event by a parent or guardian and younger fans on their own will not be allowed in without proof of age.

Eminem will now play on June 26 and 27. Both concerts are being held at Punchestown racecourse.

However, the promoters have still not been granted a licence by Kildare County Council.

According to a spokesperson for the council, no application has yet been made for a licence.

“It is in the process,” according to Justin Green, who refused to be drawn on their prospects of success.