‘Granny in fishnets’ Madonna fails to draw Murrayfield crowds

SHE may be becoming the immaterial girl. Thousands of tickets for Madonna’s much-hyped show at Murrayfield this summer are unsold even though she has never played in Scotland.

Meanwhile, unsuspecting fans who think the gig is sold out face being duped into paying vastly-inflated prices for the show. Scotland on Sunday has discovered that a string of ticket agencies is selling seats at up to £900 a ticket even though they can still be bought direct from the official promoter for as little as £77. Only tickets for the standing arena at Murrayfield – which cost as little as £50.75 when bought directly from the promoters – have sold out. There is widespread availability of tickets in all other parts of the stadium, which can hold 60,000, for the show on Saturday 21 July.

Music critics believe Madonna’s appeal is fading, especially now she is being overtaken in the celebrity ranks by acts such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Lana Del Rey and Jessie J.

Music critic Colin Somerville said: “I’m not sure whether someone like Madonna, who is essentially a disco act, is suitable to play in a huge stadium like Murrayfield.

“I don’t think people want to pay those kind of prices for a show that has no sense of intimacy or personal experience.

“You also have to consider that she is doing the tour off the back of a not particularly successful album and has also lost that aspirational status that she once had.

“Somebody who was a fan five years or so may now be into Lana Del Rey or Lady Gaga. I’m not sure people really want to see their granny in fishnets singing on stage.” The American superstar, who is now 53, is playing Scotland as part of a European tour to promote her album, MDNA.

It emerged in February that ticket agency Viagogo had struck a deal with Madonna’s promoter, Live Nation, to be the official “premium and secondary ticketing partner” for her tour.

There are no fewer than 36 pages of tickets for Madonna’s Murrayfield gig on sale on the Viagogo site. Prime seats in the upper section of the west stand start at £150 each.

However, on Live Nation’s own website, tickets in the same area can easily be acquired for £77.

On the website of another ticket agency, Seatwave, ticket for seats in the south stand at Murrayfield range in price from £99.50 to £235.

Derren Nugent, spokesman for the music website www.safeconcerts.com, said Madonna had created a one-woman “toutfest” by allowing a batch of tickets to go on sale on Viagogo’s website, but that the move had now backfired due to poor sales.

Live Nation declined to answer any questions about the show at Murrayfield and ticket sales for the show to date.

Viagogo, which initially tried to claim Madonna’s concert in Edinburgh was sold out, said it would not discuss the “confidential” details of its contract with Live Nation for Madonna’s tour.

However, Edward Parkinson, director of London-based Viagogo, said: “We are officially endorsed by the organisers of the tour as the place where fans should go to sell-on their spare tickets and to buy tickets once sold out at the box office.”