Take That's 2009 British stadium tour has become the fastest-selling in UK history.

The Circus Live - Summer 2009 - so named after their upcoming album - sees the legendary boy band take to the stage for eight stadium shows in June and July, including a three-night spot at Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester.

And with a staggering 700,000 tickets sold on Friday, the tour has broken the record set by Oasis just one week ago.

Noel Gallagher's band broke the fastest-selling tour record last week when 500,000 tickets were snapped up in just six hours.

Take That's promoters SJM said the band's sales were "totally unprecedented".

"In times of economic downturn, to sell £35 million of tickets in one day for a tour is good for the economy, I would have thought," said managing director Simon Moran.

He continued: "Not all live music is doing good. But if it's the right artist and the right ticket price and the right event, people want to be entertained.

"But there's plenty of what we're doing that's not doing that good, I can tell you."

Metallica and The Killers have recently sold almost all of the tickets for their UK arena tours, while AC/DC sold 60,000 tickets in 40 minutes and Depeche Mode sold out the O2 Arena in London in half an hour.

Stuart Galbraith, of the Kilimanjaro Live promotion company, said: "If you're AC/DC, Take That, Oasis or Metallica then it's very, very good."

But he added: "Rather than someone going out six times a week, a month or a year, you're going to see people going out three or four times.

"So in that respect I think the strong tours with the strong artists will get stronger, and the weaker ones will get weaker."


31/10/2008 16:19:37