Bee Gees ticketing disaster April '99
It's a Tragedy. You Should be Dancing at Kai Tak on April 3 - but the threat of ticket piracy has forced the postponement of the Bee Gees' first Hong Kong concert in 24 years.
Fans hoping to see the pop supergroup back in the SAR might have to wait until the end of the year.
Concerns about counterfeiters making a killing have scotched plans for April's concert, although promoter Pato Leung Pak-to might yet lure the group here in May.
But special tickets, printed in layers like banknotes, must first be commissioned.
'It's a more complicated approach so it's not easy to forge,' Mr Leung said yesterday.
'You have to do a lot of artwork and colour separation and you print it a few times, so for people forging the tickets it will cost them a lot more.' Mr Leung brought the Brothers Gibb - Barry, Robin and Maurice - to Hong Kong at the height of disco Night Fever in 1972, 1973 and 1975, for sold-out concerts at the Hong Kong Stadium.
'It was so successful people were flooding into the stadium through the back gate and paying to see the backs of the Bee Gees,' he said.
He had planned to fill the 40,000 to 50,000-capacity Kai Tak venue on April 3.
'But we had a lot of problems like the venue, time and date. The Bee Gees only confirmed it to us just before Chinese New Year and we couldn't get anyone to [print the tickets],' Mr Leung said.
'It takes 18 to 20 working days, and then there's the handling and distribution.
'I gave them the option of some dates in May, but it depends if they can take time out from the studio. They don't do many dates now.'
