UB40 tickets sell out in four hours

Tickets for UB40's first winery tour concert at Black Barn on January 8, 2016, sold out in four hours. Photo / Supplied

It was a case of early bird gets the ticket as UB40's only Hawke's Bay concert sold out in record time yesterday.

Tickets went live from 9am and people were not messing about, with pre-sales snapped up in just 60 seconds, while the 1900 capacity venue was filled up in just four hours.

Original members Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue, will be in New Zealand early next year for their first ever Red, Red Wine vineyard tour, starting in Havelock North.

The show, scheduled for Friday, January 8, 2016, attracted plenty of attention online with a Facebook post on the vineyard's official page getting 40,000 hits.

"It's the fastest by far we have ever sold out," Black Barn cellar door and events manager Francis de Jager says. "We have had people ringing from all over the country, the Facebook reaction alone was huge ... the promoter said it was the quickest first day sales he's ever had."

Through their email database of almost 20,000 people nationwide, as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, they were able to get the word out quicker and easier than ever.

Organisers were working on "extending" ticket options to further increase capacity and hoped to have an answer by the end of the week. Promoter Jackie Sanders, of Jacman Entertainment, said the Black Barn venue was an: "Absolute must-do on our tour."

Ticket prices ranged from $79 plus booking fee then went up to $99+bf for an adult and $199+bf for a VIP. Mr de Jager wanted to continue bringing quality international acts to fulfil a need people were crying out for. "We would love to be able to do something on a more regular basis. Above anything else people in Hawke's Bay and the rest of the country value great international artists, we would love to be able to offer that opportunity, they obviously trust us to do it well."