Sideswipe

A U2 fan reckons someone's pulled a swifty. Last week he tried to get tickets to the Friday concert and dutifully printed out the U2 Vertigo tour seating plan from the Ticketmaster website. Missing out on Friday tickets, he went through it all again to get Saturday tickets and was triumphant. Trouble is, Ticketmaster had revised its seating plan. What were B Reserve seats ($129) for the Friday night show are now A Reserve seats ($199) for the Saturday show. "I guess the promoters felt it shouldn't be just the scalpers profiting from this frenzy," he said. Adding: "So what do I get on Saturday that a Friday night B Reserve doesn't get? We both appear to be stuck behind the same lighting tower in Section 15."

A spokesman for the promoter in Australia (we'll call him Australian ticket-guy) said they reviewed the prices of some areas for the second concert and felt the higher price was a "better reflection of the true value of those seats". But isn't it unfair that someone who went to the concert on Saturday paid $70 more than the person who sat in exactly the same seat the night before? Australian ticket-guy launched into something about meeting financial targets, so I guess not. In the end, he suggested those who had actually had tickets were very, very lucky and the greater issue was the profiteering from those selling tickets for inflated prices ... er, elsewhere.

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It's not scalping if you call it a "package": Corporate Host is offering a general admission package to the U2 Vertigo concert for $349. Take off the $99 for the ticket and the punters are paying $250 for a turn in the mosh-pit and some wine and cheese in a tent packed with merchandise before the concert ... Better be some primo cheese on offer.

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Richard Symonds of Onehunga writes: "There are two Charlie's Juice adverts showing at the moment. The first compares Charlie's pure product with one that contains additives including ascorbic acid. (Additives bad, boo! hiss!). The other advert compares a product jam-packed with additives with Charlie's, which contains nothing but pure squeezed juice and added vitamin C. (Charlie's great, hooray! Made even better by the vitamin C!). But, hang on a minute. Isn't ascorbic acid just another name for vitamin C?"