Thom Yorke shares Radiohead fans' anger over UK tour ticket sales

Radiohead's Thom Yorke has said he is as angry as fans who struggled to buy tickets to the band's first UK tour dates in four years.

Tickets for the three London dates went on sale on Friday morning at 9am but had sold out within minutes, with fans soon complaining about the small size of venue the band had chosen, a confusing purchasing system and being pushed back thousands of places in the queue.

Yorke responded to disappointed fans, tweeting: "I'm as f***** off as you are. And am only human."

Fans slammed Radiohead for their choice of Camden's Roundhouse as a venue, knowing the high demand for tickets, with one posting a screenshot of their 16,239th position in the ticket queue for a 3,300-standing capacity venue.

Adrian Sweeting tweeted: "Worked out based on position in the queue, rate of progress etc I'll be able to buy Radiohead tickets after they walk off stage this May."

Another complained: "I was in position 5 of the queue and then moved to 16,300 for Radiohead??? What!!!"

Fans grumbled that they had also been slowed down on the Ticketmaster website by picture tests of boats and cars to prove they were not a "bot", writing: "Thanks to Ticketmaster I was too freaking busy trying to decipher which photos were bread to get Radiohead tickets."

Celebrity status did not prevent fans from being defeated either.

Author Ian Rankin tweeted: "No Radiohead ticket so I'm going to use the sixty-five quid to see half a dozen local bands instead."

Alt-J's Thom Green tweeted: "Cheers Radiohead for making that basically impossible."

Singer Nerina Pallot drowned her sorrows in food, tweeting: "Ok, missed out on Radiohead tickets so chocolate for breakfast it is then."

Tickets for the three dates in May were originally selling from £65, but are now available on resale website viagogo for up to £1,400, with one ticket already sold for £961.99.

The alternative rock band, consisting of Yorke, Jonny and Colin Greenwood, Phil Selway and Ed O'Brien, took a stand during their 2012 tour against ticket reselling by allowing people to use a ticket trust to exchange unwanted stubs at face value, but Twitter users had no sympathy with the band's dislike of resales.

Steve Payne wrote: "If you want to stop secondary ticketing why don't you put a reasonable amount of tickets on sale? Ridiculous."

Another posted: "Very disappointed in Radiohead though. Too small a venue. Ridiculous prices. Kinda disgusting in my opinion, I feel betrayed."

The band, who are working on a ninth studio album, have other dates on their world tour confirmed in Amsterdam at the Heineken Music Hall and Le Zenith in Paris in May.

Among the live shows scheduled are two nights at Madison Square Garden in New York this July, August gigs at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and a trip to Mexico at the Palacio de los Deportes venue in October.

With tickets for the Mexico City gig costing from 676.50 pesos (£27) and return flights to the city from London Gatwick for £728 at the time of writing, it is cheaper to fly to Mexico to catch the band than turn to a ticket tout.

Radiohead will perform at the Roundhouse on May 26, 27 and 28.