Hi °C | Lo °C Overwhelming demand to see motormouth journalist Jeremy Clarkson and the rest of his 'Top Gear' crew had organisers frantically trying to add an 11th show to their RDS run next month after the majority of tickets were snapped up within minutes of going on sale.
More than 15,000 tickets for the 10-night programme in Dublin's Simmonscourt arena at the RDS were sold within 90 minutes of going on sale at 9am on Wednesday, although there were still some of the VIP Platinum tickets -- going for about €100 a seat -- available, according to RDS ticketing director Derek Pugh.
"Both online and call centre staff have been going flat-out all day," he said.
"We coudn't have anticipated such a response."
The hugely popular live show -- which Clarkson describes as " basically three middle-aged men cocking about" -- will seat 2,800 people per performance when the roadshow rolls into town on November 27.
But even that isn't enough to satiate the overwhelming demand from the public to see the cheeky host and his sidekicks Richard Hammond and James May lark about with 300 fast cars, 30 stuntmen, various explosions and a fire-breathing monster.
Basically, "everything we haven't broken in London will be there", Clarkson has promised. One woman burst into tears when she was unable to book a seat for her son's 21st birthday, according to a member of the RDS's call centre staff in Donegal.
"They're just crazy to get tickets. It doesn't matter what price they're asking, they'll pay it," she said.
Tickets don't come cheap, rising from €75 to €290 for corporate seats for a show lasting just 75 minutes. Dublin will be the first stop outside the UK on the "world tour", which will also take in Johannesburg, Sydney and Hong Kong.
