U2 Barcelona concert tickets sold out in eight hours

Despite announcements that all entries for the July 18 The Joshua Tree Tour show at the Olympic Stadium would bear the spectator's name, those bought from non-official channels declared invalid without refund, and that ID would be requested at the gate – making it impossible for illegal touts to bulk-buy tickets and resell them at inflated prices – the tickets flew off the shelves as soon as the box office opened.

The buying process took longer than usual because of the new anti-tout measures, but even then, anyone who had not bought theirs by around 18.00 yesterday will already have missed out.

In fact, for the Croke Park concert in Dublin – U2's home city – where named tickets are not an issue as illicit resales websites have never been a real problem, all entries were snapped up in just six minutes.

Last time U2 performed in Spain, and without the additional identification steps taken, all tickets were bought up within the first 20 minutes of going on sale.

It led to their deciding to stage a second concert to allow fans who missed out the first time to watch them.

Live Nation has not confirmed as yet whether this will be the case for the July show, but die-hard followers of the band may be willing to fly to another location in Europe to catch their heroes on stage.

Due to massive ticket sales, U2 has decided to perform for a second night in London, on July 9; Paris, on July 26, and Amsterdam on July 30.

Tickets for the concerts in Canada and the USA went on sale this morning (Tuesday) and as yet it is not known whether there are still any available.

The tour will commemorate the 30^th anniversary of U2's legendary fifth studio album, The Joshua Tree.

It will start in North America on May 12, and reaches Europe on July 8.