20 nights sell out in an hour

Peter Kay has extended his four-night run at Manchester's MEN Arena to 20 – and still sold out within an hour.

The frenzy for tickets to his Tour That Doesn’t Tour – Tour in April and May smashed the venue's box office records.

John Knight, general manager of the arena said: 'We could have kept going, but there were just no other dates available at the arena to extend the run any further.

'The Tour That Doesn’t Tour – Tour is exclusive to the MEN Arena, and people are coming to Manchester from all over the country to see Peter Kay’s first live performances in seven years.'

Kay – who used to work as a steward at the venue - said: 'It’s really is hard to comprehend. I was apprehensive about going back on tour after such a long time, but the response has been completely overwhelming.

'I want to say thank you to everybody who has bought tickets and I promise to give them a crackin’ show. I might even don my old stewards jacket and show a few of them to their seats.'

Kay plugged the tour on BBC One's Children In Need last night, where he appeared to launch a new pop video featuring a medley of hit songs sung by children's TV characters. He also vowed to donate £1 from every piece of tour merchandise to the charity.

The previous longest run by any act at the MEN Arena was Take That’s 11 nights in December 2007.

However, many of the tickets have been immediately put onto eBay. There are currently almost 700 lots offering Peter Kay tickets on the auction website – with sellers demanding up to £250 for a front-row seat.

Published: 21 Nov 2009