The only Irish concert of Bruce Springsteen's upcoming world tour sold out in eight minutes yesterday, prompting ticketless fans of "The Boss" to vent their frustration at the staff of Belfast's Odyssey Arena.
Odyssey's phone lines were jammed all day, as fans called in to complain about missing out.
Springsteen devotees who had queued at 100 Ticketmaster outlets throughout Ireland had almost no chance, as the bulk of the 10,000 tickets were snapped up online - at a rate of more than 1,000 tickets per minute.
The tickets sold faster than normal because the Belfast gig was the only chance for those in the Republic to see "The Boss".
"The Point is closed, and there's no other venue that can handle the capacity for him," said a spokeswoman for the tour promoters, Aiken Promotions.
The quick sale for the December 15th gig is an arena record, beating a 15-minute sell-out by Oasis in 2005.
Aiken's quickest online sale remains Bob Dylan's concert at Dublin's Vicar Street venue. All 2,000 tickets went in two minutes.
For Irish Springsteen fans, being logged on to Ticketmaster's site for the 9am start of sales was no guarantee of getting tickets.
"Being one of only two UK and Ireland shows Bruce Springsteen will be playing this year, it was always expected to sell out quickly, which unfortunately means some fans will be left disappointed," said an arena spokeswoman.
In a statement, Aiken Promotions said that there were 9,000 online users trying to buy tickets at the time they went on sale yesterday.
"Should each of these online customers have been successful in getting tickets the system would have needed somewhere between 18,000 and 36,000 tickets for this event to satisfy online demands," the statement said.
Tickets for Springsteen's Belfast concert were being offered on eBay yesterday for €450 - a considerable mark-up from their €88 face value.