Sam Fender pushes back his Newcastle pre-sale to Thursday after a 'sophisticated bot attack' crashes the ticket site

Sam Fender, 32, saw the pre-sale for his St James' Park homecoming shows collapse when bots swamped the Gigantic ticket platform within minutes of the 9.30am window opening. Fans who pre-ordered his forthcoming album to unlock access faced 'bad gateway' screens, site crashes and uncertainty over whether card payments taken before the crash would be honoured. The Newcastle pre-sale now moves to Thursday at 9.30am, with general sale for all dates following on Friday, October 30.

StubHub is already listing face-value £85 standing tickets for St James' Park at £199.14 — before a single legitimate pre-sale ticket has been sold.

The bot attack follows a near-identical hit on Raye's Royal Albert Hall sale this month, when 1.8 million fake registrations swamped a 5,000-capacity venue.

Fender had already intervened before the sale opened, scrapping a premium front-standing tier he called 'bulls***' and 'inflated well more than I'd had in mind.'