Roger Daltrey condemns Royal Albert Hall members over “moral issue”
Earlier in the year, Roger Daltrey, the lead singer and co-founder of The Who, announced he would be stepping down as the curator of Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), and now he’s hit out at members of the Royal Albert Hall for not fully supporting the cause.
Daltrey has worked on behalf of the charity for decades, putting on spectacular shows and raising a significant amount of money. When The Who frontman stepped down from the role, he did so with happy memories in tow, as he commented, “The £32million raised from these concerts has been the foundation for the 28 specialised units within the NHS, as well as specialist nurses and youth workers to be there for a young person when cancer has turned their world upside down.”
Kate Collins, the chief executive of the charity, commented on how much of an impact Daltrey has made over the years, “Quite simply, we would not be the charity we are without Roger and these shows and – more importantly than that – thousands of young people with cancer in the UK would not have had the specialist support and care they urgently need.”
Now, it’s come to light that the organisation didn’t raise as much money as they could potentially have done if everyone was as generous as Daltrey. A new report has discovered that wealthy members of the iconic concert hall have used their dedicated tickets to the events to make a personal profit from some of these celebrity charity performances. It’s alleged they allowed their tickets to be re-sold for profit instead of donated to charity so they could be sold for donations.
These chairs that can be resold belong to the heirs of the original subscribers who funded the Royal Albert Hall in 1867, meaning a quarter of the 5,272 seats in the venue are privately owned.
As per The Guardian, Daltrey commented, “They are obviously within their rights to keep their tickets, but whether it is morally right or wrong is a different thing… It is unfortunate what has been going on. It’s a moral issue. If I was the boss of the Albert Hall I would make it clear that this would be a nice to do [to stop it].”
The Independent also received a comment from the venue, stating, “The seatholder’s tickets are their private property and belong neither to the hall nor to the promoter of the event, and seatholders are entitled to use their tickets as they choose. Their rights derive from the pre-existing private rights of the seatholders arising at the time of the hall’s creation. They therefore do not deprive the charity or the concert promoter of ticket revenue when they sell their tickets.”
As of yet, it remains to be seen who will take over from Daltrey as the curator of the Teenage Cancer Trust gigs, but The Who frontman remains dedicated to helping the charity going forward in a new capacity.
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