Word reaches us of a wag in a certain Dublin university who sent an e-mail this week to 8,000 folk offering two U2 tickets for sale at £75 a pop.

Remember that standing room at the Slane sell-out originally cost £36.50 only last Saturday. With the odds seemingly against the band doing a second gig, the black market is clearly abuzz.

Not so in the case of our university friend, however, who is something of a joker. With no tickets at all to sell, he unkindly invited enquiries to a friend's mobile phone number.

Such is the popularity of Bono et al that this begat an immediate and sustained inundation. The Margin hears the owner of the phone was worn out taking calls and deleting text messages.

That many seem prepared to fork out £75 on the precious tickets suggests two things. First, there's an awful lot of spare cash sloshing around. Second, the immutable laws of supply and demand are just that. There's only 80,000 of the blessed things to go around. Expect more kingdomfor-a-ticket profiteering as August looms.