Ticketmaster Conducts Premium Ticket Auction for Ricky Gervais Benefiting Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy

Ticketmaster Conducts Premium Ticket Auction for Ricky Gervais Benefiting Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy

LONDON, June 12/PRNewswire/ --

- Fans may now bid for Front row Seats for Ricky Gervais on the 26th August at Edinburgh Castle

Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and Ticketmaster, the world's leading ticketing company, are working together to offer online Ticket Auctions with a portion of the proceeds of the sale benefiting the charity. The first auction is for Ricky Gervais at Edinburgh Castle on 26th August. Fans of Ricky Gervais now have the chance to bid for front row seats at Ticketmaster.co.uk until the auction closes on Monday 25th June at 4pm.

Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy is the UK's largest specialist music therapy charity, providing over 30,000 therapy sessions a year through its centre in London and 50 outreach projects nationwide. Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy uses live musical improvisation to help improve the quality of life for children and adults isolated by conditions such as learning disabilities, autism, mental health problems, neurological damage or serious and terminal illness. It receives no statutory funding and needs to raise almost GBP3m a year to operate. Of this, 85p in every GBP1 raised goes to music therapy.

Audrey Hoare, Director of Fundraising for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy said, "Participating in this Ticketmaster Auction is a great way for people to support Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. The auction winners will enjoy great tickets to this event, whilst helping support the valuable work of the charity. We are delighted to be working with Ticketmaster on this project as we believe it is a great way for more people to find out about our work. We look forward to announcing more ticket auctions across the rest of the year".

Ticketmaster has been conducting auctions on behalf of its venue, promoter and sports team clients in the UK since May 2006. Ticketmaster auctions provide opportunities for performers and venues to connect with their fans, in a secure purchasing environment, fully integrated with Ticketmaster's state-of-the-art ticketing system. By enabling consumers to select the price he or she is willing to pay for a ticket in a specified seat location for a specific event, Ticketmaster auctions help Ticketmaster's clients retain their ticket sales revenue that otherwise may go to un-authorised resellers. Ticketmaster clients may also use online auctions to direct proceeds to a charity of their choice. Ticketmaster auctions also offer consumers the security of knowing they have purchased a valid ticket.

Chris Edmonds, Managing Director, Ticketmaster UK added, "I am a great admirer of the work of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. Through this alliance, we aim to help raise funds that will benefit the charity and increase awareness of their amazing work across the UK. Event-authorised ticket auctions conducted through Ticketmaster.co.uk are beneficial for fans, charitable causes and also a great advert for the event industry. We look forward to the support of our clients to enable us to provide our ticket auction service across other great events for this worthy charity".

About Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster is the world's leading ticketing company, operating in 20 global markets, providing ticket sales, ticket resale services, marketing and distribution through www.ticketmaster.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites on the Internet, and international Web sites including Ticketmaster.co.uk; approximately 6,500 retail outlets; and 20 worldwide call centres. Ticketmaster celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2006 and currently serves more than 9,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for hundreds of leading arenas, stadiums, performing arts venues, museums, and theatres. In 2006, the company sold more than 128 million tickets valued at over US$7 billion on behalf of its clients. Ticketmaster is headquartered in West Hollywood, California and is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI).

About Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy

Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy is the UK's largest specialist music therapy charity, providing over 30,000 therapy sessions a year through its National Centre in London and over 40 outreach projects nationwide. It also runs postgraduate training programmes in music therapy and a research programme with regular public courses and conferences. Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy receives no statutory funding and needs to raise almost GBP3m a year to operate. Of this, 85p in every GBP1 raised goes to music therapy. Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy uses musical co-improvisation to help improve the quality of life for children and adults isolated by conditions such as learning disabilities, autism, mental health problems, neurological damage or serious and terminal illness. The Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy developed from the pioneering work of Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins in the 1950/60s. Paul was a composer and pianist who devoted part of his life to working with people with disabilities and Clive was a special needs teacher. It is grounded in the belief that everyone can respond to music, no matter how ill or disabled. The unique qualities of music as therapy can enhance communication, support change, and enable people to live more resourcefully and creatively. For more information go to www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk

Source: Ticketmaster UK Ltd

For more information on Ticketmaster: Rosie Hills, PR and Communications Manager, Phone: +44-(0)207-344-4000, email: rosie.hills@ticketmaster.co.uk. For more information on Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy: Joe Meaney, email: joe@nrfr.co.uk

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Profile: International Entertainment