Fans crazy for Madonna tickets

Some of the lucky fans who received the last tickets

Madonna mania is building up in London as the singer prepares for her one-off show at the Brixton Academy on Tuesday night.

Only 3,000 tickets have been made available for the exclusive show - with many given away in competitions by newspapers, magazines and BBC Radio 1.

The gig will be her first UK show in eight years and tickets have been changing hands for thousands of pounds.

Madonna in a recent performance at the MTV Europe Awards

A website which had been offering a pair of tickets to raise money for charity received a bid of £1,800.

Two were sold on auction site QXL.com for £1,102 each on Wednesday morning.

Capital chaos

There were chaotic scenes as a final 75 tickets were given away by a London record store to early-bird customers.

Fans had to present a copy of the free newspaper promoting the giveaway at HMV's flagship Oxford Street store at 0900 GMT.

But by 0730 GMT around 50 people were in line, and observers saw fans sprint from tube stations to join the queue.

By 0900 GMT, hundreds were in line, and police were on hand to keep order.

Many of the winners made a quick killing - selling their tickets for upwards of £250.

I want it to be more intimate so I purposefully tried to find a venue that held about 3,000 people

Madonna on her London gig

An HMV spokesman said: "We could have easily given away more than 1,000."

Among those in the queue were people from Finland, Poland and Spain.

The last person to get a ticket was Lithuanian Paul Jurcaitis, who was orginally told he had missed out - but a recount revealed he was the 75th person in line.

World tour

Madonna has said the gig - her first British show in eight years - could herald the start of a world tour.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 1, when she was asked if she was "ever" planning another world tour, she replied: "Yes, 'ever' in the summer."

Madonna called Tuesday's performance "a thank you show to my fans".

"I want it to be more intimate so I purposefully tried to find a venue that held about 3,000 people," she told Radio 1's Sara Cox.

The venue has been decked out by exclusive fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana in a midwest style.

The Western look mirrors the video for her latest single, Don't Tell Me, and her new album, Music.

Going... going...: Madonna fans bid online

The 42-year-old admitted that her lack of live performances in recent years had added to her nerves.

She said she coped with pre-show nerves by using up lots of energy.

"I start pacing, I do vocal exercises, chatter on to my hair and make-up people and look at myself in the mirror a lot."

For those without tickets, the show will be also be broadcast over the internet by the MSN.co.uk site.

"We have enough distribution outlets for us to confidently say that this will be the biggest internet event ever in the world," said Paul Morrison, managing director of production company Done And Dusted.