It is often whispered in music industry circles that artists have more power than anyone to stop gig tickets being resold for extortionate prices by online touts – and that, by remaining silent on the subject, some of the world's biggest acts aren't helping with secondary ticketing's murky reputation.

Not exactly renowned for keeping quiet on issues that bother him, comedian Ricky Gervais is now noisily challenging this norm.

Yesterday he told the world how "f*cking disgusting" it was that ...