unfortunately they are the only way to get tickets it seems. Even when i buy tickets from Picadilly Box Office in manchester (or even from some of the venues!!!) it still seems to go through ticketmaster somehow

the only way to get around that in future (which i admit is far from ideal, especially since this time they were gold standing and TM were the only option) is to phone a number such as picadilly box office and so book it through this 2nd party. For example they told me on the phone you could pick the tickets up from them at any point once they have been printed)...

that being said the same place (but it's still Ticketmaster) charged us £4 per ticket Postage for Springsteen and yet we had to pick them up at the box office in the end

The whole concert world is ****ed up like this - incompetence. But they have the monopoly (especially when you are booking from overseas). Is there anyone in the UK you could ask for the tickets to be transferred to (in other words a "new" dispatch address?) - you could get your friend to do this over the phone... ???