I looked at the fan club access to tickets again after Swedish_Red's advice, but it doesn't seem as good for the European shows...at least the ones I was looking at.
Yes, you get access to tickets that won't be on general sale, but there will be far more members looking for these tickets than there are tickets available, so in that sense it's the same as general sale...just not as big a gap between those looking tickets and the number available.
If you're a member and don't get one of the member's tickets, you'll be too late to get one through general sale so you're still fucked!
Looking at the UK and Ireland dates, have they left plenty of days in between because they know they will have to put on loads more dates?
They have 3 more dates available for the O2 in London after the set date, 1 or 2 in Dublin, 1 in Manchester and as many as necessary in Birmingham