The Who fans swap 1979 tickets for upcoming concert

Roger Daltrey (L) and Pete Townshend (R) of British rock band 'The Who' performs during the NFL's Super Bowl XLIV football game in Miami, Florida, February 7, 2010.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ten fans of English rock band The Who traded in tickets from a canceled 1979 gig in Rhode Island for entry to the group's upcoming February show, in a rare tale of loyalty spanning the decades, the Providence Journal newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Fans of The Who - formed by Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon - were disappointed in December 1979 when the London rockers' performance was canceled in the wake of a stampede at The Who concert in Ohio two weeks earlier. Eleven people were killed in the stampede.

Ten die-hard followers held onto their tickets for the December 17, 1979, show at the Dunkin' Donuts Center for more than three decades and were able to trade them in for tickets to the band's upcoming February 26, 2013, show, the Providence newspaper said.

The original tickets were priced at $11.50. Current ticket prices range from $72 and $143 at the same venue.

Daltrey and Townshend are the band's remaining original members. Moon died in 1978 and Entwistle passed away in 2002. Daltrey and Townshend will embark on a 36-date North American concert tour where they will perform their seminal 1973 rock opera album "Quadrophenia" in its entirety.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Stacey Joyce)