S Poddar
The Oasis reunion tour that has kept their fans on tenterhooks has sold out for all 17 announced dates across the UK and Ireland next summer. Liam and Noel Gallagher, members of the band, went on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying by 19:00 BST on Saturday, all the tickets had been snapped up. On the other hand, the elation of securing tickets quickly turned to public bile with criticisms over the steep pricing and ticketing process.
Hundreds of thousands of fans were collectively spending most of the day in long online queues trying to secure a spot at one of music’s hottest events in years. The demand was heightened by the fact that this tour comes 15 years since Oasis disbanded after a highly publicized and acrimonious split.
One source of controversy came with the application of “dynamic pricing” on Ticketmaster: the more demand for tickets was registered, the higher their prices shot up. Tickets started at £135, but some went into fits of outrage when they saw prices topping over £350 as the sale wore on.
This dynamic pricing model, which has prices adjust based on demand, kept many fans priced out of an experience they long wanted to have. Standing tickets for Cardiff, London, and Edinburgh were listed at £135, but many fans reported that those prices skyrocketed to £355 because of the “in demand” label on Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster, in a back lash, said they do not determine the prices of the tickets. On their website, “Promoters and artists set ticket prices. Prices can be either fixed or market-based. Market-based tickets are labelled as ‘Platinum’ or ‘In Demand’.” They added, “Fans will not receive any additional perks for those elevated prices.
Neither Oasis nor the band’s promoter commented on the issue, which only added to the disgruntlement of the fans. Dynamic pricing, though nothing new and legally permissible by consumer protection laws, has proved a point of controversy amongst concert-goers. The ASA added that although they couldn’t comment with regard to the case with specific attention to Ticketmaster pricing, anyone with concerns should report them, adding: “quoted prices must not mislead”.
The most chaotic time in buying tickets was in the morning on Saturday. Fans attempting to get tickets for the gigs next July and August at London Wembley Stadium were met with a queue that showed them over a million were ahead of them in line. Others even found themselves in a “queue for the queue,” since all three major ticket sellers transferred users to pages indicating high demand.
Tickets went on sale at 09:00 BST, although Irish dates became available an hour earlier. But within minutes many fans said they were having trouble accessing the Ticketmaster website – which had been suspending some users after its system wrongly identified them as bots. For one such fan, Jamie Moore of East Kilbride, his bitter disappointment came as he was booted out of the queue when he reached the front, before being mis-identified as a bot.
As frustration grew, Ticketmaster’s website advised fans to be patient, informing that “Oasis is incredibly popular” and providing tips to “clear cookies” and not use VPN software while queuing .
The euphoria was sparked on Tuesday when Noel and Liam Gallagher announced they had patched up their differences to end a 15-year feud which started over an on-stage bust-up at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris. The announcement sent shockwaves through the music world, and tickets for the UK gigs appeared on resale sites such as StubHub and Viagogo at spectacular prices within hours of Friday’s pre-sale. Some were offering the tickets for more than £6,000-nearly 40 times face value.
To that effect, Oasis and its promoters warned the fans that reselling the tickets at higher prices from unauthorized Web sites would void tickets, which should be resold face value at official sites such as Ticketmaster and Twickets.
While many of these fans were disappointed, the few who succeeded with tickets didn’t get all that bad news. For Nayat Karakose from Istanbul, a lifelong fan who has never stopped listening to Coldplay’s music, the pre-sale period saw her net two tickets for the Wembley concert. The whole affair was “supersonic,” she said; her heart had raced when she knew she got the tickets.
Similarly, Rachael Board of Devon did manage to get two tickets for Wembley, but this was after being unable to get any in the lower price categories, and so her two tickets ended up setting her back over £900. She said she got “caught up in the vibe” and just had to buy them.
Along with all the excitement of the reunion, Oasis’s music is also now seeing a resurgence: three of their albums currently sit within the top five in the UK charts. Greatest hits collection Time Flies is at number three, What’s The Story Morning Glory is at four, and their debut album Definitely Maybe is at number five.
Indeed, an estimated 1.4 million tickets are expected to be available for the 17 outdoor concerts, placing the Oasis reunion tour as one of the most publicized events in recent music history. However, controversy over the ticket pricing has been leaving a sour note for many fans after years of waiting.
