Oasis have announced two extra Wembley Stadium shows after their tour sold out over the weekend – and addressed the controversy over sales for the first time.
Both Noel and Liam Gallagher, as well as Ticketmaster, came under fire over the initial release, after fans spent hours in virtual queues and some tickets ended up costing more than double due to “in demand” pricing for the reunion tour.
Amid the backlash over prices, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced an “urgent review” of dynamic pricing to ensure consumers are being treated fairly, while Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy promised a government review and the European Commission also said it would examine the issue.
Now, Oasis have announced two further dates at Wembley Stadium in September. There will be a staggered “special invitation-only ballot ticket sale strategy”, the band said, devised “as a small step towards making amends for the situation”.
They said it needed “to be made clear” the band “leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used”.
Applications to join the ballot for the September shows will be opened first to fans who were unsuccessful in the initial sale, they said.
“Inevitably interest in this tour is so overwhelming that it’s impossible to schedule enough shows to fulfil public demand,” the band’s statement continued. “But this ticket sale strategy will make the process far smoother for fans by reducing the stress and time it takes to obtain one of the hottest tickets of our time.”
Prior meetings between promoters, Ticketmaster and the band’s management “resulted in a positive ticket sale strategy”, which would have been a fair experience for fans, they said – including dynamic ticketing “to help keep general ticket prices down as well as reduce touting”. However, “the execution of the plan failed to meet expectations”.
They added: “All parties involved did their utmost to deliver the best possible fan experience, but due to the unprecedented demand this became impossible to achieve.”
The frenzy for tickets for the initial shows started way before they went on sale at 9am (8am for two gigs in Dublin) on Saturday, as Manchester-based promoter SJM Concerts’ website Gigs and Tours, Ticketmaster and See Tickets all told website visitors they would need to wait for the page to refresh to join a queue.
After the initial sale opened, tickets worth £148 were being sold for £355 on Ticketmaster within hours of release, due to the dynamic pricing systems which can raise costs in the event of high demand and limited supply.
Ticketmaster has said it does not set prices and its website says this is down to the “event organiser” who had “priced these tickets according to their market value”.
Behind the scenes images from the first photo shoot were released after the announcement. Pic: Simon Emmett
Formed in the early 1990s, Oasis rose to fame with songs such as Supersonic, Cigarettes & Alcohol and Live Forever, before second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory gave them their first number one single, Some Might Say, the following year.
With other hits including Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Stand By Me, Lyla and The Importance Of Being Idle, they became one of the biggest bands in British music history.
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But tensions between the Gallagher brothers often ran high, and Noel eventually quit the band ahead of a show in Paris in 2009, saying he “simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer”.
The feud continued over the years, with the pair exchanging insults publicly but reportedly never speaking in person.
Fans had long hoped for a reunion – and now, finally, the brothers appear to have put their differences behind them.
While those who did get tickets were happy to ensure their place at the gigs, the sales controversy had somewhat tainted the long hoped-for reunion announcement.
