" I detest surge pricing. It means hardly anyone ever pays the actual advertised ticket price.
It's a legitimised scam and bands who agree to it are complicit." R
UPDATE - 06/09
In the early evening of Wednesday 4th September. 4+ days since the dynamic pricing row erupted, Oasis released the following statement;
"It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management." The band added they had "at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used" in the sale of tickets for the initial dates.
NOTE - No condemnation of dynamic pricing. No statement to say they disagree with dynamic pricing. And absolutely no apology.
Poor show.
Anyway, here is the original blog - 03/09
Tickets for the Oasis 2025 reunion shows went online last weekend. Those with a pre-sale code (myself included) got access on Friday night at 7pm. I logged onto the Ticketmaster app minutes beforehand and was shocked to find that I was immediately at number 56 in the queue just after 7. I'd checked out after buying 3 tickets by 7.04pm. Sorted, nice one, mad for it. God that was easy, I was singing the praises of Ticketmaster for being so smooth and high tech.
Saturday morning was when the real clamour for tickets started. This was like Knebworth x 10. I wonder how many people actually (virtually) queued for tickets? Everyone seemed to be after them.
The Gallagher brothers reunite
Photos by Simon Emmett
Back in 1996 you could either attempt to phone and book tickets, or you could go and queue outside a ticket shop. A reported 2.5 million people tried to get tickets. Oasis could have sold 20 nights, never mind a double header. I'd hazard a guess that more than 2.5 million people were online trying for tickets.
I'm a member of a number of Oasis online groups, including an amazing collectors group, full of passionate fans from around the world that spend small fortunes on Oasis memorabilia. I love seeing some of the unique items people have procured over the years. My own collection of records, tickets, magazines, wrist bands etc just comes from buying them at the time. I wish I had bought extra copies!
The online groups were full of posts about people being 10,000+ in the queue and then this seemed to jump considerably to 200,000+. I couldn't believe I got so lucky the previous night!
People were still getting tickets, it was just taking an age in the online queuing system.
Oasis and Ticketmaster were regularly posting across social channels that tickets can only be resold at face value via Ticketmaster and Twickets.
By now, you probably know what happened.
Due to demand, and despite Oasis and Ticketmaster promoting prices in advance, dynamic pricing kicked in, resulting in a completely justified explosion of anger. £150 standing tickets were suddenly closer to £400. Those waiting to buy 4 tickets at a total of £600 (plus booking fee), were now faced with a total price of £1,600 plus fees!!!!
Imagine finding that out after being in an online queue for 5 or 6 hours! People had minutes to decide whether to go ahead and buy them anyway, or whether to ditch it, after waiting all that time ....
Ticketmaster (and Oasis) completely fucked up on communication and customer care. Not that either will care given the millions that each earned over the weekend.
Ticketmaster have been getting it in the neck, but in actual fact it is the promoters and the band that decide whether or not dynamic pricing should apply to their shows.
Oasis - the band of the people! What a joke.
Why were ticket prices not capped? £150 is more than enough for a stadium show. And lets be honest, Oasis are not about the show, they are all about the songs. They don't need a huge catwalk or super dazzling lightshow.
In comparison; Paul Heaton is doing an arena tour where ticket prices are capped at £35. While Robert Smith from The Cure ensures that dynamic pricing does not apply to any shows his band is playing.
"It's a greedy scam. All artists have the choice not to participate -
if not artists participated, it would cease to exist." Robert Smith, The Cure
Crowded House found out that dynamic pricing had been applied to some of their shows and kicked up enough fuss to ensure that their fans were reimbursed the difference between 'normal prices' and the 'dynamic price'.
I would love Noel to come out and apologise and say that Oasis were working with Ticketmaster and the promoters to refund the difference. I doubt it will happen though.
So ... this whole debacle is on Oasis and the promoters; SJM and Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, MCD and DF (the promoters of the Murrayfield shows).
Fans are uniting in their fury. I love it! We might see change, instead of being ripped off by corporate greed.
Here are a few articles that have already been written;
MP's are even getting involved, with many experiencing the issue personally as they joined the scramble for tickets.
Oasis is still the band of the people .... and the people are making their feelings known.
This whole episode has been an absolute mess. Ticketmaster and Oasis have come out of this looking like they couldn't care less about fans thanks to;
- MIS-COMMUNICATION (AKA double standards) - Ticketmaster and Oasis heavily posted and tweeted that tickets could only be resold at face value. Meanwhile, due to the fact that millions and millions of people were in a virtual queue for tickets, they put the prices up way beyond face value! If you didn't laugh, you'd cry. Many people did.
- LACK OF CUSTOMER CARE - This resulted in people who has been queuing online for hours, finally getting through to buy standing tickets at £150 per ticket, only to find that thanks to dynamic pricing, they were £400 each. So a couple looking to spend £300 on 2 tickets, were now looking at £800 for 2 tickets. Not surprisingly, some people (wisely in my opinion) decided to switch off and forget it. This complete lack of customer care from Ticketmaster and Oasis is deplorable.
As for the promoters;
- PROMOTERS - It must be nice being a promoter for a show like this. After all, you don't really need to invest much in the way of promotion! These gigs sold themselves. While there will be a high cost in putting these shows on, the profit the promoters will be making is gigantic.
Which brings me on to Oasis;
- BAND OF THE PEOPLE - Oasis know their fanbase better than almost any band. They were among the first to get people to sign up to mailing lists and they have hammered merch, limited and exclusive releases to death. The support the Gallagher brothers receive is phenomenal, bordering on religious for some die hards. So why take the piss? Why take £150 tickets and sell them for £400?! Despite Noel's expensive (£20 million allegedly) divorce, they don't really need the money. So why agree to dynamic pricing? It really does leave a sour taste in the mouth.
"It's a greedy scam. All artists have the choice not to participate -
if not artists participated, it would cease to exist." Robert Smith, The Cure
