Online crush for Oasis tickets but sale is ‘moving along’

Millions of Oasis fans have queued online for the British legends’ eagerly awaited reunion tour next year, but booking websites appeared overwhelmed.

A fan uses a smart phone to access an online ticket sales website to purchase tickets for Oasis' Live ‘25 in Britain on Saturday. Picture: Oli Scarff / AFP

Millions of Oasis fans queued online on Saturday to buy tickets for the British legends’ eagerly awaited reunion tour next year, but many were frustrated after booking websites appeared overwhelmed.

Some lucky fans snagged a small number of tickets for some of the concerts in a Friday evening pre-sale, after they won the chance in a heavily oversubscribed ballot.

But some of those tickets promptly appeared on resale sites at heavily inflated prices, some as high as £6000 ($11,600).

The scramble for tickets follows the announcement on Tuesday that brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher had ended their infamous 15-year feud and were reuniting the 1990s-founded band for the tour.

Noel Gallagher, left, Andy Bell and Liam Gallagher, right, members of Oasis, hold a photocall in Hong Kong in 2006. Picture: AFP

Tickets for 15 UK concerts next July and August – kicking off what has been billed as a worldwide tour — were expected to sell out within minutes of going on sale at 9am London time.

Two mid-August gigs in the Irish capital Dublin also went on sale an hour earlier.

But fans in both countries reported struggling to access tickets, with hundreds of thousands left in online queues for different dates and others unable to even access the websites selling them.

🚨Please note, Oasis Live ‘25 tickets can only be resold at face value via @TicketmasterUK and @Twickets!
Tickets appearing on other secondary ticketing sites are either counterfeit or will be cancelled by the promoters.

— Oasis (@oasis) August 31, 2024

Manchester-based promoter SJM Concerts’ website, Gigs and Tours, faced issues even before the UK sale started, with an error message telling fans to “please bear with us” as the site failed to load.

Meanwhile Ticketmaster’s UK and Irish websites seemed to be struggling as millions tried to access them, with some buyers unable to complete purchases even after finishing lengthy queues.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson said “millions of fans are accessing our site so have been placed in a queue” but insisted that it was “moving along” and the site had not crashed.

“Can we just go back to the old days of queuing outside the record shop or gig venue to buy tickets please?” said one exasperated fan on X.

The group behind hit songs including Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova will stage 17 gigs in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin.

The much-anticipated Tuesday announcement also promised concerts in “continents outside of Europe later next year”.

Tickets for their UK events start at around £75, rising to around £150 for standing on the field in front of the stage.

The most expensive at London’s Wembley stadium – which include extras such as a pre-show party – will cost buyers more than £500.

Formed in Manchester, northwest England, in 1991, Oasis helped create the Britpop era of that decade, enjoying a fierce rivalry with London band Blur.

The Gallagher brothers became notorious for their public fights, which came to a head at a 2009 Paris festival, when Liam broke one of Noel’s guitars.

That was the last time they played together, although each has regularly performed the group’s hits to sold-out crowds.

Now British hoteliers and pub owners are among those hoping for a boom in business, akin to the economic boost in numerous places prompted by Taylor Swift’s recent tour.

Ticket sales, merchandise and possible film licensing could generate a £400 million profit, Matt Grimes, a music industry researcher at Birmingham City University, has estimated.

After accounting for expenses and paying their teams, the Gallagher brothers could come away with £50 million each, he told AFP.

AFP