STADIUM SUPERNOVA: OASIS ADDS TWO MORE WEMBLEY DATES
UPDATE: Oasis has added two additional shows at London's Wembley Stadium, 9/27-28, due to the "unprecedented demand" last weekend for tickets to its 2025 reunion tour.
"As a small step towards making amends for the situation, a special invitation-only ballot-ticket-sale strategy has been devised for these two shows," the band said in a statement. "Applications to join the ballot will be opened first to the many fans who were unsuccessful in the initial on-sale with Ticketmaster."
Oasis also addressed the use of dynamic pricing during the on-sale, which was decried by fans on social media. "It needs to be made clear that Oasis leaves decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to its promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used," the band insisted. "While prior meetings between promoters, Ticketmaster and the band’s management resulted in a positive ticket-sale strategy, which would be a fair experience for fans, including dynamic ticketing to help keep general ticket prices down as well as reduce touting, the execution of the plan failed to meet expectations. All parties involved did their utmost to deliver the best possible fan experience, but due to the unprecedented demand this became impossible to achieve."
“Some Might Say” the Oasis reunion tour on-sale went exactly as expected over the weekend—a complete sellout of 17 stadium shows within hours.
However, many will “Look Back in Anger” as demand for tickets far exceeded supply, costs skyrocketed due to the use of dynamic pricing and online-ticketing sites crashed, causing an inevitable backlash directed at both Ticketmaster and the brotherly band.
An estimated 14m people queued up online for about 1m available ducats to see Liam, 51, and Noel Gallagher, 57, perform next summer for the first time since 2009, meaning hundreds of thousands of people who waited for hours were shut out. Cue social-media outrage.
Shortly after the on-sale Saturday (8/31), tickets began appearing on resale websites for as much as £6k ($7.8k)—an astronomical margin on their £74-£506 face values. Oasis issued a warning to hopeful profiteers, maintaining that tickets could only be resold at cost through authorized sites and will otherwise be subject to cancellation.
The U.K. government is even pledging to get involved. "It’s depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favorite band live," said U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. "This government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music. So we will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queuing systems that incentivize it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales."
The Oasis tour will start with two dates, 7/4-5, at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The band will also perform at Heaton Park in its hometown of Manchester 7/11-12, 16, 19-20; London’s Wembley Stadium 7/25-26, 30, 8/2-3; Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh 8/8-9, 12; and Croke Park in Dublin 8/16-17.
The shows are being promoted by a combination of Live Nation, SJM, MCD and DFC Presents. This iteration of the band is being managed by Marcus Russell at Ignition (Noel) and Sam Eldridge at UROK Management (Liam). Agency-wise, Oasis is expected to be represented in a 50-50 deal between Wasserman and Primary Talent.
After the U.K. run, insiders say the band will play in North America 8/24-9/12, including stops at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (8/30), and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California (9/6). The band has never headlined a North American stadium before.
As for who will actually be onstage, we're told members of Noel’s band High Flying Birds will back the brothers alongside guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, the only other original members of Oasis participating in the reunion. The latter was a core member from 1991 to 1999 and has since played regularly with Liam's solo projects.
Last week marked the 30th anniversary of Oasis’ much-lauded debut album, Definitely Maybe; 29 years since the tabloid-fodder Oasis/Blur U.K. chart battle; and 28 since Oasis played to 250k at Knebworth. Since then, there have been marriages, children, divorces and numerous solo albums of varying quality—in tandem with Noel's frequent pronouncements that he would never reunite with his brother.
In an appropriate twist, bookies are already taking bets on whether the Gallaghers will even make it to, or through, the 2025 shows. Get those prawn-flavored Skips crisps ready for snacking!
