Oasis fans struggle to secure tickets for British band’s reunion tour

Oasis fans seeking tickets to the band’s reunion tour have had to endure hour long waits, and in some cases disappointment, as online platforms have been strained under demand from hundreds of thousands of fans.

The Britpop-era behemoth led by brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher is scheduled to play 17 gigs — its first shows for 15 years — in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin starting July 4 next year.

More than one million tickets went on sale Saturday morning, with prices starting at about 74 pounds (just under $100).

But some people attempting to get onto the handful of authorised sales sites, including Ticketmaster and Gigs and Tours, received error messages, while many others were informed they were in a lengthy queue.

Josh Jeffery, a videographer who lives near Edinburgh, spent hours moving up the online ticket queue, before “the whole site collapsed” at the last step.

“I’ve given up, my friends have given up,” Jeffery, who first saw Oasis in Manchester as a teenager in 1996, told The Associated Press news agency. “We just decided it’s too much hassle.

“As I was in the queue, I heard Wonderwall blasting out from my neighbour’s house,” he added ruefully. “He’d obviously got tickets.”

Some fans managed to buy tickets through a presale lottery on Friday.

Barista Isabelle Doyle told the AP she was “over the moon” after snagging two seats for one of the band’s London shows.

“I’ve been a fan of Oasis for about 10 years now, literally since I was 11 years old,” the 21-year-old said. “Finally to be able to see them after they got me through as a teenager, it’s absolutely amazing and I’m so excited.”

Within hours, tickets began to be offered on resale websites for as much as 6,000 pounds ($7,800).

Oasis issued a warning, saying tickets could only be resold at face value through authorised sites.

“Tickets appearing on other secondary ticketing sites are either counterfeit or will be cancelled by the promoters,” it said in a statement.

Noel Gallagher of Oasis performs at the Brit Awards at the Earls Court Arena in London [File: Kieran Doherty/Reuters]

Fans are not just trying to get into the shows.

Cheap hotel rooms also appear to have been replaced by pricier options on travel sites in the reunion tour host cities like Manchester.

Some people reported on social media that hotels had sought to cancel bookings they had made prior to the tour dates being announced, in a bid to relist them at a higher price.

The gigs are expected to provide a multimillion-pound boost for Britain’s hospitality sector and economy.

“There will be huge sums of money spent on merchandise, travel, hotels, bars and restaurants, as well as creating jobs which are all linked directly to these gigs,” Paul Haywood-Schiefer, senior manager at tax advisory firm Blick Rothenberg, told the Reuters news agency.

Although Oasis, one of the biggest British bands of recent decades, said plans were under way to go to other continents, fans were likely to fly in from abroad for the British shows.

“If you want to see Oasis, really the best place to do it is here in the UK where they mean so much,” Sutherland said.

Formed in Manchester in 1991, Oasis was one of the dominant British acts of the 1990s, producing hits including Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back in Anger. Its sound was fuelled by singalong rock choruses and the combustible chemistry between guitarist-songwriter Noel Gallagher and singer sibling Liam.

Oasis split in 2009, with Noel Gallagher quitting the band after a backstage dustup with his brother at a festival near Paris. While the Gallagher brothers, now aged 57 and 51, have not performed together since, both regularly perform Oasis songs at their solo gigs. They have also each fired off criticisms of the other in the press.

Announcing the reunion, the band said fans would experience “the spark and intensity” that occurs only when they appear on stage together.