Oasis have announced details of how fans who missed out on tickets in last weekend’s ticketing farce can get a second chance at securing a spot at the Manchester band’s reunion gigs.
The rock outfit has revealed that true fans who had been sitting in the queue on Ticketmaster as the scramble for briefs began may find themselves eligible for an invite to buy tickets for the extra Wembley dates announced earlier this week.
Posting on their official account on X, formerly Twitter, the band said in a statement that registered Ticketmaster account holders who had been waiting to snap up spots at a specific show could receive a follow-up email inviting them to join the ballot.
However, entry to the ballot will not guarantee fans a chance to buy tickets – with the band warning that entry into the box office will be ‘strictly limited’.
And fans are being told to make sure they register for the ballot with the email address attached to their Ticketmaster account – preventing anyone who didn’t queue up first time around from trying to sneak in.
And mad fer it fans won’t have to wait long to find out if they have made the cut – as the invitations to enter the ballot will be sent out overnight tonight.
The statement read: ‘Invitations to enter the private ballot will be sent overnight tonight (Saturday) to eligible fans we have been able to identify.
‘If you signed into your Ticketmaster UK account on Saturday, 31st August, and were able to join a queue for a specific show, but didn’t get a ticket – then you may be eligible to take part and will receive an email on how to register for the ballot.
‘Keep an eye on the inbox associated with your Ticketmaster account, and don’t forget to check your junkmail.
‘Once successfully registered, you will be entered into the ballot for a code for access to the final Wembley on sale.
‘Due to the demand for the shows and to avoid last week’s long queues, codes will be strictly limited. Entry to the ballot does not guarantee you will receive a code.
‘The ballot is only open to invited fans. You must register with the email to which your invitation was sent and which is registered with your Ticketmaster account.
‘All other entries will be discounted. If you do not receive an email then unfortunately you will not be eligible for the ballot. You will be automatically discounted from the ballot, even if you go through the registration process.’
Oasis later amended the post to include the phrase ‘UK’ and a Union flag emoji, suggesting it will only apply to fans in the UK.
The invitations are being dished out for the two further gigs at Wembley Stadium on September 27 and 28 next year, added due to the overwhelming demand.
The band has been trying to reestablish goodwill with fans who were left bitterly disappointed when they failed to secure tickets for the limited run of reunion concerts announced on August 27.
Millions of fans sought to secure some of the approximately one million tickets available for the 17 dates on the tour, which include two shows in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin and five in Manchester and London apiece across July and August.
But queues for some shows numbered more than 600,000 – and shortly after sales began scalpers began listing tickets on resale websites such as Viagogo for as much as £10,000.
One 79-year-old grandmother trying to surprise her daughter with tickets was stunned to buy what she thought were £90 briefs from reselling site Gigsberg – only to find she had actually spent £2,700.
Elizabeth Buxton, from Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire, told the BBC: ‘I’ve been on Ticketmaster for years, we’ve been to see the likes of Adele – I’m not stupid.
‘I clicked on the Gigsberg page and I ordered two tickets and gave my bank details.
‘The next day, I looked at my phone and saw £2,700 was pending from my bank account. I don’t know how it even happened. It’s actually devastating.’
Gigsberg initially told the BBC all sales were final. However, it later contacted Mrs Buxton to confirm she would be getting a full refund.
Ticketmaster and Twickets are the only permitted resale sites for tickets to the Oasis reunion shows.
Beyond monstrous touts, Oasis invoked the fury of their fans when it emerged that ‘dynamic pricing’ – like that used to set the price of Uber fares, hotel rooms and airline seats – was being used for the final few tickets amid huge demand.
Standing tickets notionally available for £150 were being flogged by the band’s management for more than twice that – as much as £350.
It even earned the ire of the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, who said during PMQs this week he found the hiked prices ‘depressing’.
However, frontman Liam Gallagher told fans he felt ‘smug’ about the band’s reunion tour on social media in an unexpectedly blazing pushback to those disappointed they couldn’t get tickets.
He posted on X, formerly Twitter, this morning: ‘OASIS are back your welcome and I hear there ATTITUDE STINKS good to know something’s never change.’
When fans responded by criticising the ticketing approach, he replied: ‘SHUTUP [sic]’.
But the band had initially sought to distance itself from the dynamic pricing row – claiming it had been up to management and promoters to decide how the tickets would be sold.
‘As for the well reported complaints many buyers had over the operation of dynamic ticketing: it needs to be made clear that Oasis 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,’ the band said.
Colossal acts such as Taylor Swift have refused to engage in the practice, which is enabled via Ticketmaster, while others, such as Bruce Springsteen, have supported it – arguing that it means money goes to artists rather than touts.
‘The bottom line is, most of our tickets are totally affordable,’ The Boss told Rolling Stone magazine, noting that touts routinely sold tickets for inflated prices.
‘Why shouldn’t that money go to the guys up there sweating three hours a night for it?’
Ticketmaster has insisted that it will not profit from dynamic pricing. Nevertheless, the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s consumer watchdog, has launched an investigation into whether the practice is unlawful.
Regardless of the row, the band has not shed all of the goodwill built up amongst fans who waited a decade and a half for the reunion of their dreams.
Debut album Definitely Maybe – with its iconic cover art of the band in guitarist Bonehead’s living room, and Liam on the floor – shot to the top of the album charts this week, pushing Sabrina Carpenter into second place.
The feat, their first number one in 14 years, came with a 408 per cent week-on-week uplift in the last seven days, the Official Charts Company has said.
Over in the UK singles chart, their hit Live Forever has hit a new peak, sitting at number eight, while Don’t Look Back in Anger returned to the top 40 for the first time in nearly three decades.
The band’s reunion tour is set to boost Britain’s economy by some £487million, according to research, as fans splurge on travel, accomodation, merchandise and drinks to see their idols back together.