Oasis fans looking for tickets for the band's reunion tour have had to endure hours-long waits and, in some cases, disappointment as online platforms have been overwhelmed by demand from hundreds of thousands of fans.
The Britpop-era giant fronted by brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher is scheduled to play 17 shows (their first in 15 years) in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin starting on July 4 next year.
More than a million tickets went on sale on Saturday morning, with prices starting at around £74 (just under $100).
But some people trying to access the few authorised sales sites, including Ticketmaster and Gigs and Tours, received error messages, while many others were told they were in a long queue.
Josh Jeffery, a cameraman who lives near Edinburgh, spent hours working his way through the online ticketing queue before “the whole site crashed” at the last step.
“I gave up, my friends gave up,” Jeffery, who first saw Oasis in Manchester as a teenager in 1996, told The Associated Press. “We decided it was too much trouble.”
“While I was standing in line, I heard the song Wonderwall blaring from my neighbor’s house,” he added sadly. “Obviously, I had tickets.”
Some fans managed to buy tickets through a pre-sale lottery on Friday.
Barista Isabelle Doyle told the AP she was “delighted” after securing two seats for one of the band's London shows.
“I’ve been a fan of Oasis for about 10 years, literally since I was 11,” the 21-year-old said. “To finally be able to see them after they helped me get through my teenage years, it’s absolutely amazing and I’m so excited.”
Within hours, tickets were being offered on resale websites for up to £6,000 ($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 counterfeit or will be cancelled by the promoters,” it said in a statement.
Fans don't just try to attend shows.
Cheap hotel rooms also appear to have been replaced by more expensive options on travel sites in the reunion tour's host cities, such as Manchester.
Some people reported on social media that hotels had tried to cancel reservations they had made before the tour dates were announced, in an attempt to re-offer them at a higher price.
The concerts are expected to provide a multi-million pound boost to Britain's hospitality sector and economy.
“Huge sums of money will be spent on goods, travel, hotels, bars and restaurants, and jobs will be created which are all directly linked to these jobs,” Paul Haywood-Schiefer, a senior manager at tax consultancy firm Blick Rothenberg, told Reuters news agency.
Although Oasis, one of the biggest British bands of recent decades, said plans were afoot to tour 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 a lot,” Sutherland said.
Formed in Manchester in 1991, Oasis were one of the dominant British bands of the 1990s, with hits including Wonderwall and Don't Look Back in Anger. Their sound was fuelled by sing-along rock choruses and the explosive chemistry between guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher and his singer brother Liam.
Oasis split in 2009, when Noel Gallagher left the band following a backstage row with his brother at a festival near Paris. Although the Gallagher brothers, now 57 and 51, have not performed together since, they both regularly perform Oasis songs at their solo concerts. They have also criticised each other in the press.
In announcing the reunion, the band said fans would experience “the spark and intensity” that only happens when they appear on stage together.
