Matt Connarton Unleashed: Oasis Ticket Debacle

0:00 Speaker 1: Something that's been going on in the music industry news. Actually, this is what we do when uh, when something goes awry with with a guest. Is what happened today with our our our number two guest. There's been a lot of the biggest kind of news I think over the past week in music in the world of music is Oasis. Uh. They are reuniting the band. Uh the Gallagher brothers, Uh, Liam and Noel Gallagher.

0:30 Speaker 2: Uh.

0:31 Speaker 1: You know, bands fighting or I'm sorry I should say brothers fighting within bands.

0:37 Speaker 2: Uh not an unusual thing.

0:39 Speaker 3: Uh.

0:39 Speaker 1: History tells us, you know you've got the Kinks. You know you've got Ray Davies and Dave Davies and their epic arguments and so forth. But apparently, uh, the Gallagher brothers putting their differences aside for a big reunion tour.

0:52 Speaker 2: We have a call.

0:52 Speaker 1: Let's grab this call. So he was, oh, no, nobody there, Okay, someone was just calling us. Uh yeah, the Gallagher brothers. Uh, they're putting putting their differences aside for this tour. But it was interesting to see some of the reactions on social media because people are cynical very often, and a lot of people are suggesting that well, this isn't going to last, this isn't going to be real. The tour will end up getting canceled, you know, after five dates, because the Gallaghers are particularly famous for not getting along and like I said, brothers arguing within bands.

1:27 Speaker 1: You've got Ray Davies and Ray and Dave Davies from the Kinks. You've got bands where you have not necessarily brothers, but people who are like brothers, like you know, Tyler and Perry of Aerosmith so forth. But there are a lot of examples of actual blood brothers and bands not getting along. So there's already a lot of cynicism, a lot of skepticism about, you know, whether this Oasis tour is really gonna is really gonna happen. But there's also an issue with getting tickets, and the AP is reporting error messages and lengthy online cues greet fans scrambling to secure Oasis reunion tickets.

2:09 Speaker 1: It says here Oasis fans seeking tickets to the band's reunion tour endured hours long waits and in some cases disappointment, as online platforms strained under demand Saturday from hundreds of thousands of fans. The britpop era behemoth, led by brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, is scheduled to play seventeen gigs.

2:33 Speaker 2: And that's it. That's a short actually a short tour.

2:37 Speaker 3: It's first limited chances to see them. Yeah.

2:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, These are their first shows in fifteen years, kicking off in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin starting July four. No, that is not Manchester, New Hampshire, of course, Manchester, England. More than one million tickets went on sale on Saturday morning, with prices starting at about seventy four pounds, which would be just under one hundred dollars American. Some people attempting to get into the handful of authorized sales sites including Ticketmaster and Gigs and Tours received error messages, while many others were informed they were in a lengthy queue.

3:17 Speaker 1: Josh Jeffrey, a videographer who lives near Edinburgh, spent hours moving up the online ticket queue before the whole site collapsed At the last step. He said, I've given up. My friends have given up. We just decided it's too much hassle. As I was in the queue, I heard wonderwall blasting out from my neighbor's house. He'd obviously gotten tickets.

3:42 Speaker 3: Yes, wow, yeah, And they were saying that within hours of the tickets going on sale, they were turning up on resale websites for as much as seventy eight hundred dollars. Yeah, seventy eight hundred dollars per ticket. No, thank you.

3:58 Speaker 2: Well, that's it.

4:00 Speaker 3: I don't like nobody that much.

4:01 Speaker 2: The way, So that.

4:04 Speaker 1: Apparently is trying to look it up quickly. That specifically is being addressed apparently by Oasis. They don't want they don't want these resale sites selling the tickets.

4:16 Speaker 3: Yeah, they're warning people not to buy.

4:17 Speaker 1: Them right right, Which is interesting because so the way the secondhand ticket market works is so some of these resale sites, obviously they're basically scalpers online. You know, they buy up all these tickets and then they resell them on their own sites. But some of them, this is what's a little little dirty about it to some people. Depends on we could actually do a whole segment on this one of these days. Sometimes the resale site isn't necessarily a scalper site. Sometimes it's a resale site that is in some way affiliated with the main site.

4:54 Speaker 1: So for example, Ticketmaster, I forget what they're like, there's a there's another site that's like a reseller, but but they actually just get like they're actually owned by ticket Master.

5:08 Speaker 2: It's it's all very weird and it's a little dirty. This uh, this business.

5:13 Speaker 3: Whole thing is. And the thing I don't understand that they do, though, is that the the AP talks about how the the bands are warning people not to buy them, that they're saying that these tickets are either counterfeit or they're getting canceled by the promoter. So if these tickets show up on secondary sites, they're actually getting canceled, right, and you've got a nothing ticket? Which how did they get away with doing that?

5:40 Speaker 2: Which I don't.

5:41 Speaker 1: Understand, which I've never seen that before, where where these tickets are actually getting canceled.

5:46 Speaker 3: I don't understand how that works.

5:47 Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's it's a tangled, tangled web this business. Remember years and years ago when Pearl Jam tried to take on Ticketmaster and how that they ended up.

5:56 Speaker 2: They ended up giving up.

5:59 Speaker 3: Book of Masters like the Giant.

6:01 Speaker 2: But yeah, so Variety has this story up.

6:03 Speaker 1: Oasis warns against reselling as fans report technical issues getting tickets for the reunion tour. Yeah, because you know, you try to get the tickets, you end up in it's like when you're trying to buy them. It's like when you're trying to call some customer service line and you're put into a queue, and you know, and your waighttime is three hours and fifty eight minutes, you know, estimated waytime, and then you know an hour later, your estimated waytime is now three hours and fifty one.

6:30 Speaker 2: Minutes, and you don't know if you're ever gonna get through, and then eventually you just get hung up on It's like that.

6:35 Speaker 1: But but so then so they try to buy these tickets, so then they go to one of the secondary sites. So here's what Variety is reporting. Oasis fans aren't finding much glory this morning while trying to buy tickets for the band's highly anticipated reunion tour, with many reporting technical issues. I'm gonna skip down, okay, So it says here it's part of this we covered already. So in a statement to Variety, Ticketmaster set its site had not crashed and the queue is moving along. Well, I suppose if you're sitting there, by the way, if you're sitting there at your computer, on the site.

7:11 Speaker 1: You know it maybe it crashes or maybe your browser is having an issue. You can't be sure, but most likely it crashed, and I think Ticketmaster is probably just not being honest. But okay, so I know it's shocking. So, a spokesperson said, quote, as anticipated, millions of fans are accessing our site so have been placed in a queue. Fans are advised to hold their place in line. Make sure they're only using one tab clear cookies, and I'm sure they aren't using any VPN software on their device.

7:41 Speaker 2: Unquote.

7:42 Speaker 3: Geez, you can figure everything before you try to buy tickets.

7:47 Speaker 1: As fans scrambled for tickets, Oasis repeatedly warned against scams and ticket reselling. In a message posted to x later on Saturday morning, the band wrote quote and by the way, the band, you know, it's not like one of the gallaghers is actually writing this. Obviously it's management, but this is what was written.

8:06 Speaker 2: Quote. Please note Oasis.

8:09 Speaker 1: Live twenty five tickets can only be resold at face value via at Ticketmaster UK and at twickets. Tickets appearing on other secondary ticketing sites are either counterfeit or will be canceled by the promoters. Unquote. Soon after the pre sale for the tour started on Friday night, tickets began appearing on reselling websites such as stub hub and via go Go for as much as six thousand whatever that is pounds. I guess face value for a standing ticket to the tour is one hundred and fifty pounds, and seated tickets range up to two hundred five pounds.

8:46 Speaker 1: By the way, stub Hub, I think stub hub is the site, the secondary quote unquote secondary site that is actually owned by ticket masters. Oh no, K I believe it's stub Hub. The other two websites, gigs and Tour and see Tickets, were reported to be holding fans in a temporary queue before directing them to the purchase page. But h yeah, so so the band's management is warning, you know, don't go to these secondary sites. I'm gonna look this up really quickly. I want to know if I'm right about that, if.

9:17 Speaker 3: I was actually just trying to look that up too. But I didn't quite get this.

9:20 Speaker 2: Stub Hub my computer.

9:23 Speaker 3: My computer slowed down.

9:24 Speaker 2: Well that I suggest. If that's the case.

9:27 Speaker 3: I must clear my cookies.

9:28 Speaker 1: Take ticketmaster's advice. Uh clear, yes, clear, your cookies and your cash and uh no VPNs.

9:37 Speaker 3: I don't even know if I have that.

9:38 Speaker 1: Okay, I was wrong. StubHub is not owned by Ticketmaster. StubHub is privately owned. Maybe it's seat geek there. There is a secondary company, a secondary market company that is owned by Ticketmaster. But uh yeah, so that's what's going on there. I think that, Uh, I do think the tour will happen again. Like I said, there's a lot of cynicism online. You know, there was, I remember back when Oasis first got really big. There's there's actually an EP, you know, a bootleg that someone put out or a CD of one of their I think it's called Sibling Rivalry, and it's they were in the studio and someone left the tape rolling on an argument that Nolan William Gallagher were having in studio where they're yelling at each other, and it's I'm sure it's on YouTube.

10:30 Speaker 1: It's kind of interest. I pull it up and play it, but there's definitely profanity in it. So but uh yeah, So that's that's what's going on with Oasis there. So I don't know if there are they planning to come to the United States.

10:44 Speaker 2: They must be.

10:45 Speaker 3: Ticket Master also owns Live Nation.

10:49 Speaker 1: Yes, they are one and the same and have been for a long time, to the chagrin of some people who believe that that is a monopoly. Uh, and that that merger should not have been approved by the govern But we won't get into all of that.

11:02 Speaker 3: They also acquired front Gate Tickets. Uh, that's another company. Yeah, they apparently acquired.

11:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, they gobble up a lot of these smaller ticket companies.

11:16 Speaker 3: But there's another one called Universe that they got that's a DIY ticketing platform.

11:22 Speaker 2: Really.

11:23 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm just getting to kick at all the stuff they own here.

11:25 Speaker 2: Yeah, they try to gobble everybody tickets.

11:28 Speaker 3: Front Gate Tickets, Yeah they got that one too.

11:30 Speaker 1: But there's a major one that everyone's heard of, and I can't remember who it is.

11:35 Speaker 3: Upgraded girts physical tickets into digital ones.

11:39 Speaker 1: Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe there isn't. Maybe there isn't. I thought it was a big one that people have heard of, like stub Hub, that everyone's just kind of aware of. But they try to but they try to conceal that they're actually owned by a Ticketmaster. Maybe I'm wrong.