Oasis tickets 'must not mislead' fans', says the UK Advertising Standards Authority | BBC News

the advertising standards Authority in the UK has said that quoted ticket prices must not mislead after fans of the rock band Oasis complained about the hike in some of the costs of some tickets for the band's reunion tour tens of thousands of people spent hours waiting in a queue on The Ticket Master website some standing tickets which were advertised at £1 135 were being priced as high as £355 Ticket Master says it doesn't set prices well with me is Jon Dean executive editor of interviews at the times and the Sunday Times who broke this story you were somewhat ahead of the curve weren't you yes I heard about this reunion that seems to have been the only thingone anyone's been talking about for the last week a couple days early uh which was exciting and I think it's really captured people's imagination I must say I'm pleased but surprised to how Global and sort of dominating it's been uh I just think people it's a nostalgic thing I think they have a lot of young fans I kind of think they're bigger than they ever were and so that's why I think it's really sort of caught on the imagination of millions what do you mean bigger than they ever were so when they did nworth 1996 2.5 million people in this country applied for tickets for two nights uh what you've now got is that you've got the nostalgic fans so people say 40s 50s 60s plus who want to go who were there the first time in the vacuum of them not being here they have attracted a huge audience on streaming so away from the kind of I'd say away from the gossip and the noise about the brothers and and the the the last bit of their career that kind of dwindled young fans and by that I mean teenagers people in their 20s have really latched on on to the music because they weren't really replaced when they went away and so they now have a whole set of fans who weren't even born when they last played weren't they very much though of their era you know good music stands the test of time admittedly but they were very much part of that brick pot Manchester scene weren't they they were and I think this is the interesting thing because I think if you listen to music on streaming now you don't really know the history you don't know the gossip you don't know what's going on what they did and this is this is what I mean by they weren't really replaced pop music's become and I don't necessarily mean this in a bad or good way but pop music now is dominated by insula solo Stars so you have kind of Ed Sher and Adele Taylor Swift writing songs kind of about themselves love songs breakup songs what Oasis did were they wrote songs about Freedom they wrote songs about kind of being in a slightly bad situation in society in your life in your job being born and this is the release this is their songs were songs of release and I don't think anyone has done that since uh and so yes they were of an era but they wrote about something Timeless which is frankly wanted to escape the drudgery of your everyday existence I'll come back to what they stood for in their relationship in a moment but um a government spokesman has sent us uh well has issued a statement about what's been happening with all of the ticket sales today uh saying that everyone deserves a fair chance to see their favorite artist life but for too long fans of been taken advantage of that's why we're looking to introduce protections to prevent people from being ripped off by TS and to put fans back at the heart of Music the consultation will be launched in the Autumn to look at how we tackle that um and it'll look at all aspects and options and we'll review the evidence once the consultation has concluded I mean this is the downside isn't it of this sort of frenzy that we've seen with people registering in advance of tickets going on sale and and unfortunately some really genuine fans might be priced out yeah this is a very very strange argument I think that Ticket Master put forward I think it's definitely worth pointing out that this is not the first time this this has happened it's very popular in the states it's been it's been that way for years I remember there's a big F about a Bruce Springsteen run of gigs that had this in demand pricing here it's been used by Harry Stars it's been used by Co Play It's been used by um some kot bands who have this this high demand obviously Oasis but you know there hasn't been a story like this so that's why it's attracted the attention now ticket Master's uh answer I was certain was a couple years ago was that if the T if it's an in demand gig then the tickets are therefore they become as high on Ticket Master as they are on the on the secondary sites and therefore if people they think that price is out touts and that's their argument and their argument also goes that if you keep the money within Ticket Master then obviously the official ticketing sites and the artist will keep the money as opposed to touts who won't get it then the problem with that uh quite obviously is that the artists who create high demand are the ones who don't necessarily need the money so that's one problem from the start let's talk about their relationship though I mean they were headline news on all the music magazines weren't they there were spats between artists all throughout the 80s and 90s because that's how we got our news about the music industry surely they going to be quite a few people in the audience who are going to be fascinated by that dynamic between them on stage yeah and this is and this is why it's not just another comeback Story I mean like you know blur came back and like other people have have have come back the the family element really makes it resonate more that it's a so oper and I think people will be watching their relationship on stage even the photo that was done with them last week people were saying are they together are they happy are they smiling trying to sort of forensically examine this photograph of like two brothers um that's always been the joy of them and how much they are together I think we'll be told if they say write new music which is the thing that we still don't know yet if they release new music then possibly it's a very very strong reunion that will go on for years if they don't then you might expect them to to go back to solo stuff the year after but everyone in the audience is going to demand the stuff from the '90s the stuff from the '90s exactly and then like people have been working at their sort of Ideal set list and you do there are as they went on there's a couple of good songs on each album like for sure their third album's got some good ones I sort of yes but they will largely be the first two albums and some bsides and it will be I mean they they're going to be quite extraordinary gigs and I think the way theyve stamped over this last week also they talked about how they're not playing glastenbury with which I think is really interesting because now if Classen isn't a great success then um people will be like well why aren Oasis there why haven't we got Oasis there so they have managed to basically dominate the next year just by announcing these gigs yeah the power of Oasis I'm sure they'll send you a freebie Jonathan After all you've done for them I know you didn't get back them back together but what a Ferrari you've caused thank you for coming in Jonathan Dean from the times and the Sunday Times