Fatboy Slim unleashes furious verdict on Oasis after ‘sick’ dynamic ticket pricing saga: ‘Ripping off fans’
Legendary DJ Fatboy Slim has slammed the Britpop band Oasis for their use of dynamic pricing when selling tickets for their reunion tour.
The Gallagher brothers called an end to their decades-long feud with a new tour in August.
After the announcement, fans young and old flocked in record-breaking numbers to secure tickets from online retailer Ticketmaster.
Some 10 million fans from 158 countries joined the queue to secure tickets, with the 1.4 million available completely selling out in a matter of hours.
However, Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” policy saw standing ticket prices shoot from £135 to £355 as fans were confirming their purchase.
Fatboy Slim, real name Norman Cook, was disgusted with the practice and slammed Oasis for “scalping” and “ripping off the fans”.
“It is bad enough with the touts doing it, but the actual promoter and band doing it, it is sick,” Cook continued while speaking to The Sun.
The 61-year-old called the practice: “Profit for people who are very, very rich already – and that is for the bands and the promoters.”
Cook was adamant dynamic pricing for his own gigs had “never happened on my watch”.
The Right Here Right Now hitmaker revealed he tells his promoters to ensure a “fair price” for fans ahead of events.
“I can’t see how you can justify making it even more expensive, just because you know you have got a gig that everybody wants to go to,” the DJ concluded.
Following the Autumn controversy, an official statement for Oasis declared they “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”.
In October, it was announced Oasis tickets purchased from unaffiliated markets, some for as much as £6,000 with no hope of a refund, would be cancelled.
Fans were outraged once again as around 50,000 tickets would no longer be eligible for gigs across the UK.
The majority of tickets were resold at “face value” by Ticketmaster in September.
Prices ranged from between standing tickets for £74.25 to £506.25 for the pre-show “party package”.
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In the same month, Oasis announced a North American leg of their reunion tour – which would not be subject to dynamic ticket pricing.
The American dates sold out completely within an hour.
