Support truly
independent journalism
Oasis’s long-awaited reunion proved to be one of the most in-demand tours of the decade, as websites were reported to have crashed and thousands of fans were left dejected after failing to get their hands on tickets which have sold out.
Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher announced last week that they would join one another onstage for the first time in 16 years, for a string of stadium shows taking place in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Dublin in 2025.
The tour will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the band’s record-breaking second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, and was announced shortly before the band marked three decades since their seminal debut, Definitely Maybe.
It was a morning of mixed emotions on Saturday as tickets were released first for Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, at 8am, then in the UK for London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff at 9am.
Fans who set their alarms found themselves waiting in lengthy queues, as they shared screenshots informing them they were 352,856th or 430,720th in line. Some complained they were being forced to wait in a queue simply to get on the websites for Ticketmaster, SeeTickets and Gigs and Tours.
“Ticketmaster just put me in a queue TO VIEW ITS WEBSITE, and at that point, I'm just like, I actually don't want to see Oasis enough to withstand this abuse,” one disgruntled fan wrote on X/Twitter.
As tickets went on sale, fans reported the websites crashing altogether as demand surged and the band issued a further warning that any being resold at inflated prices could be “cancelled”.
This didn’t appear to prevent resale sites such as Viagogo and StubHub listing tickets for as much as £7,025 for a single seated ticket at Wembley Stadium, while the cheapest standing tickets available on StubHub were listed from £842 each.
Earlier this week, the band said fans should only buy resale tickets through their official partners, Ticketmaster and Tickets, both of which are expected to resell at face value plus the cost of the booking fee.
Despite multiple screenshots posted by fans showing error messages, a spokesperson for Ticketmaster denied the website had crashed, as it said fans were moving along the queue to buy tickets.
“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 ensure they aren’t using any VPN software on their device,” the statement said.
Fans and even MPs expressed their frustration as Ticketmaster’s “in demand” ticket pricing more than doubled the price of standing tickets.
This didn’t stop the huge 17-show reunion tour from selling out in just 10 hours.
Disappointed fans in the queue are now being told: “There are currently no Oasis tickets available. Please check back later as more may be released.”
While fans battled dodgy wifi or yet another error message, The Independent was sent a series of behind-the-scenes photographs of Noel and Liam during a portrait session for the reunion tour.
The pictures appeared to confirm that the brothers have put their long-standing feud behind them, with both seemingly in good humour as they stood in various poses. In one, Noel laughs as his brother Liam appears to say something to the photographer.
A press release issued at the time of the reunion announcement stated there was “no great revelatory moment” that sparked Noel and Liam’s reunion, “just the gradual realisation that the time is right”.
Formed in Manchester in 1991, Oasis rose to become one of the biggest-selling bands of the era, a phenomenon even among their Britpop peers such as Blur, Pulp and Suede. All seven of their studio albums topped the charts, with that success translating to ticket sales – most famously when 125,000 fans turned up for each of their two Knebworth shows in 1996. They headlined Glastonbury twice, first in 1995, then again in 2004. They won six Brit Awards and two Ivor Novellos.
Yet that career was often marred by Noel and Liam’s bickering and physical fights, including one incident where Noel went after his younger sibling with a cricket bat when he brought a gaggle of new friends he’d made at the pub back to the band’s studio, while the band were recording their second album.
The crunch point came in 2009 at Rock-en-Seine festival in Paris, where Noel walked out after a huge backstage row and claimed he couldn’t work with Liam “a day longer”.
Since then, the brothers have embarked on successful solo careers and achieved a number of hit albums in their own right. Over the years, Liam’s needling of his big brother has become less and less frequent until, finally, fans’ hopes that they might finally mend those fences were answered.
Announcing the reunion, the band said: “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.”
