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Paul Heaton has offered his take on the furore over Oasis and Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” scheme, which saw fans fork out thousands to see the British rock band’s reunion next year.
The English singer, who fronted The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, is setting out on a solo arena tour in November and has capped tickets for the shows at £35, a move that has received strong praise from fans.
In August, amid the furore over the price of tickets to Oasis’s reunion shows and Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” scheme, Heaton’s name began trending as fans compared the rock band unfavourably to Heaton.
Heaton himself has now suggested that the prices were to be expected from the “Champagne Supernova” stars.
In an interview with The Guardian, the musician said: “If you feel strongly about your fans, go to the meetings where they discuss things like dynamic pricing.”
He continued: “I’m not going to get on my high perch. Nobody wants a f***ing socialist Oasis, do they? For God’s sake, that’d be the worst.”
This month, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into Ticketmaster over its handling of selling Oasis tickets.
The watchdog said the investigation would include how so-called “dynamic pricing” may have been used and would scrutinise whether the sale of tickets by Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law. It should not be assumed that Ticketmaster had broken consumer protection law, the CMA said.
In response to the uproar, Oasis announced two additional dates at Wembley Arena in London and said that tickets would be exclusively available to fans through a special ballot, “as a small step towards making amends for the situation”.
The band’s statement also addressed complaints about Ticketmaster’s pricing system, saying: “As for the well reported complaints many buyers had over the operation of Ticketmaster’s dynamic ticketing: it needs to be made clear that Oasis 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.
“While prior meetings between promoters, Ticketmaster and the band’s management resulted in a positive ticket sale strategy, which would be a fair experience for fans, including dynamic ticketing to help keep general ticket prices down as well as reduce touting, the execution of the plan failed to meet expectations.”
The statement concluded: “All parties involved did their utmost to deliver the best possible fan experience, but due to the unprecedented demand this became impossible to achieve.”
