Isle of Wight Festival boss John Giddings has come to the defence of Oasis after the ticketing row for their reunion gigs.
The ‘Supersonic’ rockers came under fire for the “dynamic pricing” that saw fans paying big money for the band’s first shows together in 16 years next summer but Giddings felt that Noel and Liam Gallagher needed to compensate for the costs that come with putting on a show.
Speaking at Experience 25 – an exhibition to mark 25 years of the Isle of Wight Festival – John is quoted by The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column as saying: “I think that they expected a big demand, I don’t think they expected more than 10 million people to apply for over a million tickets.
“What people don’t realise, what the general public don’t appreciate, is that within a ticket price 20 per cent of it goes to the government in VAT before you begin.
“It’s ten times more expensive to put on shows since Covid, since Brexit, since all of that, and artists want to present a show. The back screen, the fireworks and everything going off with it.
“That’s what audiences want because we can see by the number of tickets they’re buying. People vote with their feet – if they don’t want to come then we’re all dead in the water.”
Fans expressed their disappointment at Ticketmaster’s use of “dynamic pricing” but Liam made light of the situation by joking that his mother Peggy Gallagher was unable to get a ticket.
A user on social media platform X asked Liam what Peggy thinks of the Oasis reunion, he replied: “She’s gutted she couldn’t get a ticket.”
The 51-year-old musician also joked that he and his brother Noel, 57, will be returning with the same bad attitude they were labelled with during the group’s 1990s pomp.
He wrote: “OASIS are back your welcome and I hear there ATTITUDE STINKS good to know something’s never change LF****** x. (sic)”