I am 23 and have got 5 Oasis tickets. I do not live in the UK. Fans are furious.
Sitting behind her laptop over 9,000 miles away in Australia, Jade Cowan, 25, can’t believe her eyes when her place in the queue for tickets to Oasis Reunion drops from 600th to second.
Jade keeps her cool and secures four standing places for the coveted Wembley concert next year. Tickets cost £127 each.
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Meanwhile, the clever Pilates instructor manages to get a fifth ticket via her mobile phone, so that she, her boyfriend Caleb Purkiss (23) and her immediate family can all be there to see the Gallagher brothers perform next August.
Jade tells Fabulous exclusively: “I bought tickets for our whole family to see Oasis, it’s a dream come true.
“We never thought we would ever be in the ‘line ahead of the line’ to buy through Ticketmaster.”
The couple, who spent a total of £635, couldn’t believe their luck, with Jade sharing a video of their success on her TikTok account.
However, within hours of sharing the video Jade became the target of jealous trolls who accused her of not being worthy of the tickets.
“We filmed ourselves buying the tickets for posterity and shared it on social media,” she explains.
“I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of nasty comments and trolling. I was shocked.”
“Do you even know who Oasis is?” typed one angry fan.
“Leave the tickets to the British fans,” another commented, “Not fair. Not fair. Why do people in Australia get tickets and I can’t get them in the UK.”
“You’re a teenager. You’re not old enough to buy tickets,” said one of the keyboard warriors, while another added: “I couldn’t buy tickets for my husband and he’s crying.”
Jade, 25, who lives in the suburbs of Cardiff, Newcastle, New South Wales with her partner, mechanic Caleb, says she was shocked at first but now sees the humour in it.
“Now I think it’s total chaos and people are coming to us for tips on how to buy a ticket,” she says.
“I refuse to remove the trolling. It doesn’t bother me.”
Despite being in their early twenties, Jade and Caleb have been Oasis fans for a long time.
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“Our parents always played Oasis songs,” she says.
“We grew up listening to them. Caleb lives and breathes Oasis and admittedly, sometimes he overdoes it.”
Caleb agrees, adding, “I love Oasis. They’re the best.
“Just because I’m 23 and Jades is 25 doesn’t mean we can’t be fans. Oasis isn’t just for old people.”
In fact, the couple takes their love for the bad boys of Britpop very seriously.
“We only listen to Oasis songs on the original vinyl records,” says Caleb.
“We are real hardcore. We have a turntable and speakers in every room.”
“We’re really old school. It’s Champagne Supernova all the way home. Our vinyl album collection is amazing,” Jade adds.
“When Liam and Noel announced the reunion tour, we promised to do everything we could to get tickets.”
To secure tickets, the couple launched Operation Half a World Away, named after the Oasis hit.
“We were at my mom’s house for dinner and we had four phones and three laptops logged into Ticketmaster and I said everyone had to use their own account,” Jade says.
The entire family used the British website Ticketmaster, but did not qualify for the pre-sale.
I have every right to buy tickets on the UK website, just like everyone else
Jade Cowan
“An hour before official ticket sales started, we all logged in, selected different dates and were placed in the waiting room,” Jade says.
“On one phone there were 80,000 people in line, on the other 70,000 and we gave up all hope of getting a ticket.”
Then Jade checked her laptop and phone again and was shocked to see that she was number 500 in line and Caleb was number 600.
“The internet kept crashing, the pages had to be refreshed and it was the most nerve-wracking experience I’ve ever had,” she admits.
“Caleb kept interfering. I had to tell him to shut up. He was like a super excited puppy waiting for a ball to be thrown.
“We were only allowed to buy four tickets per purchase, but when the fifth ticket was processed on the second Ticketmaster account, the place exploded.
DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGRY… WHY I GAVE UP OASIS TICKETS
Fabulous deputy editor Josie Griffiths tells of her nightmarish experience trying to get hold of the UK’s most sought-after tickets…
When I attended my friends Pippa and Ben’s wedding last Saturday, the background noise from the speeches sounded a little different than the usual “aww” sounds and rustling of tissues that you hear during such a poignant moment.
All I could hear were groans and ‘damn it’s’ and ‘do you believe this?’ as the people around me suffered the inevitable disappointment of trying to get tickets to see Oasis.
That day, they had spent hours watching their queue places drop from 462,000 to the elusive figure of one – only to be left either with three £390 tickets they couldn’t possibly justify (my friend) or thrown out of the queue altogether because “we think you’re a bot” (my husband).
It was an emotional rollercoaster that I happily skipped.
Don’t get me wrong, Oasis have some absolute crackers – I danced along happily to both Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back In Anger (our closing song) at my wedding three weeks ago with my friends and family.
But as the excitement mounted following the announcement of their surprise comeback, I knew that standing in line with millions of others on a Saturday wasn’t going to happen for me.
Also, I’m still skeptical about how the tour will actually go, given Noel and Liam’s infamous broken relationship.
It’s possible I’m too young to really ‘get’ it – my husband, five years older than me, was desperate to see Oasis perform.
And luckily he can come along, because my two brothers-in-law managed to get hold of three golden tickets.
They were a wedding present, so I can’t tell you how much they cost. However, when his other two brothers got married, they went on a trip to New York and Ireland as a similar present. So I think it was a fair price.
Do I have FOMO? Not really. Concert ticket prices are getting crazier and you can always watch the highlights on TV or social media.
I’m sure Liam G would find my attitude ridiculous, but that’s okay. I find that the atmosphere of a concert has usually dissipated by the time you get back from Wembley, with another long queue of Oasis fans trying to catch the tube home.
“It meant we all went to Oasis.”
According to Jade, she was able to get tickets because she chose a specific date in the waiting room and had standing room.
“If you selected specific seats and they were sold out, it caused delays and accidents,” she says.
“We thought we should just go to the standing room because that’s the most basic ticket and it worked.”
Jade and Caleb are now planning their holiday to the British Oasis Reunion in August.
“Caleb doesn’t even have a passport. He’s been on a plane once and never abroad,” Jade says.
“I’ve only had holidays in Bali and Fiji, this will be the holiday of a lifetime.”
As for her trolls, Jade says she won’t give them a second’s notice.
“I’m still baffled that trolls think they have the right to dictate what music you can and can’t listen to,” she says.
“I’m not a teenager. I’m 25. I have every right to buy tickets on the UK website, just like everyone else.
“Turns out this Gen Z couple is smart and has great taste in music. The trolls can all run. We’re going to see Oasis, baby!”
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