The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has said that quoted ticket prices must not mislead after fans of the rock band Oasis complained about the hike in some of the costs of some tickets for the band's reunion tour. Tens of thousands of people spent hours waiting in a queue on the Ticketmaster website. Some standing tickets, which were advertised as £135, were being priced as high as £355. Ticketmaster says it doesn't set prices. Well, with me is Jonathan and Dean, executive editor of Interviews at the Times and the Sunday Times, who broke this story. You were somewhat ahead of the curve, weren't you?

Yes, I heard about this reunion. That seems to have been the only thing that anyone's been talking about for the last week, a couple of days early, which was exciting. I think it's really captured people's imagination, I must say. I'm pleased but slightly surprised to how global and dominating it's been. I just think people, it's a nostalgic thing. I think obviously they have a lot of young fans. I think they're bigger than they ever were. That's why I think it's really caught the imagination of millions.

What do you mean bigger than they ever were?

When they did Neverworth, 1996, 2.5 million people in this country applied for tickets for two nights. What you've now got is that you've got the nostalgic fans. People say '40s, '50s, '60s plus who want to go, who were there the first time. In the vacuum of them not being here, they have attracted a huge audience on streaming. So away from the I'd say, away from the gossip and the noise about the brothers and the last bit of their career that dwindled, young fans, and by that I mean, teenagers, people in their 20s, have really latched on to the music because they weren't really replaced when they went away. And so they now have a whole set of fans who weren't even born when they were last played.

Weren't they very much, though, of their era? Good music stands the test of time, admittedly, but they were very much part of that Britpop Manchester scene, weren't they?

They were, and I I think this is the interesting thing, because I think if you listen to music on streaming now, you don't really know the history, you don't really know the gossip, you don't know what's going on. What they did, and this is what I mean by they weren't really replaced, pop music has become, and I don't necessarily mean this in a bad or good way, but pop music now is dominated by of the solo stars. So you have Ed Sheer, Nadal, Taylor Swift writing songs about themselves, love songs, break up songs. What Oasis did, they wrote songs about freedom. They wrote songs about being in a slightly bad situation in society, in your life, in your job, being bored. And this is the release. Their songs were songs of release, and I don't think anyone has done that since. And so, yes, they were of an era, but they write about something timeless, which is frankly, wanted to escape the drudgery of your everyday existence.

I'll come back to what they stood for and their relationship in a moment. But a government spokesman has sent us, well, has issued a statement about what's been happening with all of the ticket sales today, saying that everyone deserves a fair chance to see their favorite artist live, but for too long, fans have taken advantage of. That's why we're looking to introduce protections to prevent people from being ripped off by touts and to put fans back at the heart of music. The consultation will be launched in the autumn to look at how we tackle that, and it'll look at all aspects and options, and we'll review the evidence once the consultation has concluded. I mean, this is the downside, isn't it? Of this frenzy that we've seen with people registering in advance of tickets going on sale. And unfortunately, some really genuine fans might be priced out.

Yeah, this is a very, very strange argument, I think, that Ticketmaster put forward. I think it's definitely worth pointing out that this is not the first time this has happened. It's very popular in the States. It's been that way for years. I remember there's a big Ferrari about a Bruce Springsteen run of gigs that had this in demand pricing. Here it's been used by Harry styles, it's been used by Coldplay. It's been used by some K-pop bands who have this high demand. Obviously, Oasis, there hasn't been a story like this. That's why it's attracted the attention. Now, Ticketmaster's answer, I was said it was a couple of years ago, was that if If it's an in demand gig, then the tickets are therefore, they become as high on Ticketmaster as they are on the on the secondary sites. And therefore, if people, they think that price is out of town, and that's their argument. And their argument also is that if you keep the money within Ticketmaster, then obviously the official ticketing sites and the artist will keep the money as opposed to touts who won't get it then. The problem with that, quite obviously, is that the artists who create high demand are the ones who don't necessarily need the money.

So that's one problem from the start.

Let's talk about their relationship, though. They were headline news on all the music magazines, weren't they? They were spat between artists all throughout the '80s and '90s because that's how we got our news about the music industry. Surely they're going to be quite a few people in the audience who are going to be fascinated by that dynamic between them on stage.

Yeah. And this is why it's not just another comeback story. I mean, Blur came back and other the people have come back. The family element really makes it resonate more. It's a soap opera, and I think people will be watching their relationship on stage. Even the photo that was done with them last week, people were saying, Are they together? Are they happy? Are they smiling? Trying to forensically examine this photograph of two brothers. That's always been the joy of them. And how much they are together, I think, will be told if they say, Write new music, which is the thing that we still don't know yet. If they release new music, then possibly it's a very, very strong union that will go on for years. If they don't, then you might expect them to to go back to solo stuff the year after.

But everyone in the audience is going to demand the stuff from the '90s.

The stuff from the '90s, exactly. And then people have been working on their ideal set list. And as it went on, there's a couple of good songs on each album, for sure. Their third album has got some good ones. Yes, but they will largely be the first two albums and some besides. They're going to be quite extraordinary gigs. I think the way they've stamped over this last week also, they talked about how they're not playing Glastonbury, which I think is really interesting because now if Glastonbury isn't a great success, then people will be like, Well, why an Oasis there? Why haven't we got Oasis there? So they have managed to basically dominate the next year just by announcing these gigs.

Yeah, the power of Oasis. I'm sure they'll send you a freebie, Jonathan, after all you've done for them. I know you didn't get them back together, but what a furore you've caused.Thank you for coming in.Not at all. Jonathan Dean from the Times and the Sunday Times.