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I paid €440 for an Oasis ticket in Croke Park, and I'm not even a huge fan
I paid €440 for an Oasis ticket in Croke Park, and I'm not even a huge fan

Irish Times

time17 hours ago

  • Entertainment
  • Irish Times

I paid €440 for an Oasis ticket in Croke Park, and I'm not even a huge fan

What's the price of nostalgia? In the late summer of 2024 it was €440: the amount I paid for one ticket to see Oasis play at Croke Park, in Dublin, next weekend. Even allowing for the great dynamic-pricing scandal , I can't quite believe it either. There are lots of ways to justify the expense. One, obviously, would be to say that you're a huge fan of the band. This, in my case, would not be strictly true. I was not a paid-up member of the Oasis fan club as a teenager. I didn't queue through the night on Patrick Street to get tickets for their Páirc Uí Chaoimh gigs, in 1996. Nor did I spend my guitar-class time learning the chords of She's Electric or Some Might Say. READ MORE In fact I was scathing about a band whose frontman spent gigs with his hands clasped behind his back and had a propensity to row with his older brother . I wanted to go to gigs to hear music, not to sit through a sibling soap opera. That Blur vs Oasis competition for the number-one spot three decades ago this month? I was on Oasis's side, but only because Country House was a weak single from a talented band. Roll With It was better. But not by much. I didn't identify with either group. Yet here we are – and I'm excited about the gig in a way that the 1990s version of me, a fair-weather Oasis fan if ever there was one, could never have foreseen. My friend who lives abroad will be home for it. Two schoolfriends are coming up from west Cork . The memes are flying with details of how Oasis have got on at the gigs they've played so far: debuting in Cardiff , on July 4th, before playing five nights in Manchester, five at Wembley and three in Edinburgh. Reunion tour: Oasis on stage in Cardiff on July 4th, 2025. Photograph: Gareth Cattermole/Getty [ Oasis in Cardiff: This was emotional. For the Manchester-Irish diaspora, it's like family Opens in new window ] We're planning our wardrobes. We're days away from bucket hats, zippy tops and singalongs. Like. Favourite. Repost. Flickers of excitement. Prickles of anticipation. We are remembering how we used to be in the 1990s. I can flash back to exactly where I was when I first picked up the tape of Definitely Maybe to play in my bedroom. I can recall the heat and jostling bodies of the first gig I attended: Suede at Cork City Hall, when Bernard Butler was in the band. Back then we hadn't a clue what we were doing at live events. No one did, really. I remember the shock and exhilaration of my first festival – Sunstroke, in Dalymount Park in Dublin – where, when Red Hot Chili Peppers appeared on stage, I drove forward, plunging into the crowd, losing my friends. These were the days before barriers and proper security – before a young woman died at Smashing Pumpkins at the Point, in 1996, and nine lost their lives at Pearl Jam at Roskilde, in Denmark, in 2000. I fell, swallowed up by bodies, my palms hitting the ground. I was saved by a man who plucked me from the ground by my scrunchie, pulled me up and dusted me off. I should have felt terrified. I felt exhilarated. All I wanted to do was crowd-surf. I was 15. Sunstroke: crowdsurfing during Red Hot Chili Peppers' Dalymount set in 1994. Photograph: INM/Getty I have a theory that, although we try to be objective about music – giving it star ratings, debating the strengths of albums – much of the time the character of the band is what's important to us. We'll listen to a lot of dubiously good records if the band's personalities find an echo in our own. Music divides us into tribes, or so the Arcade Fire line goes, and when you're young, you spend a lot of time trying to find your tribe. In the late 1990s I spent a summer in Galway teasing out OK Computer, by Radiohead , because the band meant so much to me. As soft rain fell endlessly, and my housemates groaned, I'd suggest sliding the CD into the kitchen stereo one more time, just to hear the haunting Karma Police and to figure out if repeated plays would make some of the other songs, so spiralling and complicated after the comparative ease of The Bends, make sense. One friend still recalls with a shudder those three months as akin to being the subject of a laboratory experiment. It was the same in the early 1990s when I came across Pearl Jam and Nirvana . Pearl Jam were an easier listen. But, spiritually, Nirvana were the match. Maybe, partially and paradoxically, it was because they were an intentionally difficult proposition. With their squalls of noise, Nirvana didn't care to make it easy for you. Smells Like Teen Spirit and Lithium are classics now, but back then their quiet-loud dynamics were alien and thrilling. The snaking bass guitar by Krist Novoselic that introduces Come as You Are might have drawn ears, but Kurt Cobain 's protest-too-much bridge – the repeated lyric of 'No, I don't have a gun' – takes a scissors to any imagined bond. You don't know him. And he might be lying: that's what he's saying. Grunge oozed pain. Nirvana sounded oppressed, depressed, angry and sincere – emotions easy to identify with as a teenager in the Cork countryside, lamenting my distance from gigs, record shops and cultural hubs. Lambs might be gambolling in the fields, the sun shining, but all I craved was a dark venue, some loud guitars and a frontperson who felt authentic. Nirvana: Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic in 1991. Photograph: Paul Bergen/Redferns There were a few Irish bands like that – The Frames and Scheer come to mind – but no scene. And there was so much repression, looking back. The 1990s were an odd time in Ireland: a Mass-going culture, a taken-as-given second-place status for women – and inequality everywhere you looked. A sense of suffocation was standard. I'd look at MTV videos longingly every day after school and wonder when life was going to begin. Nirvana were an antidote to the macho, paternalistic culture of the time. While British music magazines were still busying themselves objectifying women musicians and making glib comments about groupies, Cobain was upending convention, wearing skirts, kissing Novoselic on stage, and writing uneasy lyrics that reflected on rape culture. Feminism was peeking out from the fringes of the scene. Around the same time PJ Harvey was delivering the thrilling Dry, a young Shirley Manson was emerging, and the sprite-like Björk was creating her own realm. Occasionally women artists were even allowed on the front of a magazine, although usually only if they were together, such as Q's hedge-your-bets cover of Harvey, Björk and Tori Amos that appeared in the summer of 1994. Q cover: PJ Harvey, Björk and Tori Amos The cultural moment felt deeply exciting. What I didn't know then was that it was the beginning of the end. Even before April 1994, when Cobain died by suicide, the British music press was getting impatient for a home-grown scene, in part because it would make their working lives so much easier. 'It was difficult for British music papers to get access to those bands,' Miranda Sawyer writes in Uncommon People, her excellent book about Britpop. Uneasy with fame, US bands such as Soundgarden, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam were pulling back from the media machine. How much easier, then, to simply start again and lay the foundations for a new movement. [ Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam: 'Music has helped me in survival, in mental health, in dealing with aggression' Opens in new window ] Of course this had already happened, many times before. Every generation needs to sweep away the one that came before it: its totems, its values, even its style of jean. Music has an inbuilt obsolescence. What is cool for one generation cannot be so for the next. The point is to overthrow. Nirvana themselves had overthrown what came before. In the early 1990s, hair-metal bands such as Guns N' Roses and Mötley Crüe got a shock when grunge exploded into the public consciousness in the United States. Those bands had traded in sleaze. Axl Rose had famously had sex with a woman on the studio floor while recording Appetite for Destruction, their debut album from 1987, embedding her moans into the mix on the song Rocket Queen. Their garishness was incompatible with an early MTV that played music videos 24/7 and was always hunting for the next big thing. Now, the pop-culture dice were about to be rolled again. From hair-metal to grunge. From grunge to Britpop. For this grunge fan, the opening salvos of Britpop registered as a rude interruption. Nirvana wanted to talk about pain. Oasis wanted to talk about cigarettes and alcohol. It felt remarkably superficial in the wake of a movement that had dealt so purely and plainly in anguish. From flannel shirts to the (admittedly brilliant) Union Jack dress Geri Halliwell wore at the Brit Awards in 1997, Britpop was a sideways leap in culture. From contemplating the meanings behind a Nirvana song named after pennyroyal tea, an abortifacient, I was now reading the views of a man called Bonehead. This, bear in mind, was the pre-Spotify era, when, in order to hear an album, you first had to read about it, and then make up your mind to buy it, and then acquire the funds, and then find a record shop that stocked it. The music press had immense, unassailable power. I put on Definitely Maybe, the debut album from Oasis, in late 1994, prepared to hate it. Yet you couldn't deny the vigour of songs such as Supersonic and Live Forever, the stridency of Liam Gallagher, the swagger of Noel Gallagher or the pile-driving effectiveness of the record as a whole. Oasis were a band who felt like a gang. 'I need to be myself, I can't be no one else.' Simple and as effective as a hammer blow to a nail. The Gallagher brothers held Britpop by the scruff of the neck for a large chunk of the 1990s. They were funny, charismatic and (take your pick) either influenced by or derivative of one of the best bands the world has produced: The Beatles . Oasis wanted to be famous at a time when the press was looking for a group who could take the heat of that elevation. The term Britpop might have seemed a loose connecting point for the many kinds of bands who became big in Britain between 1993 and 1997, but it drove interest in all of them. The Britpop boulder was pushed up the hill by the music press until it had nowhere to go but down, knocking all in its path. It was a lesson in band economics and how business begets business. Cumulatively, Britpop bands became a force. Elastica shot to fame in what seemed like seconds, showing everyone, for at least a little while, how it should be done. Manic Street Preachers , suffering the tragic loss of Richey Edwards, became the wise old men of the scene. And Blur kept reinventing themselves, getting more interesting with each record. Despite myself, I accepted the terms that were offered. For every Shed Seven or Menswear record that was mis-sold to me, there was the surprising joy of that first Elastica record, the lush androgyny of Suede, the weirdness of Tricky, the irreverence of Supergrass and the appealing eccentricities of Pulp . [ Pulp at 3Arena review: Jarvis Cocker, storyteller in corduroy, builds to a glorious climax Opens in new window ] Eventually I got the memo. My homework diary from 1995, full of glued-together collages from magazines such as Q and Vox, tells its own story. Nirvana get a full two-page illustration on their own, my loyalty never wavering. Britpop in its entirety gets a two-pager, including a cartoon composite of what Madonna and Liam Gallagher's baby could look like. (Budgets were big back then, and editors had way too much time on their hands.) Britpop: Nadine O'Regan's homework diary included a cartoon composite of what Madonna and Liam Gallagher's baby could look like I felt reluctant about Britpop. That never changed. I hated the jingoism, the laddishness, the condescension to frontwomen such as Manson, of Garbage , and the blending of music and politics. No one ever needs to think of a pop song and Tony Blair at the same time. But the great songs of Britpop remain timeless: The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony, Oasis's Live Forever, Pulp's Common People, Radiohead's Creep. These are fantastic tunes, generational high points. [ Shirley Manson of Garbage: 'I was shuffling about on a Zimmer frame. I was absolutely stripped of any pride' Opens in new window ] If Oasis in the 1990s was all about declaring fealty to one band over another, Oasis in the 2020s is about being grateful to have made it this far and still have a fist to pump in the air with your mates. It's about realising Oasis are embroidered into the fabric of your youth. It's about knowing that all things must pass, so it's good to celebrate what you have while you can. And, of course, the scene would change again, in the blink of an eye. Parkas out, smiley faces in, as culture swerved in the direction of ecstasy-fuelled electronica. Sometimes I fancy I can pinpoint the exact moment. It's the summer of 1996, and we've all gone to see Radiohead at the Big Day Out in Galway. On the way home a traffic jam brings cars to a standstill as festival attendees line the road. My friend, who's driving, puts on a song and opens the windows. It's Born Slippy, by Underworld. Gig-goers dance around the car. 'Shouting 'lager, lager, lager...'' The scene was morphing again, and this time it was Oasis who would be left out in the cold. Not that they knew it then. 'You and I are gonna live forever.' No. But for a moment, as we listen to the song, we can imagine it. And that's good enough. Oasis play at Croke Park, in Dublin, on Saturday, August 16th, and Sunday, August 17th

Wightlink criticised over dynamic pricing policy
Wightlink criticised over dynamic pricing policy

BBC News

time2 days ago

  • Business
  • BBC News

Wightlink criticised over dynamic pricing policy

A cross-Solent ferry operator's "exorbitant dynamic pricing" has been criticised for its effect on residents and businesses on the Isle of Parish Council (FPC) passed a motion requesting an update from Wightlink on the steps it was taking to end the pricing strategy and make the Yarmouth-Lymington crossing "more affordable".Dynamic pricing involves quickly and often adjusting prices in response to said it would be "more than happy" to meet council members to discuss feedback from local residents. Parish councillors also agreed to write to Wightlink to raise concerns about the "lack of advertising" of its public motion by Warren Whyte said the pricing policy was "hurting residents and impacting our local businesses"He said it was affecting "particularly tourism and those needing specialist materials or labour from the mainland".A Wightlink spokesperson said: "We haven't yet received any communication from FPC but we are more than happy to meet with them to discuss feedback from local residents."We welcome engagement with the community and already work closely with many individuals, groups and organisations ... and have made changes as a direct result of their feedback." 'Lifeline ferry services' Solent Transport User Group (Stug), a campaigning organisation that advocates for improved cross-Solent ferry services, said FPC has its "full support"."It is vital that Wightlink engage fully with the community they are serving to understand the challenges caused by their dislocation from the mainland."Stug has consistently opposed the practice of dynamic pricing on all our lifeline ferry services and has led the way in campaigning against it," it quoted the so-called Islanders' Charter, signed by the leader of Isle of Wight Council and both island MPs in 2024, which said that dynamic pricing should be "independently evaluated to determine whether there are discriminatory practices against Island residents and businesses". You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X, or Instagram.

Smarter Retail Planning: Bringing Pricing And Inventory Together
Smarter Retail Planning: Bringing Pricing And Inventory Together

Forbes

time3 days ago

  • Business
  • Forbes

Smarter Retail Planning: Bringing Pricing And Inventory Together

Devadas Pattathil, retail thought leader, cofounder & CEO of and previously online grocery executive at Walmart. Back in March 2024, NPR's Planet Money featured a fascinating episode called 'Is Dynamic Pricing Coming to a Supermarket Near You?' It highlighted REMA 1000, a Norwegian grocery chain that's doing something smart—using real-time competitor data and electronic shelf labels (ESLs) to update prices rapidly. But what set REMA 1000 apart wasn't just dynamic pricing. Their biggest innovation was how they connected pricing with inventory management to reduce waste, improve sell-through, and protect margins. This story isn't just about grocery stores—it's a lesson for retailers and brands everywhere, whether you sell in stores, direct to consumers or through marketplaces. The Problem: Planning in Silos Today, many companies still plan in disconnected steps. They forecast demand, assuming prices won't change; buy inventory based on those forecasts; and only later adjust prices—often as a reaction to market conditions. This siloed approach causes common issues. Inventory planning doesn't take pricing into account, leading to overstocked items that end up with late markdowns and fast-selling products running out too soon, leaving money on the table. Promotions are also planned without fully understanding inventory availability or margin impact. REMA changed this by combining real-time competitor price tracking with dynamic price updates on ESLs. They marked down perishables early to avoid spoilage, raised prices on scarce items and used pricing data to continuously improve demand forecasts. This created a tightly connected system where pricing, inventory and forecasting all worked together seamlessly. What Retailers And Brands Can Learn Traditional demand forecasts often assume a fixed price, but in reality, price affects demand a lot. Promotions cause demand spikes, price sensitivity varies by product and region, and competitor prices constantly change. Instead of forecasting one fixed number of units at a set price, it's better to model demand as it changes with price. For example, you might forecast selling 1,300 units if the price is $20, 1,000 units at $25, and 600 units at $30. This approach lets you plan inventory and pricing together, rather than separately. Moving beyond this, companies should use integrated models that recommend how much to buy based on pricing strategy, simulate sales depending on price and promotion timing and adjust prices according to expected inventory levels. For brands, this means planning product launches, bundles and promotions while keeping inventory realities in mind. For retailers, it means rethinking how markdowns, sales and restocking interact. Looking Ahead The future points toward intelligent Agentic AI systems where pricing agents collaborate closely with inventory planning agents, all connected with forecasting and replenishment. These systems can help answer important questions like: 'What's the best price to sell 90% of stock in four weeks?' or 'How much inventory do I need to support a 30% off sale?' or 'Which products should I push based on current stock and margin?' To answer these questions, you need systems that simulate pricing, demand and inventory together—not just separate demand plans or price calendars. Instead, these elements form an adaptive loop where each influences the other in real time. That said, as with any emerging technology, Agentic AI systems come with their share of limitations and challenges. A recent study highlighted that many agent-based systems today are still under development and can fail to perform efficiently under real-world constraints. Retailers should approach these tools with clear performance benchmarks, tight integration testing and human oversight to ensure decisions made by AI agents align with broader business goals. Summary REMA's example is powerful, but the bigger truth is this: price and inventory decisions are deeply linked. Whether you're a global retailer or a growing brand, your success depends on your ability to forecast demand based on price, price products based on inventory and plan inventory based on your pricing path. The next era of retail planning will be defined by real-time responsiveness, powered by models that treat pricing and inventory as two sides of the same coin. If you want to stay ahead, it's time to start thinking of pricing and inventory as a connected team, not separate tasks. While the operational benefits of dynamic pricing and ESLs are compelling, it is important to acknowledge consumer sentiment. Surveys show that many shoppers view dynamic pricing skeptically—especially when it resembles surge pricing. To build trust, retailers must communicate clearly about how and why prices change. Transparency, consistency and fairness must be foundational. Leaders can set the tone by committing to guardrails—like avoiding exploitative pricing in emergencies—and by emphasizing how pricing flexibility helps reduce waste, ensure availability, and improve sustainability. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?

Delta Air Lines Breaks Silence on Controversial Pricing Change
Delta Air Lines Breaks Silence on Controversial Pricing Change

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Delta Air Lines Breaks Silence on Controversial Pricing Change

Earlier this week news broke that Delta Air Lines doubled down on its plans to use an AI system to dynamically set ticket pricing. The airline said it plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20 percent of its domestic network by the end of 2025 in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company. Delta Air Lines currently uses the platform for 3 percent of its domestic flights. "We like what we see, we like it a lot, and we're continuing to roll it out," Delta's president said during a recent investor call. What Do Experts Say About the Change? Clint Henderson with the travel website claimed integrating artificial intelligence takes the dynamic pricing model up to 11. "Airlines already have a huge team of revenue managers who are looking to see what demand is like in different markets, what days of the week they should raise, when they should lower prices, how fare buckets are selling or not selling, and adjusting prices accordingly," Henderson said. "So instead of having ten humans doing pricing, they'll have a machine doing it for them." Meanwhile, just last week, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal said they believed the Atlanta-based airline would use AI to set individual prices, which would 'likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point.'' Delta's Response to the Uproar In a response to the senators, Delta Air Lines made it clear the airline isn't taking the personal data from customers in an effort to offer more dynamically priced tickets. 'There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data,' the company said, via Reuters. 'Furthermore, we have zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing and fully comply with applicable laws in privacy, pricing and advertising. Our Al-powered pricing functionality is designed to enhance our existing fare pricing processes using aggregated data. This technology is a decision-support tool that simply provides informed insights for our analysts, who oversee and fine-tune the recommendations to ensure they are consistent with our business strategy.' Related: Southwest Airlines Announces Change on All Flights Starting August 13 Delta Air Lines Breaks Silence on Controversial Pricing Change first appeared on Men's Journal on Aug 2, 2025 Sign in to access your portfolio

Delta Air Lines Breaks Silence on Controversial Pricing Change
Delta Air Lines Breaks Silence on Controversial Pricing Change

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Delta Air Lines Breaks Silence on Controversial Pricing Change

Earlier this week news broke that Delta Air Lines doubled down on its plans to use an AI system to dynamically set ticket pricing. The airline said it plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20 percent of its domestic network by the end of 2025 in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company. Delta Air Lines currently uses the platform for 3 percent of its domestic flights. "We like what we see, we like it a lot, and we're continuing to roll it out," Delta's president said during a recent investor call. What Do Experts Say About the Change? Clint Henderson with the travel website claimed integrating artificial intelligence takes the dynamic pricing model up to 11. "Airlines already have a huge team of revenue managers who are looking to see what demand is like in different markets, what days of the week they should raise, when they should lower prices, how fare buckets are selling or not selling, and adjusting prices accordingly," Henderson said. "So instead of having ten humans doing pricing, they'll have a machine doing it for them." Meanwhile, just last week, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal said they believed the Atlanta-based airline would use AI to set individual prices, which would 'likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point.'' Delta's Response to the Uproar In a response to the senators, Delta Air Lines made it clear the airline isn't taking the personal data from customers in an effort to offer more dynamically priced tickets. 'There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data,' the company said, via Reuters. 'Furthermore, we have zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing and fully comply with applicable laws in privacy, pricing and advertising. Our Al-powered pricing functionality is designed to enhance our existing fare pricing processes using aggregated data. This technology is a decision-support tool that simply provides informed insights for our analysts, who oversee and fine-tune the recommendations to ensure they are consistent with our business strategy.' Related: Southwest Airlines Announces Change on All Flights Starting August 13 Delta Air Lines Breaks Silence on Controversial Pricing Change first appeared on Men's Journal on Aug 2, 2025

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