Oasis China Tour Cancellation

Shanghai’s international concert business took another serious blow this weekend when Emma Ticketmaster suddenly stopped selling tickets to the highly-anticipated Oasis tour (both for the Beijing and Shanghai shows, April 3 and 5, respectively). A message on the ticket page reads: “OASIS Concert tickets no longer available. Refund details will follow…”

Attempts to get some clear answers have been met with a solid Emma PR stonewall (this ain’t the first time, either – try getting a comment from them about Bjork’s Shanghai performance), passing off media questions to someone surnamed Luo. When reached on the phone, the mysterious Mr. Luo stated that his company was in charge of organizing the concerts, while Emma Ticketmaster was only in charge of the ticketing. When asked why the concerts were cancelled, he mumbled something about poor organization (oh, you think?), got even more unclear when asked why Emma Ticketmaster was working with him, and ultimately hung up on us when we requested the name of his company.

We typically have faith in Emma’s professionalism – they’re backed by the biggest international name for concert tickets; they generally make sure to emphasize when things aren’t confirmed yet (though local media don’t always heed those warnings); and when they do officially announce shows, the artists usually back it up as well via their own websites and interviews. At the very least, you can be sure that you’ll get your money back for this one – the one thing that Emma will confirm at this point is that they’re hard at work figuring out a method for issuing ticket refunds, which will be made clear in the next day or so – stay tuned to emma.cn.

UPDATE: Well, the story has hit the international wires and Oasis has issued an official statement on their newsroom, which pretty clearly explains the situation:

"Oasis were informed Saturday (February 28) by their Chinese promoters, (Emma Entertainment/Ticketmaster China) that representatives from the Chinese government have revoked the performance licenses already issued for the band and ordered their shows in both Beijing and Shanghai to be immediately cancelled. The government have instructed the ticket agencies to stop selling tickets and to reimburse the thousands of fans who have already purchased tickets for these inaugural Oasis shows in the People's Republic of China.

"The licensing and immigration process for the two shows had been fully and successfully complied with well before the shows went on sale. The Chinese authorities action in cancelling these shows marks a reversal of their decision regarding the band, which has left both Oasis and the promoters bewildered.

"According to the show's promoters, officials within the Chinese Ministry of Culture only recently discovered that Noel Gallagher appeared at a Free Tibet Benefit Concert on Randall's Island in New York in 1997, and have now deemed that the band are consequently unsuitable to perform to their fans in the Chinese Republic on 3rd and 5th of April, during its 60th anniversary year.

"Oasis are extremely disappointed that they are now being prevented from undertaking their planned tour of mainland China and hope that the powers that be within China will reconsider their decision and allow the band to perform to their Chinese fans at some stage in the future.

"The rest of the South East Asian leg of the band's tour, including the Hong Kong show, will go ahead as planned."

We still want to know how Mr. Luo fits into this whole thing, though...

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