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This Day in Music: Oasis Sells Out!
On this day in 1996, Oasis sold 330,000 tickets in just nine hours. This spectacular feat made them the fastest selling group in history, at that time. This was only fitting, considering the band’s first record, Definitely Maybe, released less than two years earlier, was the fastest selling debut album in the UK, to date.
There are a few, often overlooked, mind-blowing elements to this story. Like the fact that the 330,000 tickets sold were for only four shows, two at Knebworth and two at Loch Lomond. The promoters had originally scheduled just one show at each venue, but added a second night to each at the last minute when all tickets available at 9 AM were gone by noon. And we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the two shows at Knebworth held a combined audience of 250,000 people. Still, the mind-blowing part is that 2.5 million people applied for tickets to the two concerts, which would have made it possible for Oasis to play 53 sold out shows that summer. Mind…Blow!
