“They’re entitled to f**k off. You don’t like the ticket pricing? Don’t buy a ticket”: Gene Simmons' message to Oasis fans
'That's capitalism', the Kiss man says
Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on this month’s hot topic: Oasis tickets.
Now Gene Simmons has weighed in on the subject, suggesting that Oasis fans who don’t like the dynamic pricing system can, ahem, “fuck off”.
In a new interview with Forbes magazine, the Kiss frontman was asked about the ‘ethics’ of the Oasis ticket sale. Simmons, not exactly known for being a bleeding heart, didn’t hold back.
“They’re entitled to f**k off. You have the ultimate power, supply and demand,” he began, referring to the disappointed fans. “Whatever the pricing is, is all academic. Somebody sits in a room and tries to figure out how far the rubber band can stretch. And if you’re not selling tickets, guess what happens? The price goes down. Capitalism!”
He continued: “If you don’t want to pay that amount, don’t go. I’m sure it’ll be streamed someplace and you figure out a way and you’ll complain. But social media has opened up the pathways of expressing yourself and there are no traffic cops. It’s like traffic in Italy and France, just people just go right by each other. It’s just insane.”
“Also it’s a way to get attention, but ultimately the quiet people, the ones that don’t really use social media, vote with their money. You don’t like the ticket pricing? Don’t buy a ticket.”
Whilst we’re on the subject of Kiss, Paul Stanley has promised that the KISS avatar show will be “beyond anything that anyone else has contemplated.”
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The KISS catalogue and brand name have been acquired by Pophouse Entertainment, the company which brought up the Abba Voyage show, which launched in 2022. Stanley has said that he is confident that with technology developing further, the Kiss show will be a step on from Abba Voyage.
Speaking on Billboard's podcast Behind The Setlist, he said: "People just are thrilled with Voyage. I took my wife last month, and I had seen it last year. So Pophouse understood what we wanted to do and that what we wanna create is something that’s state of the art today."
“What I can tell you is that the technology that’s being used, which is a furthering of the technology used on the ABBA show, has to be installed and basically a building has to be built around it. So this isn’t something where you’re in Kansas City today, and tomorrow you fly with your projector to do it. It demands an arena, so to speak that’s really solely used for a show like this.”
He won’t use the term ‘avatar’ show though: "That term seems to get thrown around a lot, but the idea of a simulated concert is not what we wanna do. What we’re creating is an immersive experience that KISS fans will love. It’s a must-see go-to experience…beyond anything that anyone else has contemplated.”
Will Simpson is a freelance music expert whose work has appeared in Classic Rock, Classic Pop, Guitarist and Total Guitar magazine. He is the author of 'Freedom Through Football: Inside Britain's Most Intrepid Sports Club' and his second book 'An American Cricket Odyssey' is due out in 2025