The mancunian way: got tix? Maybeee

THE OASIS FANS BEING RIPPED OFF BY INTERNET SCAMMERS PLUS THE TRANSFORMATION OF NORTH MANCHESTER 17:02, 05 Jun 2025 HELLO, The desperate scramble for Oasis tickets last Autumn left a lot of

fans very disappointed. Thousands waited in an online queue for hours only to miss out. And those who did manage to get tickets were shocked when standard tickets went up to more than double

the original price - from £148 to £355 due to ‘in-demand’ sales. Those who missed out were left with the option of resale sites, which have seen secondary sellers listing them for thousands

of pounds. So you can’t blame fans for jumping at the chance when a mate offers to sell you their tickets. The only problem is, in some cases those ‘mates’ are scammers who have hijacked

Facebook profiles to dupe desperate fans out of their hard-eared cash. Victims of the scam were inundated with calls from friends and acquaintances when ‘very convincing’ posts in their

names appeared on the social media site offering Oasis tickets. Article continues below One victim lost £550 in the ‘sophisticated’ and ‘creepy’ scam. While another says she chased Facebook

13 times asking for her hijacked account to be deleted - but it remains online six months later. I spoke to Chrissy Moneypenny and Curtis Manning - two Facebook account holders who say

scammers used their parlance and vocal mannerisms to trick contacts into believing they were talking to someone they knew. “It’s so frustrating being the person whose account is hacked

because there’s nothing you can do,” Chrissy told me. “They are very very clever, the people doing this. It’s really sophisticated.” While Curtis says the post advertising tickets in his

name ‘snowballed’ and was shared on numerous community groups leading to him receiving dozens of phonecalls from interested people. “I didn’t know anything was happening. Then a lad in work

came up to me and said ‘have you still got those Oasis tickets?’ and I was like ‘what are you talking about’,” he says. Meta, which runs Facebook, said it encourages everyone to create a

strong password and enable two factor authentication. Lloyds Banking Group recently revealed that Oasis fans have lost over £2 million to ticket scams in the past year, with one person

losing £1,700 on the band’s reunion tour. You can read my full story on the Oasis scam here. HE’S A ROCK N’ ROLL STAR…OR IS HE? From one Oasis scam to another. Well, more of a fun publicity

stunt really. Burnage locals were caught by surprise when a Liam Gallagher lookalike swaggered about outside the iconic Sifter’s record shop on Fog Lane earlier this week. As you can see

from the pictures above, the parka-clad lookalike gave it some attitude outside the record shop - which famously inspired the song ‘Mr Sifter’. He can be seen flicking through vinyl, posing

by a mural and arguing with a door. He even engaged in a mock ‘bust-up’ with author Paul Carroll - who has just released a satirical novel about a chaotic Oasis reunion. One passer-by

described it as ‘the most rock and roll thing to happen in Burnage since the bins went on fire'. Paul’s book, titled Be Here Now, imagines the Oasis brothers reuniting in 2029 on a

greenwashed eco-island. “We just wanted to ask, what if the reunion wasn’t what anyone expected? And what if someone tried to spin it into the world’s biggest marketing opportunity?” You can

read more about it here. A SLOW DEATH Once the beating heart of town centres, outdoor market stalls and market halls have populated our region for centuries. But with supermarkets and

online shopping now king, their popularity is waning. In a special report, local democracy reporters Ethan Davies, Nick Jackson, Charlotte Hall, Declan Carey, George Lythgoe and Chris Gee

have been looking at whether markets could soon be a thing of the past. You can read it here. SOMETHING SPECIAL In an ordinary redbrick semi on Wilbraham Road something extraordinary is

happening. Contact Hostel is a refuge for teenage girls and young women and for two years, was the home of Shanae Byrne. She moved to Contact in early 2020, just five days after she turned

18, with all of her possessions in two black bin bags. When she left two years later, she had a full-time job at a solicitors’ firm and a flat in Levenshulme. But her abiding memory from the

hostel is simply celebrating her birthday for the first time. “They never missed a birthday at Contact, we used to get a massive bag of presents at Christmas. We used to have a big, massive

cake for a birthday and a takeaway of your choice,” she told reporter Ethan Davies. Contact was set up in 1970 by Brigid Murphy, who used her own money to stop Manchester’s teenage girls

‘being groomed or exploited’. But as Ethan learned, the hostel’s job is getting harder and harder. You can learn all about the work of this great facility here. MISSION CRITICAL I must

admit, my knowledge of Sandhills Park is little to none. So it’s a good job Ethan has fairly extensive knowledge of the spot thanks to our editor’s ‘obsession’ with this spot in Collyhurst.

A year ago, Ethan was among a group of developers, architects, planners, investors and journalists staring at a chippy van in a layby next to the park as council bosses described the spot as

‘mission critical’ for the regeneration of north Manchester. Now it’s been confirmed that some of the £2.5bn Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave to Greater Manchester to revamp public transport

will build a new stop at Sandhills. Thousands of new homes will follow under the Victoria North ‘new town’ project. And according to council leader Bev Craig, that’s only the start of an

‘ambitious plan’ to transform north Manchester. Ethan has the details here. HEADLINES WAGES: Oldham is looking for a whole new slate of council department bosses worth almost £1m per year -

just months after completing a round of voluntary redundancies. The nine roles, one of which is paid more than £144k per year, will cost the council a total of between £898,800 and £972,322

per year. More here. DELAY: The Oldham Coliseum Theatre won’t be reopening for Panto Season 2025, the council has confirmed. The much-loved venue on Fairbottom Street is currently undergoing

a £10m refurbishment and was supposed to reopen in December this year. Details here. DRIVERS: Up to 120 taxi drivers operating in Bury face ‘immediate suspension’ as they have not agreed to

enhanced criminal record checks. More here. TIP: Reliance Street household waste and recycling centre will close on June 29 for a year so ‘vital improvements’ can be made. Details here.

WEATHER FRIDAY: Light showers changing to sunny intervals by lunchtime. 17C. ROADS: A572 St Helens Road southbound, Leigh, closed due to roadworks from A578 Twist Lane to Bonnywell Road.

Until June 30. A6 Chapel Street westbound, Salford, closed due to long-term roadworks from A6041 Blackfriars Road to A34 New Bailey Street. Until January 19. WORTH A READ Kyle McKitty says

his love for dance and performing arts saw him spend most of his time at Zion Arts Centre as a teenager. It led to a scholarship to study at Millennium Performing Arts College, but the

isolation he felt there led him to drop out. “I felt that because I was the only black boy and didn’t grow up in the same environment as everyone else, I felt like an outsider,” he told

reporter Rami Mwamba. Article continues below Moss Side born Kyle is now an entrepreneur working to develop his app for dancers. You can read about his fascinating journey from dancer to

tech mogul here.