Andrew Lloyd Webber slams dynamic pricing as 'racketeering' after Oasis ticket scandal

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has slammed dynamic pricing as 'completely wrong' following the outcry over amounts paid by fans for the Oasis comeback tour.

Ticket prices for next year's concerts more than doubled on Ticketmaster last month, prompting the Government and the UK's competition watchdog to pledge to look into the use of surge pricing. The practice of increasing or decreasing prices based on demand has been compared to the way airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold.

Asked about dynamic pricing potentially being used for theatre tickets, Lord Lloyd-Webber told The Sundays Times magazine: "I don't think theatres should be in the business of trying to push prices up.

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"You need to break even, but I don't like making theatre inaccessible. Dynamic pricing is racketeering, really it's completely wrong."

The theatre impresario, whose hit musicals include The Phantom Of The Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, also criticised the lack of funding for the arts.

"People just don't realise the value of the arts," he said. "I'm not saying we turn every child in Britain into a musician, but music empowers a child to do well in other areas.

"I really believe that for every penny spent on music in schools, you will save it in policing costs related to knife crime, drugs, behavioural issues."

Lord Lloyd-Webber has previously urged the Government to adopt the Music in Secondary Schools Trust programme which aims to make classical music accessible to students in every secondary school. The trust was established with funding from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and the Charles Wolfson Trust,