Here’s an excerpt from a Guardian review of the first of a series of homecoming gigs at Manchester’s Heaton Park by the band Oasis in 2009:

The last line is quite amusing in light of what happened next. Here’s the follow-up story as described in the Sam Tatum book, Evolutionary Ideas:

And here’s what the problem and solution look like when mapped onto the 3.0 business version of the Contradiction Matrix. Essentially, the thing Noel Gallagher was seeking to improve through his refund offer was ‘Customer Loyalty’. The problem his offer created was the potential loss of several million pounds – a Support Cost issue…

There are a number of ways of interpreting Noel’s ‘send them handwritten cheques’ solution to the dilemma, but probably the best two correspond to Principles 9, Prior-Counteraction and 35, Parameter Changes. The former because what the band did is sent out cheques that they were pretty certain wouldn’t be cashed by most fans… the reason being – per Principle 35C – that most fans wouldn’t see the cheques as money, but rather a personalised autograph from their hero. i.e. the actual function was shifted from the usual function of a cheque.

I haven’t found one of these cheques for sale on eBay yet, but it will only be a matter of time. My guess is that it will sell for something well in excess of the original £38.30 ticket price. I say that because, what is on eBay at the moment are several ticket stubs for the June 4 Heaton Park show and even they are selling for more than the original ticket price.