Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher has thanked the band's fans for buying tickets to their 2009 UK stadium tour.

The band sold 500,000 tickets in just five hours last Friday (October 24th) for concerts in London, Manchester, Dublin, Sunderland, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

Such was the demand that extra dates were added to their London and Manchester residencies, as well as a new date at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.

In a blog on Oasis' website, Gallagher wrote: “By the way, if any of you got involved in any of that ticket buying business yesterday I thank you from the bottom of my guitar case.”

He joked that he couldn't speak for the rest of the band but would promise that “I'll be brilliant at those shows”.

“Saying that - who knows where we'll be next year? There's plenty of time for the shit to hit the fan before then, eh?” he added.

(by Jason Gregory )