How greed has ruined the Oasis reunion before it began
“I’d do it for free,” Liam Gallagher said of the potential Oasis reunion back in 2021. A few years earlier, he slammed the “c–t” Noel Gallagher for apparently charging $350 to see his show in New York. However, now that the reunion concerts have finally come to fruition, he has fallen foul of rank hypocrisy, taken fans for all their worth and when the critics of the dynamic pricing debacle have raised their just concerns, the brothers have hidden behind a flimsy statement made on their behalf.
“It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used,” the latest comment from their management reads. The duo haven’t even had the nerve to share this flagrant nonsense on their own platforms, relinquishing all responsibility while lapping up all the money.
Routinely, they have prided themselves on being bastions of the working classes. However, the reunion has highlighted this to be little more than self-marketing. The backbone of working class culture is built upon collective spirit and a drive for egalitarianism. This reunion, thus far, has been the antithesis of that. Now, not even an apt apology has been ventured, further souring the bitter taste of a comeback for the ages that has quickly become a cash-in for the aged.
Lofty ticket prices were always expected from a show bound to be in demand. But after years of brutal austerity that has forced well over three million people in the UK towards food banks, thrust over four million children into poverty, and blighted the morale of Britain, the Oasis reunion was ripe with the chance for the so-called people’s band to put on the so-called people’s party.
Instead, fans who have loyally abided by them for over a decade, praying for this moment, waited patiently in a lengthy queue for hours on a sunny Saturday morning only to see that the ticket price they were finally met with was not as advertised. Thankfully, these fans needn’t worry that being gerrymandered into paying well over the odds could sour the whole affair, because the band had nothing to do with this bare-faced extortion. It seems they just turn up and play and have not even the slightest hand in finances… except for the last 15 years when that’s precisely what they haven’t been doing in favour of making remarks like: “I’ll do it for £500m”.
We all laughed at the time, I even wrote down in my diary, ‘Noel Gallagher made a very funny joke today about reforming Oasis for half a billion’, but now Birmingham City University has estimated that the initial dates are set to bring in around £400m in ticket sales and other add-ons, and a fleeced legion of fans don’t find it quite so funny anymore. Much of this rampant profiteering was driven by top-loading dynamic pricing, a great con that must be quelled.
While the Gallagher brothers certainly shouldn’t bear the whole brunt of fixing the great ticketing mess that has befallen music in recent years, they should at least take responsibility for their role in one of its sorriest chapters. The sorriest element being, for many, the lost potential for proactive change at the heart of this debate.
Noel Gallagher once said all politicians were “idiots”, he could’ve taken the decision to clean-up an exploitative ticketing system out of their hands with a bold statement of fair and fixed prices, and been lauded as a saint, imbuing the concerts with even more anticipation than has already been afforded them. Instead, his shoulder shrugging ‘I knew nothing’ has landed him and his brother as villains of their own play and the ‘idiots’ are now having to swoop in to try and clean up the mess.
If politicians suddenly holding ‘working-class hero rockstars’ to account for their greed (or ineptitude) in parliament doesn’t sour the sentiment behind the shows, then Liam and Noel truly are “the greatest band in the world” that they profess themselves to be. But for fans facing unexpectedly lofty bills to pay for their idol’s divorces, it’ll more likely be Babycham Supernova than champagne.
This could’ve marked the moment that musicians realised their own potential to bring about progressive change to a crooked industry. Instead, two of its leading voices have actually presented proof that, provided you’re willing to take a bit of flack, dynamic pricing actually works if you want to make a mint to pay a lawyer or impending settlement. That’s a victory for greed and a sorry loss to a reunion hoisted by its own arrogance. As you were.
