The Price of the People’s Party: The next Oasis won’t be attending the reunion shows
The ticket prices for Oasis’ historic comeback shows have been released, and with the news, one thing has been made clear: the future Oasis won’t be in attendance. The next great British guitar band, coming from one of the country’s small working-class towns and powered by the influence of the greats that came before them, won’t be able to afford to get through the door.
So far, the cheapest ticket for the tour is £73 for a seat in Cardiff. But realistically, only a tiny handful of people will manage to get a ticket at that slightly more accessible price point, a cursory ‘starting from’ gesture for a lucky one or two. For the most part, the show alone will cost over £150 for a general admission standing spot, with the prices going up and up from there.
That’s expensive enough, but it’s not the only cost. On top of the ticket price, add on booking fees and the cost of travel as the band are only hitting the typical cosmopolitan hot spots of Manchester, London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin. After that, look at what is currently happening with hotels as businesses set out to rinse concertgoers for every penny they’ve got, hiking their prices way above the usual. Even if a young musician manages to get through the expected battle for tickets, a modern-day Gallagher from a low-income background likely couldn’t afford to blow several hundred pounds on one night.
The argument is instantly brought up that by today’s standards, £150 on a ticket of this magnitude with this much demand and excitement around it is normal. It’s the same price fans pay to see Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift or any other huge artist taking to stadium-sized stages. But that is precisely the problem. The state of music as it stands is not accessible, and without access to live music, how can we ever expect the future leaders of live music to make it?
“The band thing at the moment is pretty dead,” Noel Gallagher told Gibson last year. Lamenting a lack of guitar bands breaking through, the musician understands the root of the issues. “Where are the 14 year olds in bands now?” he asked in 2022, continuing, “Working class kids can’t afford to do it now, because guitars are expensive, there’s no rehearsal rooms. They’ve all been turned into wine bars and flats.”
But for an artist famed for his working-class roots who has used that origin to brand his artistry from the very start of his career through to his latest album, Council Skies, it would be encouraging to see less talk and more action. If Gallagher wants to see new bands climbing the ladder that he did, he should be using his position at the top to ensure all the rungs stay in place to make it possible. Is it his responsibility? No, but would he be in his position if Inspiral Carpets hadn’t helped give him a start?
When Noel was first getting into music, he attended a Stone Roses gig. Talking about the band and their music, Noel said, “It influenced the people who influenced the people who influenced the people who are influencing people these days.” He continued, “It’s that great lineage of the Sex Pistols into The Jam into The Smiths into The Stone Roses into Oasis into The Verve,“ drawing out a throughline where artists saw other artists play and moved on to make their own history. But Noel paid £2.50 for his ticket.
If Noel wants to understand why the lineage he saw himself as part of has been faltering, he should look at a graph of his own ticket prices. In 1996, Oasis were the biggest band in the UK. When the Knebworth shows were announced, millions tried to get tickets with a level of demand that matches the eagerness they’re met with today. But a ticket was £22.50. Yes, times were different then, the economy was in a different shape and music wasn’t quite the mass industry it is today. But after accounting for inflation, a Knebworth ticket today would be £52.93, not triple that.
Or, Gallagher could look at one of his old tour posters. When the comeback shows were announced, Music Venue Trust dug out the gig listings from the band’s first-ever tour, where they played venues up and down the country on the grassroots circuit. Out of 34 stops, only 11 still exist. “Gone are 23 spaces that took a punt on a new band from Manchester who would become one of the most iconic in British music history,” the charity wrote, “That’s 23 communities that aren’t getting the chance to hear the chords of the next Definitely Maybe for the first time.”
The argument could be made that it’s not up to Oasis to fix this problem and that it shouldn’t fall onto the shoulders of the working class to hold themselves back for the cause of the greater good. Instead, it could be said that huge pop acts like Billie Eilish, who come from wealthy backgrounds but are charging £145 for their young fans to see them, should be the ones losing some profit.
But the Gallagher brothers have been rich for a long time now, and, having spent their entire careers being heralded as the “people’s band” or the ultimate face of working-class glory in the music world, they’re exactly the people who should be doing something. You can’t throw around working-class identity like a branding tool but do nothing to support the communities you came from and the kids you used to be. The same kids that have backed the Gallaghers towards their next big payday.
It could have been historic. The comeback of Oasis is already momentous, but if they’d leveraged that attention to make a bold statement about allowing music to be more accessible for people coming from the background that made them, this reunion would have been a powerful force. But instead, in 2024, when it costs obscene amounts just to see live music, let alone be trying to make it amidst funding cuts for creative programmes and the rising cost of being a working artist, the next Oasis won’t be there at these historic shows as they struggle to get by, putting the future of music history into the hands of the middle class and the elite that Oasis have always claimed to be against.
